Consortium

This solid consortium of 15 partners from 9 nationalities gathers 4 universities (UAH, TUM, UGAL, UNIOVI) with an outstanding tracking in security and acoustics, 3 first-class research centres (CEA, INTA, KEMEA), 4 active high-tech companies -including 3 SME– (SJT, MFT, MICAM), 4 border & custom authorities from member states with external borders (ES, FI, RO, EL) and the well-known association of customs authorities that is a reference for dissemination in the field (CROSSBORDER). It gathers researchers from fields of engineering, including experts in acoustics, optics and simulations; manufacturers, end users and communication experts.

UAH-UNIVERSIDAD DE ALCALA

The University of Alcalá is a public university with a commitment to teaching and research excellence and delivers it by adapting its training provision to social change and social demands and also by attracting and retaining talent. Among its priorities are the creation of students’ employability, implementation of socially responsible policies which strengthen its reputation as an open, integrating and committed institution and the development of efficient, responsible and transparent management based on its accountability to the institution itself and to the society.  In addition to classical humanistic studies and the social sciences, the University of Alcalá has incorporated the most modern qualifications in all scientific fields, such as Health Sciences and the various Engineering Sciences spread across its campuses, which with the Science and Technology Park are a decisive factor in its international profile and a boost to business in our region.

Located in the historic city of Alcalá de Henares, 30 kilometers from Madrid, the University has 28,000 students, 2,000 teaching staff and 800 service and administration staff. Its three campuses –the Historic, the Science and Technology and the Guadalajara Campuses— provide  40 undergraduate degree programs, 78 official postgraduate programs and a number of lifelong training courses in all fields of knowledge.

CEA-COMMISSARIAT A L ENERGIE ATOMIQUE ET AUX ENERGIES ALTERNATIVES

The CEA (Commissariat à l’énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives) is a French research and technology organization, member of EARTO-the European Association of Research and Technology Organizations-.  The CEA manages 10 research centers and 6 regional technology directorates throughout France, and employs more than 16,000 people. The main missions of the CEA are to identify, develop and mature Key Enabling Technologies through public-private partnerships.

The Electronics and Information Technology Laboratory (Leti), located in Grenoble (France), has the mission of creating value and innovation through technology transfer to its industrial partners. It specializes in micro and nanotechnologies and their applications, from wireless devices and systems to biology, health and photonics.

The CEA Tech Institute in the regions was created in 2012 to carry out technology transfer of KETs to SMEs in the French regions. Today, CEA TECH in the regions has more than 150 employees. In Nouvelle Aquitaine, the Multi Spectral Photonics platform will participate in MELCHIOR on the basis of LETI components.

 TUM-Technical University of Munich

The group at the Chair of Vibroacoustics of Vehicles and Machines conducts widespread research on technical acoustics and on vibroacoustics. Its mission is to enhance the physical understanding of the emergence and distribution of airborne and structure-borne sound in order to deduce methods of manipulation and reduction. Ever since its establishment in 2015, Prof. Dr.-Ing. Steffen Marburg has directed all teaching and research activities to involve physical principles of vibroacoustics, numerical simulations, and experimental investigations.

SJT-San Jorge Tecnológicas S.L.

San Jorge Tecnológicas -SJT- is a SME focused on mechatronics and advanced research on science and engineering -especially for space and security-. High-tech manufacturing and prototyping, robotics, artificial intelligence and complex modelling are some of their core skills. SJT participated in H2020 MESMERISE, led by the University of Alcala -UAH-, developing the Z-MESMERISE technology. As a result, SJT and UAH are patent co-owners of a non-invasive, non-contact technology for the detection of hidden goods on the body behind clothing using infrasound, which is the main basis for the development of the MELCHIOR project.

MICROFLOWN –MICROFLOWN TECHNOLOGIES BV

Microflown Technologies was founded in 1998 by Hans Elias de Bree and Alex Koers, following de Bree’s invention of the particle velocity sensor in 1994. The Microflown sensor is a truly unique acoustic sensor. It is the first sensor in the world that directly measures particle velocity as a physical quantity. Twenty years after the invention, with customers worldwide, Microflown has proven to be an essential contribution to understanding and charting sound fields. Today Microflown focuses its knowledge and expertise on providing high-end acoustic measuring solutions that help make the world quieter and more pleasant.

UGAL-UNIVERSITATEA DUNAREA DE JOS DIN GALATI

“Dunarea de Jos” University of Galati represents a pole of academic excellence for the South-East Region of Romania, which concentrates the elite human resource specialized in educating professionals in numerous fields for an entire area with national and international reach. In its more than 70 years of existence, this institution has expanded and modernized, gathering around it, at the same time, an academic community focused on obtaining performance in teaching and research and thus, becoming a European-level university with both a modern and competitive – collaborative process with all students, on fundamental and applied scientific research, as well as on excellent relations, which have been developed with the local and regional business environment and local community structures.

MICAM–MICAM LTD

MICAM Ltd is an independent company based in Ireland.

MICAM design, manufacture, install and validate specialists systems, which are provided for the protection of critical infrastructure against the effects of bomb-blast and blast borne fragmentation.

INTA–INSTITUTO NACIONAL DE TECNICA AEROESPACIAL ESTEBAN TERRADAS

INTA, the Spanish Institute of Aerospace Technique, is a Public Research Establishment attached to the Spanish Ministry of Defense. Among the main tasks, INTA is responsible for:

  • Performance of various types of tests for checking and certifying materials, components equipment and systems.
  • Provision of technical advice and services to official entities and organisations, as well as to industrial and technological based companies. 
  • Level III explosives forensic Laboratory. Energetic Materials and close by chemicals synthesis, detection and scientific research.
  • New detection techniques for explosives.
  • Explosives Detection canine units training. Furthermore, Energetic Materials staff and facilities, have security clearances to handle classified documentation with necessary guaranties to reach any needed confidentiality level.
 

KEMEA–KENTRO MELETON ASFALEIAS

KEMEA is a scientific, consulting and research organisation overseen by the Minister of Citizen Protection, governed by common law and annually audited by chartered accountants. Its principal purpose is to conduct theoretical and applied research and studies, particularly at strategic level, on security topics and policies. Moreover, it is the think-tank of the Ministry of Citizen Protection on numerous policies, such as public order, correctional services, terrorism prevention, crime prevention, integrated border management and civil protection, as well as on various other security and societal issues. It also provides advisory and consulting risk-management services to an array of public and private organizations. To meet the growing needs of the security and law enforcement practitioners and related academia, KEMEA has participated in research projects of the Horizon 2020, ever since it was launched. KEMEA’s objective in this context, is not only the development of new technologies or the application of emerging technologies, but also the understanding of associated phenomena and the development of more effective policies. 

MININ-MINISTERIO DEL INTERIOR

The Spanish Ministry of the Interior is the Department of the Spanish Government responsible for public security, the protection of the constitutional rights, the command of the Law Enforcement Agencies, national security, immigration affairs, prisons, civil protection, electoral processes and road traffic safety and sustainable mobility.

The Minister is assisted by three main officials, the Secretary of State for Security, the Secretary-General for Penitentiary Institutions and the Under-Secretary of the Interior. The main departments under the Secretary of State for Security (SES) are the Director-General of the Police and the Director-General of the Civil Guard. The SES also includes the Subdirectorate General of Information and Communication Systems for Security (SGSICS), as the implementing body for the R+D+i  of the Ministry of the Interior in close coordination with the R+D+i services from Police, Civil Guard and other departments.

HPOL-HELLENIC POLICE

The Hellenic Police assumed its present structure in 1984 when the Gendarmerie and the Urban Police Forces were merged. Hellenic Police is a Law Enforcement Agency and its mission is to:

  • Ensure peace and order as well as citizens’ unhindered social development, a mission that includes general policing duties and traffic safety.
  • Prevent and interdict crime as well as to protect the State and the democratic form of government within the framework of constitutional order, a mission that also includes the implementation of public and state security policy.
  • Prevent and deter the illegal entrance – exit of aliens in Greece and to control the implementation of the legislation related to the entrance, exit, stay and labor of aliens in the country, including the policing of aliens and the protection of borders.

Hellenic Police is comprised of both central and regional Services. Hellenic Police’s headquarters is the supreme authority over these Services. Its efforts center on the fulfilment of the Force’s mission, within the framework of the Ministry of Citizen’s Protection policy.

FIMOI-MINISTRY OF THE INTERIOR

The Ministry of the Interior of Finland is responsible for internal security and migration. The Ministry’s key tasks include law drafting, and strategic planning and steering within its branch of government.

The Ministry’s three key duties are:

  1. Preparing legislation concerning the police, rescue services, emergency response centre operations, border control, maritime search and rescue, and migration
  2. Managing the performance of agencies and institutions in the Ministry’s branch of government and
  3. Dealing with international and EU affairs that fall within its remit.

The Ministry’s vision is for Finland to be the safest country in the world.

RBP-INSPECTORATUL GENERAL AL POLITIEI DE FRONTIERA

The Romanian Border Police is part of the Ministry Internal Affairs and is the specialized state institution which carries out the tasks appertaining to it and referring to the surveillance and control of the crossing of the state border, the prevention and fight against illegal migration and against acts specific to cross border criminality carried out in its area of competence, to the compliance with the judicial regime of the state border, passports and foreigners, the ensuring of the interests of the Romanian state. Responsible for approximately 3.150 km of borders, the Romanian Border Police permanently deals with the extremely varied problems and illegal means of transiting the Romanian border, starting with the illegal migration, drug, gun and stolen vehicle trafficking and finishing with smuggling – in all its forms of manifestation.

UNIOVI-UNIVERSIDAD DE OVIEDO

The University of Oviedo is a public institution of higher education and research in the Principality of Asturias. With over 400 years of history, it offers a full range of undergraduate degrees adapted to the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) in all branches of knowledge and postgraduate degree programmes in collaboration with national and international universities and more than 250 companies.

CBRA-CROSS-BORDER RESEARCH ASSOCIATION

Cross-border Research Association, CBRA, was founded in 2005, as a spin-off research institute from University of Lausanne, Switzerland, where the CBRA founder was doing a doctoral thesis titled “Post-2001 supply chain security & its impacts on the private sector”.

CBRA’s research activities focus mainly on supply chain and transportation security; customs and border management security; and, global trade facilitation. All in all, CBRA has played a role in around 40 RDI (research – development – innovation) projects and published nearly 100 articles, reports and posters since 2005.

CBRAs roles across these RDI-projects include core research (case studies, surveys, cost-benefit analysis, literature reviews etc.); risk management; optimization and simulation models and tools; development of advanced e-learning materials (in customs data analytics, statistics etc.); innovation intermediary work; standardization, policy development and dissemination work; as well as project coordination work (following drive-administer-serve -principles).

A common mandate for CBRA is to act as a research facilitator between supply chain and governmental stakeholders, understanding in detail the security and facilitation related objectives, requirements, constraints and bottlenecks for all parties.

The CBRA team consists of leading academic and practitioner experts in supply chain and customs security as well as in trade facilitation. The CBRA academic team consists of seasoned PhDs, post-docs and other senior researchers; while the CBRA practitioner team consists of former customs, law enforcement and security research policy experts in Europe and globally.

Examples on EU Framework programme projects (2008-2025) include: INTEGRITY, LOGSEC, CASSANDRA, FOCUS, CWIT, SAFEPOST, SYNCHRO-NET, CORE, PROFILE, ARESIBO, PEN-CP, MELCHIOR and PARSEC.

Keywords:

#SupplyChainSecurity #TransportSecurity #BorderSecurity #CustomsSecurity #CustomsInnovation #CrossBorderLogistics #TradeFacilitation #BorderAgencyCooperation #TrustedTraderPrograms  #RiskManagement #CrimePrevention #IllicitEconomicModels #eLearning