Promoted by the Italian Intelligence System, “A Thesis for National Security” is an initiative dedicated to university students, who graduated presenting dissertations on intelligence-related topics. The fifth edition (2021-2022) offered 10 prizes worth €2,500 each for the best master thesis, rated no less than 105/110, on the following topics: geopolitics and international relations; threats to national security; law, doctrine and history of intelligence; economic and financial security. The Award has seen a constant increase in the number of applications over the years. With the participation of graduates from 50 Italian universities, the last edition confirms the value of the relationship between intelligence and academia to promote a shared culture of security.

SIRP has organized a course on Narcotrafficking: A European perspective, which delved in different aspects of this phenomenon. We kickstarted our quest by actively shifting our focus to Mapping the Network, aiming at pinpointing and comprehending the lifelines of this illicit trade—the production zones, transit routes, and distribution hubs. Our analysis exposed Europe's dual role as a market and a critical nexus in this global trafficking dilemma. Secondly, we scrutinized the Socio-Economic Implications, unravelling how narcotrafficking weaves into the socio-economic fabric of our nations, affecting economies, altering employment landscapes, and testing the resilience of our societies.

On September 19 and 20, 2023, the Seminar on Intelligence and Decision Making, organized by the Intelligence College in Europe (ICE) and the Centro Nacional de Inteligencia (CNI) of Spain, took place at the José Ortega y Gasset-Gregorio Marañón Foundation (FOM) in Madrid. The seminar was inaugurated by the Secretary of State Director of the CNI, Esperanza Casteleiro, and had the participation of the Secretary General of the CNI himself, Arturo Relanzón, and that of different European Intelligence Services, managers of the public and private sector, heads of office and senior officials of several European security institutions and academics from different countries. The participation of prestigious academic staff and private companies favored the plurality of points of view and enriched the dialogue, achieving a much broader and more valuable vision of the needs of Intelligence consumers. The level of representation of some of the highest EU clients of Intelligence has helped bringing in interesting feedbacks and points of view, in many cases different from the national points of view. To be noted, also, the active and dynamic presence of both EU SATCEN and EU INTCEN’s directors, who have helped the attendees to better understand the relations between national and European decision-makers on one side and the degree of intelligence support given to the EU institutions on the other side.

From October 2nd to October 6th the postgraduate course ‘Intelligence and the Military’ took place in The Hague, the Netherlands. This event was hosted by the Faculty of Military Sciences of the Netherlands Defence Academy (NLDA) and supported by the Dutch Defence Intelligence and Security Service under the framework of the Intelligence College in Europe (ICE). Around 30 participants from 15 countries attended, coming from the full range of ICE member intelligence organizations.

On 31st of May and 1st of June 2023, the Belgian Security (VSSE) and CUTA, with the support of the Royal Military Academy and the Institute Egmont, organised a Thematic Seminar on “How to implement strategic issues in the intelligence work?” which attracted a very large affluence, gathering 80 participants from 23 countries and international organisations. Due to the high interest in the subject, the informal atmosphere, and its diversified setup, bringing together intelligence practitioners, academics, think tankers, and decision-makers (recipients of strategic intelligence or people involved in the prioritisation), the Thematic Seminar was both intensive and intense. During this seminar, participants were given the opportunity to ask questions and address issues related to their daily work, as well as problematics most important to them, making it particularly interactive. This first ever ICE seminar in Brussels shows also all the interest of such events, giving the opportunity to make selected EU outreach actions and to flag the high degree of cooperation within our European intelligence and security community.

The Czech Security information service (BIS) hosted a thematic seminar in Prague on the topic of Russian threat – the 10-year perspective. The seminar took place on May 23 – May 25, 2023. The two-day seminar was divided into four blocks: first one focused on Russia as a security threat for Central Europe and Western countries in general in 10 years, the second on the future of Russian relations with the rest of the world, namely China and African countries. The third dealt with the issue of energy and its use as a Russian weapon (again with the 10-year perspective). The last block consisted of several short presentations of Czech security services and other state institutions on the main seminar topic.

The Director of the Permanent Secretariat of the Intelligence College in Europe (College) participated in the Annual Conference of the International Association for Intelligence Education (IAFIE) held in Copenhagen from 11 to 13 September 2023, in joint AIFIE and AIFIE European Chapter format. This Conference, which was held on the premises of the Danish Defence College, was jointly organised by the Danish and Norwegian authorities (via their Defence Universities) after intensive preparation.

As part of our Let's Meet! Intelligence Together project, we added new episodes to our YouTube channel. We are honored to host mr. Arturo Relanzón Sánchez-Gabriel, Secretary General of the Spanish Centro Nacional de Inteligencia (CNI) and Professor Doctor Hendrik Hansen from the Federal University of Applied Administrative Sciences (Berlin) giving their views on the main threats challenging European security and how the Intelligence College in Europe can contribute to strengthen the security and cooperation culture.

From 1st to 3rd of March 2023, France welcomed in Paris an Intelligence College in Europe seminar on open-source intelligence (OSINT). During this event, the six main French intelligence services, as well as academics, EU and European member states services representatives and civil society members have been able to dialogue on their views and concerns as far as challenges and developments of OSINT are concerned. Even if OSINT is still delicate to define in a homogenous way all over Europe and beyond, a few consensuses arose thank to the various presentations. OSINF (Open Source Information) is one part of the scene, it encompasses commercial data basis or available in open data, accessible to the public for any kind of purpose (research, watch). On the other hand, OSINT covers more targeted field. It is concrete and actionable intelligence collected on precise target, with complex techniques from screening to de-anonymisation. The purpose of the collection makes the difference between OSINF and OSINT.

The Security in the Black Sea Region. Shared Challenges, sustainable future. Focus on Europe and its neighbourhood event took place in Bucharest, Romania, during May 22-26, 2023. The course was organised in residential format by the “Mihai Viteazul” National Intelligence Academy, under the aegis of the European Security and Defence College and with the support of the Directorate-General for Neighbourhood and Enlargement Negotiations. The event comprised a large number of international lecturers and speakers, academics, EU and NATO representatives, representatives of security and intelligence state institutions, civil society organisations etc. whose contributions received overall very good feedback from the participants.