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Symposium Bullseye

Detection Dog
On Thursday, January 26, the International Affairs Directorate of the National Crisis Center, in collaboration with the Federal Police, organized a symposium within the framework of the Bullseye project.

What is the Bullseye project?

The idea for Bullseye project stems from the attacks that hit Belgium in March 2016. Although dramatic, the situation could have been even more deadly if the attack had been combined with chemical and/or biological agents. After analysis, it became clear that, despite the extensive knowledge on the subject, especially in the military field, the emergency procedures for these specific cases were too little known, especially by first responders.

This is how the Bullseye project was born, with the will to move towards a better sharing of knowledge between experts and field agents, to harmonize procedures for first responders, but also to add a better training of detection dogs which are essential during an attack involving chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear agents, possibly combined with explosives (CBRNe)   

Bullseye is a project funded by the European Union within the framework of the Internal Security Fund - Police of the European Commission. It is composed of a consortium of 8 partners from 5 countries (Spain, Slovakia, Poland, the Netherlands and Belgium) and is coordinated by the Belgian National Crisis Center.

The objective of the project is to enable a better preparation of the emergency services and the first responders who could be involved in a terrorist attack with chemical or biological substances according to two axes:

  • A harmonization of procedures, especially at an international level. But also exercises on these procedures and an evaluation of the exercises that will allow the implementation of a "train the trainer" package.
  • The extension of training centers for detection dogs.

Symposium 26 januari

It is precisely the training of the dogs that was the focus of the January 26 symposium.

The day started with two keynotes to give food for thought to the experts present:

  • "How to develop, apply and evaluate innovative scent detection technologies?"
  • Explosive detection dog detecting chemical precursors and/or chemical threats".   

It then continued with various impressive demonstrations of detection dogs in real-life situations: detection of parcel bombs, baggage analysis, identification of individuals carrying explosives, etc.   

The Bullseye project will continue with a Train The Trainer session in February-March 2023 

You want to know more about the project : Bullseye Project.

Bullseye