With the rise of potentially disruptive technologies such as artificial intelligence and virtual reality, a particular challenge has emerged for LEAs and other civil security practitioners. Tasked with fostering safe societies and protecting European citizens from new forms of criminality, they need to pre-empt technological evolutions, turning potential threats into opportunities, and anticipate the operational future of policing. Technology foresight is one possible anticipatory process. However, pure technology watch-based approaches are not helpful for decision-making if not embedded in a qualitative assessment of threats and capabilities. Hence the need to move towards a comprehensive foresight framework which is the rationale behind AHEAD. Standing for TowArd TecHnological ForEsight for IncreAseD Security, AHEAD is a LEA-led project which will adopt a 360-degree approach accounting for megatrends but also contextual elements (i.e. legal, ethical, societal and economic) to design and operationalise a sustainable capability-based civil security foresight framework. Tested through iterative Foresight Exercises addressing the five Destinations of the Horizon Europe Cluster 3 (Fighting crime and terrorism, Border management, Resilient infrastructure, Increased cybersecurity and Disaster-resilient society), this framework will be tailored to the needs of civil security practitioners to generate “evidence-based” capability roadmaps. Such roadmaps will translate the foresight process’ outcomes into concrete courses of actions to support decision- and policy-makers at EU and national levels when deciding on strategies and policy actions in the field of civil security, including the programming of security research and innovation investments. By enhancing a forward-looking culture in civil security, AHEAD will contribute to the strategy put forward in the European Commission's Foresight Agenda to embed in a more systematic way strategic foresight into policy-making.

INTERCEPT aims to strengthen the capabilities of law enforcement authorities in the EU and equip them with effective methods to remotely and safely stop vehicles posing imminent and high-security threats to citizens and society. This involves identifying technology gaps to address in order to minimize existing vulnerabilities and enhance security efficiency. This objective is endorsed from the outset by various stakeholders, particularly security practitioners. INTERCEPT involves eight end-users from eight EU countries (Belgium, Finland, France, Poland, Netherlands, Slovak Republic, Spain, and the United Kingdom), all of whom are also public buyers. Additionally, numerous other end-users will participate through the User Observatory Group (UOG). The project follows a progressive and iterative approach to collectively identify a common challenge that can be addressed with identified candidate technologies, laying the groundwork for future PCP, for which the buyer's group will be created during the project, through the continuous involvement of the UOG. Initially, at least six jointly defined common security use cases will comprehensively outline the gaps between available solutions, existing procedures, and identified requirements. Subsequently, technological experts will analyse these needs, considering legal, societal, ethical, and environmental factors, as well as state-of-the-art (SOTA) analysis and consultations with the open market. The outcomes will ultimately inform the definition of the common challenge and the development of the initial set of tender documents.

The programming of Security R&I is a highly sensitive exercise which has grown in complexity during the past years. Moreover, the uptake of innovation stemming from EU-funded security R&I projects remains a challenge. The goal of ENACT is to set up a Knowledge Network for Security R&I in the Fighting Crime and Terrorism area capable of i) supporting the EU-funded FCT security R&I cycle and the overall community and market actors with actionable evidence, and ii) boosting the Innovation Uptake of the outcomes and results stemming from FCT Security funded R&I projects. ENACT brings together the most unique blend of knowledge, background, skills, resources and connections to: i) deliver a network-enabling service that facilitates the exchange of knowledge and value within the wider FCT community; ii) catalogue, aggregate and exploit the existing knowledge on the FCT area ensuring continuous availability of a structured knowledge base accessible to decision makers of the various R&I domains; iii) communicate project activities and disseminate & exploit project findings in a timely manner, ensuring continuous availability of updated actionable knowledge in each of the four domains addressed, namely capabilities, technology, market and SSH; iv) foster cooperation between FCT market actors in order to improve the market visibility and the uptake of innovation, and; v) ensure the sustainability of the “knowledge as a service” model and the enabled networking environment beyond the project duration. To operationalise these five pillars, ENACT will implement coordination and support measures to extract information from the FCT R&I Community making use of the project’s connections with specific Knowledge Hubs. It will also classify the information according to a recognisable taxonomy, define concrete metrics, derive results based on the exploitation of the acquired information and feed them back into the community, thus contributing to a more impactful EU FCT R&I effort.

PopEye unique value proposition focuses on a) strengthening the security at the external EU borders through fusing robust biometric technologies for verification and identification, b) maximising the travellers’ experience when crossing the external EU borders through unobtrusive on-the-move biometric technologies, c) improving the productivity of Border Authorities and Law Enforcement Agencies in performing identification and verification of people on the move and without stopping them, at up to 200m distance, when multiple travellers cross borders, on foot or inside the same vehicle, in different nature e.g. open-air conditions, night, time, time constraints, space constraints, etc. PopEye will introduce novel and robust biometric technologies in the five areas identified by the aforementioned Frontex report combined with gait recognition, in order to maximise the impact and the return on investment in short term. PopEye through the proposed technologies will support both EU and Third Country Nationals (TCN) citizens, will be compliant with existing and upcoming regulations such as GDPR and AI Act, will comply with the Ethics Guidelines on Trustworthy AI (2019), will empower the EU values and fundamental rights, including on data protection and avoid bias and discrimination.