European Security Research Priorities for Horizon 2020

INTRODUCTION
Security has become a growing
concern in the European political
and societal context, but the needs
of the European Union in this field
have yet to be further studied and
understood.
In this context, IMG-S was created
as a structured technology
platform to build a common
understanding between academia,
industry and end-users towards
identifying R&T priorities that may
answer to the European security
needs and gaps.
In this process, new, emerging and
dual use technologies are
identified and related to end-user
requirements and needs, thereby
facilitating the transition from the
pure research field to European
development programmes and the
global market place.
The IMG-S Position Paper presents the
Group’s perspective with respect to the
European technological research priorities
for the Security domain in Horizon 2020
(H2020).
It is based on expert contributions from 119
organisations from 24 European countries
participating in IMG-S. This is the result of
work being developed in several Technical
Areas and Working Groups that represent
key knowledge areas in the Security domain.
IMG-S participants have extensive
experience in European Union security
including ERSP, ESRIF, EPCIP, ESRAB
and many projects conducted within the
Seventh Framework Programme (FP7).
The IMG-S Position Paper is intended to be
a source of information for stakeholders in
European Security Research, specifically
those engaged in research orientation and
management (namely within the European
Commission H2020 management), national
security research representatives and
directors, as well as end-users and
regulators.
This Position Paper presents the IMG-S view
of research priorities for Horizon 2020 as
presented in the next table. Its research
topics are further described in the Paper’s
sections pertaining to the respective IMG-S
Technical Area or Working Group. When
applicable, critical technologies are also
presented.
The paper concludes by providing
information about IMG-S and online
resources with further material.
Next, IMG-S view on critical technologies is
described.
Critical Technologies
In order to fulfill capability needs in response
to themes and missions, some basic or
transversal technologies must be used,
adapted or specifically developed.

INTRODUCTION
Some of these technologies can benefit, if
planned in synergy, from other H2020
themes and topics, in particular the 4 Key
and Emerging Technologies (KETs) areas,
space and societal challenges such as
energy. Joint approaches and even joint calls
might be recommended in such fields as
innovative materials, photonics and
information technologies.
The IMGS experts propose a first list of
critical technologies addressing civil security
and defence issues and that may benefit
from such transferable technologies.
An additional aim of this action is to consider
defence and security synergies and
synchronize the understanding of capability
requirements for civil security and defence.
Criteria used to evaluate if a technology
should be included for consideration are:
1. Critical items for which no adequate or
sufficient development is on going;
2. The technology is not available from a
European source and the unrestricted
availability from non-European suppliers
can not be assured;
3. Items with a civil-defence urgent
operational requirement;
4. Items thatshall have a clearly identified
function and performance target;
5. Items that shall be multi use and/or
applications (i.e. not an enabling
technology for a one shot use);
Items shall be of low integration level, more
specifically, shall be building blocks and
components.
Critical technologies were considered as
belonging to three categories:
Security focused that should be handled
within the H2020 security theme (or
national programmes),
Key enabling that should be developed
either in the security theme or in joint calls
with other themes,
Generic technologies that can serve
several themes and may just need limited
adaptations from other applications.

IMG-S H2020
RESEARCH PRIORITIES
IMG-S H2020
Research
Priorities
H2020 R&D Activities
AdaptiveWideAreaSurveillance&
MonitoringSystem
Citizenasasensor
SituationAwarenessSharing
Performancemetricsfor
surveillancesystems
FutureBorderSurveillance
AutomatedBorderControl
UnderwaterSecurity
Hugeheterogeneoussensorsnetworks
(HSN)forWideAreaSurveillance
Securevehiclecommunicationsfor
securityapplications
NextgenerationPPDRcommunications
Advancedcapabilitiesforlawenforcement
Improvingcrisismanagementresponse
Autonomousplatformsfor
crisismanagement
Improvingthefirstresponderworkload
PhysicalProtectionofInfrastructure
EuropeanPlatformfor
SimulationandTraining
Reducingthesocietalcostofrestoration
ResilienceByDesign
Enablingrapidexternalassistance
Engagingthepopulationin
crisismanagement
Rapidindicatorrecognition
Europeaninformationplatformforfighters
againstorganisedcrimeandterrorism
Multinational
informationexchangeplatform
Smartenvironmentto
reduceCBRNEimpact
Agroterrorismand
securityofthefoodchain
DetectingCBRNattackson
utilitydistributioninfrastructures
EfficientCBRdetectioninsupportoftrade
Stand-off
CBREdetectionandidentification
Nano-security
FieldBasedDrug
detectionandidentification
ImprovingCBRNEdisastermanagement
Harmonizing
detectionandidentificationofbioagents
Fighting Crime and Terrorism Ÿ Ÿ Ÿ Ÿ Ÿ Ÿ Ÿ Ÿ Ÿ Ÿ Ÿ Ÿ Ÿ Ÿ Ÿ Ÿ Ÿ
Cyber crime and cyber
terrorism Ÿ Ÿ Ÿ Ÿ Ÿ
Strengthening security
through border management Ÿ Ÿ Ÿ Ÿ Ÿ Ÿ Ÿ Ÿ Ÿ Ÿ Ÿ Ÿ
Critical infrastructure
protection Ÿ Ÿ Ÿ Ÿ Ÿ Ÿ Ÿ Ÿ Ÿ Ÿ
Increasing Europe’s resilience
to crises and disasters Ÿ Ÿ Ÿ Ÿ Ÿ Ÿ Ÿ Ÿ Ÿ Ÿ Ÿ
Enhancing the societal
dimension of security Ÿ Ÿ Ÿ Ÿ Ÿ Ÿ Ÿ
Enhancing interoperability Ÿ Ÿ Ÿ Ÿ Ÿ
Addressing the EU-external
dimension of security Ÿ Ÿ Ÿ Ÿ Ÿ Ÿ Ÿ
Future and Emerging
technologies Ÿ Ÿ Ÿ Ÿ Ÿ Ÿ Ÿ

TA 1 | TA 3 SURVEILLANCE
AND IDENTIFICATION SYSTEMS
ta1@imgs-eu.org
Surveillance and Identification
supply information to security
operators concerning possible
dangerous situations and events.
The pervasive exploitation of
surveillance and identification
technologies and systems suffers
from several drawbacks, related to
reliability (too many false alarms or,
on the contrary, missed detection of
specific events), usability
(operators can be overwhelmed by
data load) and citizen acceptance
(concerns about trust, privacy and
individual freedom: the “Big
Brother” effect). The desired
evolution of Surveillance and
Identification in the European
perspective calls for technology
enhancements along with
procedural amelioration, in the
respect of citizens' personal rights
and user- and citizen-friendliness.
R&D and I Priorities for H2020
• Adaptive Wide Area Surveillance &
Monitoring System - Wide area surveillance
will be a major key contributor of Horizon 2020
societal challenges:
Monitoring and controlling networks utilities
(transport, energy, food, …)
Improve data gathering in such a way that
it allows a real situation awareness for
wide areas when needed
Real time information for citizen
(everywhere, every time)
Climate action and especially resource
monitoring
We need to develop advanced technologies to
meet these challenges:
Dust of sensors
New platforms (HASP, airships, ultra-light
UAV, UGV, USS, …)
New sensors (low cost radars,
hyperspectral, active optronics, …)

Data fusion and big data management
Enforcing privacy and freedom is a specific
challenge as all these technologies may be
detrimental. Privacy by design may be a way
to take this point into account.
• Citizen as a sensor - Citizens are
increasingly adopting more mobile
technologies (with advanced capabilities) and
information sharing and consuming behaviors.
Improved and ubiquitous connectivity resultsin
an 'always-connected' state. This theme
exploits the fact that citizen will be more and
more connected becoming a real “integrated
suite of sensors”
• Situation Awareness Sharing - the
presence and production of high amounts of
information are the consequence of the
Information Age. However, it also surpasses
the processing capacity of most entities
leading to information overflow. New and
smart European alerting systems and crisis
management systems will greatly benefit from
incorporating information from numerous
sources, but new methods and technologies
are required to manage new smart alerting
systems.
Topics to be considered are related to:
Heterogeneous data and sources of data,
and new actors in the system.
Operators cooperation, in terms of
typologies (variety of operators, variety of
cooperation such as hierarchical or
functional) and tools (task representation,
assisted task allocation, assisted dialog).
Displays and controls for situation
awareness and multi-entity cooperation &
communication
Associated main issues are:
Fault tolerant infrastructure
Harmonized certification and evaluation
schemes
Protection against physical and logical
intrusion
Interfaces standardization
Upload and download information
Information processing capacity
• Performance metrics for surveillance
systems - Standardization and validation of
surveillance systems performance with
respect to spatial, temporal and environmental
variability by means of definition of several
performance metrics allowing the analysis of
the scalability, reliability and efficiency of
surveillance systems.
Main items:
Assessment of the performance of stand-
alone sub-systems with respect to
functional requirements of
complex/integrated systems through a set
of application-based indicators and
benchmarks;
Assessment of integrated platforms based
on a joint simulated/test bed approach
taking into account data collection,
processing, classification, retrieval and
fusion.
• Future Border Surveillance - a main
challenge of future border surveillance
systems is continuous and full coverage
surveillance: surveillance shall cover the full

border area 24/7 to be able to provide real
time detection, early warning and risk
assessment to allow in-time response.
Coverage of ground, air, sea, underwater and
underground both for people and goods:
Detection and Classifications of “objects”:
e.g. detection of humans, classification
human vs. animal for ground surveillance,
detection of small vessels and small
airplanes at low altitudes at long ranges.
Interoperability of different sensing
systems and integration of different sensor
modalities.
Interoperability of detection, risk
assessment systems and response
systems to be deployed in complex
contexts such as multinational operations,
heterogeneous end-user organisations
etc..
The research shall be done taking into
account societal aspects of surveillance
technologies and respecting privacy inside
and outside Europa.
• Automated Border Control - Main
challenge is to increase the speed and
convenience of the border crossing by
keeping security at the highest level for people
and goods. Harmonization is needed on
European level; standardized equipment,
procedures and security processes shall be
proposed. Future technologies of identification
and surveillance must be brought into
consistent legally correct and operational
efficient procedures with minimum intrusion of
privacy. Future developments are needed for
fast biometric identification, detection of illegal
goods. Develop an integrated approach with
customs and actors within the supply chain.
Border control must be integrated with the
processes of infrastructure operations for
getting advance information and to speed up
the overall process.
• Underwater Security - Sea and Ocean
environments are becoming more and more
important elements in human economy and,
because of their basically different conditions,
they are managed in a much less affordable
way than surface and air environments.
Underwater represent potential threats:
maintenance of the sea bottom and
surveillance of pollutions are priorities for most
of the European Member States. Hundreds
and perhaps thousands of sunken ships are
lying in the seabed, containing dangerous and
sometimes deadly wastes, ranging from
nuclear and radioactive slags to chemical
wastes with potential damages not only for the
sea life, but also for the human society owing
to the dependency by the sea food. Also
important threats are connected to the need of
protection of sites like the oil terminals, the
military ship during their operations in support
of peacekeeping missions, the protection of
ports with their high passenger volumes and
the surveillance of sea borders.

TA 2 COMMUNICATIONS
ta2@imgs-eu.org
TA 2 Communications addresses all
technologies employed in
communications in the Security
context.
Encompassing network related
aspects and applicable services,
communications are an enabler to
security applications, such as
border surveillance, homeland
security, mobile systems for first
responders and sensor networks
for wide area surveillance.
Communications offer efficient and
cost-effective mechanisms to
exchange data between nodes,
overcoming physical barriers and
distance. Interoperability among
diverse security systems is of
paramount importance, as are the
issues pertaining to confidentiality,
privacy, security, safety and
Reliability, Availability and
Maintainability / Serviceability
(RAM/RAS) conditions.
R&D Priorities for H2020
• Large heterogeneous sensors networks
(HSN) for wide area surveillance - In an
increasingly complex and unpredictable
security environment,effectiveness depends
on close, accurate and precise observation of
theenvironment, so that proper and rapid
action may be taken by competentauthorities.
Developments in sensors, networks,
communications, mobility and miniaturisation,
together with the reduction of the related
production costs, enable the implementation
of a wide surveillance system, based on large
heterogeneous sensor networks. A number of
applications may be implemented applying the
HSN concept for wide area surveillance,
namely:
urban environment monitoring,
monitoring and detection of critical
infrastructures’ early failures,
border surveillance, support for first
responders during emergency or crisis
situations.

TA 2 COMMUNICATIONS
Moreover, sensors may offer crucial
information to First Responders
andoperational officers during an emergency
or crisis intervention by augmenting and
enriching situational awareness and
understanding.
RTD technical challenges and issues related
with the implementation of HSN for wide area
surveillance include:
autonomy,
automation (minimal operator intervention
required),
interoperability,
security and privacy,
resilience,
mobility,
plug-in interfaces to external systems,
energy efficiency,
which should be tackled while keeping
reasonable cost of the overall system.
Furthermore, implications on privacy,
legal/ethical and societal dimensions have to
be considered as well.
• Secure vehicle communications for
security applications- As the density of the
vehicles used for transportation increases
from year to year, there is a growing
opportunity for the development of vehicle
communications systems (VCS). In the
security perspective, there are several
challenges which need to be solved in this
context, including:
selecting the appropriate security
approach for different communications
types;
need for more efficient flooding and
Geocast strategies;
assuring adequate security and privacy
levels;
integrating with other networks;
effectively applying emerging features
(self-forming, self-configuration, self-
healing, self-recover, smart routing);
delay-tolerant networking;
assuring secure localisation;
protecting from malicious attacks;
Implement early warning and detection of
attacks (such as intrusion detection
capabilities) and, subsequently, recovery
mechanisms;
providing support to communications in
difficult environments.
In a broad sense, VCS comprise network
nodes, that is, vehicles with communications
and networking and infrastructure units, that
is, units equipped with onboard sensory,
processing, and wireless communication
modules (e.g., road-side infrastructure units
when dealing with automotive systems).
Among the main applications in this area, it is
possible to highlight:
securingvehicular communications
systems,
maritime VCS for broadband and high-
performing communications,
VCS for broadband and high-performing
communications in closed environments
(tunnels),
air-land VCS for broadband and high-
performing communications during crisis.
• Next generation PPDR communications -
Public Protection and Disaster Relief (PPDR)
operations (which include search and rescue
and disaster recovery) would greatly benefit
from the capability to support high datarate

TA 2 COMMUNICATIONS
throughput to enable the real time exchange
of critical information (position and status),
using rich formats (picture and video feeds
about an event). Meeting stringent PPDR
requirements (high availability and reliability)
is too difficult for most civilian technologies
(cellular technology). Moreover, PPDRs deal
with spectrum constraints and congestion,
thus the use of spectrum is limited to voice
and text. There have been a few advances in
the telecommunications sector, promoting a
more flexible and dynamic use of the
spectrum, being the most notable one the
Cognitive Radio (CR) technology. CRs can
exploit the best available opportunities for
radio communications, including dynamic
selection frequencies, selection of best radio
protocols, waveforms and cognitive
management. Additionally, CRs flexibility
ensures a key requirement for PPDRs: the
backward compatibility with legacy systems
(TETRA and PPMR). Additional PPDR
requirements encompass mobility,
miniaturisation and human factors
(lightweight, autonomous, simple-to-use,
ergonomic and comfortable). Therefore, the
study, research, development,
experimentation and validation of CR
techniques and technologies for PPDR
operational use are highly recommended. This
approach requires addressing the specificities
of the security sector, including needs,
requirements, the spectrum bands used for
security purposes across the European Union.
Public Safety services depend highly on
communications capabilities. This
dependency will increase in coming years due
to the growing application of new
communications technologies by the
information society.
In accordance to TA 2, the pertinent core
requirements for Communications
technologies applicable in Security are:
(a) Provision of wide networks, both fixed and
mobile, and including ad-hoc networks with
backup options;
(b) High data rate throughput (LTE and
dynamic use of spectrum), in particular for
applications requiring image and video
transfer;
(c) High reliability and availability for public
safety services require constant access to
communications assets;
(d) Assurance of information security because
exchanged or transmitted information might
be sensitive;
(e) Mobility, since first responders and often
decision-makers are either deployed or on the
move;
(f) Localisation of people (especially first
responders), equipment and resources, is a
critical factor in life-threatening situations;
(g) Interoperability is important for there are
numerous legacy systems being used by
multinational and joint teams in security
missions that tend to be more and more
interdisciplinary.
TA 2 Communications signals the importance
of building awareness to the increasing need
for communications between public safety
services and citizens (bi-directional
communications). Social media networks and
platforms are in fact becoming more and more

TA 2 COMMUNICATIONS
popular, offering novel communications
possibilities.
Moreover, it is noted that the Internet of things
(IoT) empowers additional opportunities for
security-focused applications.
Issues herein defined represent major
challenges facing today’s researchers,
working and studying the applicational area of
communications in the Security domain.

TA 4 PROTECTION, NEUTRALISATION
AND RESTORATION TECHNOLOGIES
ta4@imgs-eu.org
TA 4 is mainly focused on the
technology solutions and provides a
consensual view on Europe’s research
priorities for Protection, Neutralisation
and Restoration.
H2020 recognises the need for Europe
to anticipate, prevent and manage
security threats, requiring innovative
technologies, solutions and
knowledge. TA 4 is relevant for a
number of specific objectives that
support the EU’s policies for internal
and external security:
• Fighting crime and terrorism;
• Increasing Europe’s resilience to
crises and disasters.
The EU faces many challenges in the
security domain, most characterised
by threat unpredictability. TA 4
focuses on delivering technology and
societal solutions to increase
resilience and strengthen recovery to
man-made and natural disasters.
• Advanced capabilities for law
enforcement- Law enforcement officers play
a major role in policing and security. They
have to enable citizens’ lawful activities, to
protect human rights and to be prepared for
public disorder, major incidents and acts of
terrorism. Key to their mission is the ability to
gather intelligence, record crime and
incidents, retrieve information from police
systems and input data, identify found people,
but primarily to be accessible to their
community. As the intentions of the threat may
be unclear or below the law enforcer’s radar,
law enforcement officers must have the
capability to execute an adaptive, graduated
response according to the threat level. They
need to spend as much time as possible
engaged in traditional policing, being seen by
citizens but respectful of privacy. In addition to

the daily police work, they also have to act
quickly in critical situations, where effective
protection is needed and the use of force
required. In these cases, their equipment must
provide them protection and be compatible
with performing the required activities. To
accommodate H2020 needs, further research
should be applied on adaptive and proactive
protection for responders against diverse
threats and on the delivery of more efficient
reaction equipment that meets societal
expectations and needs. In addition, work is
required to address ethically acceptable
means of weapons, vehicles and personnel
neutralisation.
• Improving crisis management response-
A response system must support all the
required tasks performed by all the
organisations involved at the various levels in
the emergency management effort, from the
response phase, such as fire fighting, marine
pollution protection and search and rescue, to
the preparedness and the recovery phases,
including training, planning and best practices.
Innovation research needs include:
(a) Improved communications, to ensure end-
to-end connectivity and security with wireless
networks;
(b) Improved decision support and situation
awareness, with focus on information filtering
and delivery, establishment of social,
informational and ICT networks and
organisational awareness;
(c) Improved integration and connection with
legacy systems (ontology conversion).
(d) The exploration of rapid deployable multi-
disciplinary teams for crisis management;
(e)Citizens’ involvement in crisis management
from prevention, to early detection, response
and recovery.
• Autonomous platforms for crisis
management - The operation of First
Responders (FR) in critical situations (either of
natural or human origin) may be conditioned
by a number of factors, which can cause
serious risks for human operators, also
reducing their effectiveness. Moreover, in
dangerous situations (fires, earthquakes) the
decision to send a FR team into an unreliable
building is subject to confirmation of the
presence of citizens inside, which often may
only be verified by direct observation. In these
critical situations, a robotic platform with the
necessary skills to operate in hazardous
environments, in place of or in cooperation
with a FR team, would substantially reduce
injury or loss of life among FRs, while
enhancing overall operational effectiveness
and capability. Currently, the use of robotic
devices is not yet reasonably efficient,
autonomous and cost-effective, a situation
that prompts the need for substantial
improvement in the behaviour and skills of
future robotic implementations to meet
operational needs. In particular, research is
required on improved mobility, cognitive
features, mission capability, human machine
interface and societal acceptance of
autonomous platforms for crisis response.

• Improving the first responder workload -
FRs need a variety of equipment and
environmental support measures to meet
different operational capability requirements.
Research is required to continue the reduction
of the FRs’ burden and to provide improved
rescue treatment and evacuation, including
Improved diagnostics and medical provision in
the field. A key enabler would be a light,
ergonomic, intuitive Human Machine
Interface, focused in new ways of offering
information to users, enabling natural and
straightforward use of equipment and
communications and of ensuring minimal
interference with First Responders’
operations, while providing reliable, linked and
affordable detection. Research is also
required on improved cross-border
interoperability of security forces, with the
establishment of procedures for force
collaboration with reduced command and
control involvement.
• Physical protection of infrastructure -
Substantial research has already been
conducted in the field of physical protection of
infrastructures but research still remains to be
conducted in active and passive measures to
reduce the vulnerability and enhance the
resistance of built structures against multiple
kinds of hazards, whether natural or man-
made. Research needs for H2020 include the
convergence of physical and cyber security
capabilities and the rapid restoration after a
cyber security incident. Vulnerabilities and
hardening of smart grids also require
continued research activities, as well as smart
and adaptive built-in protection capabilities to
critical infrastructures.
• European Platform for Simulation and
Training - Modelling, Simulation and Analysis
(MS&A) provides a valuable tool to
understand the inherent causality in complex
processes involving crises management. With
simulation, the evolution of physical systems
and human actions can be predicted in a safe
way and new technologies developed for
industrial design or entertainment (Virtual
Reality, Serious Gaming), providing new
opportunities for simulation, useful to support
large-scale cross-border exercises. Today,
there is a need to develop a generic pan-
European simulation platform that forms the
basis for planning, training and management
of operations and critical events. The platform
should be used for training rescue services,
medical personnel, police and military
personnel. It can be used as online support for
decision-making during actual operations, by
supporting the analysis of operational pictures
and evaluating different courses of action. It
may also fit land-planning purposes, assisting
the cities’ planning and placement of different
buildings and services. With a generic
simulation platform, it would be possible to
study more complex situations and cascading
effects.
• Reducing the societal cost of restoration-
Crisis Management challenges are dependent

upon the phase of the crisis management
cycle and the type of incident that has
occurred (terrorism, natural disaster,
humanitarian, industrial, local and cross-
border). Complex incidents will pose
especially significant demands during
restoration, particularly on logistics
capabilities. A core challenge for crisis
management operations is Recovery
Logistics, which encompasses both crisis
logistics and consequence management.
Research needs for H2020 include:
(a) Rapid deployment of shelters, medical
provisions, power restoration and
decontamination;
(b) Post-crisis needs assessment methods
and tools for reconstruction and recovery
planning;
(c) Improved structural damage assessment
tools, sustainability logistics planning and
consequence management tools;
(d) Improved recovery of, and support to,
national and regional government, social
normality (schools, employment, particularly
household economic security).
• Resilience by design - It will take a new set
of principles to create more resilient cities,
communities and infrastructure. Resilience by
design should provide more cost-effective and
organised operational solutions to improve
European resilience.
Research areas in H2020 should include:
(a) Improved critical infrastructure resilience
by design and ability to easily upgrade
resilience;
(b) Improved resilience design of critical
infrastructures to reduce smart grids’
vulnerabilities;
(c) Determination and surpass of society’s
barriers for taking up crisis and disaster
advice;
(d) Embedding security in every aspect of our
lives without exposing it to citizens all the
time;
(e) Deployment of security measures to work
behind the scenes without the need for
citizens’ direct interaction (be less aware of
existing security measures).
• Enabling rapid external assistance- The
EU-external security dimension covers many
areas including humanitarian aid, International
relief logistics, conflict prevention, post-crisis
stabilisation and civil-military cooperation
(dual-use technologies). This is a new area
within H2020 and will require the adaptation
and evolution of EU-internal security themes
to provide:
(a) Improved response and operational
effectiveness in rescue evacuation and
treatment and delivery of basic service
restoration (energy, food, water,
communications);
(b) Improved interoperability, integration,
situational awareness and decision support
between military and civilian forces;
(c) The potential use of remote tele-presence
for diagnostics and treatment.

• Engaging the population in crisis
management- Information systems are
permeating society, for they are present in
almost every infrastructure. Crisis
management should use and distribute
available information to enable civilians to be
better prepared and contribute to crisis
management. Information systems would
provide resilience, contribute to improved
situation awareness and reduce security
provisioning costs, through the adoption of a
“citizen-government” partnership. In order to
be effective, the involved processes should be
spatially adaptive in time, autonomous and
implemented at the system design level, with
a special attention to societal concerns and to
the respect of privacy rights. In this context,
TA4 highlights a number of relevant
technologies to be further analysed:
(a) Cloud computing;
(b) Internet of Things;
(c) Smart meters;
(d) Social media;
(e) Smart cities;
(f) Law enforcement system interfaces;
(g) Resilience;
(h) Data mining, social acceptance and
privacy concerns.
With respect to the technological
developments deemed critical for Protection,
Neutralisation and Restoration, TA 4
identifies:
(a) European security of supply of key
enabling materials such as detection and
personal protection technologies
(b) Long endurance Portable Power and
Energy Management
(c) Localisation technologies in urban areas
under GPS denied environments
(d) Technologies to support autonomous
platforms for crisis and border management

TA 5 INFORMATION
PROCESSING AND MANAGEMENT
ta5@imgs-eu.org
Effective Information processing and
management is a fundamental
capability in all missions required for
guaranteeing Europe’s security.
Aiming at strengthening this capability,
TA 5 focuses on technologies required
for:
• Defining system and software
architectures supporting advanced
data processing (High Performance
Computing, Grid/Cloud Computing,
Software Architectures, Platforms
Development, Middleware);
• Processing information acquired
from heterogeneous sources
(extraction, classification, semantic
analysis, correlation, fusion);
• Formally representing knowledge
(ontology definition, conversion,
fusion, translation);
• Supporting collaboration between
European law enforcement and crisis
management organisations.
• Rapid indicator recognition - In many
security domains, such as security of large
sporting events or rave parties or protection of
international public transportation, threat
situations can be recognised by identifying
and correlating elementary precursor events
to provide early warnings. As a result, the
impact of security incidents on citizens and
the cost of any response can be minimised.
Often, indications are perceived by security
personnel or sensors but their significance is
not understood and they are correlated to
allow threats to be recognised. This is
increasingly difficult when such indications
occur in different locations, with no seamless
information flows. Tools to assist with the
gathering of information from heterogeneous
sources and subsequent analysis, especially
pre-defined scenarios, could enhance early

TA 5 INFORMATION
recognition. Such tools will rely on trusted
information.
• European information platform for
fighters against organised crime and
terrorism - The globalisation and the
transnational nature of criminal organisations
and crimes, such as those related to people
smuggling and trafficking, fraud, drugs and
weapons contraband require corresponding
international cooperation among European
countries’ agencies and
European/international police organisations,
such as EUROPOL and INTERPOL. Effective
cooperation among law enforcement agencies
is only possible if their information systems
may be integrated, so that knowledge,
information and tools are easily shared and
effective work coordination can be achieved.
Several problems should be tackled to
achieve this objective, the most relevant ones
being related to interoperability (multinational
and multi-linguistic environment), security and
privacy (including legal issues). The
suggested approach is based on the
exploitation of emerging but existing mature
ICT technologies, namely SOA, Semantic
Web and ontologies. The idea is to have each
agency making requests to other
organisations using available semantic web
services, described in accordance with a
common ontology and possibly discovered,
invoked and composed automatically for
satisfying a specific requirement. Requests
may concern the availability of information and
knowledge or the use of advanced processing
or decision support tools owned or managed
by another organisation.
• Multinational information exchange
platform - Today the security domain
comprises a variety of organisations dealing
with a broad range of tasks in the overall
mission to care for society’s security.
However, the complexity in foreseeing,
planning for and coordinating action against
security threats lead to the increasing need to
communicate large amounts of data of many
different kinds and origin among security
organisations. The need for effective
information management and processing
support (ICT security) will evolve and increase
dramatically.
A common information infrastructure for actors
in the European security domain creates a
number of information interoperability issues:
(a) Standardisation of information to support
interoperability in information processing
along value chains across security
organisations and their technical systems;
(b) Standardisation of information within
domains to support leverage of domain-
specific IT support and interoperability
between domain specific IT products to
enhance information utilisation;
(c) Management and coordination of
information standards from multiple
independent standardisation communities as

TA 5 INFORMATION
the applications in business data processing
and technical (real time) data systems tend to
become interconnected;
(d) Management and coordinated sharing of
critical data assets (geographical and spatial
information, directories).

TA 6 CBRNE
ta6@imgs-eu.org
The TA 6 CBRNE is focused on the
technological solutions to counter
Chemical, Biological, Radiological,
Nuclear and Explosives (CBRNE)
actions.
Counter CBRNE is defined as the
collective efforts, at all levels, to
enhance the security measures
against the CBRNE threat.
TA 6 CBRNE addresses the
complete range of technologies,
methods and procedures taken to
provide effective Prevention,
Resilience, Resistance, Reaction
and Recovery concerning the
CBRNE environment.
• Smart environment to reduce CBRNE
impact- Existing FP7 CBRNE projects provide
foundations for moving to the next phase
engaging infrastructure owners to introduce
protective, preventive and mitigating
measures forming a joint European doctrine
with off-the-shelf procedures (multi-agency
training, drills and simulations) and technology
(dual purpose, such as sensors integrated into
HVAC systems). These technologies and
procedures are practical, user-friendly and
ethical (attracting public support) for
integrating with existing infrastructures or for
specifying in new built ones.
• Agro terrorism and security of the food
chain - The European food safety system and
rapid alert system is designed in order to
detect the most likely causes of
contamination, not for countering a deliberate
contamination by a CBR agent. Innovative
solutions should be multifunctional, covering
security threats and contributing to higher
quality and improved efficiency of the
European food industry at the same time.
Capabilities and technologies to be developed
fall into three main categories:
(a) Lessening the impact of an attack by, for
example, increasing the speed or specificity of
detection;
(b) increasing the monitoring scope in terms of
the range of organisms and the degree of
interpretation;
(c) Addressing the practicality of monitoring in
terms of cost, reliability and automation
features.
• Detecting CBRN attacks on utility
distribution infrastructures - It has long
been recognised that critical infrastructures,
namely transportation, food, water and power
distribution, are particularly vulnerable to
terrorist attacks. This vulnerability lies
primarily in these infrastructures major nodes
(airports, water treatment plants), where an
attack effects may propagate far beyond.
Security research has focused on these
nodes’ physical protection and access control
and on the prediction of intent to penetrate

TA 6 CBRNE
defences. However, these infrastructures are
networks with vulnerabilities at all points and
attacks at minor nodes and links can
propagate widely in the network. Thus,
capabilities and technologies to be developed
should extend surveillance beyond the key
nodes and address intrusion detection,
monitoring and prediction of propagation
extent and the practicality of monitoring in
terms on autonomy, specificity and
breadth/scope.
• Efficient CBR detection in support of
trade- In an increasingly global world, trade of
goods is vital to the economic stability and
security. This vital activity is likely to be
targeted by attacks, particularly in areas close
to entry ports, where the density of trade is
high enough to support the necessary
multiplicity and finesse of sensing capabilities.
The focus on entry points not only limits many
practical difficulties but also introduces the
serious difficulty of providing the sufficient
sensing speed to a given negligible reduction
in the trade flow. Indeed, there is a need for
reducing the impeding of current inspection
processes by replacing them with automated
sensing of key CBR threats, while reducing
false alarms’ likelihood Effectiveness
increases as it considers the whole systems
needs, rather than single sensor solutions.
• Stand-off CBRE detection and
identification - Chemical, Biological,
Radiological and Explosive detection and
identification is of primary importance for
security as well as for the safety of citizens.
The topic includes standoff techniques from
very large distances (space borne, airborne,
ground based) up to the contactless
contamination and decontamination check.
• Nano-security - Since a few decades,
spectacular developments in nanotechnology
have given little regard to their potential
effects on health, environment or security.
Nanoparticles are so promising in medicine,
protecting coatings, material innovations, that
the risks of an uncontrolled dissemination are
underestimated. Indeed, if not confined,
nanoparticles (NPs) can trigger pathologies by
affecting skin, lung or be used as a vector for
disease dissemination. Technics for their
detection, especially in air, and
characterisation of their shape should be
urgently investigated. In fact, it is expected
that the accidental release of NPs contained
in new building materials, provoked by high
temperature explosions or voluntary events,
could impact the credibility of European
control.
• Field Based Drug detection and
identification - Drug trafficking and
consumption is a great concern of all
European countries. Established routes for
illegal drug and precursors delivery, intensive
efforts in introducing new drugs and growing
consumption require adequate measures of
law enforcement agencies, supported by
effective technology means. Such
technological solutions and methods should
be applicable to the complete detection
procedures, from sniffing the traces of drugs
and precursors to bulk detection of illicit drugs
mixed with cutting agents and diluents. They
should address the features of easy use,
robustness, high throughput and reliability and

TA 6 CBRNE
direct on-site application. Corresponding
harmonisation of European law and special
involvement of European labs should be
considered for effective implementation of
these developments.
• Improving CBRNE disaster management -
Following FP7 CBRNE activities, a few gaps
still remain which may be filled, simply
benefiting from breakthrough underpinning
and specific technologies and methods. This
is a permanent activity including short and
long term research, development and
innovation.
There are three primary levels of actions:
(a) Tools for the operators and the population.
At the moment detection is somehow
satisfactory, but reliable stand off detection is
still needed, shorter identification and multi-
threat detection or identification times are the
coming challenges. Only limited
standardisation of sensors or robots exists at
interface level. Pre-normative and co-
normative research is needed, taking into
account the CBRNE constraints at the EU
level. Tools should be simpler and more user-
friendly (close to COTS operations),
ruggedised (in particular to C and R agents,
as well as to decontamination procedures),
scalable and unmanned, with variable
degrees of autonomy when needed.
(b) Procedures. Involving improved
awareness, training, alarm systems for public
and non-specialised responders.
(c) Top level organisation and decision
processes. Involving improved awareness,
decision support and training systems for top-
level decision-makers (also involving the
political sphere).
• Harmonizing detection and identification
of bio agents - There are presently only a few
CBRN training facilities and capabilities
dedicated to the civilian security sector in the
EU. Available capabilities and facilities are
often dedicated to military training or focused
on first responders’ education and training, in
broader terms. Improving and coordinating
activities in CBRN training and testing will
improve performance interoperability between
EU Member States. Networking between
training and testing facilities and capabilities is
therefore an important component in making
European security efforts more effective.
Furthermore, high level training and testing
with real threat substances or simili
substances are crucial for further development
of CBRN preparedness and resilience. Access
to adequate and standardised/harmonised
training and technology testing is paramount
also for the understanding and creation of a
global market for technological investment in
the security market.
Critical technologies
TA 6 has identified critical technologies that
are pertinent for CBRNE security research.
These technologies pertain to different system
areas:
(a) High power optical systems (for detection
at distance);
(b) Even higher energy density systems
(nuclear) for the detection of hidden materials;
(c) Lower energy (THz) systems for the
detection of hidden materials;

TA 6 CBRNE
(d) Specific biological material sensing with no
false positives, for the detection of biological
threats;
(e) Biological material sensing with certain
detection, for decontamination;
(f) Specific chemical detection systems;
(g) Broad spectrum biological detection to
classify unknown threats.
In order to fulfil capability needs in response
to themes and missions, basic or transversal
technologies should be used, adapted or
specifically developed.
A few of these technologies benefit, if planned
in synergy, from other H2020 themes and
topics, in particular, the 4 Key and Emerging
Technologies (KETs) areas, space and
societal challenges, such as energy. Joint
approaches and joint calls might be
recommended in the fields of innovative
materials, photonics and information
technologies.

TA 7 CYBER SECURITY
cyber@imgs-eu.org
TA7 (Cyber Security) was created in
2012 as an IMG-S joint effort,
combining expertise on the societal
aspects of cyber, communications,
networks and information
processing and management with
the purpose of providing a holistic
approach to security and resilience.
Considering the ubiquity of cyber
space in every aspect of modern
societies, it is understood that
exploited vulnerabilities may lead to
disturbing or potentially dangerous
effects for Society.
TA7 aims to develop a new
paradigm in cyber security that
provides a more secure, a
sustainable economic model and
better social environment.
• Cyber security and resilience of Next
Generation Infrastructures (NGI) - There is
a challenge to secure design of NGIs
(including smart grids) and for tools ensuring
their resilience. The focus should be on NGI
serving critical infrastructures and their
protection. There is also a need for ensuring
NGIs security and smart grids connected to
older energy and SCADA deployments. The
research should focus on both design and
development phases, wile taking into account
results of the previous initiatives in this
domain.
• Trust management in federated networks
- The concept of sharing information about
network security and joining federated
networks and systems (Federation of Systems
or FoS) gained attention recently. However,
there is a need to investigate trust
management in such federations, from
procedural and technical perspectives.
• Anomaly detection in networks - Research
should be focused on user security-related
profiling based on the generated traffic and on
correlation of various network events, to
increase efficiency of anomaly detection
techniques, both in terms of detection rate and
false positives. Research should consider
semantic approaches for Complex Event
Processing and ontology-based event
correlation derived from semantic
relationships between different terms or
entities. Anomaly-based approach should be
merged with signature-based approaches.
• Security and trust of e-government
services - Citizens demand new electronic
public administration services, but the critical
aspect is to ensure security and trust of such
new services. Research should focus on the
technical and societal dimensions of services
like e-voting or e-health. Dissemination and
training aspects should be taken into account.
• Ethical, legal and societal aspects of
cyber defence – Research, strategies and
guidelines are needed to identify and describe

TA 7 CYBER SECURITY
ethical and legal aspects and threats to
society regarding cyber protection techniques.
New guidelines regarding monitoring of user
generated traffic and content, users profiling,
information sharing (including trans border
data transfer), cloud computing, reaction
capabilities etc. are urgently needed.
• Protecting personal information - When
considering protection against identity theft we
should first define what kind of identity shall
be protected. Nowadays this means in most
cases a citizen's identity, but in the internet-of-
things paradigm will mean the identity of
things.
Various applications, from Smart Energy Grids
(e.g., refrigerators communicating with power
plants) to smart traffic control systems (where
cars communicate with each other and with a
central control system) require that all
connected devices should be securely
protected, otherwise malicious users can
exploit its vulnerabilities and disrupt the entire
system (cause energy blackouts, cause traffic
jams).
On the matter of securing a citizen's identity, it
is a concern to protect it over the Internet
(where identity theft is a common problem),
but it is also essential to consider other
applications as well, such as future automated
border control systems, smart public transport
devices and even in mobile
networks.Criminals who exploit this
information may cause harm and loss to the
citizen.
• Efficient Cyber Events Audit Trail - One
strategy for detecting unexpected events
within information systems is to generate an
audit trail of activities. When undertaken in
high-volume networked systems this creates a
significant information management problem.
Techniques for efficiently storing and
processing this audit trail need to be
developed that can cope with constraints on
bandwidth and the demand for near real-time
analysis
Furthermore, we consider that the following
areas require attention.
• Attribution - Effective management of cyber
incidents needs an understanding of the
nature of the attack. It is important to be able
to determine the motivation of an attacker.
The ability to identify the individual or groups
responsible for an attack enables action by
law enforcement. Innovative techniques to
support attribution need to be developed.
• Cultural and practical techniques to
enable cyber security - Research is required
to better understand human behaviour to
devise strategies for improving the secure use
of information systems
• Standardisation - Standards are required in
areas such as:
establishing trust in critical infrastructure
equipment;
interoperability and management of
security enforcing components within
critical infrastructures;
evidential capture and analysis of audit
information;
European Test Platform for cyber security
testing and training;

ABOUT IMG – S
scg@imgs-eu.org
IMG-S is an open forum bringing together
technology experts from Industry, SMEs,
Research and Technology Organisations
(RTOs) and Academia.
With more than one hundred entities, it
covers the entire security RTD domain and
is able to bring an answer to European and
global security needs.
IMG-S aims to support the European
Commission and its Member States to
build world-class European technological
capabilities. By defining research priorities
for the security domain at all levels, from
fundamental research to mission
capabilities and system integration, IMG-S
contributes to ensure that short, mid-term
and long-term security needs are
addressed.
SCG
SynthesisandCoordinaonGroup
TA 1
TA 3
TA 4
TA 5
TA 6
Protec on, Neutralisa on and
Restora on Technologies
Surveillance and Iden fica on
Systems
TA 2 Communica ons
Informa on Processing and
Management
CBRNE
TA7 Cyber Security
IMG-S Products and
Online Resources
IMG-S Strategic Research Roadmap for
Security targets a timeframe of 2015
and beyond. The Roadmap is public and
may be accessed online through the
IMG-S website:
http://www.imgs-eu.org
The IMG-S website also provides
information about the Group, its
technical areas, points of contact and
membership statistics.
If you wish to contact IMG-S, please use
the following email:
scg@imgs-eu.org
During the preparation of this Position Paper, Mr. Olivier Sagnes, a dear friend and active contributor to IMG-S, passed
away. We would like to acknowledge his proactiveness, positiveness and deep knowledge that he shared by collaborating

ABOUT IMG – S
scg@imgs-eu.org

European Security Research Priorities for Horizon 2020

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