The European Commission’s Directorate-General for Research and Innovation has published a summary of the highlights of the first European Flagship Conference on Research Security which took place from 28 till 30 October 2025 in Brussels. The event was co-organised by the European Commission and the European research and innovation sector, through a collaboration with 12 European stakeholder associations: ALLEA, CESAER, Coimbra Group, EARTO, EECARO, EUA, EU-LIFE, G6, LERU, Science Europe, The Guild and YERUN who all prepared their own parallel sessions. One main message by Commissioner Zaharieva at the conference was that the European Commission intends to include research security in the upcoming ERA Act.
The European Commission summarises the highlights of the conference as follows:
- A high-level panel discussion with leaders of the co-organising stakeholders, including Sir Peter Mathieson (LERU), Orla Feely (Cesaer), Ferdi Schüth (G6) and Maarten Tossings (EARTO and EECARO)
- Inspirational talks by Věra Jourová (pro-rector Charles University, Czechia) and Robbert Dijkgraaf (president-elect International Research Council)
- A panel discussion on due diligence (‘what you need to know about your partner’) with eminent speakers from the U.S. (Glenn Tiffert, Stanford University) and Kevin Gamache, Texas A&M University System), Australia (Brendan Walker-Munro, Southern Cross University) and the Netherlands (Irna van der Molen, University of Twente) as well as Deputy Director-General Signe Ratso.
- A video message from MEP Christian Ehler, chair of the European Parliament’s Panel for the Future of Science & Technology (STOA).
- A panel on the role of intelligence, with intelligence agencies from Germany, Denmark, Finland and the Netherlands as well as the Single Intelligence Analysis Capacity (SIAC) of the European External Action Service.
- In addition, 15 countries (both EU and non-EU) and 3 international fora (OECD, G7 and NATO) presented their approaches to research security.
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