Standardisation of situational Awareness sYstems to Strengthen Operations in civil protection

Project Information

SAYSO

Grant agreement ID: 740872

DOI

10.3030/740872

Project closed

EC signature date 26 April 2017

Start date 1 May 2017

End date 30 April 2019

Funded under

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

Total cost

€ 1 500 000,00

EU contribution

€ 1 500 000,00

Coordinated by

BUNDESMINISTERIUM DES INNERN
Germany

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - SAYSO (Standardisation of situational Awareness sYstems to Strengthen Operations in civil protection)

Reporting period: 2018-05-01 to 2019-04-30

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

Coordinating the response to major incidents and cross border threats in civil protection and emergency responses presents major challenges to the stakeholders involved, such as emergency responders, practitioners and crisis managers. Challenges include, for instance, the fast and appropriate processing (e.g. sorting the relevant data) and sharing of large amounts of data or the interoperability between responder agencies. Efficient tools and systems are crucial in allowing emergency responders, practitioners and crisis managers involved in the incident, to address these challenges.
The project’s main objective was to put in place the preparatory work for the development of innovative Situational Awareness Systems that will improve the coordination of civil protection operations and emergency response where multiple organisations are involved, especially in the case of international cooperation.
To achieve this, SAYSO was organised in 6 work packages (WP). WP1 focused on ethics, WP2 on the collection of practitioners’ requirements, WP3 on the design of Multi-Stakeholder Situational Awareness Systems (MSSAS) specifications and reference architecture, WP4 on procurement, WP5 on dissemination and communication, and WP6 on project management.

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

In line with the project’s objectives, SAYSO:
• Collected practitioners' requirements: SAYSO identified practitioners’ requirements by enquiring from practitioners and emergency responders across Europe what functionalities they require from Situational Awareness tools. In addition, SAYSO assessed State-of-the art situational awareness technology, especially commercially off the shelf technology. Further, SAYSO specified a Gap Analysis and Reference Scenarios.
• Investigated approximately 100 EU projects potentially related to Situational Awareness (SA) carried out within FP7 and H2020, analysed 23 projects in details and identified 38 tools and functionalities useful for practical application in civil protection operations.
• Produced specifications and a reference architecture for MSSAS: The requirements and features resulting from the investigations described above were integrated into the MSSAS specifications and associated reference architecture. These specifications were also validated against 12 reference scenarios, such as earthquake, heat wave/forest fires, storm, heavy rain/floods, terrorist attacks, nuclear hazards, chemical hazards, biological & radiological hazards, pandemic, migration.
• Prepared a roadmap: It comprised a set of recommended Short-term Actions, Mid-term Actions and Long-term Actions to further Advance MSSAS optimisation, consisting of the creation of altogether six Task Forces and four EC-Support Programmes.
• Addressed standardisation aspects: Standardisation was a key consideration in the evaluation of the specifications and reference architecture produced. SAYSO devised a roadmap providing recommendations on what new standards were needed and what current standards should be addressed.
• Developed a community crisis management library platform: The library contains common symbols, reference information and documents, and could be used by any emergency responder, practitioner or those with a relevant interest.
• Prepared future Procurement actions (PPI/PCP): SAYSO provided the information and tools that Public Procurement Authorities need to launch Pre-Commercial Procurement (PCP) / Public Procurement of Innovative solutions (PPI) processes (i.e. procurement actions that include the funding of the R&D required to bring to maturity, at a competitive price, solutions matching the needs of procuring practitioners) towards the realisation of SAYSO-compliant Situational Awareness Systems.
• Built an active Network and Community: SAYSO established and maintained an international Network&Community, named the Situational Awareness Innovation Network EUrope (SA-IN-EU), comprising practitioners, procurers and suppliers of Situational Awareness Systems from different types of organisations and cultural backgrounds.
• Set up the structure for the future SAYSO Governance Body: The body is to be composed of practitioners, suppliers, procurers and representatives of organisations that have adopted the SAYSO specifications and tasked with maintaining and ensuring continuity to the MSSAS specifications as well as the MSSAS development and the standardisation roadmaps.

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)

Efficient tools and systems are crucial in allowing emergency responders, practitioners and crisis managers to tackle the challenges met during cross-border and multi stakeholder, civil protection operations. European crisis managers and emergency responders all identified the importance of developing and using new tools in order to have access to harmonised and holistic shared Situational Awareness (SA) information when responding to major incidents.
SAYSO defined specifications, functionalities, tools and a reference architecture for future MSSAS on the basis of practitioners’ requirements. This new MSSAS approach was presented to practitioners and the scientific community through various dissemination events in Europe and by means of a publication in an International Journal. Together with the inventory of requirements, it will be used by the German Federal Agency for Technical Relief (THW), SAYSO Coordinator, for the development of a new SA system.
SAYSO also delivered roadmaps for future Situational Awareness Systems for multi-stakeholders and for standardisation in this area. The roadmap for further Advanced MSSAS optimisation includes the proposal to create a European Crisis Management Competence Centre (ECMCC). The conclusions and recommendations for future standardisation activities were presented to a German national standardisation committee and to experts of European and international committees attending the 13th Community of Users’ Meeting and the SmartResilience/SAYSO Joint Final Conference, and shared with other projects.
The Luxemburg Institute of Science and Technology (LIST) will continue to maintain and populate the web-based EU community crisis management library, which will remain available and free for those who register for access.
SAYSO raised awareness within the EU research community of the legal and ethical aspects to be taken into account already from the design stage of system development (as demanded by legal instruments, more specifically the notion of privacy-by-design, article 25, GDPR). The lead partner on this topic, Stockholm University will continue this work in further research and as Advisory Board member for another EU project.
SAYSO also made available the tools to facilitate Public Procurement Authorities in launching pre-commercial procurement (PCP) of SAYSO-compliant Situational Awareness Systems. The procurement toolkit was presented during the project’s dissemination events, to the Procure2Innovate network, and to Greek authorities engaged in civil protection during a dedicated workshop.
Finally, SAYSO established the SAYSO Governance Body (SGB). It will be chaired by the THW president and will be run as part of the European Fire Academy. The members of SA-IN-EU have also been invited to continue their involvement in the work of SAYSO through the SGB.
The roadmaps, recommendations, tools and structure required are now in place for the future development of a SAYSO-compliant MSSAS.

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