PUBLIC EVENT
Timings: Conference - 8.00am to 5.30pm, Dinner - 5.30pm to 9.30pm
The Royal Academy of Engineering and the Irish Academy of Engineering will be jointly hosting the 2026 Euro-CASE conference.
The conference's theme, “Engineering resilience: Securing Europe’s critical infrastructure in a changing world”, will stimulate conversations about how engineering thinking can shape Europe’s response to growing risks facing critical infrastructure, considering key challenges, geopolitical tensions and system interdependencies.
We are thrilled to welcome Katie Prescott, Technology Business Editor at The Times, as our event host. The following experts have been confirmed as speakers, with many more to be announced:
- Vice Admiral Mark Mellett DSM, PhD (Retd), Former Chief of Staff of the Irish Defence Forces
- Professor Sylvia Schwaag Serger, President, Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences (IVA)
- Professor Simin Nadjm-Tehrani, Professor of Computer Science and Cybersecurity, Linköping University
- Professor Máire O’Neill FREng, Vice President for Digital and Information Services, Queen’s University Belfast
- Nina Cromnier, Head of Division, Radiological Protection and Human Aspects of Nuclear Safety, OECD Nuclear Energy Agency
- Professor Dimitra Simeonidou OBE FREng, Professor of High Performance Networks, University of Bristol and a member of the European Commission’s group of Chief Scientific Advisors
- David Porter, President, Institution of Civil Engineers
The event will be followed by a reception for all attendees and an optional conference dinner. A public exhibition will accompany the conference showcasing examples of regional engineering innovation will be open throughout the day.
Whether you are leading discussions on protecting UK, Irish and European infrastructure, or are interested in embedding cutting edge thinking on resilience into your engineering practice, or just want to deepen your knowledge of how the digital and physical infrastructure that underpins our society can be made more robust and more secure, this conference is for you.
Programme*
A programme overview can be found on the 'More details' tab. A more detailed programme with session breakdowns can be found on our dedicated Euro-CASE 2026 conference pages.
Photography and filming notice
Please note that photography and filming will take place during this event. All photographs and videos will be securely stored on the Academy’s servers and used for editorial, marketing and media use by the Academy and selected press or industry media. Please let us know if you do not agree to this processing. Please refer to our General Privacy Policy for more details.
Venue and accessibility
It is very important to the Royal Academy of Engineering that our events are accessible to all. If you have any accessibility requirements, please contact the Events team more than one week in advance of this event so that necessary arrangements can be made.
Find out more about the ICC and local travel and accommodation options
Cancellations
All cancellation requests must be received in writing via email to the events team at [email protected]. A request for cancellation (and refund) will be accepted up to the deadline 5 November 2026. Royal Academy of Engineering must make commitments to suppliers at that time and making changes will result in additional costs or penalties. If the cancellation request is received after the deadline, we cannot issue a refund and would recommend a substitution to attend in your place. A written notification of a substitution will be accepted by email up to the morning of the event.
Diversity monitoring form
The Academy is committed to equity, diversity and inclusion and one of our goals is to develop an engineering community fit for the future. To help us achieve this, we would like to collect some basic anonymous data about the event attendees. If you would like to help, please complete the diversity monitoring form by logging into your user account on our website and completing ‘Update my D&I data’.
Katie Prescott
Katie Prescott is Technology Business Editor at The Times and co-host of The Times Tech Podcast. An award-winning journalist and former BBC Business Presenter and Correspondent, she is a leading voice on technology, business, and artificial intelligence. Katie regularly interviews some of the world's most influential tech leaders, including Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, and is the author of the bestselling The Curious Case of Mike Lynch. A sought-after moderator, keynote speaker, and event host, she brings expert insight on AI, innovation, digital transformation, and emerging technology trends.
Professor Sylvia Schwaag Serger
Professor Sylvia Schwaag Serger has spent 20 years designing, implementing and studying science and technology policy in Europe and China.
She has been commissioned as expert by the OECD, was chair of the board of the Swedish Foundation for Internationalization of Higher Education and Research (STINT), member of the Swedish Prime Minister’s Innovation Council and one of the lead authors of the Heitor Report. She chairs the Scientific Council of the Swedish Research Council for Sustainable Development (Formas) and is deputy chair of the Austrian Council for Science, Technology and Innovation. Sylvia has an MA from Johns Hopkins SAIS and a PhD from the LSE.
From 2018-2020 she was Deputy President of Lund University. Since 2024, she is President of the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences (IVA).
Professor Simin Nadjm-Tehrani
Simin Nadjm-Tehrani is a professor in computer science at Linköping University with research interests in dependable systems and networks. Her recent work has focused on anomaly detection in critical infrastructures like power networks or 5G communication, and trustworthiness of AI components in safety-critical systems like avionics. She has been the PhD thesis advisor or examiner for more than 50 students, led national research centres e.g. RICS, AIR2 and collaborates in major Swedish undertakings in Trustworthy and Resilient AI including the newly funded RESIST centre. She is a member of the Royal Academy of Engineering Sciences (IVA) in Sweden.
Enrico Zio
Dr Joshua Macabuag OBE FREng
Dr Joshua Macabuag OBE FREng is the CEO of renewable risk analytics firm, Renew Risk. As one of the company’s co-founders, and previously serving as Chief Product Officer, Macabuag has played a central role in shaping Renew Risk since its formation in 2021. Today, his focus is on leading the firm’s strategic direction and highlighting the need for a new approach to risk management for the renewable energy industry to insurers, energy developers and investment firms. Prior to Renew Risk's formation, Macabuag spent his career across engineering and catastrophe modelling roles, holding positions at several (re)insurers, The World Bank, and University College London. Outside of his work at Renew Risk, Macabuag has spent 14 years volunteering as an Urban Search & Rescue Engineer for the NGO SARAID, which has seen him deployed internationally to disasters including the 2015 Nepal earthquake, Hurricane Irma recovery in the Turks and Caicos Islands in 2017, and to the Beirut port explosion in 2020. His contributions were recognised in 2025 with an Order of the British Empire (OBE).
Professor Dr Tina Comes
Prof. Dr. Tina Comes, is Scientific Director of the DLR Institute for the Protection of Terrestrial Infrastructures at the German Aerospace Center and Full Professor of Decision Theory & ICT for Resilience at TU Delft.
Her research advances decision-making in crisis and risk management, with particular focus on the role of information technology and AI. She integrates behavioural insights into computational and modelling approaches, including AI and data analytics, digital twins, and multi-agent systems, to assess infrastructure and systems resilience across multiple temporal scales, from immediate crisis response to disaster risk reduction and long-term preparedness. Her work draws on extensive field research and case studies across Asia, Africa, and Europe.
Prof. Comes is a member of Academia Europaea and the Norwegian Academy of Technological Sciences. She served as Senior Research Fellow at the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative and the Harvard Kennedy School and has received multiple international awards. Under the EU Science Advice Mechanism, she chaired the Working Group on Strategic Crisis Management and the Working Group on AI in Crisis Management.
Professor Dimitra Simeonidou OBE FREng
Professor Dimitra Simeonidou OBE is a globally recognised leader in telecommunications and digital innovation. She serves as Chief Scientific Advisor to the European Commission, Director of the Smart Internet Lab at the University of Bristol, and Founding Director of the Bristol Digital Futures Institute. Her pioneering research spans high-performance networks, 5G/6G, future internet architectures, and smart city technologies. A Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering and IEEE Fellow, she has led major UK and European research programmes, authored more than 700 publications, co-founded multiple technology spin-outs, and was awarded an OBE in 2025 for services to communications technology research and scientific policy.
David Porter
David Porter is the Director of Engineering and Transformation with the Department for infrastructure (DfI), which is the roads authority for Northern Ireland. In this position, David is the Chief Highway Engineer and the Head of the Civil Engineering Profession within the Northern Ireland Civil Service. He is responsible for the professional development of staff, engineering policy and standards, health and safety, and leads the internal consultancy and the procurement team. Previously, David was the Chief Executive of Rivers Agency, the flood defence and drainage authority for Northern Ireland.
David is the current President of the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE), a Chartered Civil Engineer, a Fellow of ICE, a Fellow of the Irish Academy of Engineering, and a Fellow of Engineers Ireland.
Programme*
| Time (GMT) | Description |
| 8.15am | Registration and refreshments |
| 9.00am | Welcome addresses |
| Session 1: How prepared are we for the next wave of threats to our critical infrastructure? | |
| 9.30am | Senior speaker from geopolitics sphere, followed by four senior engineering speakers. |
| 11.00am | Break |
| 11.20am | Inspiration 1 |
| Session 2: Cutting it off at the source: what’s being done to prevent threats, and what can we do better? | |
| 11.30am | Panel session with speakers, moderated discussion and audience Q&A |
| 1.00pm | Lunch |
| 2.00pm | Inspiration 2 |
| Session 3: When the worst happens: stories about failure, recovery and renewal | |
| 2.10pm | Panel session with speakers, moderated discussion and audience Q&A |
| 3.30pm | Inspiration 3 |
| Session 4: Rethinking resilience for a challenging world | |
| 4.00pm | Panel session reflecting on how we need to change our thinking on resilience |
| 5.15pm | Final summary, audience voting, introduction to next conference |
| Reception and dinner | |
| 5.30pm | End of conference and moving into reception in exhibition space |
| 6.45pm | Call for dinner (must be pre-booked) |
| 7.00pm | Dinner |
| 9.30pm | End of Reception and dinner |
*subject to change