Call: Towards reducing the cost of technologies in land border security applications

• Health, demographic change and wellbeing;
• Food security, sustainable agriculture and forestry, marine and maritime and inland water research, and the Bioeconomy;
• Secure, clean and efficient energy;
• Smart, green and integrated transport;
• Climate action, environment, resource efficiency and raw materials;
• Europe in a changing world - inclusive, innovative and reflective societies;
• Secure societies - protecting freedom and security of Europe and its citizens.

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

Border management in European Union context means first and foremost the enforcement of the common policies and implementation of the common rules. As international travel flows continue to rise, there is growing pressure to process large volumes of people at border crossing points without delays. At the same time, the smuggling of people across the borders is growing. However, the external land borders of the European Union (and border crossing points) present a wide range of challenges, ranging from those relevant to Nordic Countries, to those in the Mediterranean.

The European Border Surveillance System (EUROSUR) is establishing a mechanism for Member States' authorities carrying out activities at the European Union external border to share operational and situational information and pictures. But without investments in technology and information systems, it is simply not feasible to manage borders and border crossing points. Whilst technology offers great potential to meet the dual objective of enhancing border security while facilitating cross-border travel, its costs are often prohibitive, especially in the light of the current national budgets. Furthermore, the broad variety of heterogeneous IT applications and systems deployed for land border security makes their management increasingly complex and costly. Innovative, cost-efficient technologies are needed, or existing ones need to become more affordable, to meet border authorities and practitioners’ requirements, and budgetary constraints.

Proposers for this topic should look for an enhanced SME participation.

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.