The CERIS and EU-funded projects

With the continuous rise of security challenges in the European Union, stemming from technological, operational, and geopolitical origins, it has become evident that research in the domain is of utmost importance.

It can, however, be deemed complicated to carry out impactful and comprehensive scientific research in the domain, considering obstacles such as lack of capabilities, disconnected research networks, or organisational blockers justified by the sensitivity of the topic.

It is in this aim of dynamizing research in the security domain that the Community for European Research and Innovation for Security was launched in 2014 by the European Commission.

Launched originally as a “Community of Users” the CERIS assembles an array of practitioners, researchers, and representatives of civil society and SMEs, with a common goal of facilitating security-related research.

The CERIS as a support to EU-funded projects

The mandate of the CERIS has been expanded in order to be in phase with the Horizon Europe framework. It now cemented itself as a fundamental support to the research carried out in the field of security.

Hence, by following the vision of security practitioners in their respective domain, the CERIS identifies expertise gaps and research needs in order to better decision making in certain priority areas.

The CERIS also ensures a watch on emerging tools that can be exploited in the security framework. This notably includes EU-funded project outcomes and results. It thus contextualises them in operational LEA ecosystems and maximises their potential exploitation.

In the process of engaging the scientific community, the CERIS acts as a facilitator of knowledge pooling between practitioners, networks, and EU-funded research projects in the field of security. Moreover, the work of the CERIS includes the verification of compliance of the projects it accompanies with the principles of fundamental rights.

Privanova project portfolio and the CERIS

With its extensive portfolio of LEA-related projects, Privanova contributes to pushing forward the dynamism of security research that is propelled by the CERIS.

Privanova has been heavily involved in projects that reinforce LEA capacities. In this sense, one of the first EU-funded projects involving Privanova was CC-DRIVER that aims to enhance our understanding of juvenile cybercrime. Building on these blocks, CYBERSPACE was launched in order to improve cooperation and reporting of cyberattacks between European LEAs. In the same field, POLIIICE aims to produce lawful interception (LI) techniques that will make LEAs more efficient in the cyber sphere, thus ensuring a more secure digital Europe. Privanova’s portfolio also includes projects dealing with specific types of crimes, for instance, TRACE explores methodologies and tools for authorities to counter illicit financial flows.  

The CERIS as part of a Privanova’s LEA network

Privanova aims to maximise research outcomes of the EU-funded projects it is involved in. Engaging and supporting security-related research networks is an ongoing endeavour for Privanova. This is, for instance, reflected in its engagement in Interpol’s Cybersecurity Knowledge Exchange.

The security advances are also relevant to other networks that Privanova participates in such as the Living-in.EU initiative. This initiative was launched with the objective of fine tuning the perspectives of smart cities all over Europe, which entails a non-negligeable security component.

Privanova also benefits from its presence at the Ad Hoc Committee established by the UN General Assembly to elaborate an International Convention on Countering the Use of Information and Communications Technologies for Criminal Purposes, which allows it to put forward the research done in the Horizon Europe framework at a global level in accordance with the mandate of the CERIS.

All these efforts are thus analogous to the mission of the CERIS, which represents an advantageous network that fosters and accompanies the progress of EU-funded security-related projects and maximises the impacts of project outcomes and results in the domain.