Awards for innovative projects in civil security presented by DG HOME

DG HOME is very pleased to present the winner of the award, but also other of thematic awards, in recognition of the excellency of the work conducted in each of the projects. This was the first time DG HOME awarded this prize to support and promote great innovative solutions that come out of the EU-funded security research.

The awards ceremony took place at 'Le Bouche à Oreille' conference centre in Brussels, where Director Marta Cygan welcomed the project representatives and policy makers.

“This is an opportunity to highlight the valuable contributions to EU Civil Security made by the EU-funded projects since FP7, and indeed recognise those who have been able to get their innovations and research results to the market and adapt them to the very important work of our civil security authorities”, she commented.

From the most innovative to the most resilient: Meet this year's winners

The overall winner of the 2022 Security Innovation Award was COUNTERFOG, which proposes a solution to eliminate biological, chemical, radiological, and pollution contaminants directly from the air and whose Bio aerosol Fast Sampler was the first technology of its kind to be able to capture and eliminate COVID-19 from the air in the hospital in which the technology was trialed.

The prize for the best collaborative innovative technology went to ASGARD, a project which developed a cutting-edge tool set for analysing and extracting big data for Law Enforcement Agencies. More significantly, this work has led to the development of EACTDA, a very important network for the development of new technologies in fighting cybercrime.

The resilience award went to ANYWHERE, a project that strengthens societal resilience through its technology intended to enhance anticipation and capacity of response to extreme climate-induced events, for civil protection throughout Europe.

VALCRI received the commercialisation award, as this project was developed hand in hand with end users, leading to a strong, marketable product specialised in achieving the aims of its target audience. This technology is intended as a criminal intelligence analysis system for European Law Enforcement Agencies.

DG HOME is planning to continue giving this award in the coming years. As pointed out by Director Marta Cygan:

Research takes time to deliver. And requires planning and anticipation. With initiatives such as the Security Innovation Award we will continue to recognise and to promote successful innovators […] It is an important part of our work is to better define innovation uptake. This is an invaluable support for ongoing and future EU-funded security research.