EMERITUS held its first Technical Meeting on 4-5 October 2022

The project hosted its first in-person meeting in Brussels at the premises of the partner INESC TEC.
Technical meeting

After the Kick-off Meeting, the EMERITUS project held its first in-person Technical Meeting in Brussels on 4-5 October 2022 at the premises of the EMERITUS partner INESC TEC. The meeting was hybrid, so attendees from the different companies/institutions involved in the project could also connect remotely.

The two-day event had the main objective to define both operational and technical basis to start the EMERITUS implementation through the different activities defined in the Work Packages. In addition, the technical meeting counted on the presence of EMERITUS’ Project Officer from the European Research Executive Agency (REA).

The meeting started with the presentation of INESC TEC followed by the welcoming and objectives definition from the EMERITUS coordinator (GMV). As part of the introduction, GMV included the procedures to transmit the restricted information collected and generated in the project and how this action needs to be aligned with the Data Management Plan and the EC recommendations.

Throughout the two days, four technical Workstreams (WS) were presented together with their methodologies, objectives, and activities to be developed in EMERITUS. Namely, the four WSs are:

WS1 – Co-creation with stakeholders

WS2 – Integration of selected technologies

WS3 – Validation: end-users training and exercising

WS4 – Networking and policy recommendations.

 

Users’ perspectives

The WS1 (ZABALA and Crime & Tech) stresses the relevance of finding common ground between users and the technical part. More specifically, WS1 also involves understanding users’ needs to drive the project results and the different perspectives around environmental crime through a user-journey co-creation exercise by exploring multiple aspects provided by the end-users.

Integration of Technologies and Testing

The solution has to be reflected in a tool to support the LEAs and BGs’ activities. For this, integrating multiple technologies, including datasets from different sources, must be combined into the platform. On day 1, the WS2 (GeoVille and LOGIKERS) explained how the technologies applied within the EMERITUS context will be integrated into the platform. Supported by a video demonstration, GeoVille showed the capabilities of the platform eLens. Focused on the testing activities, the WS3 (Fondazione SAFE and CIFAL) provided information related to the available facilities to create scenarios to test the capabilities of the platforms in terms of protocols and technical solutions. On day 2, a more detailed of WS2 was carried out (GMV, Air and Space Evidence, and INESC TEC) to explain how the AI algorithms will be part of the platform.

Communication, Dissemination and Visual Identity.

ZABALA presented the objectives, procedures and importance of Communication and Dissemination for the EMERITUS project and the compliance with Horizon Europe’s requirements.

Three propositions of visual identity were presented and voted. The visual identity reflects the main goals of the project, showing a distinctive and recognisable image for the public. Moreover, the future architecture of the website was presented together with EMERITUS’ social networks Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube.

Networking, policy and Synergies

The WS4 (PLTO) presented the plan on how EMERITUS will collect evidence to create a set of recommendations for policy authorities & decision-makers through networking with projects related to Environmental Crimes and the methodologies to develop the Community of Practices. Along the same line, ZABALA opened the discussion on how to develop synergies with other initiatives.

EMERITUS Use Cases (UCs)

In an interesting session, partners showed the participants some of their experiences and practices. Through videos and presentations, the participants had the opportunity to know and understand some of the activities developed by the authorities in Spain, Italy, Moldova and Romania, providing needs to be covered by the project.

Project management and action plan.

To close the two days meeting, ZABALA presented the Management plan to be adopted in EMERITUS, which will be based on standardised practices. Furthermore, the steps to be taken in the first semester of the project were discussed.

After these two days of fruitful sessions, the project highlighted the need for proactivity as a fundamental element to reach the objectives, where each contribution is welcome to enrich the project’s work.

Welcome of EMERITUS!