On Thursday, 3 September 2026, the final afternoon of the BORDERLINK Mid-Term Demonstrations and Assessments in Dublin was dedicated to hearing directly from customs officers. After two and a half days of port visits, hands-on sessions and plenary presentations, the First BORDERLINK EU Customs Forum posed a few simple question to the visiting representatives: How do you assess the current status of the innovation actions in terms of relevance, usefulness, quality and maturity

Thursday 3 September 2026 was the third day of the Mid-Term Demonstrations and Assessments with the visiting customs representatives present. The day focused on an online observatory, a seized cigarettes intelligence database, a training game on Green Customs. The BORDERLINK Observatory The day started with a presentation of the BORDERLINK Observatory, which is now up and running on the project’s website. The service brings together information on relevant projects, studies a

On Wednesday 2 September 2026, the BORDERLINK Mid-Term Demonstrations and Assessments continued at The Spencer Hotel. After the port visit of the previous day, the second day was dedicated to the innovations that are digital services rather than physical products. A first-of-its-kind training suite The morning opened with a two-hour session on the Certified X-ray Operator Training. BORDERLINK partner INTA explained the features of the training module and set out the vision be

On Tuesday 1 September 2026, the BORDERLINK consortium opened the first full day of its Mid-Term Demonstrations and Assessments at The Spencer Hotel in Dublin. Around fifty people filled the main room, and among them were more than twenty customs representatives from across Europe who had accepted our invitation to come and see the project's innovations in person. A morning of first looks After a short opening session and partner introductions, the day began with a preview

Summary: BORDERLINK is positioning itself as one of the first Horizon Europe security projects to adopt a dual‑layer AI governance model: (1) the EU Living Guidelines on Responsible Use of Generative AI in Research (2026) and (2) its own Responsible & Explainable AI Standards, grounded in the EU AI Act, GDPR, OECD AI Principles, Council of Europe AI Convention, and ENACT law‑enforcement standards. This combination gives BORDERLINK a defensible, future‑proof AI governance fram

The University of Nottingham (UoN), the University of Galway and Rapiscan from the BORDERLINK consortium had a particularly interesting time at the CERIS workshop in Brussels in April’26. The workshop was part of the Community for European Research and Innovation for Security (CERIS) who hold a series of workshops on different themes. This workshop was focused on “Innovative Approaches to Combating the Trafficking of Goods” and focused on two specific scenarios: wildlife traf

Equality and inclusion are not peripheral considerations—they are strategic enablers of better research, more resilient technologies, and more effective stakeholder engagement. The 2025–2026 Gender, Diversity and Inclusion Monitoring (GDIM) Survey offers a clear, evidence-based perspective on how inclusion is being actively implemented across the BORDERLINK Consortium. Far from being abstract principles, equality and diversity are increasingly embedded in research design, tec

The University of Nottingham (UoN), INTA and Rapiscan from the BORDERLINK consortium participated in the World Custom Organisation Technology Conference from January 28–30 in the amazing city of Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates. Rapiscan and INTA both had conference booths – with INTA‘s booth proudly displaying the BORDERLINK banner (see photo) – and UoN was there to better understand how tech firms are using data in new ways to support border management. This flagsh