PRocurEments of innoVativE, advaNced systems to support security in public Transport – Pre-Commercial Procurment

Project Information

PREVENT PCP

Grant agreement ID: 101020374

DOI

10.3030/101020374

Project closed

EC signature date 27 April 2021

Start date 1 September 2021

End date 31 October 2024

Funded under

• Secure societies - Protecting freedom and security of Europe and its citizens

Total cost

€ 13 332 146,76

EU contribution

€ 11 998 932,10

Coordinated by

ENGINEERING - INGEGNERIA INFORMATICA SPA
Italy

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - PREVENT PCP (PRocurEments of innoVativE, advaNced systems to support security in public Transport – Pre-Commercial Procurment)

Reporting period: 2022-05-01 to 2024-10-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

The global aim of PREVENT Pre-Commercial Procurement is to augment the security in public transport through innovative procurement of technology solutions. The proposed technologies endowed Public Transport Operators with solutions that enhanced security situational awareness through:
i) Timely automatic detection of potentially dangerous unattended items in Public Transport Infrastructure and in public areas in the vicinity;
ii) Identification and tracking of perpetrators; and
iii) Advanced crisis management system.

The PREVENT PCP project built upon the outcomes of its predecessor, PREVENT CSA, continuing the top-down approach that facilitated the consolidation of commonly agreed scenarios. This approach addressed critical security issues, culminating in a detailed identification of the complete set of innovation needs at both the process and technology levels. It also streamlined coordination across the entire chain of stakeholders, from transport operators to security forces and public authorities. Consequently, the need for innovative solutions emerged from an extended collaboration and was driven by commonly identified internal requirements to enhance the quality and efficiency of pre-empting terrorist attacks.

The project conducted a phased Pre-Commercial Procurement that included:

- Phase 0: Finalising the tendering documents package initially prepared under PREVENT CSA.
- Phase 1: Implementing the call for tenders for research and development services.
- Phase 2: Carrying out the competitive development of prototypes in line with PCP principles, encompassing the design stage, integration and technical verification stage, and validation in a real environment stage.
- Phase 3: Consolidating the evaluation results of the developed prototypes, extracting conclusions and recommendations from the validation process, and defining a clear strategy for the further adoption of solutions.

PREVENT PCP involved 10 public buyers coming from 6 different EU countries and validated 2 different prototypes in 4 pilots: France, Spain, Portugal and Italy.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

The main work performed, during Phase 0, concerned the following:
• The preparation and signature of the Joint Procurement Agreement among Public Buyers in order to agree on how the different procurers cooperate to carry out the joint procurement, and give mandate to the Lead Procurer to proceed with the tender
• Establishment of project’s Data Protection and Ethics office
• Successful update of the State-of-the-art that was performed under the PREVENT CSA
• The publication of the “Prior Information Notice” in the Official Journal of the European Union, announcing the launch of the Open Market Consultations (OMC)
• A common needs assessment and procurement specifications have been conducted and delivered: Functional, Technical, Hardware, and Training requirements, as well as Cybersecurity compliance
• Delivery of Tender Documents comprising a set of documents necessary to execute the procurement including the Call for Tenders, the Framework Agreement and the PCP Phase Contracts along with the Annexes

During Phase 1, the awarded R&D providers were asked to describe the solution providing the complete architecture, hardware needed and design of the end-to-end solution and verifying the technical, economic and organizational feasibility of their solution approach to address the PCP challenge.
The six successful tenderers were invited to sign of the PREVENT PCP Framework Agreement and the Specific Contract Phase 1.
The Procurement Evaluation Committee (PEC) and the Technical Management Committee (TMC) were responsible for achieving an effective monitoring (at least on a biweekly basis).
An analysis of the legal framework applicable to PREVENT PCP was presented to Contractors.
The PREVENT PCP Phase 1 started with the Kick-off which took place in Paris on December 16th, 2022.
The PEC taking in consideration the opinion of the TMC regarding the satisfactory / successful completion of End of Phase 1 report decided and approved the outcome of Phase 1 assessment.

During Phase 2, the awarded R&D providers were asked to develop a first prototype based on the design documents delivered in the previous phase and test their solutions in lab conditions.
Four successful tenderers were invited to sign of the PREVENT PCP Specific Contract Phase 2.
Phase 2 started with contractors’ notification on June 07, 2023 and the kick-off meeting held in Barcelona on June 09, 2023.
In Phase 2 the contractors developed a prototype by following the solution design and the approach validated during Phase 1, by using the datasets provided by the PTOs.

The goal of Phase 3 was to validate the final solutions in diverse conditions, using the detailed scenarios and processes developed in the Verification and Validation Strategy.
PREVENT PCP Call off Phase 3 – Operational validation was launched on the 06/12/2023 having as deadline for Phase 3 offers reception the 08/01/2024.
The PEC taking in consideration the opinion of the TMC, decided by consensus (on 01/02/2024) on the final ranking of tenders and the Phase 3 contract award for two Tenderers.
During the tests, the PEC and the TMC were responsible for achieving an effective monitoring.
The Buyers group conducted technical performance evaluations and provided feedback to the Contractors, which had the opportunity to fine tune their solutions before a second set of evaluations by the Buyers Group.
The Phase 3 kick off was held on the 12 February 2024.

Further to deliverables submission from the contractors and the End of Phase 3 Report, TMC and PEC evaluated contractors’ performances and achievements against the expected outcomes of Phase 3.
The TMC assessed the Satisfactory Completion of Milestones and Deliverables of Phase 3 and the PEC approved the TMC opinion.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

Following the results od PREVENT CSA and in order to achieve results allowing operational use in a complex environment like that of PTOs, considerable research and development is needed. Moreover, tests carried out by PTOs showed that the current solutions were not sufficiently mature and had to be improved and adapted in order to be accepted by the end users.
The performance of the solutions must be very high in order to be able to detect a maximum, or even all the unattended items in the station. As for quality, it must be high enough to not overload operators with too many false positive alarms.
The solution used to track the owner must exceed the limitation of non-use of biometric data. The performance and quality of this unit should be high in order to quickly find the right owner. A real R&D work had to be led in order to be able to accurately detect the clothes and accessories in any conditions.
In terms of potential impacts, PREVENT PCP a) developed common technical specifications and reference performance levels for joint EU security solutions; b) pave the road to market for technically mature and operationally relevant solutions and to accelerate their wide deployment in the EU; c) contributed to narrowing down the gap between research and the market for the next generation of security solutions; d) contributed to a single EU security market, by reducing market fragmentation and allowing exploitation of economies of scale, e) facilitated access of new innovative players to the public procurement market; and f) contributed to reinforcing the competitiveness of the EU technology and industrial base.

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