FOUND AND IdentIA: Becoming a global hub for innovation in search and human identification

Friday, 26 June 2026, 2pm to 3pm

Join us for the presentation of the the results to date of FOUND and IdentIA, two initiatives addressing the crisis of disappeared persons in Mexico and Colombia, working at the intersection of technology, policy and the lived experience of searching families.

FOUND (Interpretar la Naturaleza para Encontrar a Quienes nos Faltan) combines remote sensing, geophysics, soil science and artificial intelligence with the territorial knowledge of searching families to support institutional search practices; identIA applies artificial intelligence to support the identification of deceased persons through their tattoos. Co-developed with searching families, both initiatives have grown into formal collaborations with national authorities, including training and embedding tools at Mexico's National Search Commission (CNB) and Colombia's Search Unit (UBPD). Together, they aim to become a global hub for innovation in search and human identification.

International support and partnerships have been indispensable to this trajectory, a dimension the session explores with Harriet Thompson, Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, and Mariela Garfias, British Embassy, Mexico City. The session closes with a reflection on memory, care and ethics in research with families of the disappeared, led by Professor Brad Evans, University of Bath, FOUND's ethics advisor.

Hosted by Ciaran Martin, Professor of Practice in the Management of Public Organisations, Blavatnik School of Government, speakers include:

Harriet Thompson, Director for the Americas at the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO)
Mariela Garfias, Head of Programmes, British Embassy in Mexico City
Miguel Moctezuma, Co-Director of FOUND
Ángel Serrano, Data and Technology Coordinator at LAB-CO; lead developer of identIA
Brad Evans, FOUND’s Ethics Advisor; Professor of Political Violence, University of Bath

Speaker(s): Professor Ciaran Martin (Blavatnik School of Government), Harriet Thompson (Director Americas, FCDO), Mariela Garfias (Head of Programmes, British Embassy in Mexico City), Miguel Moctezuma (Co-Founder and Co-Director, FOUND), Ángel Serrano (Data and Technology Coordinator, LAB-CO), Brad Evans (Professor of Political Violence & Aesthetics, University of Bath)

Venue: Blavatnik School of Government - Blavatnik School of Government Radcliffe Observatory Quarter Oxford Oxfordshire OX2 6GG United Kingdom

Department: Blavatnik School of Government (Department)

Host: Blavatnik School of Government

Register here: https://www.bsg.ox.ac.uk/events/found-and-identia