Abstract: The objective of this forum is to raise awareness and foster dialogue among academia, industry, operators, policymakers, and the public-at-large on the theme of the protection of Critical Underwater Infrastructures (CUIs).
The conference will begin with an introduction to CUIs and discussing their vulnerability to covered sabotages, terroristic actions, and hybrid warfare. The geopolitical importance of these infrastructure will be highlighted and an historical overview on the most notorious and impactful incidents will be provided.
After this introductory part, experts and operators will explain how this problem is currently approached by governments and by the industry, what are the tools available today, and what are the typical prevention and intervention operations carried out. A critical analysis of successes, pitfalls and lessons learnt from nowadays technologies, operations, and policies will be carried out.
The forum will then move toward the future. Ongoing research directions and a vision on the future will be presented by researchers (from academia and the industry) and funding agencies. The forum will end discussing what politics and policy making can do to: i) encourage new research actions; and ii) promote the development of a comprehensive framework based on the share of responsibility between civil and military bodies, as well as public and private entities.
PROGRAMME
| 09:00 – 09:30 | Welcome and Initial Remarks Prof. Emanuele Garone, ULB Prof. Marius Gilbert, Vice-Rector for Research, ULB |
| 09:30 – 11:50 | Session I: The Problem and the Present (chair: Prof. Emanuele Garone) |
| 09:30 – 09:50 | Critical Maritime Infrastructures – A Geopolitical issue for the EU and beyond Dr. Allison Weston – Senior Coordinator for Maritime Security and Deputy Director in the Security and Defence Policy Directorate, European External Action Service, European Commission. |
| 09:50 – 10:10 | An analysis of the problem and an historical overview of incidents involving CUIs Dr. Tobias Libetrau, University of Copenhagen. |
| 10:10 – 10:30 | Operative Experience on CUI protection – The Belgian experience, some operational experience, and identified challenges Representatitve of the Belgian Navy |
| 10:30 – 10:50 | Coffee break |
| 10:50 – 11:10 | The Italian perspective of underwater dimension for the resilience of critical infrastructure Adm. Francesco Milazzo, OF6 – Italian Navy – Commander of the Italian Submarine Fleet |
| 11:10 – 11:30 | CUIs, Threats, and solutions. A vision from the Private Sector John Wrottesley, Executive Director of the European Subsea Cable Association |
| 11:30 – 11:50 | Protection of CUIs in a changing world Adm. Marcello Grivelli, OF6 – Italian Delegation at NATO |
| 11:50 -12:30 | PANEL SESSION I – CUI Today : Success, Pitfalls and Lesson Learnt (Moderator : E. Garone) Participants: Dr. Allison Weston, Dr. Thobias Lievetrau, Adm. Francesco Milazzo, Belgian Navy speaker, John Wrottsley, Adm. Marcello Grivelli. |
| 12:30 – 13:20 | Lunch |
| 13:20 – 15:10 | Session II – Research and CUI (Chair Geert DeCubber, Royal Military Academy) |
| 13:20 – 13:30 | Defense oriented Research, Development and Innovation : a strategy that applies on CUI Adm. Baudoin Coppieters de Gibson – OF6 – Director General of the Royal Higher Institute for Defense. |
| 13:30 – 13:50 | Research on Protection of CUIs: The potential of using fibre optic distributed acoustic sensing for CUI protection. Prof. Martin Landro, Norwegian University of Science and Technology. |
| 13:50 – 14:10 | Robotics and Protection of CUI: on overview on current research trends. Prof. E. Garone, ULB |
| 14:10 – 14:30 | Robotics and Protection of CUI: Industrial Research Tanguy Durand, Naval Group. |
| 14:30 – 14:50 | How the European Commission sees R&D on CUI’s protection. Renauld Hock, European Defence Fund. |
| 14:50 – 15:10 | Belgium future in CUI’s protection – Mission Driven Defence Innovation Ecosystem for Critical Underwater Infrastructures. Piet Opstaele – CEO Blue Cluster |
| 15:10 – 15:40 | Panel session II – Going in the right direction? (Chair M. Grivelli) Participants: Piet Opstaele, Prof. Martin Landro, Renauld Hock, Tanguy Durand |
| 15:40 – 16:00 | Coffee Break |
| 16:00 – 17:00 | Session III – Policies for CUI protection |
| 16:00 – 16:20 | Which policies for CUI protection? Speaker TBC |
| 16:20 – 16:40 | Current and Future Threats, what should the EU do ? Sophie Witte, Munich Security Conference |
| 16:40 – 17:00 | Panel Session III – Which Policies and which Political Actions? |
| 17:00 – 17:50 | Panel Session III – Which Policies and which Political Actions? |
| 17:50 – 18:00 | Closing remarks and Farewell Prof. Jan Dankaert, Rector VUB Prof. Emanuele Garone |
| 18:00 | Aperitif |
| 18:30 | Piano Concert: Simon Vaskou |
| 19:15 | Dinner |