Support to DG HOME’s Community for European Research and Innovation for Security

Ecorys supported DG HOME’s Community for European Research and Innovation for Security (CERIS) by mapping Horizon 2020 and EU-funded capacity building projects in the security domain, analysing opportunities and challenges in synergy building between Horizon 2020 and capacity building programmes, and providing event support. Ecorys has been supporting DG HOME in this initiative since 2015 and joined forces with Deloitte in the latest iteration of this project.

CERIS, the successor of the Community of Users for Safe, Secure and Resilient Societies (CoU), aims to facilitate interactions between the security research community and users of research outputs. More specifically, CERIS seeks to support amongst others the identification of capability needs and gaps, translating gaps and solutions into research needs and the identification of standardisation needs. CERIS is divided into four Thematic Areas: Fighting Crime and Terrorism (including Infrastructure Protection), Disaster Resilient Societies, Border Management and Strengthened Security Research and Innovation.

In 2021, the work of the team focused on mapping Horizon 2020 and EU-funded capacity building projects in the security domain under the 2018 and 2019 programmes. This mapping is a useful tool to identify potential for synergies among different types of programmes, sectors and projects. The 2021 publication of this mapping builds on the publications that Ecorys developed in 2016, 2018 and 2019.

Furthermore, Ecorys conducted a synergy analysis of Horizon 2020 and certain Capacity-Building programs of different EU funding schemes. The team researched ten success stories of synergy building and identified opportunities CERIS to facilitate synergy building between EU-funded projects in the security domain.

Finally, Ecorys also provided event support to CERIS by developing event reports summarising key take-aways. A sample of the reports is available on the DG HOME webpage.