The Technical University of the Shannon won under the Cybersecurity (CS) destination with ‘Situation Aware enabled Cyber Resilience for Dispersed, Heterogenous Cyber Systems’ (ResilMesh). Trinity College Dublin won with ‘Gaming Ecosystem as a Multi-layered Security Threat’ (GEMS) which addresses an online threat vector that may be underestimated. Overall, there were 22 Irish participations in 16 winning projects and a return of 3.67% of the allocated funding, or more than €7.6M.

Cluster 3 divides into multiple ‘destinations’ including Disaster Resilient Societies (DRS), Fight against Crime and Terrorism (FCT), Border Management (BM), Resilient Infrastructure (INFRA), Support to Security Research and Innovation (SSRI) and Increased Cybersecurity (CS) and except for SSRI, which is relatively small, success was broad-based across them. 

Noteworthy is participation by EMC Information Systems in ‘Revolutionised Enhanced Supply Chain Automation with Limited Threats Exposure’ (RESCALE), University of Galway in  ‘System for Safe Biological Chemical Radiological & Nuclear Assessment, Rescue & Decontamination’ (STBERNARD), Research Driven Solutions, University College Dublin and Fingal County Council in ‘CityNature-Based Solutions Integration to Local Urban Infrastructure Protection for a Climate Resilient Society’ (NBS INFRA) and Munster Technological University in ‘Trustworthy mEthodologies, knowLedgE & autoMated tools for sEcurity Testing of IoT software, haRdware & ecosYstems’ (TELEMETRY). It should be mentioned that Trilateral Research was successful in two projects.

Success factors in Civil Security for Society 

Cyber security aside, where it may not be demanded, usually a key success factor in ‘Civil Security for Society’ is to identify early-on the practitioners you want to work with and gather them into your proposal consortium. You should not pick just any practitioner. It should be one whose day-to-day work addresses the subject at hand. It will enhance your proposal to co-develop it with practitioners who know the domain well and they should have meaningful roles. The evaluators may know if it’s otherwise. In addition, it’s advisable to go for at least one more practitioner than the minimum quota set by the EC, as insurance against one of them dropping out, in which case your proposal would be ineligible.

Looking forward to the future of Cluster 3 beyond 2024, the mainstreaming of the defence sector within EU programmes may prompt the EC to try creating ‘synergies’ between defence and civil security. Since EU defence programmes such as PADR/EDIDP/EDF tend to be dominated by larger players, such a development could pose challenges for Irish participation.