Date: 27-28 November 2018

Location: Cork, Ireland

Information: https://www.ucc.ie/en/chemistry/ahfc2018/

The All Hazard Forensic conference is a spin-off conference series that has been established from the FP7 project GIFT. The successful interrogation of evidence either at a crime scene contaminated with chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear (CBRN) agents or of the agents themselves back at the lab, is an absolutely vital part of CBRN defense. Not only will processing these agents, or being able to handle traditional evidence in a hazardous environment, be vital to the successful trial and prosecutions of the individuals that carried out the attack, but it might provide vital information as to what agent was used and what medicine needs to be given to the survivors. The interest in forensics in CBRN incidents and forensic research in a contaminated environment (All Hazards) has risen in the past couple of years. Firstly this is due to the fact that this research area turned out to be not fully developed when investigating incidents or accidents with CBRN agents. Furthermore, this is caused by the observation that there seem to be more actors willing to use CBRN agents material to cause incidents. A short survey on the internet provides dozens of incidents and accidents in the last decades.

The focus of the conference is on best practice for all hazard forensic investigation at the scene. The two-day conference will cover sampling and prosecution with contributions and case studies from several stakeholders. The event brings together experts from leading European and North American institutes to discuss scientific methodology and techniques to go through the various stages: detection, sample collection, sample transport, identification, attribution, hazard mitigation and prosecution. There will also be opportunities for industry to present and also for students and early stage researchers. There will also be a dedicated poster session as well as an exhibition of technologies by researchers and also industry. The conference will also provide an opportunity for networking in particular for forming new consortium’s for the final phase of H2020 and going forward into FP9.