The reason for the meeting was the workshop held by FRONTEX, the European Border and Coast Guard Agency, on an annual basis to present the innovation results to potential end-users.

The meeting started with an introduction by Javier Quesada, Head of Research and Innovation Unit, who gave a brief description of the challenges facing the Agency, in an environment of increasing pressure from the political class, and border security as one of the main concerns of European countries at the time being.

Also present were Darek Saunders, Head of Border Security Observatory, and Paolo Salieri, from DG Home.

Those responsible for presenting ALFA were Jörg Schobel, Prof. Dr from the University of Braunsweig, who explained the technical approach of the project, and Elena González, Business Developer of EU Projects from Atos Spain, who focused on the conceptual part of the project, explaining the mission and motivation of ALFA, and its possible fields of application, as well as business opportunities that have been identified so far.

The presentation was very well received. Attendees asked for the technical details of the project, and the sustainability of the results once ALFA ends this year, in December 2019.

Other projects that presented their results in the workshop were Mesmerize, MARISA, Camelot, ROBORDER, and EWISA.

Some of these projects are already known to ALFA, and joint actions have been established with them, such as the dissemination event that took place in Brussels in December last year, in collaboration with ROBORDER.

FRONTEX officials reiterated their commitment to EC-funded projects to improve border surveillance,  and expressed their intention to be in contact to follow closely the results of the project.