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Global Security Challenge at the Brussels School of International Studies

The University of Kent's Brussels School of International Studies (BSIS) will host the European semi-final of the 2008 Global Security Challenge on 24 September.

The main aim of the Challenge is to promote innovation in security technologies and enable entrepreneurs to secure funding and support from venture capitalists.

The winner of this year's Challenge will receive a $500,000 cash-grant, sponsored by the Technical Support Working Group of the US government, for company development. Other prizes include mentorship by leading venture capitalists, such as Siemens Venture Capital, and unparalleled networking opportunities with government officials and industry leaders.

The developments that have been shortlisted for the European semi-final include: an Israeli company's 'artificial intuition' software for real-time exploitation of Arabic-language documents to determine contents of intelligence value; a UK designed software suite for incident assessment and response management; and a Swiss innovation that will enable faster and more accurate cargo screening.

The panel of judges includes David Chadwick, Professor of Information Systems Security Information Systems Security at the Computing Laboratory, University of Kent.

Speakers include: Sir Mark Allen, Senior Advisor to British Petroleum and former UK Foreign Service; Nigel Churton, Vice-Chairman, Control Risks; Field Marshal Lord Inge, Chairman Aegis and former UK Chief of Defence Staff; Dr Stephan Lechner, Director, Institute for the Protection and Security of the Citizen; Tjien-Khoen Liem, Principal Scientific Officer, European Commission; Luigi Rebuffi, CEO, European Security Organisation; Dr Julian Richards, Centre for Security and Intelligence Studies, Buckingham University; and Steve Swain, CEO, Security Innovation and Technology Consortium.

Alastair Ross, Head of Administration at BSIS, said: 'We were delighted to be asked by the Global Security Challenge to host the semi-final in Brussels. In many ways we are a perfect fit for the Challenge, in that as they bring together venture capitalists and entrepreneurs, we bring together students and academics from diverse academic backgrounds and experiences to study together here in the capital of Europe.'

Contact: mediaoffice@kent.ac.uk

Story published at 1:00pm 18 September 2008