Call: Developing a comprehensive approach to violent radicalization in the EU from early understanding to improving protection

The primary aims of the Secure Societies Challenge are:

• to enhance the resilience of our society against natural and man-made disasters, ranging from the development of new crisis management tools to communication interoperability, and to develop novel solutions for the protection of critical infrastructure;
• to fight crime and terrorism ranging from new forensic tools to protection against explosives;
• to improve border security, ranging from improved maritime border protection to supply chain security and to support the Union's external security policies including through conflict prevention and peace building;
• and to provide enhanced cyber-security, ranging from secure information sharing to new assurance models

Radicalisation leading to violent acts can have a huge impact on the society and its citizens: politically (seeding division between communities), economically, emotionally, and in terms of security. The roots of radicalisation are not well-known, whilst well-targeted response to emerging challenges of violent extremism cannot be developed without a full understanding of what drives the process of radicalisation and of how individuals may react to countermeasures. Also, terrorist groups and extremists are capitalising on advances in technology to spread propaganda and radical behaviours, but traditional law enforcement techniques are insufficient to deal with these new, evolving trends in radicalisation. The key in democratic societies is to ensure citizens’ rights to free thought – even radical thought – while protecting society from the fallout of illegal actions from violent radicalised groups and individuals.

At least three legal entities. Each of the three must be established in a different EU Member State or Horizon 2020 associated country. All three legal entities must be independent of each other. 

Link to the National Contact Point Finder.