Interview with TECNALIA

NOTIONES – A lasting legacy for security practitioners

As the NOTIONES project comes to a close, what have been your highlights as Project Coordinator?

Looking back, one of the biggest highlights for me has been seeing how NOTIONES developed from a project on paper into a real and active community. Bringing together organisations with different backgrounds, priorities and ways of working has not always been easy, but it has been extremely rewarding.

I am particularly proud of the relationships that have been built during these five years. Through the Working Groups, workshops and conferences, we created spaces where practitioners, researchers and technology providers could speak openly, exchange perspectives and learn from one another. Seeing participants reconnect at different events, continue earlier discussions and identify new opportunities for collaboration showed us that the network was providing real value.

From a personal perspective, coordinating NOTIONES has also been a major learning experience. It has taught me a great deal about communication, flexibility and the importance of trust. My main highlight is therefore not one individual event or deliverable, but the collaborative community that we have built together.

What have been the key achievements of the NOTIONES coordination and support action over last 5 years?

I believe one of the main achievements of NOTIONES has been its ability to bring together people who would not necessarily have had the opportunity to work closely with one another. The project connected security and intelligence practitioners with researchers, technology experts and representatives from industry, creating a common space to discuss operational challenges and emerging technological developments.

Over the five years, the project organised Working Groups, workshops and international conferences covering a wide range of topics, including artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, the Dark Web, secure data sharing, disinformation and other emerging threats and technologies. These discussions were complemented by continuous innovation monitoring, which helped the network understand how the technological landscape was evolving.

NOTIONES has also generated reports, recommendations and other resources that can support future research and innovation activities. However, I would say that its greatest achievement goes beyond the formal project outputs. It has strengthened dialogue between practitioners and the research community and demonstrated the importance of involving end users throughout the innovation process, rather than only asking them to validate solutions at the end.

What are the key takeaways and lessons learned from NOTIONES?

One of my main takeaways is that meaningful collaboration takes time. It is relatively easy to bring organisations together for a meeting, but building the trust needed for participants to openly discuss their needs, concerns and operational realities requires continuity and sustained engagement.

We have also learned that practitioner involvement cannot be limited to a single consultation at the beginning of a project. Security challenges, technologies and regulatory environments change very quickly. For research and innovation to remain relevant, practitioners need to be involved throughout the process and must have genuine opportunities to influence its direction.

Another lesson, particularly from a coordination perspective, is the importance of combining structure with flexibility. A project of this size needs clear planning and responsibilities, but it must also be able to adapt to unexpected circumstances and new priorities.

Finally, the relationships created through a project can be just as valuable as its formal results.

What is the legacy that NOTIONES leaves behind?

For me, the legacy of NOTIONES has two dimensions. The first is the knowledge generated during the project. The reports, monitoring activities, Working Group findings and recommendations provide a useful basis for future European security research and innovation. They capture both emerging technological developments and the concerns and priorities expressed by practitioners.

The second, and perhaps most important, dimension is the network itself. Over five years, participants have built relationships across countries, sectors and professional communities. They now have a better understanding of each other’s perspectives: practitioners have gained greater visibility of technological possibilities, while researchers and technology providers have developed a clearer understanding of operational needs and constraints.

I hope that these relationships will continue beyond the formal end of the project and lead to new discussions, collaborations and project ideas.

NOTIONES has also reinforced the message that security innovation should be shaped together with its end users. If this approach continues to influence future initiatives, I believe that will be one of the project’s most valuable and lasting contributions.

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