Intelligence analysts’ training through serious games: The leila project

Abstract

Among the various initiatives directed at helping the intelligence community tackling today’s security challenges, the EU FP7 research project LEILA (Law Enforcement and Intelligence Learning Applications) focuses on ‘serious games’ for improving the quality of intelligence analysts’ training. LEILA investigates innovative methodologies for the development of core competencies required for performing intelligence analysis. Building upon an in-depth study of intelligence analysts’ learning needs and inspired by a multitude of disciplines, LEILA developed a set of serious games, embedded into four comprehensive ‘learning experiences’ dedicated to intelligence analysis trainees. While the main target of LEILA is law-enforcement intelligence analysts, the competencies addressed by its learning experiences are potentially relevant to analysts operating across various sectors.