Code: BMVI-069-096
Project duration: 01/07/2022 - 31/12/2025
Budget: €525,000 (€393,750 by AMIF & €131,250 by the national budget)
Context & objectives
More and more technical expertise on biometrics is being requested in the context of European databases. For example, Belgium needs to be able to take a position on both technical and regulatory aspects of biometrics in the working groups. Used standards like NIST for biometrics are also subject to evolutions and new technologies are coming our way, including the so-called live-image (which is a 3D scan of the face). One such goal is to be better prepared for these evolutions.
There are no independent experts consultable within the Belgian Immigration Office, nor the ICT department to be able to provide substantive advice on this. The Immigration Department used to get this information via the company where we buy the technical equipment, but after several takeovers, contact with the company appears to have diminished considerably and the flow of information is poor. The Belgian Immigration Office is completely dependent on what the supplier's experts can and want to provide in terms of substantive expertise on biometrics: in the future, we must be able to apply this more independently.
The aspects of biometrics considered within the ICT Department are all in the context of assignments for the Belgian Immigration Office. As part of the reorganisation of the staff department ICT into the general directorate Digital Innovations & solutions (AD DIO), there is a need for specific expertise on biometrics, which allows proposals to be made for future architecture and infrastructure independently of existing suppliers. It must also be able to support the developments in the ICT line Asylum and Migration.
The multidisciplinary team will be composed of experts from the DVZ and the AD DIO. New staff will be recruited with specific technical expertise on biometrics. The team works collegially, supports the programmes within the ICT line Asylum and Migration and is managed by the Belgian Immigration Office. It meets on a regular basis.
(Version 11 June 2024)