In September 2025, Europol presented its Excellence Awards in Innovation for this year. The awards recognise ingenuity, collaboration, and forward-thinking approaches that are shaping the future of European law enforcement. Each year, law enforcement authorities from EU Member States, the UK, and Schengen Associated Countries are invited to submit nominations. Nominations can be made in three categories: innovative operation, innovative technical solution, and innovative initiative in ethics, diversity and inclusion. The winners are selected by a high-profile jury. The 2025 jury comprised the EU Presidency Trio Chiefs of Police (Poland, Denmark, and Cyprus), the Director-General of DG HOME, Beate Gminder, and Europol’s Executive Director, Catherine De Bolle.

This year's awards went to law enforcement agencies from Germany, Norway, and Portugal.

• The Award for Innovative Operation went to the Bavarian State Criminal Police Office in Germany, which dismantled KidFlix, one of the world’s largest child sexual abuse platforms (→eucrim 1/2025, 28).
• Norway received the Award for Innovative Technical Solution for the development of AI4Interviews, a project focusing on AI solutions to increase efficiency in areas such as interviews, investigations, crime scene examination, reporting, court transcription, and crisis exercises.
• Portugal won the Award for Innovation in Ethics, Diversity and Inclusion for a cybercrime prevention project that uses a video game called RAYUELA to promote safe and ethical Internet use among young people.

The Europol Excellence Awards in Innovation were granted for the fifth time. They not only aim to honour individual successful achievements but also to inspire further innovation across the European law enforcement community. For further information and the winners of the previous year, navigate to the dedicated Europol website.