The 2016 European Union Global Strategy for Foreign and Security Policy (EUGS) highlights the need to enhance external policies by pursuing better communication, information-sharing, joint reporting, analysis and response planning between member state embassies, EU delegations, Commission services, EU Special Representatives and Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP) missions. The CIVILnEXt project supports the development of a solution addressing existing “fragmentation” and closing “gaps”. To provide civilian CSDP missions with the next generation of secure and cost-effective information systems: a situational awareness, information exchange and operation control platform (OCP). Fully informed of contributing initiatives in civilian CSDP and EU external action, the project will aim to develop solutions leveraging on the results extracted from projects funded by the EU. The common challenge in CIVILnEXt is to develop, test and validate a cost-effective and interoperable operation control platform (OCP) that will support the conduct of civilian CSDP missions. The OCP will improve coordination in EU external action through better information exchange, situational awareness and operation control in diverse theaters of operation. It will support the EU’s comprehensive approach in complex missions, including the civil-military cooperation within CSDP, facilitate the engagement CSDP actors, creating links EU Delegations, FRONTEX, ECHO and other EU activities, member states, as appropriate, and other partners such as the UN and regional organisations. CIVILnEXt engages the participation of four national competent authorities, active in EU external policies and the UN organisations IOM. They share the need to become beneficiaries of procurement results that enhance the effectiveness of civilian CSDP. They are co-financing the action under one single joint procurement, supported by technical and policy advisors, with extensive CSDP experience.

MESMERISE will develop and test a High-resolution non-intrusive scanner up to TRL 5 able to automatically detect and identify both internal and external concealed commodities being entirely independent of human operator interpretation and training and based on two complementary technologies: ultra-low-dose Multispectral Xray transmission and Infrasonic interrogation. A novel x-ray detector, in addition to a higher imaging resolution, captures 256 channels of spectroscopic information, allowing a step change in material identification. Crucially, this level of resolution has the potential to enhance the detection of narcotics and explosives concealed in the body -a highly complex problem with currently available equipment. A second subsystem for detecting externally concealed items based on a novel, intrinsically safe, technology (infrasound near-field acoustic holography) is entirely new to security screening. Low-fq MEM Micro-technology shall also be exploited to provide an automated version of non-contact pat-down. Both sub-systems will be able to work independently, or together to provide complementary information and improve the detection of externally concealed objects. Automated algorithms for both subsystems and, through data fusion techniques, for the combined system will identify chemical substances, recognise pattern and detect anomalies with100g threshold in any part of the body, including prosthetic elements or plasters. A big manufacturer of body scanners, SMEs, Univs, R&D centres, end-users and a diverse and high quality external advisory board, with a broad international contribution and connection to US counterparts provides a straightforward exploitation route. Acceptance by society will be promoted by communication activities highlighting its non-contact nature, non divest condition and the absence of the requirement for operators to view explicit images through automated detection making MESMERISE intrinsically respectful of dignity and privacy.

LEAs use the data in their information systems as their basis for making decisions that affect the safety of European citizens. According to a recent report of the European Court of Auditors on the EU Information Systems use, it has been found out that individual countries have different perception and methodologies on how data management should be addressed; officers from LEAs have stated that not all datasets are included in their systems, while other data is either not complete and accurate or not entered in a timely manner. The same report states that there are regulatory and “cultural” issues, according to which some countries do not make all the functions offered in the central EU systems available through their national systems. TENACITy envisions to address these challenges by proposing a 3-pillar approach: (a) Modern and effective tools for exploitation of travel intelligence data by security authorities: TENACITy proposes an interoperable open architecture for the integration and analysis of multiple transactional, historical and behavioural data from a variety of sources, by exploiting game changing digital technologies; (b) Training and sensitisation of LEAs’ personnel: TENACITy envisions the design of a “living lab” to be established to organise hackathons, workshops for all relevant stakeholders who would benefit from the use of passenger data and digital technologies proposed; (c) Holistic approach to crime prevention: TENACITy vision is to implement and demonstrate a Travel Intelligence Governance Framework that will incorporate a holistic approach to crime prevention, will ensure that the proposed digital technologies will support the identification of the modus operandi of criminal and terrorism organizations and will include policy makers in the governance process, examining how the new tools will provide new capabilities to shape the regulations.

ENDING is a strategic partnership that gathers five organisations from three European member states to jointly develop, test and implement a methodology based in peer learning to prevent the abuse of ICT´s and reduce early school leaving .The project will develop innovative educational tools that will serve the school community as an instrument to promote the good use of ICT´s, to identify relevant sources of information, appropriate to the age of the minors and that, at the same time, promote positive relationships between peers, encourage critical thinking, awareness of existing risks and at the same time promote respect for others. The developed methodology will be tested in six schools in Portugal and Spain that have joined our consortium as associated partners. The project outcomes will be available as Open Education Resources and freely accessible through the website of each partner institution and the project social media. The project is expected to produce three intellectual outputs: IO1: Design and development of a methodological E-Guide for educators, containing five thematic modules and implementation guidelines IO2: Design and development of an E-Guide for Parents, containing five thematic modules and recommendations IO3: Design and development of an E-Guide for students (produced by students)ENDING will involve at least 2 teachers, 5-10 parents, 2-3 role model students per participating school and at least two classes per associated school to test the developed methodology and resources. In total, the project expects to involve 12 teachers, 30 parents, 12 role model students and 300 students aged 11 to 14 years. The partnerships will organize six multiplier events engaging 285 participants.

The proposed solution aims to deliver a descriptive and predictive data analytics platform and related tools using state-of-the-art machine learning and artificial intelligence methods to prevent, detect, analyse, and combat criminal activities. AIDA will focus on cybercrime and terrorism, by addressing specific challenges related to law enforcement investigation and intelligence. While cybercrime and terrorism pose distinct problems and may rely on different input datasets, the analysis of this data can benefit from the application of the same fundamental technology base framework, endowed with Artificial Intelligence and Deep Learning techniques applied to big data analytics, and extended and tailored with crime- and task- specific additional analytic capabilities and tools. The resulting TRL-7 integrated, modular and flexible AIDA framework will include LE-specific effective, efficient and automated data mining and analytics services to deal with intelligence and investigation workflows, extensive content acquisition, information extraction and fusion, knowledge management and enrichment through novel applications of Big Data processing, machine learning, artificial intelligence, predictive and visual analytics. AIDA system and tools will be made available to LEAs through a secure sandbox environment that aims to raise the technological readiness level of the solutions through their application in operational environment with real data.