Innovation for Maritime Situational Awareness and Security

Over 110 participants from coast guards, border and customs authorities as well as academia, research institutions, industry, and civil society organisations came together on 19 February 2024 in Brussels for a Workshop of the Community for European Research and Innovation for Security (CERIS), led by DG HOME Innovation and Security Research Unit. Participants discussed European research, innovative solutions, future capability needs, in maritime situational awareness and security. The Workshop presented EU-funded technology in this field, from information management to big data analysis and autonomous platforms.

Beate Gminder, acting Director-General of the Directorate-General for Migration and Home Affairs (DG HOME) of the European Commission, opened the Workshop underlining the importance of EU-funded innovation for European solutions that support the tasks of national authorities for security at sea and that by design safeguard respect of fundamental rights and EU values. She also emphasised the support from the EU to national authorities to collaborate and adopt innovative European solutions for maritime situational awareness and security. Technology is not a panacea for all capability needs, but innovative solutions can greatly support search-and-rescue at sea, fighting of migrant smuggling, fighting of drug trafficking and other criminal activities. Without investing in innovation it will not be possible to manage operational challenges of the future using European solutions. She also underlined the relevance of the Workshop in the context of the ongoing discussions at the European Contact Group on Search and Rescue (SAR) on relevant innovative capability and capacity building projects related to SAR.

The first session presented examples of research and innovation for integrated information management and sharing, including EU-funded projects CLOSEYE (demonstrated during Frontex-coordinated mission INDALO), ESPIAS, AI-ARC (on future civilian security challenges in the Arctic and serving both authorities and commercial mariners), NESTOR, EFFECTOR, CISE-ALERT, PROMENADE, and SMAUG (addressing the underwater threats to civilian security).

A remarkable success story is the European Common Information Sharing Environment (CISE), which is at the same time the product of EU-funded security research and innovation of past years, a current promising system to allow European maritime authorities and operators to exchange data and information, and a catalyst for creative ideas and research for the future. CISE is an environment allowing different national legal and organisational systems to exchange information, on a voluntary basis.

The second session presented examples of innovative technologies for maritime situational awareness and security, including EU-funded projects ROBORDER, REACTION, COMPASS2020, I-SEAMORE, EURMARS, TUTELARY. 

The third session discussed future capability needs for maritime situational awareness and security, and how to best use today’s innovation in this context. Examples on how innovation could help maritime situational awareness include being able to securely exchange data between countries and sectors, better detect vessels in distress or that try not to be detected, anticipate behaviours and risks at sea. Investment in research and development for civilian maritime situational awareness and security, and/or an accessible repository of available European solutions, could help future use to European civil maritime security innovation.

Marta Cygan, Director for Innovation and Audit in DG HOME, closed the event stressing the importance of collaboration among countries and sectors, and of synergies between funding instruments. This CERIS workshop allowed to present and discuss the latest European innovation and research developments in the field of civilian maritime situational awareness and security, underlining the important role of EU-funded research in civilian security.