The FERMI project held its final conference on 16 September 2025 at Humboldt University of Berlin and online, bringing together more than 100 participants from across Europe and beyond. The event marked the culmination of three years of work to understand the disinformation threat landscape and develop innovative, technology-driven, and data-enabled solutions to counter it.

The conference opened with remarks by Dr Tim Stuchtey from hosting partner BIGS – Brandenburgisches Institut für Gesellschaft und Sicherheit and Sven-Eric Fikenscher from project coordinator Hochschule für den öffentlichen Dienst in Bayern. They reflected on the story of FERMI, the project’s objectives, and its impact as it reaches its conclusion.

Session 1: The Emerging Disinformation Threat Landscape

The first session focused on the evolving disinformation threat landscape in Europe.

• Julia Smirnova, senior researcher at CeMAS – Center für Monitoring, Analyse und Strategie, presented insights from her research on Russian influence operations and disinformation related to the German federal election in 2025.
• Carl Larsson from the Swedish Police Authority showcased the links between disinformation and domestic extremism in Sweden through real-life case studies.
• Panagiota Kokoliou, project manager at CONVERGENCE Non-profit, explored concepts of media literacy and digital trust and presented the outcomes of the FERMI webinar series on these topics.

The session concluded with a lively discussion moderated by Georgios Kolliarakis of BIGS, featuring questions and contributions from both the in-person and online audience.

Session 2: Technology-Driven Solutions

The second session highlighted the state of play of technology-driven solutions and featured contributions from three Horizon Europe projects in the Hybrid Threats cluster.

• Dr Tobias Mattes from Hochschule für den öffentlichen Dienst in Bayern presented the FERMI platform and its potential as a crime-fighting solution.
• Valentin Porcellini, software engineer at AFP, discussed the vera.ai platform and its approach to mitigating foreign information manipulation and interference (FIMI).
• David Wright, director at Trilateral Research, presented the ATHENA EU Project platform and its contribution to detecting, analysing, and countering FIMI.

The session was moderated by Jenita Rauta from the Police University College, who guided an engaging conversation on the interplay between technology and disinformation mitigation.

Session 3: Data as a Key Enabler

The third session explored the central role of data in counter-disinformation efforts.

• Spyros Evangelatos from Netcompany-Intrasoft offered insights into accessing and processing social media data to train the FERMI platform.
• Michael Victor Lo Giudice from Transcrime, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, discussed the integration of disinformation and crime datasets used to develop the project’s dynamic flows modeller.
• Adelaide Baronchelli and Tim Stuchtey from BIGS shared their work on access to politically motivated crime data, which informed the socio-economic analyser component of the project.

The session was moderated by Flavia Giglio, PhD researcher at the Centre for IT & IP Law (CiTiP) at KU Leuven, who facilitated a thoughtful discussion on the opportunities and challenges of data-driven approaches.

Watch the Conference Recordings

All three sessions of the FERMI final conference were recorded and are now available on the FERMI YouTube channel. Participants and those who could not attend are invited to revisit the presentations, discussions, and key takeaways at their convenience.

Watch part 1: https://youtu.be/PpSC919bfPk 

Watch part 2: https://youtu.be/xKA5HHAnlwc 

A Shared Commitment to Resilience

The FERMI final conference concluded with words of thanks to all participants, speakers, and moderators. Their expertise and active engagement made the event a valuable exchange of knowledge and ideas.

The insights shared throughout the day underline the importance of collaboration between researchers, policymakers, and practitioners in strengthening Europe’s resilience against disinformation. The results of the FERMI project and the tools it has developed will continue to support this mission beyond the project’s end.