On 13 March 2013 the European Commission and the European Defence Agency co-organised a workshop on European Framework Cooperation (EFC) CBRN in Madrid as part of the EC Security Research Event included in HOMSEC 2013.
The focus of the workshop was to brief participants on the first achievements of the EFC CBRN and the way ahead based upon the lessons learned. Mr Marco Malacarne (EC) and Mr Christian Breant (EDA) opened the workshop and gave an introduction on EFC CBRN as the first pilot under EFC. They concluded that it has been successful so far.
Co-chairs Tristan Simonart (EC) and Gerlof de Wilde (EDA) elaborated on results out of the exchange of letters signed between the EC and the EDA on 15 Sept 2011. Coordination has been covering several aspects related to:
- the preparation of research activities (i.e. calls for proposals)
- the evaluation of the proposals and
- the implementation of research activities
Shared meetings and exchange of information
Since 2011, EC and EDA are participating to respective programme management committees meetings (SEC programme Committee and EDA JIP CBRN Management Committee). They regularly exchange information on on-going and future activities. EDA expert(s) were involved (access to proposal, consensus meetings and panel meeting) in CBRN proposals evaluations under FP7SEC-2011 and FP7-SEC-2012. They have been invited for the next evaluation FP7-SEC-2013. EC expert(s) were involved (access to proposal, consensus meeting and panel meeting) in evaluation of the first JIP CBRN call in Sept 2012. EC is invited to the Executive Management Groups (EMG) of the JIP CBRN projects. EDA is participating in several FP7 projects advisory groups.
Transfer and re-use of results
In the frame of the EFC, several projects have established links and have considered transfer or re-use of available results. EFC has contributed to synchronise research priorities for 2012 respective calls, taking into account areas and topics covered by each funding schemes, with a particular influence on the content of the first JIP CBRN call.
JIP CBRN as EDA contribution to EFC
The JIP CBRN is a managed as an EDA Category A Programme and has a budget of 12 Million Euro. Contributing members are Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Germany, Spain, France, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Sweden and Norway. The JIP-CBRN provides a broad framework to conduct cooperative research in the fields of basic and applied science, to carry technology development up to the level of demonstration projects.
The first call for proposals under the EFC was launched on 2 May 2012. The first call included the following topics:
- Improved Standoff detection of C agents
- Simultaneous analysis of CBR agents (mixed samples)
- Next generation point detection for B agents
- M&S of CBRN system architectures
The first Call for proposals has resulted in 7 selected projects. Contracts are underway.
Future of the EFC CBRN
The second JIP CBRN call is scheduled for 2013 (under preparation with the participation of the EC). It will include the following topics:
- Next generation personal protection
- Next generation collective protection
- Next generation Decontamination
- CBRN Sensor-networking
Under Horizon 2020 the cooperation on CBRN research will remain and will probably be reinforced. Work must be done in the area of IPR and user rights as the frameworks of EDA and EC differ in this respect.
CBRN CIV/MIL synergies addressed by workshop speakers
The workshop speakers addressed several synergies between civilian and military research in CBRN protection:
Dr Blatny (FFI, Norway) highlighted the standardisation efforts within FP7 projects SLAM and EQUATOX and the JIP CBRN project BFREE on CBRN sample handing. Mrs Patricia Lopez Vicente and prof Lourdes Calvo Garrido addressed CIV/MIL synergies in Spanish research related to cleaning and decontamination technologies. Prof Jean Luc Gala gave a presentation regarding the CIV/MIL aspects of research on contagious diseases / B threat agents. He presented an ESA project on Mobile Labs. He proposed a European Cluster of Excellence for CBRN. Dr Ruud Busker presented the JIP CBRN project IPODS, addressing the challenge of point Detection for B threats by using a combination of technologies such as Mass spectroscopy and fast Immunological Identification.
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