MINISTRSTVO ZA NOTRANJE ZADEVE

Their core work

The Ministry of the Interior of Slovenia is the national authority responsible for policing, border control, and public safety. In EU research projects, they function as an operational end-user — contributing frontline law enforcement expertise, real-world testing environments, and direct access to policy and practice contexts that academic or technical partners cannot replicate. Their two H2020 projects show engagement across two distinct but related security domains: improving police response to high-impact domestic violence, and supporting counter-terrorism operations focused on protecting soft targets such as public spaces and events. Their value to research consortia lies in grounding applied security research in actual government operations and regulatory frameworks.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

Their first H2020 project (IMPRODOVA, 2018) addressed a social crime problem — improving police responses to domestic violence — suggesting an early interest in operational reform and victim-centred law enforcement. Their second project (APPRAISE, 2021) marks a clear shift toward counter-terrorism and technological security solutions, with keywords pointing to real-time threat detection, internet content analysis, digital twins, and big data. The direction of travel is from reactive social-crime policing toward proactive, technology-enabled threat prevention in public spaces.

This ministry is moving toward technology-driven security operations — real-time detection, actionable intelligence, and digital tools for public space protection — which makes them a relevant end-user partner for any consortium working on urban security, surveillance ethics, or crisis response systems.

How they like to work

They participate exclusively as consortium members and have never coordinated an H2020 project, which is typical for national government ministries that join research projects to validate outputs against operational reality rather than to lead research design. Their two projects involved a combined 42 unique partners across 12 countries, indicating they are comfortable in large, internationally distributed consortia. They bring institutional legitimacy and end-user authority rather than technical research capacity, making them a grounding partner rather than a driving one.

Across just two projects, they have worked with 42 unique partners spanning 12 countries — a broad network by any measure, reflecting the large multi-partner consortia typical of EU security research. Their reach is pan-European, with no visible concentration in any single sub-region.

What sets them apart

As Slovenia's national interior ministry, they carry a level of institutional authority that research institutes and universities cannot: they represent actual law enforcement policy, can facilitate real-world operational pilots, and provide direct access to police practice and national security frameworks. For any consortium targeting governmental adoption or seeking to demonstrate societal acceptance of security technologies, having a national ministry as a partner is a credibility signal that strengthens both the proposal and the impact case. Their geographic position — a small but strategically located EU member state — also adds value for cross-border security initiatives in the Western Balkans region.

Highlights from their portfolio

• APPRAISE
  This project addresses counter-terrorism against soft targets using a technology-forward approach — combining digital twins, real-time threat detection, and internet content analysis — and the ministry's participation as an operational security authority gives the research direct policy relevance.
• IMPRODOVA
  An early engagement in a socially sensitive domain (high-impact domestic violence), demonstrating that the ministry's EU research involvement extends beyond counter-terrorism into police reform and victim protection.