The projects will begin their research on a range of topics such as reducing crime, enhancing privacy, and managing responses to natural disasters—contributing to EU policy, priorities, and Missions.
Background
Five calls for applications for funding under Horizon Europe – Cluster 3: Civil security for society opened on the 30th of June 2021 and closed on the 23rd of November 2021. The European Commission mobilised €169 million.
The European Research Executive Agency (REA) received a total of 218 applications across the five calls.
Following the evaluations from the Commission’s experts’ database, 30 projects will begin their research after signing grant agreements with the European Commission.
Overview of the projects by thematic area
The 30 projects were selected for funding in the following thematic areas:
| Thematic area | Founded projects | Proposals received |
| Border Management (BM) | 7 projects will be funded | The number of proposals received in response to this call was 28
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| Fighting Crime and Terrorism (FCT) | 15 projects will be funded | The number of proposals received in response to this call was 92
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| Disaster Resilient Societies (DRS) | 9 projects will be funded | The number of proposals received in response to this call was 68
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| Strengthened Security Research and Innovation (SSRI) | 4 projects will be funded | The number of proposals received in response to this call was 11
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| Resilient Infrastructure (INFRA) | 2 projects will be funded | The number of proposals received in response to this call was 19 |
Seven projects are currently in the process of signing their grant agreements with the European Commission. They will sign the agreements in the coming weeks.
Overview of selected R&I projects
Read an overview of some of the selected projects per call topic(s)/type(s) below.
Border Management (BM)
| Call for proposals | Call Topic / Type of Action | Funded projects |
| HORIZON-CL3-2021-BM-01-01 | “Enhanced security and management of borders, maritime environment, activities and transport, by increased surveillance capability, including high altitude, long endurance aerial support” | EURMARS focus to expand the common risk assessment practices currently deployed by authorities.
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| HORIZON-CL3-2021-BM-01-03 | “Improved border checks for travel facilitation across external borders and improved experiences for both passengers and border authorities’ staff”. | FLEXI-cross project aims to increase security and reliability of EU border checks for people and goods, while enhancing and improving the border management capabilities.
|
Fighting Crime and Terrorism (FCT)
| Call for proposals | Call Topic / Type of Action | Funded projects |
| HORIZON-CL3-2021-FCT-01-09 | “Fight against organised environmental crime” | EMERITUS is a project addressing the “Fight against organised environmental crime”. It has four use cases linked to water contamination, cross-border illegal waste trafficking, and waste storage. All of them are relevant to combatting the consequences of climate crisis (draught) and worsening of climate crisis. |
| HORIZON-CL3-2021-FCT-01-04 | “Improved access to fighting crime and terrorism research data”. | LAGO project aims to deliver the foundation for a trusted EU FCT Research Data Ecosystem (RDE) to address the so-called “Data Issue” in the FCT research landscape. |
| HORIZON-CL3-2021-FCT-01-06 | “Domestic and Sexual Violence are prevented and combated” | IMPROVE project will develop several tools to increase reporting and detection of domestic violence and abuse, including a Conversational (multilingual) AI Chatbot that provides victims with immediate advice and risk assessment as well as guidance towards the available service provisions. |
Disaster Resilient Societies (DRS)
| Call for proposals | Call Topic / Type of Action | Funded projects |
| HORIZON-CL3-2021-DRS-01-02 | “Integrated Disaster Risk Reduction for extreme climate events: from early warning systems to long term adaptation and resilience building” | DIRECTED aims to foster disaster-resilient European societies by expanding their capabilities to communicate, utilise and exchange state-of-the-art data, information and knowledge. |
| HORIZON-CL3-2021-DRS-01-01 | “Improved understanding of risk exposure and its public awareness in areas exposed to multi-hazards” | The C2IMPRESS project aims to bring a radical paradigm shift to disaster and hazard research and innovation by moving away from the traditional ‘hazard centric’ approach. |
Strengthened Security Research and Innovation (SSRI)
| Call for proposals | Call Topic / Type of Action | Funded projects |
| HORIZON-CL3-2021-SSRI-01-02 | “Knowledge Networks for Security Research & Innovation”. | EU-CIPwill establish a novel pan European knowledge network for Resilient Infrastructures, which will enable policy makers to shape and produce data-driven evidence-based policies.
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| HORIZON-CL3-2021-SSRI-01-05 | “Security research technologies driven by active civil society engagement: transdisciplinary methods for societal impact assessment and impact creation” | TRANSCEND project aims to improve citizen and societal engagement in security R&I by enable them to participate actively and creatively in design and deployment processes.
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Resilient Infrastructure (INFRA)
| Call for proposals | Call Topic / Type of Action | Funded projects |
| HORIZON-CL3-2021-INFRA-01-01 | “European infrastructures and their autonomy safeguarded against systemic risks” | ATLANTIS aims at enhancing resilience and Cyber-Physical-Human (CPH) security of key EU Critical Infrastructures (CI), by addressing resilience at the systemic level against major natural hazards and complex attacks that could potentially disrupt vital functions of the society.
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Further information
These programmes fall under Horizon Europe— the European Commission’s framework for research funding for 2021 to 2027. The 30 selected research and innovation projects are some of the first to sign their grant agreements with the Commission under Horizon Europe.
Find out more about the calls in the Research Infrastructures Work Programme 2021-2022.
Visit the Funding and Tenders portal for opportunities to see the latest openings to apply for EU funding.
Keep up-to-date with these projects as well as other innovative research by following REA on Twitter and LinkedIn. You will get the latest news on events they may organise as well their research outcomes.
Source: European Commission I European Research Executive Agency (https://bit.ly/3DWbxuT)