CryptoACTION represents Europe’s most ambitious attempt to date in equipping LEAs with mission-appropriate tools to support investigations pertaining to Cryptocurrency-Facilitated Crime and Terrorism (CFCT) activities (money laundering, darknet marketplaces) improve investigation operations including external collaboration workflows and provide comprehensive training curricula for LEAs/prosecutors/judiciary and the world’s first cryptorange. It will deliver an ecosystem of independent but interoperable lawful-investigation tools offering AI co-piloting capabilities to enhance investigator efficiency and supporting the intelligent corelation of blockchain data, structured data from anti-CFCT databases, text, audio and visual data modalities, stemming from lawful surveillance activities and darknet/deepnet/clearnet scraping. It will address technologies/mechanisms that hinder LEA investigations into CFCT, such as TOR, mixers, DEXs, Monero and other privacy coins, etc. both head on and laterally, taking advantage of weaknesses in design/implementation vulnerabilities or human errors on the side of criminals and lawful multi-modal intelligence gathering provided by the tools it will develop and/or enhance. Consortium LEAs will co-design and help validate the CryptoACTION LEA tools and support additional LEA engagement via organising collaborative capacity building workshops based on CryptoACTION training courses and tools. CryptoACTION will take a holistic view of the CFCT landscape and the anti-CFCT efforts, both at the beginning, to guide project efforts, and upon its conclusion, to provide recommendations for further actions, including potential recommendation for regulation and for moving away from cryptocurrency analysis tools giving black-box results to tools, such as those CryptoACTION will deliver, that offer explanations for their results (including any assumptions and uncertainties) and embrace the 7 EU principles of trustworthy AI.

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.

The energy transition of homes toward the EU decarbonisation targets involves many options and choices, the average citizens cannot navigate this maze and identify the best solutions for them. Professionals providing relevant services encounter substantial costs in tailoring their services to individual potential customers due to unavailability of essential data from actual households. DECODIT will develop digital services to support citizens on decision making for participated in the energy transition through co-created services and customer journeys. DECODIT will deliver tools that clearly present concrete, personalised & comparable propositions to citizens for future-proofing their homes based on federated, data-driven services from multiple, diverse service providers. Thus, citizens will be able to compare and select the options that best fit their specific situation and personal needs via apps supporting natural language interfaces, so that citizens with low energy or digital literacy can benefit. Also, DECODIT will facilitate financing for the selected interventions through cross-sector, data-driven loan underwriting approaches to reduce entry barriers for capital providers, hence unlocking consumer investment in home upgrades. DECODIT will contribute in shaping the smart energy landscape with critical enablers, such as enabling business models and market & regulatory conditions. Project results will be demonstrated in four European countries (Latvia, Spain, Greece, Switzerland) that are very diverse in terms of building characteristics, cultural and regulatory frameworks, climate conditions, economic capabilities, etc. Piloting activities will be held under the supervision of market actors that span the value chain needed for exploitation (energy suppliers, ESCO, DSO, energy communities).

The EU has experienced a surge in fixed border surveillance solutions, including physical barriers, covering 13% of external land borders. The BorderForce project responds to evolving threats by enhancing real-time surveillance capabilities. It introduces a dynamic system, featuring self-sufficient, transportable Command and Control (C2) Stations with configurable and extendable capabilities. These stations incorporate versatile surveillance towers with anti-drone features, integrating data from autonomous monitoring sensors and UAV systems. Dedicated satellite resources, including CubeSat, strategically positioned at high-risk spots, ensure frequent revisits to critical areas. To enable early threat assessment, BorderForce leverages Open-Source Intelligence (OSINT), processing online data for border security threats. The project emphasizes ethical, legal, and social aspects, safeguarding fundamental rights in border surveillance capability development. BorderForce collaborates with EU and candidate country border authorities, customs, and Common Security and Defense Policy (CSDP) entities. It defines scenarios, gathers architecture feedback, and validates end user feedback. The project emphasizes data exchange, novel user interfaces (e.g., XR), and immersive training for collaborative threat assessment, promoting safety and security while upholding fundamental rights. This solution enhances resource sustainability by improving the coordination and deployment of reusable security measures. The BorderForce solution will be validated in 2 field trials to become TRL7. It ensures seamless operations in monitoring the flow of goods, people, and information. Addressing challenges like migration, smuggling, and geopolitical tensions, BorderForce contributes to regional stability, particularly in crises. Overall, it combines technological innovation and international collaboration to bolster border security, prioritizing fundamental rights and ethical considerations.

Security risks and threats in the maritime domain are becoming increasingly more complex day by day. Within the EU there have been significant increases in irregular migration flows and human trafficking and smuggling but also of other illegal activities, such as drugs and arms trafficking and illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing, and –according to the FRONTEX “Risk Analysis for 2021” report- the challenge becomes even bigger. The European Union Maritime Security Strategy, and other EU initiatives such as EUROSUR and CISE, highlight that closer collaboration between authorities at national, regional and EU levels can constitute the key action to increase both situational awareness and operational efficiency. In particular, there is increased interest in assessing the viability of multi-authority cooperation in (especially high altitude) sensing and capability advancement for enhanced wide area surveillance of land, air and sea borders. EURMARS’s ground-breaking vision is to expand the common risk assessment practices currently deployed by authorities to enable the development, deployment and evaluation of a secure multitasking surveillance platform that improves sensing capabilities for a wide range of security risks and threats in wider border areas by clustering high altitude platforms technology, satellite imagery, UxVs and ground-based sensors into a novel joint surveillance capability. As part of the EURMARS framework, the various existing and future systems for maritime surveillance will be integrated, to allow for the collaborative operation and the provision of the sensing results to related authorities. The open architecture will build on the lessons learnt of previous initiatives, assimilate the knowledge of the stakeholders and their practice on CISE and other relevant systems, exploit the latest AI, risk assessment and visualization innovations, and undergo extensive technical and user acceptance tests and ethical and legal impact assessments.