2026 EDITION

Data & AI for Europe’s Security and Defence: Trustworthy Intelligence in a Geopolitical Era

May 6, 2026 - 10:00 - 11:00

Room H2

Objectives of the workshop

The objective is to discuss and show the main opportunities and actions taking place in the domain of Security and Defence.

The topic of Security and Defence (SD) is more prominent on the EU agenda than ever before. Amid numerous global geopolitical tensions, a significant increase in investment in defence and security can be observed.

In this context described before, the state of play in the areas of big Data, AI and HPC will significantly contribute and play a pivotal role in supporting the EU Agenda on Security and defence. The BDVA can steer the future trends and roadmap around specific data-centric topics and technologies, can help to reduce fragmentation and promote a harmonised environment that will foster practitioners’ trust in use and sharing of data leading to long-term AI innovation, adoption and uptake. The BDVA community that works Security and Defence domain will ensure that innovative, sustainable, efficient, data-driven AI-based solutions for a more secured society for Europe’s citizens take into account the challenges posed by the wide adoption of AI in the various domain of security and defence research by users such as law-enforcement authorities, judicial & prosecution services, security authorities, operators of critical infrastructure, first responders, disaster management authorities, border control and customs authorities, migration and asylum authorities or policy makers.

Therefore, the session will be focused on covering the new challenges that security and defence are bringing to the table in this complex geopolitical environment and how technologies based on Data and AI can provide solutions to these context, and also expose a human-centric approach to AI for that is:

· responsible (meeting societies’ needs, eliminating or mitigating the negative impacts, encoding ethical values),

· explainable (transparent and understandable processing and decision-making processes, reinforcing the admissibility of any resulting evidence in court),

· trustworthy (upholding all applicable laws and regulations, respecting ethical principles and values, technologically robust), and

· accountable (enabling the assessment of algorithms, data and design processes), in accordance with existing ethical frameworks and guidelines compatible with the EU principles and regulations.”

Format:

· Introduction to the session (Daniel Sáez – 2’)

· Keynote Christos Gkizelis. Setting the scene. Trends and needs in Data and AI in Defence and Security. Presentation of the TF Security and Defence (10’)

· Keynote Eric Menou. Presentation of the position paper Virtual Worlds and Defence (7’)

· Keynote Florian Kariger. Presentation of the Data Space for Defence (7’)

· Keynote Dumitru Roman. Presentation of the EDF NEMO (laNguagE Modules develOpment) Project (7’)

· Round table with the 6 panellists (Moderator Christos Gkizelis):

o First position pitch of Daniel Sáez, Daniel Schroeder, Antonis Ramfos (3’ each)

o Questions to the 6 panellists (17’)

· Conclusions (1’)