RACVIAC organized the “Online Conference on Project Activity Introduction” which was held on Thursday, 16 February 2023 via the Video Tele Conference System (VTCS) in partnership with University of Split, Department for Forensic Sciences. This is a very first event in a five-year Project series launched by RACVIAC and University of Split, Department for Forensic Sciences, titled “Improving Security Governance through Implementation of Forensic Science in State Institutions and Agencies”. The MoU for this Project was signed on 28 September 2022.
Through the Project activities we intend to continue supporting our Members in achieving the goal of establishing a regional platform for addressing transformation processes in South East European (SEE) countries in view of governance improvement by implementing and sharing forensic science information across state services.
RACVIAC designated these Project activities for execution during the next four (4) years in close cooperation with our partner, University of Split. The Project activities have been incorporated into RACVIAC Programme 2023 which is now in its execution phase and will continue to be incorporated into future annual Programmes 2023-2026. The involvement of the academic community was seen as an added value and was promoted in the development of RACVIAC future projects. The academic partner in this Conference, University of Split, Department for Forensic Sciences, possesses the knowledge and expertise regarding the subject and can offer a variety of opportunities which can enhance the abilities of RACVIAC Members to address the challenges they are facing.
The purpose of the Conference was to introduce RACVIAC PoCs to addressing the best appropriate training audience. The second goal was to offer the opportunity to all RACVIAC Members to actively participate in the project by proposing lecturers or experts from various fields who might share their expertise and bring additional value to the project.
In order to achieve a maximum impact across the 2023-2026 project Agenda RACVIAC addresses issues identified by our Members and those in which RACVIAC can bring forth its unique expertise and global and interregional experience.
The Conference was aimed at bringing together RACVIAC POCs primarily, but representatives and experts from ministries and other state organizations connected with the security sector, including law enforcement, the judiciary, financial and other organisations were also welcome to attend.
In his Opening Address RACVIAC Director, MG (ret.) Jeronim Bazo, greeted all of the participants, and said that he firmly believes that this Project represents an appropriate platform for a productive interaction between all relevant governance and security policy stakeholders. “I also hope that the content will arouse the interest of the audience which might be composed of the representatives of the academic community, state officials, law enforcement, security, and other state professionals”, he stated.
Director Bazo also looked back at the fact that criminal activities such as money laundering or natural disasters do not recognize national borders or other administrative barriers. In view thereof, forensics as a science is searching for answers and solutions to addressing emerging challenges and helping stakeholders in prevention. Sharing of ideas and practices among the state agencies could arise the quality of response and equalize different approaches, he added.
Mr Damir Piplica, PhD, Head of the University Department for Forensic Sciences expressed confidence that this Conference is just a beginning of a successful collaboration with RACVIAC and wished all the participants a fruitful event.
The Conference consisted of four Panels:
- “Money Laundering – Where Theory meets Practice”,
- “Artificial Intelligence – Autonomous Lethal Weapons Systems“,
- “Forensics in Firefighting, the State of the Art in Firefighting with an Emphasis on Wildland (Forest) Fires” (three-day workshop)
- “Future Directions in Fire Investigation” (three-day workshop).
All of the Panels were moderated by Ms Nevena Aljinović, PhD, University Department for Forensic Sciences.
This RACVIAC Project for South-Eastern Europe was developed in close consultation with the representatives of our Members from the region to support their policy priorities in the fields of forensics, home affairs, security, justice, corruption, investigation and artificial intelligence. RACVIAC invites all international and regional partners to participate in these activities and to support this Project with their valuable expertise.
