Training and Data-Sharing Platforms: Day Two of the BORDERLINK Mid-Term Event

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 behind it: a first-of-its-kind online suite of X-ray interpretation exercises for customs officers. The material covers, for example, guidance on applying filters when interpreting an X-ray image, and on understanding how the geometry of an X-ray system affects the screening approach. It combines information videos with exercises that train officers in X-ray image analysis. The first samples raised considerable interest among the customs participants, several of whom wanted to know how soon the platform could be made available to their own administrations.

Data interoperability on the Danube

The plenary session in the afternoon went to Data Interoperability in the Inland Waterways Domain innovation. The Hungarian National Association of Radio Distress-Signalling and Infocommunications (RSOE) gave a detailed presentation on the challenges of navigation along the Danube, highlighting the difficulties caused by low water on the shallow Hungarian stretches of the river in recent times. Cargo carried on the Danube typically includes project cargo and steel, as well as bulk commodities such as grain and coal.

Satways, the work package leader, then presented the current version of the interface and database for sharing information between the different authorities in Hungary and with the other littoral countries along the river. The discussion made clear how much of the work here is institutional rather than technical: the interface can be built, but its value depends on authorities in several countries agreeing what to put into it.

In-class demonstrations, second round

In the afternoon the participants again split into three parallel groups, with each session repeated three times so that every participant saw all three:

• Cloud Library for Reference RAMAN Spectra, in the first small room, showing how a shared molecular fingerprint database lets handheld RAMAN devices identify substances on the spot. The demo showed what changes when that library moved to a shared cloud: a customs officer checking a suspicious powder or liquid at the border gets an answer on the spot, and new reference spectra added by one administration become available to the others rather than staying in a single device or a single laboratory.

• Certified X-ray Operator Training, in the second small room. BORDERLINK partner INTA brought several laptops so that participants could work through the e-learning platform themselves: the actual exercises. Several customs officers went straight to the image-analysis tasks. Tey worked through the exercises the way they would in an operational setting and commented as they went on what was realistic, what was too easy, and what kinds of images they would want to see added.

• The Library of Synthetic X-ray Images together with the Federated Database for Sharing X-ray Images, in the main room. Participants were able to experiment with X-ray images by inserting digitally simulated threats into difficult-to-detect locations, and the feedback again indicated strong interest in using synthetic images for the training of customs X-ray operators.

The conference dinner

After the final plenary session the buses took the group to Wrights Anglers Rest for the conference dinner, with Irish food, live music and traditional dancing.