The ENIGMA project has successfully completed the implementation of its four (4) pilot cases across numerous European sites, engaging multiple key end-user organizations.
More precisely, from July to October 2025, all project partners involved in “Pilot Cases Implementation, Tools Demonstration and Validation” (Work Package 6, led by KEMEA) worked intensively towards the implementation of the following piloting activities:
• Pilot Case 1: “Novel Documentation of Museum Items”.
The first pilot case was jointly led and implemented by KMKG in Belgium and Heritage Malta in Malta, aiming to validate the novel documentation workflow. Cultural Heritage experts successfully tested the creation and utility of Digital Twins and the Unique Authenticity Identifier (UAI) for securing museum collections and standardizing records.
• Pilot Case 2: “Identification and Tracing of Unregistered Cultural Goods”.
The second pilot case took place at the General Police Directorate of Thessaloniki, organised by KEMEA, in close collaboration with the Hellenic Police (HP), Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (AUTH) and KIKLO, with the online collaboration of KMKG. This hands-on exercise validated the ENIGMA platform’s AI-driven tools for investigating unregistered cultural goods, allowing the participating LEA officers to test the system against five realistic scenarios.
• Pilot Case 3: “Monitoring of Endangered Heritage Sites”.
The third pilot case was primarily implemented by the ERATOSTHENES Centre of Excellence (ECoE), in collaboration with the Department of Antiquities of Cyprus. In this case, the main objective was to demonstrate and validate the Earth Observation (EO) toolkit’s ability to monitor endangered heritage sites for illicit activities, using as examples three distinct locations in Greece, Cyprus and Syria.
• Pilot Case 4: “Validation of the ENIGMA Integrated Platform”.
The fourth pilot case, led by KEMEA and Hellenic Police, took place at the Thessaloniki International Airport “Macedonia”, simulating a real-world border control scenario, entailing the seizure of unregistered cultural goods from a passenger’s hand luggage. The pilot successfully validated the integrated platform’s readiness for in-field, time-sensitive operations by frontline officers.