On December 10^th, the sixth edition of “A Thesis for National Security” prize ceremony, promoted by the Security Intelligence Department (DIS) took place in Rome, at the headquarters of the Italian Intelligence System. The event was attended by Alfredo Mantovano, the Undersecretary of State to the Presidency of the Council of Ministers - Delegated Authority for the Security of the Republic, the Director General of DIS, Elisabetta Belloni and the Directors of the Italian Intelligence Agencies.

The award aims at bringing the younger generation closer to the world of intelligence, promoting and encouraging studies on topics related to national security.

It was launched in 2014 as part of the activities to promote security culture, and over time, the competition has witnessed an increasing relevant involvement of the university world, and has become an annual initiative: more than 100 recent graduates from more than 40 national universities have participated.

This initiative represents yet another sign of the Intelligence's openness to the outside world and the solidity of its relationship with civil society and the university environment.

In this edition (2023-2024), 7 participants were rewarded with a prize worth €2,500 each for the best master thesis, rated no less than 105/110, on the following topics, among others: geopolitics and international relations; threats to national security; law, doctrine and history of intelligence; economic and financial security.

These are the winners selected by an internal Committee: 

• Samuele Bernardi, University of Pisa, From EU strategic autonomy to EU public order and security. Towards the framing of an “EU strategic security”?;

• Roberto Colle, University of Trento, Democratic control of the information and security services: Historical and comparative aspects of a current issue;

• Edoardo Liberati, Sapienza University of Roma, Efficient, Reusable and High Error Tolerant Fuzzy Extractor for Physical Unclonable Functions;

• Alessandro Lotto, University of Padova, BARON: Base-Station Authentication Through Core Network for Mobility Management in 5G Networks;

• Matteo Marras, University of Torino, The defence of national interests and Chinese investments in Italy;

• Martina Serao, University of Roma Tre, The strategic competition between European Union and Russian Federation: A Net assessment analysis;

• Maria Vittoria Zucca, University of Trento, Cybercrime in healthcare: history, diagnosis, and prognosis of an IT “disease.”.

The seventh edition of the Award is ongoing and you can find it on the Italian Intelligence website www.sicurezzanazionale.gov.it.