The STARLIGHT Final General Assembly took place on 14-15 January in Paris, hosted by the Institut des Hautes Etudes du Ministère de l'Intérieur (IHEMI). The two-day event marked the culmination of 52 months of collaboration dedicated to advancing responsible and trustworthy AI for European law enforcement.
The assembly was formally opened by Christophe Soullez, Director of IHEMI, Aleksandra Oczko-Dolny, European Commission DG HOME, Dr Vanina Paoli-Gagin, French Senate, General Gilles Martin, French Gendarmerie (DGGN), Paul-Emmanuel Caillard, French Police (DGPN), and Dr Nizar Touleimat, STARLIGHT Project Coordinator from CEA-List.
Throughout the first day, technical partners and law enforcement representatives came together for demonstration sessions, where a selection of operational tools co-developed during the project was presented.
The second day was dedicated to in-depth dialogue through three roundtables exploring the human, legal, and collaborative dimensions of AI in security.
The first roundtable, “How can STARLIGHT, as an AI project, support and help the victims,” was chaired by Seán Gaines of Vicomtech, with contributions from Lt Col Daniel Camara (French Gendarmerie), Stéphane Duguin (CyberPeace Institute), Luísa Proença (Polícia Judiciária), and Sue O’Sullivan (INVICTM).
The second session, “How to perform research for AI in security in the era of the AI Act,” was chaired by Prof Babak Akhgar OBE from CENTRIC and featured Prof Brunessen Bertrand (University of Rennes), Donatella Casaburo (University of Luxembourg & KU Leuven, ALIGNER project), Dr Edurne Loyarte (Vicomtech), Aleksandra Oczko-Dolny (EC DG HOME), and Paul Wouters (Belgian Federal Police).
The third roundtable, “Strengthening synergy and interoperability by building on results from past projects,” was chaired by Filipe Rodrigues of Polícia Judiciária, with participation from Thierry Hartmann (MININT, AHEAD project), Dimitris Kavallieros (ITI-CERTH, MultiRATE & ENSEMBLE projects), Dr Dimitris Kyriazanos (NCSRD, popAI project), Dr Ernesto La Mattina (Engineering, ARIEN & LAGO projects), Dr Daniel Lückerath (Fraunhofer, ALIGNER project), and Rashel Talukder (PPHS, CYCLOPES project).
Across these discussions, participants emphasised the importance of interoperability, ethical governance, and continued synergies with other European initiatives, focusing on how STARLIGHT results can remain sustainable and impactful beyond the lifetime of the project.
The consortium extends its sincere gratitude to the IHEMI for hosting the event and to all the participants and consortium members for making this final event a success.
Further details on the project’s results and lessons learned are available in the STARLIGHT Project Results Brochure.