Advanced border surveillance and situational awareness

Expected Outcome:Project results are expected to contribute to some or all of the following expected outcomes:Improved detection, localization, characterization and, when applicable, neutralisation, of unmanned vehicles alone or in swarms, involved in trafficking or smuggling activities across external borders, while complying with legal and ethical guidelines;Improved border situational awareness, especially in the context of large-scale movements of people across borders, including from potential instrumentalisation of irregular migration, conflicts, social, economic, environmental and climate stress;Better safeguard and promotion of fundamental rights thanks to enhanced situational awareness;Reliable, redundant detection and reaction capacities without putting staff and society at risk. Scope:Capabilities for situational awareness and surveillance of land and sea borders need improvement, in consideration of potential future challenges that may require updated capabilities. These challenges may include potential future large-scale movements of people across external borders, resulting from future attempts to instrumentalisation of irregular migration, but also from conflicts, social, economic, environmental and climate stress in the European neighbourhood; as well as increasing availability and capability of unmanned aerial, surface, and underwater vehicles with increased payload capacity and range that make it easier to transport goods and, possibly, persons, including in connection will illicit or illegal activities such as trafficking of goods and smuggling of people across external EU borders. These challenges will be particularly relevant in regions close to the European neighbourhood.This may be particularly relevant for unsupervised and difficult-to-control land and sea borders of the Union and the Schengen area.Research funded under this topic should develop solutions that, through better awareness, improve efficiency and reaction time of detection, sear