Capabilities for border surveillance and situational awareness

Expected Outcome:

Projects’ results are expected to contribute to some or all of the following outcomes:

• Increased border surveillance capabilities, better performing and more cost-efficient, with data and fundamental rights protection by design;
• Better surveillance of border areas, supporting fight against illegal activities across external borders, as well as safety of people and operators in the border areas, including favouring border crossings through border crossing points;
• More efficient and more flexible solutions (including for relocation, reconfiguration and rapid deployment capabilities) than physical barriers to deter and monitor irregular border crossings outside border crossing points.

Scope:

External borders of the European Union and of the Schengen area, ranging from those closer to the Mediterranean to the Nordic Countries external land borders, present different border surveillance challenges. These differences may lead to difficulties in efficiently monitoring them, deterring illegal activities across the external borders, as well as trafficking of human beings and exploitation of irregular migration that avoid border crossing points.

Furthermore, the border surveillance capabilities’ needs along borders may change in time, often just within a year or a season, and/or allow to respond and adapt within a relatively short notice. Solutions should hence allow re-orienting capacity and resources accordingly (through physical portability and/or other approaches).

Cooperation for surveillance along borders requires compatibility and interoperability among legacy and planned systems. Proposed solutions should allow higher interoperability cross-border among EU and Associated Countries practitioners, cross-systems and across the multiple authorities.

Compatibility and integration with the European Border Surveillance System (EUROSUR) is essential, and compatibility and/or exploitation of other information sharing environments, including the Common Information Sharing Environment (CISE) would be an additional asset.

Examples of technologies and approaches that can be explored by the research projects include (non-prescriptive and non-exhaustive): networked deployable, and possibly mobile, semi-autonomous surveillance towers; IoT and advanced mesh connectivity; Virtual and Augmented Reality for enhanced C2 and situational awareness; integrated wide area RPAS management; advanced sensors for geolocalisation; passive, low-energy systems; artificial intelligence.

Equipment and technologies enabling border surveillance should contribute to cost and energy efficiency, limit their environmental impact and be more and more sustainable once operational in the future. This may be addressed, for example, by integrating opportunities of circular economy, self-sustained equipment, lower emissions and/or environmental footprints.

The proposed solutions should include, by design, the protection of fundamental rights such as privacy, and/or the application of privacy-enhancing technologies. They should also ensure secure data collection, access, encryption and decision support processes.

EU and Member States authorities should plan to take up the results of the research, should it deliver on its goals and when compatible with applicable legislation, with the support of the Border Management and Visa Instrument (BMVI).

Research projects should consider, build on (if appropriate) and not duplicate previous research, including but not limited to research by other Framework Programmes projects. In particular, proposals should build on achievements and findings or relevant recent EU-funded civil security research projects, as well as projects from topic 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, and other relevant research.

Proposals should delineate the plans for further development to subsequent TRLs as well as uptake (industrialisation, commercialisation, acquisition and/or deployment) at national and EU level, should the research deliver on its goals.

Proposals submitted under this topic are expected to address the priorities of the European Border and Coast Guard and of its Agency (Frontex). This should start from the definition of requirements and the design phase of their work, including basing on the EBCG Capability Roadmap when available; and on the engagement with the Agency during the implementation of the project. This perspective should be considered and planned when drafting proposals. Proposals should foresee that Frontex will observe projects’ pilots and demonstrations, with the aim of facilitating future uptake of innovations for the border and coast guard community. Cross-community and cross-authority synergies within civil security can be an asset, for example in relation to combat crime and terrorism (i.e. across external borders) and Disaster-Resilient Society (regarding natural hazards and disasters).