EU-HYBNET is a Pan-European network of security practitioners, stakeholders, academics, industry players, and SME actors across EU collaborating with each other in ever increasing numbers to counter hybrid threats. EU-HYBNET aims to build an empowered, sustainable network beyond the scope of the project through its on-going association with a key partner, The European Centre of Excellence for Countering Hybrid Threats, and it will: define common requirements that can fill knowledge gaps, deal with performance needs, and enhance capabilities of innovation endeavours; monitor significant developments in research and innovation; deliver recommendations for uptake and industrialisation of the most promising innovations that address the needs of practitioners, and determine associated priorities for standardisation; establish conditions for enhanced interaction among its members; and persistently strive to increase its membership and continually build network capacity through knowledge exchange incl. exercises. EU-HYBNET's principal objectives align with the H2020 SEC-SU-GM01-2019 call and are of crucial relevance to it. A technology and innovations watch, facilitated by scientific research, will ensure smooth execution of searching, monitoring, identifying and assessing innovations both under development or already proven, including the level of technology readiness for uptake or industrialisation. EU-HYBNET will bring together practitioners and stakeholders to identify and define their most urgent requirements for countering hybrid threats by undertaking an in-depth analysis of gaps and needs and prioritising those that are crucial to address through effective research and innovation initiatives, including arranging training and exercise events to test the most promising innovations (technical and social) which will lead to creation of a roadmap for success and solid recommendations for uptake, industrialisation and standarisation across the European Union.

Current European research and innovation (R&I) and security policies aim to address challenges that threaten European societies by deploying security technologies. Security technologies are typically intended to promote public safety, security and increase societal resilience. At the same time, security technologies spur controversies and can have enormous societal, legal, ethical, economic and political impact. Such technologies often infringe human rights, reproduce and reinforce power imbalances and social injustice. Civil society is rarely or restrictively involved during research and development of security technologies, and thus societal concerns might not be well addressed in this process. Security technologies and R&I should not create societal mistrust or missed opportunities to jointly build societal resilience. TRANSCEND aims to improve practices of citizen and societal engagement in security R&I: to enable individuals, and organisations that speak on their behalf, to participate actively and creatively in iterative processes of design and deployment. TRANSCEND will develop a Toolbox of methods to enhance the involvement of civil society in security R&I. The Toolbox will be tested and evaluated in four pilots, in close collaboration with diverse ‘on the ground’ organisations by bringing together transdisciplinary actors from academia, government, industry and society (Quadruple Helix). The TRANSCEND Framework will present guidelines on how to design and structure meaningful civil society and public engagement for societal impact assessment for security research technologies and present domain-specific instructions for the use of the TRANSCEND toolbox. TRANSCEND will contribute to the uptake of effective methods for citizen and societal engagement throughout the EU, so that civil society are given a louder voice, a place at the right tables and security practitioners are motivated and equipped to enhance such participation.

l-LEAD’s focus is on the incapability of groups of operational Law Enforcement Agencies (LEA) practitioners defining their needs for innovation. This will be done in a methodological way, also with the help of the research & industrial partners supplemented by a broad range of committed stakeholders. I-LEAD will build the capacity to monitor the security research and technology market in order to ensure a better matching and uptake of innovations by law enforcement agencies with the overarching aim to make it a sustainable Pan-Europan LEA network. Earlier funded European research with a high technology readiness level as well as pipeline technologies will be closely monitored and assessed on its usefulness. Where possible a direct uptake from this research will be facilitated and implemented in the ENLETS and ENFSI networks supporting the action. I-LEAD will indicate priorities in five practitioner groups as well as aspects that needs (more) standardization and formulate recommendations how to incorporate these in procedures. As a final step, I-LEAD will advise the Member States through the existing EDBP-ESTP procurement group about how the outcomes of this project could be used in Pre-Commercial Procurement and Public Procurement of Innovation activities.

Artificial Intelligence is a disruptive technology of our times with expected impacts rivalling those of electricity or printing. Resources for innovation are currently dominated by giant tech companies in North America and China. To ensure European independence and leadership, we must invest wisely by bundling, connecting and opening our AI resources. AI4EU will efficiently build a comprehensive European AI-on-demand platform to lower barriers to innovation, to boost technology transfer and catalyse the growth of start-ups and SMEs in all sectors through Open calls and other actions. The platform will act as a broker, developer and one-stop shop providing and showcasing services, expertise, algorithms, software frameworks, development tools, components, modules, data, computing resources, prototyping functions and access to funding. Training will enable different user communities (engineers, civic leaders, etc.) to obtain skills and certifications. The AI4EU Platform will establish a world reference, built upon and interoperable with existing AI and data components (e.g. the Acumos open-source framework, QWT search engine..) and platforms. It will mobilize the whole European AI ecosystem and already unites 80 partners in 21 countries including researchers, innovators and related talents. Eight industry-driven AI pilots will demonstrate the value of the platform as an innovation tool. In order to enhance the platform, research on five key interconnected AI scientific areas will be carried out using platform technologies and results will be implemented. The pilots and research will showcase how AI4EU can stimulate scientific discovery and technological innovation. The AI4EU Ethical Observatory will be established to ensure the respect of human centred AI values and European regulations. Sustainability will be ensured via the creation of the AI4EU Foundation. The results will feed a new and comprehensive Strategic Research Innovation Agenda for Europe.

Handling the crises faced by modern societies often requires the coordination of multiple types of stakeholders from different countries. One of the key requirements to manage crisis is to have access to situational awareness (SA). However, current SA solutions (SAS) are not adapted to operate in cross-border contexts and present several shortcomings related to interoperability, data management/processing, decision making, standardisation and procurement. This hinders a reliable sharing of SA information. SAYSO will address these shortcomings and pave the way for the development of innovative European cost-effective Multi-Stakeholders SA Systems (MSSAS) which will provide practitioners with user-friendly solutions, providing a clear picture of the situation at hand with relevant advices. Addressing both the technical and human aspects of technology implementation, SAYSO will define the specifications of future MSSAS on the basis of practitioners’ requirements and specify the corresponding Reference Architecture to support the integration of various data into a common operational picture. This architecture will support interoperability and allow the integration of legacy and future SAS. It will also be customisable to practitioners’ needs and safeguard adequate privacy protection and data security levels. SAYSO will pursue the agreement and sustainable involvement of a community of practitioners, relevant suppliers and potential procurers, institutions and policy makers to obtain widely accepted results and prepare future procurement actions at EU level. SAYSO will develop a toolkit for MSSAS procurers, which will include tender documentation for SAYSO-compliant MSSAS and a SAYSO Procurers Handbook (with tools to evaluate MSSAS tenders and assess their compliance with the SAYSO specifications and existing standards). A registry of potential suppliers and procurers of MSSAS will be set up. Finally, SAYSO will deliver roadmaps for future MSSAS and standardisation.