Enhanced situational awareness and preparedness of first responders and improved capacities to minimise time-to-react in urban areas in the case of …
European Comission
ExpectedOutcome :
Projects’ results are expected to contribute to some of the following outcomes:
- Development of tools and technologies, including novel multiplatform CBRN-E systems, to enhance situational awareness to prepare for and rapidly react to CBRN-E events both for responders on the ground as well as for dispatch and crisis centres, especially in urban areas.
- Support of first responders’ situational awareness via high level processing solution, e.g. based on dispersion modelling or threat recognition / prediction solution using sensor data fusion and algorithms that combine heterogeneous sensor data in order to reduce the likelihood of false alarms and contribute to an improved decision-making process for the responders.
- Development of fast, reliable and portable devices for responders to perform an in-situ provisional identification of CBRN-E suspicious samples, enabling to decide which personal protective equipment (PPE) is required for first responders, including smart wearable equipment.
- Solutions integrating different commercial and experimental sensors/platforms, which should improve the state-of-the-art products in terms of communication (e.g. by using novel and open communication protocols, pre-processing of data), power consumption (e.g. by offering supplemental power source to the existing sensors), interfacing capability (e.g. by proposing an open interface specification). The proposals should also cover the system transportability, online capability and continuous operation issues. Scope :
Addressing first responders’ needs requires innovative actions resulting in technological, institutional and capacity-building solutions that are tailored to the risks, affordable, accepted by citizens, and customised and implemented for the (cross-sectoral) needs of practitioners. Innovative solutions are required to enable first responders to get a faster overview of any disaster situation based on the knowledge of past events and prevention actions. Complementing this, novel technologies and tools are necessary to enhance situational awareness in the case of disaster-prone events or health-related crises, especially in the case of cross-border situations, in order for first responders to be better prepared in emergency operations. In this context, innovative technologies are required for first responders to rapidly identify hazardous agents and contaminants such as CBRN-E substances in case of an accident, outbreak/pandemics or terrorist attack and act more efficiently and rapidly regarding communication. This requires novel rapid and accurate detection of substances (possibly coupled with unmanned vehicles or drones) and on-line communication systems to support first responders’ operations and to provide the ability to conduct on-scene operations remotely without endangering them. Needs cover a broad range of technologies on top of existing CBRN-E detectors, e.g. samplers, separation systems, dilution or sample pre-concentrators etc., multiplying their capabilities. Advancements should take into consideration power consumption of front-end technology, as well as, transportability, on-line, dynamic sampling, automation, smart samplers, sample preparation, integration with detectors, standardisation. A focus should be made on experimental or commercial systems that are not optimised in terms of online, continuous measurements, power consumption and hyphenation. Other areas of research closely depending upon enhanced situational awareness and preparedness concern decisions related to the protection of first responders (e.g. advanced protective gear and smart wearable equipment), in particular in case of CBRN-related events (infectious diseases, accidental or linked to terrorism), and ways to minimise their time-to-react in urban areas or to conduct on-scene operations remotely without endangering responders (e.g. ways through traffic, UAVs etc.).
In order to achieve the expected outcomes, international cooperation is encouraged, in particular with Japan in the framework of the EU-Japan collaboration.
Where possible and relevant, synergy-building and clustering initiatives with successful proposals in the same area should be considered, including the organisation of international conferences in close coordination with the Community for European Research and Innovation for Security (CERIS) activities and/or other international events.
Specific Topic Conditions :
Activities are expected to achieve TRL 6-8 by the end of the project – see General Annex B.
Cross-cutting Priorities :
Digital Agenda International Cooperation Artificial Intelligence
General conditions
- Admissibility conditions: described in Annex A and Annex E of the Horizon Europe Work Programme General Annexes
Proposal page limits and layout: described in Part B of the Application Form available in the Submission System
- Eligible countries: described in Annex B of the Work Programme General Annexes
A number of non-EU/non-Associated Countries that are not automatically eligible for funding have made specific provisions for making funding available for their participants in Horizon Europe projects. See the information in the Horizon Europe Programme Guide .
3 . Other eligibility conditions: described in Annex B of the Work Programme General Annexes
The following additional eligibility conditions apply:
This topic requires the active involvement , as beneficiaries, of at least 3 first responders’ organisations or agencies from at least 3 different EU Member States or Associated countries. For these participants, applicants must fill in the table “Eligibility information about practitioners” in the application form with all the requested information, following the template provided in the submission IT tool.
Some activities, resulting from this topic, may involve using classified background and/or producing of security sensitive results (EUCI and SEN). Please refer to the related provisions in section B Security — EU classified and sensitive information of the General Annexes.
If projects use satellite-based, positioning, navigation and/or related timing data and services, beneficiaries must make use of Galileo/EGNOS (other data and services may additionally be used). The use of Copernicus for earth observation is encouraged.
Financial and operational capacity and exclusion: described in Annex C of the Work Programme General Annexes
Evaluation and award:
Award criteria, scoring and thresholds are described in Annex D of the Work Programme General Annexes
Submission and evaluation processes are described in Annex F of the Work Programme General Annexes and the Online Manual
To ensure a balanced portfolio, grants will be awarded to applications not only in order of ranking but at least also to those that are the highest ranked within set topics, provided that the applications attain all thresholds.
- Indicative timeline for evaluation and grant agreement: described in Annex F of the Work Programme General Annexes
- Legal and financial set-up of the grants: described in Annex G of the Work Programme General Annexes
Specific conditions
- Specific conditions: described in the [specific topic of the Work Programme]
Documents
Call documents:
Standard application form — call-specific application form is available in the Submission System
Standard application form (HE RIA, IA)
Standard application form (HE CSA)
Standard application form (HE PCP)
Standard evaluation form — will be used with the necessary adaptations
Standard evaluation form (HE RIA, IA)
Standard evaluation form (HE CSA)
Standard evaluation form (HE PCP PPI)
MGA
Call-specific instructions
Template for Security & eligibility conditions in Horizon Europe
Additional documents:
HE Main Work Programme 2021–2022 – 1. General Introduction
HE Main Work Programme 2021–2022 – 6. Civil Security for Society
HE Main Work Programme 2021–2022 – 13. General Annexes
Rules for Legal Entity Validation, LEAR Appointment and Financial Capacity Assessment
EU Grants AGA — Annotated Model Grant Agreement
Funding & Tenders Portal Online Manual