Frontex will organise in November 2015 a workshop with European Industry and Academia which lead (or are about to start/are in the incubation phase of ideas on) research and development projects aimed at developing new products, technologies, solutions for border security and using financial sources other than EU financing (e.g. Industry’s/Academia’s own funds).
The objective of the workshop is to continue the bridging endeavours, initiated by Frontex, between the border guard community and the evolving world of research and development and to contribute to border security solutions that take into consideration end user feedback.
Benefiting from the presence of the Frontex and Member State Border Guard Authority experts, the following activities are planned to be addressed during the workshop:
- present the projects/ideas to the audience and obtain practitioners’ feedback/advise on how to steer/improve the projects’ content or develop the ideas, in order to better serve the potential end user’s interest;
- open discussions on possible demonstrations/operational tests that could take place in interested Member States;
- establish contacts between Industry/Academia and potentially interested users;
- establish links and synergies between projects.
Accordingly, Frontex invites European Industry (Small and Medium Enterprises are particularly encouraged) and Academia which are implementing (or plan to implement) projects for developing new products/technologies/solutions for border security to send their applications by filling in the form available at: http://btn.frontex.europa.eu/form/application-form-workshop-newongoing-projects-developing-border-security-productstechnologiesso, by 7th September 2015.
The applications received will be selected taking due account of the relevance, novelty and potential impact for the border guard community. Depending on the outcome of the evaluation which will be announced at the end of September 2015, and the interest of potential contributors, the event is envisaged to take place in November 2015 at a date that will be announced in due time. During the event, the selected entities will be allocated 45 minutes for a presentation (10-15 minutes questions and answers included).