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Creating an Agenda for Research ON Transportation sEcuity

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New research priorities on land transport security

Land transport is evolving rapidly, but so are the associated security risks in an increasingly volatile globalised world. An EU-funded project has successfully highlighted urgent research areas to improve safety and security in rail and road urban, local and long distance transport.

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The EU is constantly striving to streamline transport security on the continent, aiming to ensure uninterrupted service, as well as free flow of passengers and freight in a secure environment. The EU-funded CARONTE (Creating an agenda for research on transportation security) project worked on outlining a research agenda that addresses emerging security risks related to land transport. To achieve its aims, the project team gathered data from over 120 relevant research projects and 100 experts, as well as numerous EU and national research programmes and policy papers. It analysed the information meticulously to identify key topics for strategic research planning within the European Commission and other authorities. The three key research issues identified in the context of land transport security are “An integrated approach to assure cyber resilience in land transportation “, “An integrated approach for early and efficient threat detection in land transportation “ and “An integrated approach for railway and mass transportation security – detection, crises management and human factor research”. This includes the need to address several urgent considerations through enhanced research, covering topics such as crisis management, balancing security with passenger privacy, and security awareness of customers and personnel. Important technical considerations deemed important for further research include security by design, retrofitting security, protection of vehicles against cyberattacks and securing critical infrastructures. In addition, the project placed particular focus on rail operation and infrastructure from a security perspective. Within this context, the team delivered its valuable insights and conclusions through several conferences, including one on cyber security and transport. The outcomes were also disseminated through newsletters, workshops, two monographs on land transportation security beyond short-term research planning, and various reports on the topic. The new input on strategic research planning regarding land transport security is bound to make transport safer and more efficient for Europeans.

Keywords

Land transport, safety, transport security, CARONTE, railways

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