Álvaro Azofra Martinez is the Head of Expertise and Stakeholder Management Unit of the European Cybercrime Centre (EC3) at Europol. After receiving his BSc in Computer Science, he started his professional career in the private sector as a Software Engineer. Later on, he joined the Spanish National Police working on Counter Terrorism and National Critical Infrastructure Protection Cyber domains. He joined Europol in 2017, and on different roles he supported international Law Enforcement investigations, managed pan-European Law Enforcement projects and developed partnerships with public and private stakeholders. His Unit is responsible of the management and steering of the Industry and Academic Advisory Groups of EC3, the coordination of Cyber (Offender) Prevention and Awareness campaigns, e-Governance and Lawful Access to Data initiatives, the draft of strategic reports like the Europol flagship report on cybercrime known as Internet Organised Crime Assessment (IOCTA), research and development of new technologies like AI and Quantum and capacity building projects, among other commitments.

Greg Mounier (PhD) is the Head of the Europol Innovation Lab, which leads research and development projects for innovative investigative tool with national LEAs. The Lab also hosts the EU Innovation Hub for Internal Security. Greg worked as policy advisor in the office of the Director of Europol and led Europol's External and Strategic Affairs team. Greg was also Head of Outreach at the European Cybercrime Center (EC3) where he was responsible for the cooperation with the private sector. He led Europol's engagement on Global Internet Governance (encryption, DNS, IP space) and represented Europol at ICANN, RIPE and IETF.

In the years 2009-2013 she was Director for Immigration and Asylum, in the years 2014-2019 Director for Strategy and General Affairs in the Directorate- General Justice and Consumers.

Between 2004 and 2009 she was Deputy Head of Cabinet of the European Commissioner responsible for Regional Policy, Danuta Huebner.

Between 1996 and 2004 she served as First Counsellor in the Polish Mission in Brussels, then Polish Permanent Representation to the European Union.

In 1993 she joined the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, where she worked as Head of the European Law Section in the Legal and Treaties Department.

Born in Krakow and of Polish nationality, she graduated in Law and Languages from Jagiellonian University in Krakow. She obtained a Diploma in Community Law by the College of Europe in Bruges and in European law and policies by European College in Parma.

Ole Andersen is the Assistant National Commissioner of Police in Denmark and Co-Chair of the EU Innovation Hub Steering Group. With more than three decades of experience in law enforcement, national security, and international cooperation, he has served in senior leadership roles across the Danish Police and Ministry of Justice. He has held key positions including Head of International Relations, Assistant Commissioner for the Operational and Legal Departments, and senior roles within the National Commissioner's Cabinet and Aliens Department.

He holds a Master of Laws from the University of Copenhagen, is qualified as Attorney-at-Law, and is a graduate of the NATO Defense College Senior Course in Rome. He has extensive experience in international negotiation and policy development, particularly in EU internal security, border management, and police cooperation frameworks. He has represented Denmark in pivotal EU and international security fora, including serving on the Management Board of Frontex and as Denmark's representative in the Europol Convention negotiations. He has acted as a leading expert in EU evaluations on organised crime and was appointed to the Board of the EU Innovation Hub in 2023. During the Danish EU Presidency in 2025, he has been responsible for negotiations on Europol's mandate, in particular regarding migrant smuggling. Alongside his operational responsibilities, he has supported academic and professional development as an examiner at the University of Copenhagen and former supervisor at the Danish Police Leadership Academy.

Gitta Kutyniok currently has a Bavarian AI Chair for Mathematical Foundations of Artificial Intelligence at the University of Munich, and also serves as spokespersons for the AI-HUB and as director for the Konrad Zuse School of Excellence in Reliable AI. She is also a member of the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities and the European Academy of Sciences. Her research focusses on reliable and sustainable AI with applications to medicine and robotics.

Professor John MacIntyre has been working in Artificial Intelligence for more than 30 years, having received his PhD in 1996. In 2023 he retired as Pro Vice Chancellor of the University of Sunderland, UK, where he worked for over 30 years and was Professor of Applied Artificial Intelligence. His is now Visiting Professor of Artificial Intelligence for universities in the UK, Egypt, and Greece, and in July 2025 he was appointed as the Chancellor of the University of the Commonwealth Caribbean (UCC) in Jamaica. John works as a consultant for organisations around the world helping them with their A.I. strategies and plans. He has published more than 150 peer reviewed papers and has given many invited keynote speeches and presentations at conferences, seminars and workshops globally.

Since 1996 he has been the Editor-in-Chief of Neural Computing & Applications, published by SpringerNature, one of the world leading applied A.I. journals, and in 2020 he established a new journal, AI and Ethics, with his long-standing friend and collaborator Professor Larry Medsker in the United States. Professor MacIntyre is now a passionate advocate for the development of ethical standards in the development of A.I. He is a member of the International Neural Network Society, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and Commerce, a Chartered Engineer, and a Member of the British Computer Society. In his spare time he loves playing guitar, snowboarding, skiing, scuba diving, walking his two English Springer Spaniels, and spending time with his wife in their home in the North East of England.

Dr. Gianclaudio Malgieri is an Associate Professor of Law and Technology and Board Member of the eLaw Center at Leiden University. He serves as Managing Editor of Computer Law & Security Review, Honorary Director of the Brussels Privacy Hub and Project Leader of RESOCIAL Project.

With 18 years of distinguished service as an engineering officer in the French Army, she deployed to multiple high-pressure missions across Africa, Central America, the Pacific, and the Balkans, honing her expertise in complex threat environments. Transitioning to the European Union in 2012, she leveraged her unique blend of tactical and strategic experience to the field of critical infrastructures protection. By applying cutting-edge strategic foresight methodologies, she contributed in the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission to forward-looking projects that identified and mitigated emerging security challenges.

Head of Security in the Digital Age Unit, DG Migration and Home Affairs, European Commission

Vasileios Tasoulas is a Project Officer at the Joint Research Center (JRC) of the European Commission, where he works on translating science into policy by focusing on emerging security challenges and conducting civil security foresight exercises. With 16 years of hands-on experience in security and law enforcement, he has held pivotal roles at Europol and the Hellenic Police, specializing in countering international terrorism and terrorism financing.

Mr. Giannis Skiadaresis is currently the Area Coordinator for Disaster Resilient Societies (DRS) in the Unit for Security Research and Innovation of the Directorate-General for Migration and Home Affairs (DG HOME) at the European Commission. He holds a Bachelors degree with Excellence in Political Science and Public Administration from the University of Athens and a Master of Arts in EU International Relations and Diplomacy from the College of Europe in Bruges, where he was a laureate of the ENP-EU Scholarship awarded by the European Commission. He has also completed the Public Leadership Programme at the Harvard Kennedy School and the Strategic Innovation Programme at the University of Oxford.

He has served in the Cabinet of Commissioner Avramopoulos on Migration, Home Affairs and Citizenship, held various positions as Policy Officer at DG HOME, and worked as an innovation manager in the private sector. His experience spans Security and Defence Policy, Disaster Risk Management, Foresight, New Technologies and Innovation, International Relations and Negotiations, as well as innovation transfer and business development, allowing him to combine operational understanding with strategic planning and policy implementation.

Christoph Busch is member of the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Norway. He holds a joint appointment with Hochschule Darmstadt (HDA), Germany. Further he lectures Biometric Systems at Denmark’s DTU since 2007.

On behalf of the German BSI he has been the coordinator for the project series BioIS, BioFace, BioFinger, BioKeyS Pilot-DB, KBEinweg and NFIQ2.0. He was/is partner of the EU projects 3D-Face, FIDELITY, TURBINE, SOTAMD, RESPECT, TReSPAsS, iMARS, EINSTEIN and others. He is also principal investigator in the German National Research Center for Applied Cybersecurity (ATHENE) and is co-founder of the European Association for Biometrics (EAB).

Christoph co-authored more than 700 technical papers and has been a speaker at international conferences. He is member of the editorial board of the IET journal on Biometrics and formerly of the IEEE TIFS journal.

Furthermore he chairs the TeleTrusT biometrics working group as well as the German standardization body on Biometrics and is convenor of WG3 in ISO/IEC JTC1 SC37.

Jo Goodey (PhD) is Head of the Justice, Digital and Migration Unit at the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA). Among other areas, the Unit covers both internal security and fundamental rights compliant uses of artificial intelligence. She is responsible for overseeing the Agency EU-wide research and activities in these fields, which ranges from work on the use of remote biometric identification by law enforcement, as well as law enforcement access to digital data, through to victims of online fraud, and fundamental rights impact assessments for high-risk AI.

Since being at FRA, she has represented the Agency in different roles, including as Chair of the EU Agencies Network on Scientific Advice, and as a member of the European Commission High Level Expert Group on Artificial Intelligence. Prior to joining FRA, she was a research fellow at the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, where she primarily worked on trafficking in human beings, and on the impact of drug markets on local communities. In the 1990s she held lectureships in criminology and criminal justice at the Universities of Sheffield and Leeds in the UK. In the 1990s-early 2000s she was also a regular study fellow at the Max Planck Institute for the study of Crime, Security and Law in Freiburg. She is the author of an academic textbook on victims of crime, and has published widely in academic journals, as well as several book chapters, on a range of criminological and fundamental rights-related themes.

Javier Galbally received the M.Sc. degree in Electrical Engineering from the Universidad de Cantabria, Spain, in 2005, and the Ph.D. degree in Computer Science and Electrical Engineering from the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Spain, in 2009, where he was an Assistant Professor until 2012. In 2013, he joined the European Commission at DG Joint Research Centre, where he worked for nine years as Scientific/Technical Officer. Since May 2022 he is a Senior Capability Building Officer at the European Agency eu-LISA working in the Research and Innovation team. His main field of expertise is data science, with especial focus on biometric technology and in particular on the security and performance evaluation of biometric systems. He has acted as the Chair of the EAB Research Projects Conference between 2017 and 2023. He has authored over 100 publications which have produced over 7000 citations, mainly focused on the biometrics field. Javier has received several awards and distinctions for the quality of his scientific work.

Dominick Vansevenant (NCCN) is a Belgian innovator and public leader with experience at the intersection of technology, security, and public administration. As the former mayor of Keerbergen (2013- 2018), he was known for his focus on transparency, digital public services, and operational efficiency. Today, he works as a product manager and project architect on advanced crisis management solutions, including the Paragon platform, while specializing in computer vision, drones, and AI-driven applications. With a background spanning technology, innovation, and government, Dominick builds bridges between public services, industry, and research institutions. He combines strategic insight with a strong hands-on mentality and a drive to turn complex challenges into practical, reliable solutions.

Thomas Schweyckart- Engineer at MBDA since 25 years, I navigate in the company in different directorates and roles. Today I am in Sale and Business Development as GBAD expert in Technical & Military Operations Directorate, in charge of making the link between Customers, Commercials and Programs.

Stephan Corvers has over 30 years of experience in the field of European Procurement and over 20 years experience in innovation procurement. He is the founder, owner and managing director of Corvers Procurement Services (based in The Netherlands, Greece and Spain) - a leading legal consultancy firm, existing since 2000, specialized in European public procurement law, innovation procurement and contracting. Corvers acts as an advisor and external expert for policy makers (on both national and European level), provides advice and guidance regarding public procurement strategies and methodologies to contracting authorities around Europe and conducts research in the field of public procurement (specifically in relation to innovation and sustainability). Expertise areas include pre-commercial procurement (PCP), public procurement of innovative solutions (PPI), public-private partnerships (PPP), defence & security related procurements, sustainable construction (public buildings, social housing and road infrastructure), public utilities (e.g. water) and R&D projects.

Stephan Corvers is a highly skilled and experienced legal procurement professional recognized as expert at European level - who has been involved in a wide range of procurement projects, relating to e.g. new markets, new products or services, new distribution channels and new technology and is constantly involved in advising public authorities ranging from local procurers to regional and national authorities on various matters pertaining to the implementation of innovation procurement methodologies. He regularly acts as a speaker at conferences addressing public procurement matters and at workshops and seminars, aimed at providing hands-on guidance on how to effectively conduct innovation procurement processes. Furthermore, he is author of numerous publications on European Procurement.

Martin Übelhör works in the European Commission, Directorate-General for Migration and Home Affairs (DG HOME) as Deputy Head of Unit for Innovation and Security Research. His unit manages EU funding for R+I in topics such as fight against crime and terrorism, critical infrastructure protection, border management, and disaster-resilient societies.

Prior to that, he worked the DG Connect as Head of Sector for Cybersecurity Industry and Innovation, i.a. setting up a European Cybersecurity Competence Centre and Network in Bucharest. He joined the European Commission in 2008, where we worked on various topics in relation to digitisation and helped set up and manage a number EU funding programmes, such as the Connecting Europe Facility and the Digital Europe Programme.

Martin studied political science and sociology in Mannheim, Baltimore and Bruges. His first professional experiences were in international affairs (United Nations HQ) and research (Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovations Research).

Oliver Seiffarth is the current coordinator of the Community for European Research and Innovation for Security (CERIS). He also works on establishing the European Critical Communication System (EUCCS) for first responders, which is based on solutions developed by EU-funded security research projects. Previously, he worked in different positions in DG HOME, mainly dealing with border management and Schengen matters. Before joining the European Commission, he worked for four different Ministries of Interior, and several NGOs and international organisations across Europe.

I am an ATM expert highly involved in UAS and Counter-UAS (C-UAS) related activities based in Brussels, working within the Civil and Military Cooperation Division at EUROCONTROL. I hold a degree in Air Traffic Management from the University of New South Wales (UNSW). My expertise spans both strategic coordination and technical evaluation, with a particular focus on harmonising UAS operations within European airspace. In parallel, I play a key role in C-UAS activities, actively participating in projects and standardisation working groups that assess critical aspects together with some EUROCONTROL experts on various domain, of C-UAS deployment, from operational frameworks to technological considerations.

Colonel Alice Rodrigues joined the Portuguese Air Force in 1993. In 2000, she earned her bachelor's degree in military and aeronautical sciences, with a specialization in aeronautical engineering. She began her career at the Logistics Command, where she served as an engineering project coordinator. In 2014, she was posted to NATO's Air Command in Ramstein, Germany. In 2017, she joined the Operations Division of the Air Force General Staff, and in May 2020, she assumed responsibility for managing contracts related to the leasing of firefighting aircraft. Currently, Colonel Rodrigues is the deputy Director of the Engineering and Programs Directorate. She is married, has three children, and takes great pride in serving in the Portuguese Air Force.

Paulius Klikunas is the Team Coordinator for Digital Operations at the European Public Prosecutor's Office (EPPO), leading the adoption of innovative technologies in operational work. He also manages the ODIN Programme, which enhances the EPPO's investigative capabilities through AI and data-driven solutions. His earlier career combined hands-on fieldwork in organised crime and anti-corruption investigations with later strategic advisory roles in EU civilian CSDP missions. He is currently pursuing PhD research on how emerging technologies are integrated into these missions.

Previously responsibilities have included posts in the audiovisual sector and as legal adviser for competition and State aid law.

Nicholas Högasten is serving as Head of Product at Nordic Air Defence, a Stockholm based company developing cost effective defense against UAS threats. He has 20+ years of experience working in various R&D leadership roles in AI, sensing, defence tech and commercial security. With a passion for confronting hard problems he is the inventor/co-inventor on over 80 patents. He also has a personal life, ask him.