General matters of the Horizon 2020 programme

Aside from more specific projects and calls, the European Commission’s Horizon 2020 Work Programme also deals with the fundamental structures in the field of security research and communication. To ensure the best possible outcomes for research and innovation in the European Union, the areas of research communication, frameworks and procurement needs to be improved continuously.

Pan-European networks

The European Commission describes the specific challenges of research communication as follows:

In Europe, practitioners interested in the uptake of security research and innovation are dedicated to performing their duty and are focused on their tasks. In general, however, practitioner organisations have little scope to free workforces from daily operations in order to allocate time and resources to monitor innovation and research that could be useful to them. They have few opportunities to interact with academia or with industry on such issues. All stakeholders – public services, industry, academia – including those who participate in the Security Advisory Group, recognize this as an issue.

In order to build a better research network among all stakeholders, the Horizon 2020 programme calls on different sections of the industry to get together to discuss and formulate further steps that need to be taken. Practitioner in the security field should monitor research and innovations projects, express common requirements and indicate future priorities. National, regional and local clusters around Europe should establish a roster of capabilities and facilities, share their expertise with each other, plan the pooling and sharing of resources among each other. Procurement agencies need to share investment plans, compare techniques and rules and plan common procurement activities. Lastly, border and coast guard organisations and other stakeholders are invited to create a roadmap for future solutions of the field.

The expected impacts of this project are as follows:

Medium term:

• Common understanding of innovation potential, more widely accepted understanding, expression of common innovation and standardization needs among practitioners in the same discipline.
• Greater involvement from public procurement bodies upstream in the innovation cycle.
• More efficient use of investments made across Europe in demonstration, testing, and training facilities.

Long term:

• Synergies with already established European, national and sub-national networks of practitioners, even if these networks are for the time being only dedicated to aspects of practitioners’ work unrelated to research and innovation (in general, to the coordination of their operations).

Pre-commercial procurement

The European Commission describes the specific challenges of procurement as follows:

Innovative solutions are needed when resources from different countries are required to work more closely together. Such solutions should support the development of the EU’s Security Union.

Practitioners are invited to communally work on common requirements for already existent and future system that can help to promote border and external security, fight terrorism, protect infrastructure or promote society resilience. This way, the European Commission aims to reach an agreement among procurement authorities on the information for such procurement processes. Furthermore, commitment from procurement authorities regarding the consultation of legal entities, as well as the adherence to Fair Reasonable and Non-Discriminatory (FRAND) terms. If these points are agreed upon, the procurement of prototype system should commence.

The expected impacts of this project are as follows:

Short term:

• Common requirements for innovative prototypes agreed among the practitioner organisations involved in the action.
• Technical tender documents ready for use by subsequent pre-commercial procurement actions, as well as by non-participating procurement authorities.

Innovative solutions

The European Commission describes the specific challenges in the procurement of innovative solutions as follows:

Innovative solutions are needed when resources from different countries are required to work more closely together. Such solutions should support the development of the EU’s Security Union.

In order to promote the procurement of innovative solutions, the Horizon 2020 programme has laid out a five-phase plan. Phase 0 entails the drafting of common requirements and the preparation of technical documents. Phase 1 includes the preparation of a full tender package and calls. In phase 2, calls are implemented and two prototypes are built. Phase 3 includes the benchmarking and validation of the built prototypes. And finally, in phase 4, a curriculum for pan-European training with the prototypes is drafted.

The expected impacts of this project are as follows:

Short term:

• Pre-commercial prototypes matching requirements common to many Member States, and available from 2 different sources for further industrialisation.
• High leveraging effect of the EU contribution to the action.

Keywords

Horizon 2020, Framework Programme, H2020, FP9, European Union, European Commission, SwafS, Science with and for Society, stakeholders, communication, networks, roadmaps, procurement, general matters