Data repository for security research and innovation

The EU Funding and Tenders Portal has announced a call for proposals under the Horizon Europe program focusing on civil security for society. This specific opportunity, HORIZON-CL3-2025-01-SSRI-05, is centered on creating a data repository for security research and innovation. The primary goal is to establish a fully functional and operational common research data repository that prevents the loss of valuable data from security and disaster risk research projects by ensuring data is stored, shared, and reused effectively.

Funded projects are expected to deliver accurate, realistic, and updated research training and testing data, organized for ease of access and utility. The repository will enhance collaboration among researchers and practitioners, improve visibility and impact of research activities, and ultimately contribute to solutions that save lives and maximize knowledge through shared data.

The call emphasizes the need for a consolidated research database specific to the security domain. It aims to enhance interoperability and facilitate cross-border data exchange through standardized data formats, addressing challenges faced by security projects and ensuring the repository includes up-to-date training and testing data for both security and disaster risk management.

Successful proposals must focus on the creation of the data repository while considering previous work on the LAGO project. The proposal must address what data types will be stored, how interoperability with existing systems will be achieved, compliance with legal and ethical requirements, and processes for utilizing the repository in EU-funded security research and innovation projects.

A key feature of the repository should be its operational status for at least one year before the project's conclusion, emphasizing adherence to good security practices and data protection. The project budget for HORIZON-CL3-2025-01-SSRI-05 is set at approximately 3 million EUR, with the anticipation of funding one grant. The application process is single-stage and will open on 12 June 2025, closing on 12 November 2025.

Eligible applicants include a range of stakeholders such as researchers, practitioners, industry representatives, and policymakers from EU member states, associated countries, and potentially others with specific provisions. The call strongly emphasizes the importance of ensuring that data meets the FAIR principles, promoting findability, accessibility, interoperability, and reusability.

The overarching aim of this Horizon Europe initiative is to create a sustainable, interoperable data infrastructure for security research that allows for the preservation and effective sharing of crucial data, thereby advancing security practices and innovations throughout Europe.

The EU Funding and Tenders Portal presents a call for proposals under the Horizon Europe program, specifically focusing on Civil Security for Society. The topic, HORIZON-CL3-2025-01-SSRI-05, is titled "Data repository for security research and innovation." This call seeks to fund projects that will create and deploy a fully functional and operational common research data repository, building upon the outcomes of the LAGO project. The goal is to prevent the loss of valuable data from security and disaster risk research projects by ensuring its storage, sharing, and reuse.

The expected outcomes of funded projects include:

Accurately gathered, stored, managed, and preserved research training and testing data, disaggregated by gender if relevant, verified and selected to be realistic, up-to-date, and sufficient, making research more trustworthy and reproducible.
Increased impact and visibility of researchers' work through archiving and opening research materials for reuse and citation.
Saving lives, developing solutions, and maximizing knowledge through properly shared and reused research data.
Enhanced collaboration among the research community, improved trust between researchers and practitioners/end-users, facilitated cooperation between different research projects, and reduced wasted research or lost results.

The scope of the call emphasizes the need for a consolidated, common research database in the security domain, addressing its specificities and limitations. This database should enhance interoperability and cross-border exchange of data through harmonized data file formats that adapt to technological evolutions. The repository should address the lack of realistic, up-to-date training and testing data, a need regularly raised by security projects. This also applies to disaster risk management data, where national or regional databases can be fragmented and inaccessible.

The successful proposal should focus on creating and deploying a fully functional and operational common research data repository, extending to cover other security research areas, building on the LAGO project's roadmap. The LAGO roadmap provides technical, legal, and ethical requirements for a training and testing research data repository, primarily in fighting crime and terrorism, but also considering applications in infrastructure resilience, border management, and disaster resilience. The roadmap assesses whether the repository should be centralized or distributed, how to handle "aging" data, and how to efficiently exchange data among projects, considering security R&I specificities.

The developed data repository should enable the security community (researchers, practitioners, industry, policymakers) to access a scientifically satisfactory amount of up-to-date, high-quality, and realistic data used to develop reliable tools, technologies, and solutions for security research and innovation. It should also be useful for verifying and validating new innovative security solutions.

Proposals should address the following aspects, building on LAGO's outcomes:

What exact types of data should be stored in the repository.
Interoperability with existing operational systems.
Interoperability/compatibility with the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC), the TESSERA project, and other relevant architectures and initiatives like European Data Spaces or GAIA-X.
How to search for data.
Data models for security research and harmonizing data formats.
Concept of operations for the use of the repository by/during EU-funded security R&I projects, including modalities of use and user profiles/schemes.
Legal issues, avoidance of bias, accessibility levels related to data sensitivity, solutions for annotation, and solutions for data aging.

Proposals should include extensive testing and evaluation (verification and validation) in cooperation with ongoing projects that will access, populate, and use the repository. They should also develop an exploitation and sustainability plan, including funding instruments for operationalizing the repository and maintaining it after the project's lifetime. Coordination with existing platforms or domain-specific data repositories is strongly recommended, to explore adherence to larger systems like EOSC.

The repository must adopt sound security practices, such as comprehensive access rules, digital signatures, and multi-factor authentication, and implement security measures like anonymization of personal data. It should preserve research data relevant to various security research domains, such as fighting crime and terrorism, infrastructure resilience, border management, and disaster resilience. The repository should be operational and tested for at least one year before the project ends. Data sharing should be based on the principle of "as open as possible, as closed as necessary," with efforts made to ensure data is FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Re-usable). All system features and functioning must comply with privacy and data protection requirements.

Projects should consider relevant activities and initiatives for ensuring and improving the quality of scientific software and code, such as those funded under HORIZON-INFRA-2023-EOSC-01-02. The integration of the gender dimension should be addressed if relevant. The maximum estimated project duration is 3 years.

The call specifies several general conditions related to admissibility, eligible countries, financial and operational capacity, evaluation and award processes, and legal and financial setup, referencing various annexes and guides within the Horizon Europe framework. Specific conditions are described in the work program.

Application forms, evaluation forms, model grant agreements, and additional documents, including the Horizon Europe Work Programme, Programme Guide, Financial Regulation, and rules for legal entity validation, are available on the Funding & Tenders Portal.

The budget overview lists various topics under the Civil Security for Society call, including HORIZON-CL3-2025-01-SSRI-05, with a budget of 3,000,000 EUR and an indicative number of 1 grant. The opening date for submissions is planned for 12 June 2025, and the deadline is 12 November 2025.

Partner search announcements are available on the portal, and the submission system is planned to open on the specified date. General FAQs and support resources are also provided.

In summary, this Horizon Europe call aims to establish a sustainable and interoperable data repository for security research and innovation, ensuring that valuable data is preserved, shared, and reused to enhance security practices and innovation across Europe. It builds upon the LAGO project and emphasizes FAIR data principles, security, and compliance with data protection regulations.

Eligible Applicant Types: The eligible applicant types are not explicitly stated, but based on the context, eligible applicants likely include researchers, practitioners, industry, and policymakers. The call is open to entities from EU member states, associated countries, and potentially non-EU/non-associated countries with specific funding provisions, as detailed in Annex B of the Work Programme General Annexes and the Horizon Europe Programme Guide.

Funding Type: The funding type is a grant, specifically a HORIZON Innovation Action (HORIZON-IA) under the Horizon Europe program.

Consortium Requirement: The opportunity does not explicitly state whether a single applicant or a consortium is required. However, given the scope and complexity of the project, a consortium is highly probable. Partner search announcements are available, suggesting that consortia are expected.

Beneficiary Scope (Geographic Eligibility): The geographic eligibility includes EU member states and associated countries. A number of non-EU/non-Associated Countries that are not automatically eligible for funding have made specific provisions for making funding available for their participants in Horizon Europe projects. See the information in the Horizon Europe Programme Guide.

Target Sector: The target sector is civil security for society, with a focus on data management, security research, disaster risk management, fighting crime and terrorism, infrastructure resilience, and border management. It also touches on ICT, artificial intelligence, and big data.

Mentioned Countries: The opportunity mentions Europe and European countries in general, as well as non-EU/non-Associated Countries.

Project Stage: The project stage is development and demonstration, with an emphasis on creating a fully functional and operational data repository. The repository should be operational to be tested for at least one year before the project ends.

Funding Amount: The budget for the HORIZON-CL3-2025-01-SSRI-05 topic is EUR 3,000,000. The indicative number of grants is 1, suggesting a funding amount of around EUR 3,000,000 per project.

Application Type: The application type is a single-stage call.

Nature of Support: The beneficiaries will receive money in the form of a grant.

Application Stages: The application process is a single-stage process.

Success Rates: The success rates are not explicitly mentioned, but the indicative number of grants and the budget can provide some insight. For HORIZON-CL3-2025-01-SSRI-05, with a budget of EUR 3,000,000 and an indicative number of 1 grant, the success rate is likely to be below 10% given the competitiveness of Horizon Europe calls.

Co-funding Requirement: The information does not explicitly state whether co-funding is required.

Summary: This Horizon Europe call, HORIZON-CL3-2025-01-SSRI-05, focuses on establishing a data repository for security research and innovation. The primary goal is to prevent the loss of valuable data generated by security and disaster risk research projects by creating a centralized, accessible, and sustainable repository. This repository aims to enhance data interoperability, promote data reuse, and improve collaboration among researchers, practitioners, industry, and policymakers. The project should build upon the existing LAGO project's roadmap and address key aspects such as data types, interoperability with other systems (e.g., EOSC, TESSERA), data searchability, data models, legal issues, and data aging. The successful proposal should develop an operational repository, conduct extensive testing, and create a sustainability plan. The funding is provided as a Horizon Innovation Action grant, with a budget of approximately EUR 3,000,000 and a project duration of up to 3 years. Eligible applicants include researchers, practitioners, industry, and policymakers from EU member states, associated countries, and potentially non-EU/non-associated countries with specific funding provisions. The call emphasizes the importance of FAIR data principles and adherence to ethical and legal requirements. The opening date is planned for 12 June 2025, with a deadline of 12 November 2025.