NOTIONES proposal has been accepted!

Zanasi & Partners has been awarded NOTIONES (iNteracting netwOrk of inTelligence and security practitiOners with iNdustry and acadEmia actorS) proposal, coordinated administratively by Tecnalia and techno-scientifically by Z&P, funded under the H2020 framework programme. This is the third project techno-scientifically coordinated by Zanasi & Partners, after PYTHIA and SOLOMON (PADR-funded) and the fourth in the field of security and defence (with DECISMAR, EDIDP-funded).

NOTIONES finds its roots in this landscape. Emerging technologies are gaining increasing attention in the defence and security domains, looking at the innovation they could bring to equipment and defence forces. NOTIONES transfers this concept into the intelligence domain (not only LEA-related).

The overall objective of NOTIONES is to build a network of practitioners from security and intelligence services of EU Member States and Associated Countries, aiming at identifying which emerging technologies will be more relevant to address the future needs and priorities of EU security and public services.

The project, starting in 2021 and terminating in 2026, can leverage on a multitude of expertise and competences: the 30 partners include academia, think-tanks, research centres, technology providers and practitioners from military, civil, financial, judiciary, local, national and international security and intelligence services. Geographically, the consortium covers 4 main areas: West Europe, North Europe, Mittle Europe and Middle East.

More specifically, the consortium consists of:

• Tecnalia (Spain);
• Zanasi & Partners (Italy);
• LAUREA University (Finland);
• Bulgarian Defence Institute (Bulgaria);
• Defence Research Institute (France);
• Fondazione ICSA (Italy);
• Bar Ilan University Europe Institute (Israel);
• Agency for the Promotion of European Research (Italy);
• ORT (France);
• VTT Technical Research Centre (Finland);
• Expert System (Italy);
• Saher Europe (Estonia);
• Marketscape (Denmark);
• Tecoms (Italy);
• Synyo (Austria);
• Regional Police Headquarters in Radom (Poland);
• State Agency for National Security (Bulgaria);
• Carabinieri Lt. General Leso (Italy);
• Financial Intelligence Unit (Latvia);
• Border Police (Bosnia Herzegovina);
• International Security and Emergency Management Institute (Slovakia);
• Kharkiv National University of Internal Affairs (Ukraine);
• Ministry of Interior (Georgia);
• Police Service (Northern Ireland);
• Police Authority (Sweden);
• Policia Judiciaria (Portugal);
• National Police – Intelligence Division (Israel);
• Military Academy “General Mihailo Apostolski” (North Macedonia);
• Police University of Bavaria (Germany);
• Jandarma (Turkey).

NOTIONES aims at contrasting the persistent terrorist threat too, by addressing its multiple facets (e.g. the birth of a radical ideology, the propaganda, the financing, etc.). Each of these aspects may be identified and prevented by the activities carried out by security and intelligence services that realise anti-terrorism intelligence-enabled critical awareness by means of intelligence collection, surveillance and cooperative efforts among all the involved organisations.

NOTIONES will monitor the results of academic research and industrial innovation and suggest actions to be followed by academia and industry to address these results towards a useful implementation. NOTIONES will, thus, promote the interaction of technology providers and academy with intelligence and security practitioners, to detect new relevant technologies and evaluate how they could serve their needs. NOTIONES will periodically publish a report, summarising these findings with the purpose of orientating future research project programming and indicating priorities with regards to the industrialisation of the results.

Controlli ai confini personalizzati per ogni passeggero: procedure adattate al livello di rischio (press release)

Adattare i controlli al confine in base al livello di rischio di ogni passeggero: così il progetto europeo TRESSPASS propone nuovi strumenti analitici per modellare e quantificare il rischio associato a ogni passeggero, velocizzando ed ottimizzando le procedure di controllo.

Ognuno di noi sa cosa significhi attraversare un confine: file, burocrazia e stress che possono far iniziare il viaggio con il piede sbagliato. Tutti i passeggeri sono sottoposti allo stesso iter di controlli, basato su regole valide per tutti i passeggeri in transito (sistema cosiddetto “rule-based”), come il controllo dei passaporti, la perquisizione di un veicolo o il passaggio attraverso un metal detector. Se da un lato tale modello garantisce un controllo accurato per tutti i viaggiatori, dall’altro comporta un dispendio di risorse e tempo (vari studi hanno dimostrato che, ad esempio, un passeggero impiega in media oltre un’ora dall’arrivo all’aeroporto al gate di imbarco) per la totalità di essi. In tempi di COVID-19, poi, alle procedure ordinarie si aggiungono il controllo della temperatura e talvolta il tampone: senza un cambio di paradigma, il rischio é pertanto che i tempi si dilatino ulteriormente.

Nonostante questi problemi siano noti ormai da anni, di fatto non è mai stata trovata una soluzione che prevedesse lo svolgimento di controlli con la medesima efficacia ma in un minor tempo. Come uscire dunque da questa impasse? Il progetto TRESSPASS (robusT Risk basEd Screening and alert System for PASSengers and luggage), finanziato dalla Commissione Europea nell’ambito del programma Horizon 2020, punta a sviluppare un nuovo modello di border management europeo tramite cui classificare i passeggeri a seconda del loro diverso livello di rischio (risk-based), proponendo controlli mirati in base al risultato. In altre parole, l’obiettivo di TRESSPASS – coordinato dal centro di ricerca greco Demokritos e comprendente 22 partners da 10 paesi europei – è proporre un nuovo sistema analitico per modellare e quantificare il livello di rischio associato ad ogni passeggero, basato su un insieme di indicatori che possono essere misurati tra i quattro livelli del sistema integrato di border management dell’Unione Europea (EU IBM).

In tale contesto, un contributo importante viene fornito dall’azienda modenese Zanasi & Partners, responsabile della raccolta dei requisiti e delle necessità provenienti dai cosiddetti end users, nonché dell’identificazione degli indicatori di rischio, ovvero caratteristiche e atteggiamenti dei passeggeri che fanno presagire un livello più o meno alto di potenziale pericolo. Tali indicatori vengono stimati sulla base delle informazioni e dei dati ricavati da diverse fonti, tra cui informazioni sul passeggero reperibili tramite ricerche online (e.g. social media), nonché dall’analisi di dati ricavati da sensori e nuove tecnologie (introdotte dai partner tecnici di TRESSPASS) o applicazioni per dispositivi mobili messe a disposizione dei passeggeri. In tal modo, risulta possibile calcolare un livello di rischio da associare ad ogni passeggero per quanto concerne tutte le sue fasi di passaggio (pre, durante, post) attraverso i punti di controllo alle frontiere. Allo stesso tempo, la collaborazione con esperti legali riconosciuti a livello europeo farà sì che le tecnologie utilizzate siano non solo in grado di assicurare il rispetto della privacy dei passeggeri, ma anche di evitare bias cognitivi nei confronti di minoranze e gruppi vulnerabili. Tali attività assumono ulteriore rilevanza alla luce del COVID-19, che sta accelerando la transizione verso procedure di controllo e di riconoscimento sempre più automatiche ma comunque ancora frutto della mente umana.

Per verificare l’efficacia delle soluzioni sviluppate nel corso del progetto – il cui termine è previsto per il Novembre 2021 – TRESSPASS prevede infine lo svolgimento di attività di training e tre simulazioni che riguarderanno i tre principali punti di accesso (aria, mare e terra) e le principali minacce alla sicurezza, tra cui il contrabbando, l’immigrazione illegale, e il terrorismo cross-border.

In sostanza, l’ambizioso obiettivo di TRESSPASS è quello di rivoluzionare l’attuale modello di border management a livello europeo per renderlo più flessibile ed efficace, velocizzando l’iter per i passeggeri ritenuti non pericolosi ed ottimizzando il lavoro delle guardie di frontiera, che potranno dunque concentrare i loro sforzi sui passeggeri ritenuti più a rischio, effettuando controlli ad personam più o meno approfonditi. A tal fine, rimane comunque imprescindibile stabilire un solido rapporto di fiducia reciproca fra viaggiatori (che non devono sentirsi “umiliati” in caso di ulteriori controlli) e addetti al processo di screening (i quali non devono cadere nel tranello di considerare ogni passeggero come un potenziale pericolo). In tal caso, a fronte di un maggiore livello di sicurezza, flessibilità ed efficacia, il viaggio tornerà ad essere un’esperienza rilassante e le lunghe file ai gate diventeranno solo un lontano ricordo.

PADR and EDIDP Wins for Zanasi & Partners

Zanasi & Partners is strengthening its position as one of the most successful SMEs leading the foundation of a “European Defence”. After being awarded the PYTHIA and SOLOMON projects by the European Defence Agency under the first and second Preparatory Action on Defence Research (2017-2018), the company has also been awarded the DECISMAR project (2020), funded by the European Commission under the newly established European Defence Industrial Development Programme (EDIDP), with a total of around 11 million EUR of funding generated in the last three years. This remarkable track record – along with the around 30 EC-funded security projects awarded in the last few years only – makes Z&P at the forefront to penetrate the defence market, giving a strong positioning towards the upcoming European Defence Fund (EDF), which will allocate 8 billion EUR over the 2021-2027 period.

From Security to Defence

Over the past fifteen years, Z&P has participated in multiple research projects under the European Framework Programme (FP7 and FP8, also known as Horizon2020). The projects address a variety of disciplines related to security, from intelligence and crisis management to border control, transport security and critical infrastructure protection. The variegated team of the company, gathering experts with sociopolitical and technical background (e.g. engineers, cybersecurity, etc.), manages to successfully perform a wide range of activities, from formulation of guidelines or policy recommendations to software design. This flexibility makes Z&P a craved partner in a consortium, as it ensures outstanding performances in multiple fields. Furthermore, the multiannual experience in EU project management guarantees a comprehensive understanding of the procedures related to proposal submission, as well as those “winning elements” that make the difference in the proposal evaluation.  Given the cross-border nature of the EU funded initiatives, collaborating in numerous consortia has ensured Z&P an intense network of diverse entities (academia, industrial companies, LEAs, etc.) all across Europe.

In parallel, the winning of two grants under the PADR framework has paved the path to the defence sector. The Preparatory Action on Defence Research (PADR) projects are, indeed, research projects to support innovation in the defence sector. Z&P has received funds for two projects, namely PYTHIA (PADR-STF-01-2017, recently concluded) and SOLOMON (PADR-STF-02-2018), acting in both cases as Technical-Scientific Coordinator. In particular, PYTHIA (Predictive methodologY for TecHnology Intelligence Analysis) was committed to developing an innovative methodology for performing strategic technology foresight in the defence context, whereas SOLOMON (Strategy-Oriented anaLysis Of the Market fOrces in EU defeNce) – benefiting of PYTHIA’s findings – will outline the roadmaps for tackling the supply risk of the EU armament systems in a world of changing strategies, emerging technologies and mutating extra-EU government restrictions. Since PADR and EDIDP have been prepared to pave the way for a substantial defence programme from 2021 onward (the already mentioned EDF), whose procedural mechanism will likely mirror the same process and rules, Z&P is in a strategic and enviable position in addressing the upcoming calls.

Entering the defence industry

Following the successful experience in the PADR framework, Z&P has recently embraced a new challenge within the EDIDP. Last year, the company has been awarded DECISMAR (development of a DECISion support toolbox for enhancing the feasibility study of the upgrade of MARitime surveillance through the integration of legacy assets with new innovative solutions), which aims to develop a decision support toolbox (DSTx), implemented as a cyber-secured and future-proofed integrated IT environment, to provide future technological scenarios.  The participation in EDIDP calls is a crucial achievement as it allows to consolidate relationships with relevant players and create new synergies within the EU defence industry. Indeed, if PADR projects were chiefly oriented towards research activities, EDIDP projects mainly target the capability development: hence, the considerable involvement of EU defence companies. By taking part in H2020, PADR and EDIDP projects, Z&P has shown its ability to act as a bridge between the world of research and the industrial one, thus fostering cooperation and synergy in light of a more solid “European Defence”.

Creating partnerships

Besides enhancing the R&D sector and fostering the EU industrial growth, these R&I projects are established to strengthen cooperation among the multiple and variegated actors involved in the defence sector. Moreover, they are meant to create synergies with activities promoted under other frameworks, such as the Permanent Structured Cooperation (PESCO) or NATO-led initiatives. In this respect, it is worth mentioning that Z&P has recently participated in the NATO DTEx (Disruptive Technology Experiment), a wargaming exercise involving crisis scenarios to be addressed relying on new proposed technologies. Such projects and initiatives further allow Z&P to improve its understanding of current needs and gaps as well as to combine necessary expertise and knowledge (e.g. research and technical skills, market posture, etc.) in order to provide the EU with a strong and competitive environment where a “European Defence” could grow its roots and flourish.