In the first half of the project, research partners focused on data collection and analyses of the factors leading to organised crime (WP1), terrorism (WP2) and their connections with cyberspace and cybercrime (WP3). They produced systematic reviews of the existing literature as well as innovative studies from the social, psychological and economic perspectives and published public deliverables D1.1 D2.1 and D3.1.
In the second half of the project, the activities focused primarily on laboratory experiments and the development of PROTON-S and PROTON Wizard, the final project assets planned for the final part of the action. During this period, WP4 and the results of the research converge to develop the outputs for the finalization of PROTON-S and PROTON Wizard. At the Third Consortium Meeting, preliminary results were presented and the decision to produce a manual for policy makers was taken. The manual is addressed to policy makers and practitioners who want to set and test policies against potential recruitment into organized crime and terrorist networks.
Ethical, societal, and legal implications have been constantly monitored throughout the project (WP6), and societal impact assessments informed the partners of the possible impact of their research. In addition, an Ethical and Legal Advisory Group (ELAG) independently reviewed PROTON’s results to ensure the compliance with ethics requirements.
The Consortium has promoted the dissemination of project’s results by participating in conferences, workshops and events and seeking synergies with other projects to optimise communication activities and foster future collaborations. The project has reached an estimate of 90,000 people in the whole period. Partners met during the Kick off meeting, the first, second and third Consortium meeting to enhance cooperation and ensure the smooth implementation of the project activities. Furthermore, workshops were organized among partners involved in specific work-packages. PROTON’s communication and dissemination strategy has increased the project visibility by raising awareness of its activities in the community of policy makers, public authorities and security scholars and professionals.
The exploitation plan has been developed to identify opportunities both intra and extra consortium to spread the project results to the target end users. The PROTON Wizard which embeds the results of ABM simulations will be presented to side meetings organized in collaboration with the policy makers of the project. As an additional exploitation tool, the Consortium developed an introductory manual on how to use ABM simulations for future research.