The NATO S&T Collaboration Support Office and the Human Factors and Medicine (HFM) Panel

are pleased to announce the

 Research Symposium (RSY) HFM-377 on « Meaningful Human Control in Information Warfare » to be held in Amsterdam, Netherlands

21-22 October 2024 

The symposium addresses Meaningful Human Control (MHC) in larger information systems that are used in information warfare operations, such as cognitive warfare and cyber-operations. It thereby follows a system of systems approach in which multiple actors, such as policy makers, designers, and end-users are assumed to play a role in maintaining MHC. Of particular interest are the Human Factors design considerations, such as transparency, explainability, and situation awareness support to ensure that the human is involved in a meaningful way. Also, a better understanding of measurement and prediction of influence in the information environment is required – without any ability to assess/predict influence and associated effects, there really is no MHC. The symposium should briefly chart the state of the art, and especially map future directions, balancing risks and opportunities associated with this exciting development. The identification of possible S&T areas for future research activities (e.g., RTG) by the RSY as part of a S&T strategic roadmap will provide concrete guidelines on how to approach MHC in cognitive warfare strategies.

A Technical Evaluator Report and papers are to be published after the RSY.   

The Symposium is open to NATO Nations, NATO Bodies, STOEOP, MD, PfP and GP and conducted at a PUBLIC RELEASE level.

To register, please login with your STO events credentials or create an account if you do not already have an existing one. After log in, scroll down to the HFM event and you will see at the bottom of this page the button “Book now”, click on it to start to enroll.

Enrollments will be closed on Sunday 6 October 2024, please make sure you register on time. Please note that registration won't be re-opened past this deadline.

The General Information Package (GIP) specifying the event logistics, accommodation, travelling, venue etc. will be visible and ready for download on this website after your registration has been validated by the CSO. After validation, return to this page, log in with your credentials and download the GIP located in the grey box below the Google maps picture or above the bar below entitled "GIP HFM-377 RSY Amsterdam".

SOCIAL EVENTS

Ice Breaker: Participants and their partners are kindly invited to attend the Ice Breaker on Monday 21 October 2024. 

Symposium Dinner: Participants and their partners are kindly invited to attend the Symposium Dinner on Tuesday 22 October 2024 at the Marine Establishment Amsterdam (MEA).

Participation to the Icebreaker and Symposium dinner is free of charge. In order to participate, it is mandatory to enroll by answering all mandatory questions during the registration process.

The RSY Program is ready for download before validation of the enrollment.

For more information, please contact the HFM Panel Office at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. 

Looking forward to seeing you in Amsterdam!

Lt Col Siebren Wolf (HFM Executive) /Ms. Marie Linet (HFM Executive Assistant) / Mrs. Vasiliki Plessia (HFM Assistant)

The NATO S&T Collaboration Support Office and the Human Factors and Medicine (HFM) Panel

are pleased to announce the

 Research Specialits' Meeting HFM-371 on

 «Blast Exposure Monitoring in Military Training and Operations» 

to be held in Toronto, CANADA

09-11 April 2025

Aim and Objectives

The aim of this RSM is to build from individual NATO nation’s blast exposure research and inform standard operating procedures for collecting and analyzing relevant training and combat blast exposures as well as interpretation of the relationship between military exposures and health and performance measures associated with collected exposure data

Topics

 The RSM will accept papers including but not limited to these topics:

• 1) Enhance understanding of health hazards from extreme environmental exposures resulting from repetitive use of weapon systems and explosives during military operations;

  2) Explore and define the range of health hazards resulting from repetitive use of weapon systems in current NATO operations;

  3) Explore technologies and methodologies for the valid and reliable assessment of blast overpressure, and the development of algorithms that can link blast overpressure levels to clinical outcomes;

  4) Develop a taxonomy of measures that are currently used to assess the impact of blast exposure on health and performance, with an eye toward developing a framework that can be used consistently across countries;

  5) Outline some of the personnel protection and medical strategies for prevention, mitigation and treatment of injuries due to exposure to heavy weapons in NATO personnel.

  The RSM will be organized around thematic sessions (determined in part by the abstract submissions), and keynote presentations. Demonstrations of concepts may be possible depending on requirements and availability of local facilities.

Abstracts should be submitted electronically in PDF or MS Word format no later than 30 September 2024 to Dr. Thuvan Piehler (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.) and Dr. Oshin Vartanian (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.), including on cc Mrs. Marie Linet (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.). Further details can be found in the embedded PDF file entitled “HFM-371-RSM-BEMMTO Call for Papers Final.pdf” located on this page.

Authors will be notified of the Programme Committee decision by 1st December 2024. Authors of accepted abstracts should submit a full paper version by 19th January 2025 (USA) / 1st February (others) 2025 in accordance with the paper template which will provided upon acceptance.

The RSM is open to NATO Nations, NATO Bodies, STOEOP, MD, PfP, GP and will be conducted at a NATO Unclassified level.

All details about deadlines and abstract submission are provided in the document "HFM-371-RSM-BEMMTO Call for Papers Final" on the right side in the grey square.