The FERMI project’s insights were shared at this year’s “Research and Innovation Symposium for European Security 2024” (RISE-SD 2024), which took place on 16-17 October in Chalkidiki, Greece.

On 24 and 25 September 2024, the Community for European Research and Innovation for Security’s (CERIS) annual gathering on Fighting Crime and Terrorism (FCT) was held in Brussels. The FERMI project coordinator Bavarian Police College (BPA) represented the consortium in the event.

The latest issue of FERMI Newsletter is available here.

The FERMI project consortium held its fifth major meeting online on 17 and 19 September 2024, attended by representatives from all partner organisations. Unlike previous in-person meetings, this one took place online and placed a special emphasis on tasks that started relatively recently (such as training, exploitation and policy recommendations).

What is the impact of digital technologies on democracy? What are the consequences of the rise in populism? And how can law enforcement be supported in the fight against disinformation?

In Mach 2024, the Bavarian Police Academy held the webinar “Extremismus, Gewalt und Verschwörungstheorien in Deutschland und Bayern: Eine aktuelle Bestandsaufnahme“ (Extremism, violence and conspiracy theories in Germany and Bavaria: taking stock), addressing the entire landscape of politically motivated extremism and the role of conspiracy theories.

On 21 March 2024, the FERMI consortium held its fourth in-person meeting in Brussels hosted by the Lisbon Council. Halfway through the project, the FERMI partners seized this opportunity to take stock of what has been achieved and to lay the ground for FERMI’s Interim Review in May 2024. One of the gathering’s highlights was the demo of the FERMI platform, an integrated version of all key technology offerings and the project’s key output.

On 20 March 2024, the FERMI consortium policy partner “The Lisbon Council” organised the expert panel on "Empowering Young People, Protecting Democracy: How to Address Disinformation at School" in Brussels. The panel brought together distinguished experts from across the European Union to discuss the role of education in strengthening young people’s resilience to disinformation.

The webinar "A dive into the societal landscape of disinformation: Balancing between Law Enforcement and Fundamental Rights to Increase Digital Trust" offered an insightful exploration of the complexities of disinformation, highlighting the multifaceted nature of the challenges and its profound impacts on society.

In December 2023, the CERIS annual event took place in Brussels. These are the key takeaways from the gathering that addressed data availability issues and the opportunities and pitfalls of integrating civil society into EU-funded domestic security research.