From Ambition to Action: Strengthening Regional Security and Preparedness 

This event is an invitation to make a difference together: to identify the concrete mechanisms that help us move from ambition to action, strengthen coordination across levels of governance, and improve regional preparedness for citizens, industry, and public institutions.

Political and institutional leaders must now make decisions under conditions of uncertainty, as the line between normal situations and crises becomes less clear. It also means taking responsibility even when no single actor has the full mandate, the full picture, or the full set of tools.
Security and preparedness, in other words, becomes a shared responsibility across borders and sectors, requiring day-to-day coordination between public authorities, critical infrastructure actors, defense, port authorities, and private suppliers.
In this event, we will therefore focus on shared understanding and joint problem-solving guided by questions such as:

• How can we strengthen cooperation between public authorities, operators of critical infrastructure, defense actors, port authorities, and private suppliers—without slowing down delivery?
• How do we build trust and democratic resilience while making decisions under uncertainty?
• How can we move more quickly from shared concern to coordinated action?
• How can we better connect the challenges we face with the expertise of our researchers and project developers in order to pursue joint opportunities for project funding?

The program is divided into three interconnected parts:

Part 1: High-level political debate on the current challenges, featuring brief remarks from:

• Stian Davies, Deputy County Mayor, Vestland County Council
• Elisabeth Babic, President of the North Sea Commission
• Talvikki Jori, President of the Baltic Sea Commission
• Espen Rasmussen, Captain (N), Deputy Commander/Chief of Staff, Norwegian Fleet, Royal Norwegian Navy
• Christian Hafstad, Municipal Port Authority – Port of Bergen
• Owe Hagesæther, CEO, GCE Ocean Technology (Cluster)
• Solfrid Sætre Hjøllo, Research Professor, Institute of Marine Research

Moderated by Audun Lysbakken, Director of the West Norway Brussels Office

The debate will focus on responsibility and leadership, and on how we can foster a shared understandingof the challenges and discuss practical solutions through broader cooperation across sectors and levels of government.

Part 2: Parallel sessions (targeted follow-up). Building directly on the panel, the sessions are more focused and practical — aimed in particular at regional politicians and administrations, project developers and practitioners, researchers, and regional offices in Brussels. Participants will work on concrete coordination mechanisms, clarify roles and interfaces, and identify actionable next steps and potential joint initiatives to take forward after the event.

Part 3: Feedback from the breakout sessions and aligning the groups’ goals with the plan moving forward.

This event requires registration, please see above.