Intro

Systems for easier border crossings, while maintaining security and reliability, would further advance one or more capabilities including the capabilities of border guards to do checks in mobility; of identifying and/or controlling passengers (and their vehicles and/or luggage) without stopping them; and/or of temporarily setting up or scaling up the capacity of certain border crossing points within a relatively short notice.

Scope

Research should develop and systematically test and validate solutions to speed up and facilitate the border crossing experience (at land, sea and/or border crossing points for bothtravellers and staff of border authorities

Objectives

– Validation of innovative solutions for border crossing facilitation systems at European level for near-seamless and improved border crossing experience for travellers

– Increased security and reliability of border checks

– Better organisation, flexibility and planning of border checks by European border authorities, including for handling peaks in cross-border traffic

Intro

Public spaces such as squares, sport venues, shopping districts, places of worship or touristic attractions have been the target of numerous terrorist and other violent attacks causing significant loss of lives and causing societal insecurity as well as economic losses. The means to carry out such attacks from one or several attackers range from sophisticated and well-planned scenarios including several attackers using explosives and firearms, up to so called low-cost attacks making use of everyday goods such as cars, axes and kitchen knives. Such attacks have proven to be very difficult to prevent and quick-reaction and preparedness to respond are the crucial elements in reducing their impact.

Scope

Tools for large-scale urban VA should be able to simulate realistic scenarios in any public space of different urban areas and give the users the possibility to test different prevention and response measures. They should further give the possibility for cooperation of the main public and private actors (e. g., crisis management and civil protection authorities, fire brigades, regulatory agencies, emergency health services, private security managers, etc.), and the development of tailor-made trainings

Objectives

– Improved vulnerability assessments by law enforcement and local managers of public spaces with a specific focus on countering and/ or preventing terrorist attacks or other forms of severe violence
– Better identification of specific vulnerabilities and elaboration of mitigation strategies by security practitioners and policy-makers
– Improved training of Police authorities in collaboration with different public and private actors
– Enhanced planning capabilities of security practitioners and policy-makers due to the identification of potential vulnerabilities connected to the design/refurbishment and construction/improvement of different public spaces and measures to reduce them by
implementing a comprehensive security-by-design approach in urban planning
– Enhanced modelling capabilities of security practitioners, policy-makers and research institutions due to the identification of potential vulnerabilities connected to the different public spaces, analysis of crowd behaviour and possible emergence of various threats to security

Introduction

Restored and properly protected coastal and marine ecosystems bring substantial health, social and economic benefits to coastal communities and the EU and Associated Countries as a whole. The need for stronger action is all the more acute as marine and coastal ecosystem biodiversity loss is severely exacerbated by global warming.

Scope

Achieving a good environmental status of marine ecosystems, will be accomplished not only through protected areas and the restoration of important ecosystems but also by the ways we use the sea so that we no longer endanger food security, fishers’ livelihoods, and the fisheries and seafood sectors. The EU biodiversity strategy for 2030 underlines the application of an ecosystem-based management approach to reduce the adverse impacts of fishing, extraction, mining and other human maritime activities, taking into account pressures from land-based activities, especially on sensitive species and seabed habitats. To support this, national maritime spatial plans should aim to cover all blue economy sectors and take into account the natural ecological features and the link between them.

Objectives

– Prioritisation of future protected areas, restoration areas, and science-based maritime spatial planning (including in larger scale hot spots identified in maritime national plans in order to develop ad hoc plans addressing specific scenarios so as to ameliorate the high impact of human activities over the ecosystem services).
– Implementation of the EU biodiversity strategy for 2030 (legally protect a minimum of 30% of the EU’s sea area of which 10% is strictly protected, and integrate ecological corridors, as part of a true Trans-European Nature Network, maritime spatial planning and ecosystem-based management covering all sectors and activities at sea, as well as area-based conservation-management measures) and the Convention on Biological Diversity post-2020 framework.
– Improved science based for the description of Ecologically or Biologically Significant marine Areas (EBSA)

– Design of ad hoc innovative flexible socio-ecological management to cope with a rapidly changing environment for coastal, offshore and deep-sea marine ecosystems, taking into account their connectivity, including through deep-sea migratory species, and the need to preserve their inherent natural dynamics.
– Where relevant, creating links to and using the information and data of the European Earth observation programme Copernicus, the Group on Earth Observations (GEO) and the Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS) is expected
– Proposals should outline a plan on how they intend to collaborate with other projects selected under any other relevant topic/call.
– Provide approaches for greater policy coherence between the Water Framework Directive, Marine Strategy Framework Directive, Maritime Spatial Planning and the EU biodiversity strategy for 2030 and how these policies can better assist in the preservation of inherently and spatially dynamic systems.

Intro

This topic aims at filling fundamental gaps in our understanding of Earth system, focussing on greenhouse gas (GHG) fluxes and Earth system feedbacks, the behaviour of radiative forcers (including their pre-cursors), and efforts to stabilise global temperature through deployment of carbon dioxide (CO2) removal approaches.

Scope

Actions should improve scientific understanding in only one of the following areas:
a) Greenhouse gas fluxes and Earth system feedbacks
b) Global warming contribution of different, non-CO2 radiative forcers
c) Climate and Earth system responses to climate neutrality and net negative emissions

Objective

– Knowledge in the addressed areas through increasing the use of high quality data
– Improved projections of climate change
– Improved understanding of how innovative mitigation actions can help stabilise global temperature
– Improvements in Earth system models, climate services and other forms of downstream use.

The awareness of multiple hazards and the understanding and the assessment of risks and their consequences is a critical and fundamental step towards the development of local, national and international policies and strategies within all phases of the disaster risk management cycle, in particular preparedness. The availability of reliable scientific data and information to anticipate future disaster events or crisis situations, considering uncertainties inherent to natural systems characterization, and effectively support decision-making processes at all levels represents a global challenge for both the research community and governance institutions

The understanding of multiple disaster risks (and related awareness) relies on knowledge

gained about historical data and information about past events and related lessons learned as

well as the ability to forecast and assess future risks under uncertainty (including impacts of

pandemics, as well as global change, including climate trends and earth system and

environment dynamics). These complex interactions between human decisions and multiple

hazards require novel risk assessment approaches such as agent-based modelling and systems

dynamics methods

– Advanced disaster / crisis simulations and impact assessments

– Risk and resilience assessment solutions, studies and outputs in support of long-term

multi-hazard management strategies with a focus on vulnerable regions prone to

multiple hazard occurrences

– Advanced data management, information update and forecast / early warning systems

– Communication and dissemination platforms supporting an increased dialogue and

cooperation between scientific, technological, practitioners, policy-makers, private

sector (e.g. insurers), NGOs, citizens and community-based organisations