Last week, PENTION joined dozens of fellow Horizon Europe security projects in Brussels for the Projects to Policy Seminar, organised by European Commission’s DG HOME and European Research Executive Agency (REA).

Across two intense days, we sat down with projects working on fighting crime and terrorism, border management, disaster-resilient societies and resilient infrastructure, each tackling a different piece of the same puzzle: keeping European citizens safe.

What struck us most was not just the breadth of innovation in the room, but how much these projects have in common. Different technologies, different domains, but the same underlying need for early detection, reliable evidence and tools that actually work for the people on the ground: police officers, customs agents, first responders.

Events like this matter. Research doesn’t happen in isolation and neither should impact. Conversations over coffee breaks often spark the kind of cross-project collaboration that no call text could have planned for and we left Brussels with a clearer sense of where PENTION’s vapour detection technology could connect with the work of others in the room.

Thank you to DG HOME, REA and all the projects we met for two days of genuinely useful exchange. Looking forward to building on these connections in the months ahead!