Research, Innovation and Policy for a Secure and Sustainable North Sea
Place: Fondation Universitaire, Rue d’egmont 11, 1000 Bruxelles
Time: 3 December 09.00 – 12.30
followed by a Lunch Reception
The North Sea has become a critical shared space for the United Kingdom, Norway and the EU: an energy basin, a digital corridor, a transport route, a site of industrial transition, and increasingly a security environment.
As offshore infrastructure becomes more complex and geopolitical tensions intensify, the region raises urgent questions about resilience, surveillance, access, environmental stewardship and public trust.
Through our four keynote contributions and two focused panel sessions, the event will examine the North Sea as an interconnected system in which risks to maritime infrastructure can quickly become risks to society, politics and the economy.
Specialists will consider how the UK, Norway and their European neighbours can work together to protect critical infrastructure, respond to hybrid and grey-zone threats, manage changing patterns of access and activity, and strengthen societal resilience.
Session 1: The North Sea as Strategic Infrastructure – Energy, Access and Critical National Resilience
This session explores the North Sea as shared European infrastructure, bringing together offshore energy, subsea cables, ports, data infrastructure, shipping routes, seabed systems and surveillance networks as part of an interconnected resilience challenge.
Session 2: Society, Security and Geopolitics in the Shared North Sea Area
This session considers the wider societal and geopolitical implications of a more contested North Sea, including public trust, institutional preparedness, hybrid and grey-zone activity, disinformation, infrastructure vulnerability and societal resilience.
The event will explore the interdependence of security, energy, technology and society, and the wider implications for cooperation between the UK, Norway and the EU, European security, NATO and the future governance of critical maritime spaces.
Join the conversation on the future of a secure and sustainable North Sea.
| 3 December | |
| 08.30 – 09.00 | Registration Arrival and Coffee |
| 09.00 – 09.15 | Opening Remarks Welcome address and Overview |
| 09.15 – 09.30 | Opening Keynote Ms Magdalena Andreea Strachinescu Olteanu, Head of Unit DG MARE, European Commission |
| 09.30 – 09.45 | Break |
| 09.45 – 10.00 | Keynote Presentation 1 Commodore Thomas Knowles, Naval Regional Commander, Royal Navy |
| 10.00 – 10.15 | Keynote Presentation 2 Asgeir Tomasgard, Professor, Department of Industrial Economics and Technology Management, Norwegian University of Science and Technology |
| 10.15 – 11.00 | Panel Discussion 1 Expert-led Discussion |
| 11.00 – 11.15 | Break |
| 11.15 – 11.30 | Keynote Presentation 3 Katherine Wright, International Politics Lecturer, Department of Politics, Newcastle University |
| 11.30 – 12.15 | Panel Discussion 2 Expert-led Discussion |
| 12.15 – 12.30 | Q&A / Closing Remarks |
| 12.30 – 14.00 | Lunch Reception Buffet Lunch with informal networking opportunities |
