Flexible and Improved Border-Crossing Experience for Passengers and Authorities

Duration: 01/09/2022 – 31/08/2025   |   Total Funding: € 5,019,000 

Challenges

Freight and passenger transport is an ever increasing and significant part of the European Economy. Human trafficking, irregular crossings and contraband smuggling is a major concern for EU and is expected to intensify further with the open border strategy between EU members.
The FLEXI-cross project targets the deployment and continuous validation of a toolkit of innovative border checking solutions, in real operational environments. The toolkit will deliver increased security and reliability of border checks for people and goods, while enhancing and improving the border management capabilities.

Project Objectives

The FLEXI-cross toolkit will deliver the following “Unique Value Propositions”:

1

Predictive Risk Assessment of vehicles and people based on distributed data and camera feed processing, enabling abnormal behaviour detection and providing anti-trafficking and anti-smuggling protection

2

Enhanced border security through portable biometric based checks (fingerprint, facial recognition), enabling quick and secure person verification and allowing for real-time cross-referencing with other data sources and databases

3

Flexible, fast, and cost-effective deployment of ad-hoc Border Check Points (BCPs), with the use of mobile and/or portable solutions and equipment

4

Secure, private, and traceable, sensitive and/or personal data exchange based on the FLEXI-cross blockchain, enabled data change and processing framework

5

More (time and cost) efficient border checking procedures at EU borders through optimisation (flow management, active planning) based on real-time data, historical data, available resources, and traffic estimations

6

Increased safety and improved experience for border-personnel based on advanced Human Machine Interfaces (HMIs) for immediate feedback and enhanced situational awareness via Augmented Reality (AR) devices

Role in the Project

EBOS will leverage its cumulative experience and knowledge to successfully contribute to the delivery of the state-of-the-art toolkit, by focusing on the following areas:

1

Design and implementation of the HMI

2

Toolkit integration and testing

3

Dissemination, communication, and promotion of project’s results through its network of associations to maximise the project’s visibility and impact

In particular, EBOS will adopt an iterative integration methodology to ensure collaborative technical integration work, putting together the FLEXI-cross system components in a loosely coupled way towards ensuring interoperability, adequate performance, and scalability for large-scale use during the project and beyond. EBOS will design and implement the graphical HMI, by leveraging EBOS bespoke WiseBOS Platform, which is specialised for the development of dashboards.

In addition, EBOS will lead the impact maximisation activities that aim to widely disseminate and communicate the project’s achievements and research results, through different channels, including:

1

Journals and high-quality research papers and magazines

2

Conferences and exhibitions

3

workshops, trainings, and tutorials

4

exposure to other related initiatives and ongoing projects

5

Social media channels

Finally, EBOS will identify and monitor IPR activities during the project execution.

Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Research Executive Agency. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.