The Embassy of Sweden in the Republic of Croatia, in cooperation with the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing, University of Zagreb, will bring together stakeholders from Croatian and Swedish industry and academia on 10 March 2026 at 4:00 PM in Hall D1 at FER to discuss research security.

The official language of the event will be English. The event programme is available here.

Please register for participation via the link provided here.

The panel discussion at FER will cover key elements of EU guidelines on research security in academic and industrial environments, address the Swedish model of protection against malicious methods of information gathering from academic institutions and critical national infrastructure, as well as specific policy solutions aimed at preventing such practices and ways to further strengthen resilience and cooperation among all involved stakeholders.

Research security or knowledge security is particularly important in the context of strengthening the internationalisation of the Croatian higher education system and its integration into the European Research Area. Its relevance has also been recognised by the European Union, which first adopted recommendations in 2024, and later, at the end of 2025, saw the European Commission publish specific measures and organise a key conference on the topic titled "European Flagship Conference on Research Security".
 

AGENDA

16:00   Welcoming speeches

• H. E. Anna Boda, Swedish Ambassador
• Prof. Vedran Bilas, Dean of FER

16:10   Keynote Speech – Setting the stage

• Rene Summer, Director Government and Industry Relations at Ericsson Global
• Pierre Gudmundson, Senior Security Advisor, Scandinavian Recruitment Intelligence

ROUND TABLE DUSCUSSIONS WITH EXPERT PARTICIPANTS

16:40   PANEL 1 – Policy level challenges and solutions

Introductory presentation by Johan Evers, Senior Technical Coordinator imec (Belgium) and co-Chair of EECARO (European Export Control Association for Research Organizations)

• Hrvoje Meštrić, Croatian Ministry of Science and Education
• Zdenko Lucić, State Secretary Croatian Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs
• Yvonne Andersson, Inspectorate of Strategic Products, Sweden
• Carlos Hernandez Ferreiro, ERC Executive Agency

17:40   PANEL 2 – Practical applications of security in academia and industry

• Prof. Vedran Bilas, dean, FER
• Pierre Gudmundson, Senior Security Advisor, Scandinavian Recruitment Intelligence
• Antonia Kujundžić Velimirović, IT & Security Director, Ericsson Nikola Tesla
• Viktor Lučić, Head of Strategy, Končar

18:40   Networking reception with refreshments