Research & Development
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Mission
The mission of the Research and Development Unit is to follow up on developments in research relevant for the control and surveillance of external borders and disseminate this information to EU Member States and the Commission. The Unit thus acts as a link between the research community and end-users by following and assessing relevant research and disseminating relevant information to end users, but also gathering and summarising the needs of the latter and transmitting them to the those commissioning and performing research.
The Unit thus also plays a role in informing the research programmes of the European Union under the FP7 Security Theme and has participated also in policy-development such as the European Security Research and Innovation Forum (ESRIF).
Activities
The work of the R&D Unit is divided into two main areas of interest: Border Checks and Border Surveillance. Current projects in the former area include: assessing and testing biometric verification and/or identification solutions particularly for use by Automated Border Crossing (ABC) systems and the Visa Information System (VIS); following the development of detection technologies (for humans in closed compartments, illicit goods and forged documents); and looking for new ideas on how border checks are performed in order to increase security while improving transit times. Work under the Border Surveillance programme is mainly focused on the development of the European Surveillance system - EUROSUR – but includes work on data mining, maritime communication interoperability and the use of UAVs in surveillance.
A large part of the Unit’s work consists in facilitating information exchange between border guard authorities, research institutes, universities and industry, via the organisation of workshops and conferences.
The Unit has also recently begun to commission studies to help assess the value of new technology and to establish priorities for the development of future capacities for European border security. Some of these studies are outsourced, while others are conducted by the Unit’s staff in collaboration with external partners.
As part of its role as link between the research community and the end-users the Unit is involved in the security research in the context of the Seventh Framework Programme for research and technological development (FP7). The participation in the Security Advisory Group is one example of this. Furthermore, the Unit supports the European Commission in evaluating proposals to FP7.
Publications
BIOPASS study (PDF)
SeBoCom study (PDF)
BIOPASS 2 (PDF)
Operational and Technical security of Electronic Passports (PDF)
Best Practice Guidelines on the Design, Deployment and Operation of Automated Border Crossing Systems. Rev 1.1
ABC Solutions Based on Machine Readable Travel Documents (MRTD) in EU Member States (pending)
Ethics of Border Security (PDF)
Forward_Study_of_European_Border_Checks (PDF)
Mailing list
Companies, research institutes, universities or qualified individuals whose work is relevant to border management and security are invited to send their contact details with a short description of their area of expertise to if they wish to be included on the R&D Unit mailing list, which is used to inform interested parties of upcoming events, tender calls and other activities.
Resources
The Unit currently consists of 12 staff, including 2 experts from the Member States seconded from the Member States. All staff hold graduate degrees in fields ranging from international relations to engineering, and some of the staff have a background in border guarding.
The budget for 2010 is EUR 1.4 million covering outsourced studies and organization of events.
