Security

Call summary and aims

This Call deals with R&D and innovation towards establishing disaster-resilient societies, fighting against crime and terrorism, and improving border and external security.

When a topic has eligibility and admissibility conditions which require the active involvement of specific entities (e.g.: '3 Law Enforcement Agencies (LEA) from at least 3 different EU or Associated countries'), this means that these entities have to be participants and should be directly involved in the carrying out of the tasks foreseen in the grant. When a reference is made to "practitioners", the text refers to someone who is qualified or registered to practice a particular occupation, profession in the field of security or civil protection. Applicants should identify clearly which members of the consortium they consider "practitioners" in the specific context of their proposal, and to include a clear description of their respective role and added-value as practitioners in section 4.3 of proposal part B4-6.

Whereas activities will have an exclusive focus on civil applications, coordination with the activities of the European Defence Agency (EDA) may be considered with possible synergies being established with projects funded by the EDA programmes[[http://eda.europa.eu/what-we-do/eda-priorities/research-technology]]. The complementarity of such synergies should be described comprehensively. On-going cooperation should be taken into account. Only an explicit and firm commitment from EDA-funded projects to contribute to a project may positively impact the evaluation of a proposal submitted under this work programme part.

In this Call, "standards" and "standardisation" are used in a broad sense, except where they are specifically referred to as "European standards" or "European standardisation".

All topics in this work programme part will be subject to security scrutiny.

The Commission reserves the possibility under this call to exclude a specific project from the delegation to the REA if it appears that that project would necessarily have a close link to the development of EU policies in the field of security.

Disaster-Resilient Societies

The following two paragraphs are relevant for the Disaster-Resilient Societies section of the Work Programme, .i.e. topics

DRS-01 to DRS-05.

Securing itself against, and being prepared for, disasters is one of the central elements of the functioning of any society. There are hardly any societal functions which are not to some extent exposed to natural or man-made disasters and related resilience and security issues.

The aim of this section is to advance innovation in the society at large, and among first responders (as acknowledged within the International Forum to Advance First Responder Innovation[[http://www.internationalresponderforum.org/]] in which the Commission has decided to participate) to reduce the loss of human life and to reduce environmental, economic and material damage from natural and man-made disasters, including from climate-related weather events, earthquakes and volcanic events, space weather events, industrial disasters, crime and terrorism threats.

Fight against Crime and Terrorism

The following paragraph is relevant for the Fight against Crime and Terrorism section of the Work Programme, .i.e. topics 

FCT-01 to FCT-04.

The ambition of the activities under "Fight against Crime and Terrorism" is to mitigate potential consequences of crime- and/or terrorism-related incidents or to avoid them. To this end, new technologies and capabilities are required. They should address the fight against and the prevention of crime (including cyber-crime), illegal trafficking and terrorism (including cyber-terrorism and CBRN-E attacks), along with understanding and tackling terrorist ideas and beliefs. Human factors and the societal context should be taken into account, whilst respecting fundamental rights, including privacy, protection of personal data and the free movement of persons.

Border and External Security

The following two paragraphs are relevant for the Border and External Security section of the Work Programme, .i.e. topics

BES-01 to BES-03.

This section concerns strengthening security through border management. This includes both control and surveillance issues, on land and in the maritime domain. It contributes to the further development of the European Border Surveillance System (EUROSUR), its interoperability with other systems, and to enhance the use of new technology for border checks, also in relation to the Smart Borders legislative initiative. It also addresses supply chain security in the context of the EU’s customs policy, and migrant smuggling.

The aim of this section is to develop technologies and capabilities which are required to enhance systems and their interoperability, equipment, tools, processes, and methods for rapid identification to improve border security, whilst respecting fundamental rights including free movement of persons, protection of personal data, and privacy. New technologies, capabilities and solutions are also required to support the Union's external security policies in civilian tasks, ranging from civil protection to humanitarian relief, border management, law enforcement, or peace-keeping and post-crisis stabilisation, including conflict prevention, peace-building and mediation. This will also require research on conflict resolution and restoration of peace and justice, early identification of factors leading to conflict and on the impact of restorative justice processes.