European research projects involving the UIC Security Division
Why?
The main role of the security division is to meet the requirements of UIC members in matters of security and, with regard to technology, support (if not defend) their needs and priorities vis-à-vis the supply industry. In particular, the division represents members through European projects, where the aim is to pool efforts in the general interest.
The security division strives to anticipate members’ needs and to respond by pooling their research efforts, thus enabling members to benefit from progress made in the area of research while spending less.
How?
The range of projects in which the security division is involved focuses on current and innovative issues within the field of security, addressing topics such as cyber crime, crisis management, media management in crisis situations, human and organisational factors, and security culture. This therefore helps to consolidate knowledge, developments in new technology and innovative concepts both from a technological as well as a human and organisational standpoint.
In practice, the security division coordinates and/or has an active role in several European project and has positioned itself strategically with regard to future projects. The division can have a number of roles: disseminating results, or positioning itself more strategically, particularly on subjects where the outcomes may impact the railways; it also acts as project coordinator when required, with the aim of defending and providing for the needs of members.
SAFETRAVELLERS has received funding from European Union’s Horizon Europe Framework Programme under Grant Agreement N°101121269
The project is on-going
DURATION January 2024 – December 2026
CONSORTIUM
CONTEXT Identity theft is a growing concern worldwide, affecting millions of individuals and causing significant financial losses. In the European Union, this problem is particularly evident, with a rising number of citizens falling victim to sophisticated fraudulent schemes. Recent statistics indicate that 56% of Europeans have encountered some form of fraud in the past two years alone. One area of particular concern is the manipulation and counterfeiting of security documents, which enables transnational crime and poses significant challenges for law enforcement.
AIM
Enhance border security, improve the effectiveness of border authorities and law enforcement agencies (LEAs), and ensure a seamless travel experience for EU and third-country national (TCN) citizens.
OBJECTIVES SafeTravellers offers a comprehensive solution to these challenges by focusing on three key objectives: a) Strengthening border security through the implementation of advanced tools to combat identity fraud at the hardware, identity document, and biometric levels. b) Enhancing the productivity of border authorities and LEAs by providing them with the necessary technology and resources to detect and prevent fraudulent activities more effectively. c) Facilitating frictionless border crossings for EU and TCN citizens by introducing a new method of citizen identification based on multiple biometrics and improving existing identity verification processes.
SafeTravellers prioritizes data privacy and compliance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The proposed solution incorporates various privacy-preserving mechanisms to safeguard citizens' rights and ensure that personal data, particularly biometric information, remains protected.
ADDED VALUE FOR RAIL
Through the establishment of a distributed European Multi-Biometric Data Space, SafeTravellers enables Member States to retain control over the personal data of their nationals while enabling seamless cross-border identity checks, including railway transportation, without the need to transfer or disclose sensitive biometric data. This approach ensures both enhanced security and privacy protection for individuals traveling within the EU.
WEBSITE: https://safetravellers-project.eu/
The project is on-going
IMPRESS aims at improving the protection of stations and trains by developing security training and awareness programmes for all stakeholders in rail stations and on trains. The scope of the training includes security culture in general, with a wide range of significant threats for several European rail operators, and CBRNe (Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear and explosive) threats specifically, which represent a more challenging scenario. The IMPRESS project will focus on the ‘immediate responders’ from the railway environment, or those who are most likely to be the first to prevent or react to a security incident when it occurs on railway premises. This target group of end-users includes rail staff at stations and onboard trains, security staff, staff from station shops, cleaning staff as well as other service providers.
CONSORTIUM
MAIN OBJECTIVES
EXPECTED RESULTS
Website: https://impress-rail-project.eu/
This project has received funding from the European Union's Digital Europe Programme under grant agreement No 101100733.
CONSORTIUM
AIMS
This project aims to propose a novel training program to develop a cybersecurity innovation DNA and support companies in transport and manufacturing to respond to and mitigate cybersecurity threats and attacks.
Starting from the analysis of current needs and future cyber threat scenarios the project aims to create personalized cybersecurity training and assessment methodology for employees and professionals in the two sectors.
MAIN OBJECTIVES
The EU-funded project CYRUS will bring added value to the rail industry by enhancing cybersecurity measures and promoting a culture of cybersecurity. With the increasing risk of cyberattacks due to digital transformation, the project will raise awareness for cyber threats, reduce the effects associated with cyberattacks, and provide tailored training to mitigate cyber risks within the rail industry.
By offering novel training systems, using innovative methods for training implementation, and providing virtualization-dedicated cyber-range simulations, CYRUS will upskill staff, boost cybersecurity competencies, and develop a robust innovation DNA on cybersecurity in European organizations.
Website: https://research.dblue.it/cyrus-project/
ODYSSEUS has received funding from European Union’s Horizon Europe Innovation Programme under Grant Agreement N°101073910.
The project is on-going
DURATION
1 January 2023 - 31 December 2025
CONSORTIUM
AIM
The ODYSSEUS European project aims to enhance the experience of border crossing for travelers and border authorities’ staff while keeping secure and tracking the movements across external water and land borders of the EU. This initiative aims to protect passengers’ fundamental rights while promoting the security and integrity of the European space by minimizing unauthorized cross-border movements of people and goods.
ODYSSEUS also intends to optimize the safety of customs and supply chain by improving the prevention, detection, deterrence, and fight against crime involving goods flows across EU external border crossing points and through the supply chain, reducing disruption to trade flows.
OBJECTIVES
ADDED VALUE FOR RAIL
WEBSITE: https://odysseusproject.eu/
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 883532.
DURATION
1 October 2020 - 30 September 2022
CONSORTIUM
The SAFETY4RAILS Consortium is led by Fraunhofer and composed of 31 partners from 13 different countries (Germany, France, Spain, Turkey, Italy, Belgium, Switzerland, United Kingdom, Greece, Finland, Hungary, Israel and Netherlands).
They represent railway operators, railway infrastructure managers, research centres, academia and industry suppliers and bring a range of complementary skills required for this multidisciplinary project.
SAFETY4RAILS AIM
Railways and Metros are safe, efficient, reliable and environmentally friendly mass carriers, and they are becoming even more important means of transportation given the need to address climate change.
However, being such critical infrastructures turns metro and railway operators as well as related intermodal transport operators into attractive targets for cyber and/or physical attacks.
The SAFETY4RAILS project will deliver methods and systems to increase the safety and recovery of track-based inter-city railway and intra-city metro transportation.
It addresses both cyber-only attacks (such as impact from WannaCry infections), physical-only attacks (such as the Madrid commuter trains bombing in 2014) and combined cyber-physical attacks, which an important emerging scenario are given increasing IoT infrastructure integration.
When an incident occurs during heavy usage, metro and railway operators have to consider many aspects to ensure passenger safety and security. SAFETY4RAILS will improve the handling of such events through a holistic approach.
MAIN OBJECTIVES
To develop and validate with end-users the SAFETY4RAILS Information System (S4RIS) - an ethically conform module platform supporting rail/metro operators (together with their partners and customers) to increase resilience of multimodal transport infrastructure, specifically for combined cyber-physical threats, through:
ADDED VALUE FOR RAIL S4RIS will support managers of railways, metros, and other critical infrastructures
Website: https://safety4rails.eu/
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement no. 832981.
DURATION
1 May 2019 - 31 June 2022
CONSORTIUM
Coordinator: UIC Security Division Partners:
PROACTIVE AIM
Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear and explosive (CBRNe) incidents can have a high impact on society. The main goal of the PROACTIVE project is to enhance preparedness against and response to a CBRNe incident through a better harmonisation of procedures between various categories of practitioners, and a better understanding of the needs of vulnerable citizen groups. A Practitioner Stakeholder Advisory Board (PSAB) and a Civil Society Advisory Board (CSAB) have been created and are under continuous expansion. The project activities include systematic reviews, surveys, focus-groups, workshops and three field exercises (jointly with project eNotice) in which the PSAB and CSAB will be engaged.
MAIN OBJECTIVES
ADDED VALUE FOR RAIL
PROACTIVE Project results will be disseminated through the UIC Rail Security Hub, an online platform where users will be able to easily retrieve information on security solutions, provide inputs and share comments and operational experiences.
WEBSITE: https://proactive-h2020.eu
The project has received funding from the European Union’s Internal Security Fund Police under the grant agreement Nr 815347
DURATION
1 November 2018 - 31 October 2020
CONSORTIUM
SHERPA AIM Terrorist attacks carried out in the latest years showed an alarming increase of indiscriminate violent actions carried out against civilians gathering in public spaces. Railways, due to their inherent nature of open systems and critical infrastructures, need solid layers of protection as they might be a target for such attacks.
SHERPA aims to improve the overall protection level for stations and trains in Europe against terrorist attacks by filling the current knowledge gaps about the phenomenon and implementing multiple synergistic actions towards the relevant stakeholders.
MAIN OBJECTIVES:
ADDED VALUE FOR RAIL
SHERPA Project results will be disseminated through the UIC Rail Security Hub, an online platform where users will be able to easily retrieve information on security solutions, provide inputs and share comments and operational experiences.
WEBSITE: https://sherpa-rail-project.eu
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 723205
DURATION
1 May 2017 - 30 April 2020
CONSORTIUM
17 partners from 11 countries
SAFER-LC Aim Over the past few years, there is one person killed and close to one seriously injured every day on level crossings. Therefore, SAFER-LC aims to improve safety and minimize risk by developing a fully-integrated cross-modal set of innovative solutions and tools for the proactive management and design of level-crossing infrastructure.
Main objectives
Added value for rail
Website: https://safer-lc.eu
CYRail project has received funding from the Shift2Rail Joint Undertaking under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 730843 addressing the topic "Threat detection and profile protection definition for cybersecurity assessment.
Duration
1 October 2016 - 30 September 2018
Consortium
6 partners from 5 countries (DE, FR, PT, ES, SE) :
CYRAIL project Objectives
The main technical objectives are:
Description
Railway infrastructures are moving towards more intelligent, connected, usercentric and collaborative systems. While they bring many advantages for the industry and users, they also pose new opportunities for cyber-criminals and terrorists.
In this context, CYRAIL is a collaborative project funded by the European Commission as part of the call for proposals under the Shift2Rail programme for Rail Research and Innovation (R&I), addressing the topic “Threat detection and profile protection definition for cybersecurity assessment”.
An analysis of threats targeting railway infrastructures will be developed as well as innovative, attack detection and alert techniques. Adapted mitigation plans and countermeasures will be defined, taking into account their potential impact on operations. Protection profiles for railway control and signalling applications will be delivered to ensure security by design of new rail infrastructures.
Benefits for rail CYRAIL will have a significant impact on enhancing the operational security level of the different rail segments and the robustness of the railway information, control and signalling sub-systems. With the challenge of boosting innovative and cost-efficient technologies and system for railway signalling, traffic control and automation with an ever increasing reliance on communications technologies, CYRAIL will contribute to the prevention of cyber-attacks, improving the operational security level of the different rail segments
Website: https://cyrail.eu
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grand agreement No653676
Framework of Bodega BODEGA (BOrDErGuArd) is a three-year research project selected in the EU’ Framework Programme for Research and Innovation - Horizon 2020 within the topic BES-14-2014: Ethical Societal Dimension, Human factors in border control - Proactive Enhancement of Human Performance in Border Control. The aim of the project is to build an expertise at the European level about Human Factors at border lines in a way to enhance its efficiency without side effects to the end users (border control agents and managers and land, air and maritime travellers).
BODEGA project Objectives
The main objectives are:
Duration June 2015: Starting of the project for a duration of 36 months.
Consortium: Leadership: VTT (Technical Research Center of Finland) Fourteen partners from seven European countries (Austria, Belgium, France, Spain, Finland, Greece and Italy): CEA, AIT, Thales, UIC, CEIS, University of Namur, ATOS, Zanasi & Partners, Ubium, Happywise, Hellenic Border Guard, Finnish Border Guard
Involvement of UIC security divison for rail BODEGA has made the strong choice to include several important end-users, each of them being representative of the different types of border crossing which can be met in Europe: railway borders out of the Schengen area, maritime borders and their specificity in detection of goods, road borders and air borders in the Schengen area.
Within this framework, the UIC security division role will be to represent the railways in the management of the constraints related to border control, implement railway field studies and disseminate the results to the members.
This project is important for the rail sector since it will contribute to improve the efficiency and attractiveness of rail transport by facilitating the flow of regulars travelers and speeding up border crossing for regular travel saving time for these travelers.
Website: https://bodega-project.eu
Framework CIPRNet is a research project in the Seventh Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development (FP7-SEC-2012.7.4-2: Networking of researchers for a high level multi-organisational and cross-border collaboration.), 5th transport call published in July 2011.
CIPRNET project Objectives
The objectives are:
Description
The Critical Infrastructure Preparedness and Resilience Research Network (CIPRNet) will establish a Network of Excellence in Critical Infrastructure (CI) Protection R&D for its stakeholders.
CIPRNetwork will provide concrete and long-lasting support from the CIP research com-munities to the initial audience, enhancing their preparedness for CI-related emergencies, and provide knowledge and technology to other stakeholders for improving the understanding and mitigation of the consequences of CI disruptions.
Duration
1 March 2013 - 28 February 2017
Consortium
13 partners from 8 countries (BE ,CA, CH, DE, FR, IT, NL, PL) Leadership: Fraunhofer (Germany) Partners: ENEA (Italy), TNO (Netherlands), UIC (France), CEA (France), JRC (Italy), UCY (Cyprus), UTP (Poland ), UCBM (Italy), UBC (Canada), ACRIS (Switzerland)
Benefits for rail
CIPRNet will reinforce and extend the existing cooperation and integration of the CIPRNet core partners and will turn it into a long-lasting integration.
The CIPRNet consortium represents experiences with over sixty CIP-related research projects from all of the major EU funding lines. This constitutes an unprecedented assembly of excellence and top expert knowledge in the CIP research area.
In CIPRNet UIC is an end-user in the railway infrastructures sector. Additionally, UIC will actively contribute to dissemination activities to its members, within CIPRNet, and more. UIC will also add end-user perspectives from the railway transport domain on the joint research activities, the VCCC, and the definition of realistic scenarios. UIC will host one of the CIPRNet workshops with end-users.
Website: https://ciprnet.eu
Project Summary:
This summary is focused on the interests from the UIC-Members and gives them an overview about the main aspects and results from the PREDICT project. Detailed information and further material can be found on the website www.predict-project.eu.
Framework
PREDICT is a research project in the Seventh Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development (FP7-SEC-2013.4.1-2 “Better understanding of the cascading effect in crisis situations in order to improve future response and preparedness and contribute to lower damages and other unfortunate consequences”), 6th transport call published in July 2012
Description
The aim of the PREDICT project is to provide a comprehensive solution for dealing with cascading effects in multi-sectoral crisis situations covering aspects of critical infrastructures. The PREDICT solution will be composed of the following three pillars: methodologies, models and software tools. Their integrated use will increase the awareness and understanding of cascading effects by crisis response organisations, enhances their preparedness and improves their response capability to respond in case of cascading failures.
PREDICT project will start from a deep analysis of recent cases (over 8500 incidents worldwide), which will be accompanied with scenarios of potential crisis. Project partners will set up a generic approach (common framework) to prevent or mitigate cascading effects which will be applied in selected cases agreed with end-users. As modelling each phenomenon separately in a specific environment is not effective, PREDICT project will propose cohesive and comprehensive models of dependencies, cascading effects and common m ode failure which will include causal relations, multi-sectoral infrastructure elements and environment parameters, as well as the human factor aspects.
Duration
1 April 2014 - 31 March 2017
Consortium
Leadership: CEA (France) Partners: , Fraunhofer (Germany), TNO (The Netherlands), VTT (Finland), CEIS (Belgium), ITTI(Italy) ,Thales Netherlands, VRZHZ (the Netherlands), SYKE (Finland) and UIC (France).
Benefits for rail
PREDICT will deliver software tools bundled in PREDICT Incident Evolution Tool, which will consist of two core components: a Foresight and Prediction Tool (for simulation of the evolution of cascading effect and impact on multi-sectoral dependencies) and a Decision-Support Tool (for determining the best course of action and to calculate the risk associated with them).
The high-quality of the developed solutions will also be assured by the strong involvement of end-users in the project. End-users will intervene at three levels: as partners of the consortium, as members of the Advisory Board, and representatives from relevant organisations across Europe invited to regular workshops.
Website: http://predict-project.eu
Description: Protectrail is a research project in the field of security, proposed in the framework of the seventh programme for research and technological development (Call for Proposals for Security Research (FP7-SEC-2009-1) published on 3 September 2008. The task is to develop an integrated system to improve the security of rail transportation through better protection of railways and trains, and to reduce disparity in security between European railway systems. This will include the immunity of signal and power distribution systems against electromagnetic terrorism, the detection of abnormal objects on or under ballast; clearance of trains before daily use; control of access to driver’s cabin, detection of unauthorised driver; new methods/tools to isolate and secure luggage; as well as a study and tools to reduce disparity of European railway systems’ security. The action will demonstrate the potential of the European rail transportation systems for improved protection and homogeneity.
Duration: 1 September 2010 - 30 June 2014
Consortium: Leadership: ANSALDO (ASTS – IT) 29 partners (BE, DE, FR, IT, IL, LT, NL, PL, SK, TR, UK)
Benefits for rail: The ProtectRail project offered us the opportunity:
Website: http://protectrail.eu
Framework: RESTRAIL is a research project in the Seventh Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development (FP7-SST-2011-RTD1), call transport published on 20 July 2010 (Budget call: 26 millions Euros)
Main objectives:
Description of work The aim of the RESTRAIL project is to reduce:
The project starts by identifying the state of the art of best practices and research findings (inside and outside Europe) combined with an analysis of factors (internal to railways or external such as media communication) influencing the occurrence of suicides and trespasses and their consequences, based on official data sources and other collected data. This work will consider hotspots and other high risk access points such as level crossings, station platform ends and bridges.
This is followed by an assessment of existing countermeasures (technical and soft) for reducing suicides, preventing trespasses and mitigating the consequences on rail operations. Attention will then be given to the development of new approaches particularly those involving soft measures. The project will demonstrate some selected measures in order to evaluate the findings and finally develop recommendations and guidelines.
This project is led by railways since it is a rail related topic which aims to answer the concerns of the rail industry. However an essential feature of the project is the involvement of a wide range of relevant professional expert knowledge in the areas of human science and health, law enforcement, emergency services, education and social services, media and communication, road and rail. This will ensure the project output is of practical use to all who can be involved with suicides and trespasses.
The final outcome will be a toolkit, accessible through a user friendly interface (for consultation and continuous update) in order to support the decision-makers in taking practical steps to reduce suicides and trespasses and to mitigate the consequences once an event occurs.
Added value:
Duration: 1 October 2011 - 30 September 2014
Consortium:
Advisory group: SNCF, NETWORK-RAIL, RAILPOL, MOSTRA (communication agency), PTFE (Spanish railway technology platform), OSPI project, HIT, Madrid metro, Spanish general direction of traffic…
Coordinator: UIC, 16, rue Jean Rey – 75015 Paris – France
Contact: Ms Marie-Hélène Bonneau : bonneau@uic.org
Website:
SECRET project objectives:
Technical content / scope: SECRET addresses the protection of railway infrastructure against EM attacks. Railway infrastructure is an attractive target for EM attacks, because of its familiarity and ease of access, with extended economic and security consequences.
Today, the European rail network is evolving to harmonize the management system. This is reflected by new integrated technologies, adequate procedures and centralization of command centres. The new technologies facilitate the implementation of a harmonized system and improve the network competitiveness.
However, they are also highly vulnerable to EM attacks (HPM and EMP). Railway actors fear this growing EM vulnerability and have no knowledge on the extent and severity of consequences.
The risk of EM attacks is also increasing due to the higher use of interoperable systems (command/control, information systems). The harmonization of the European railway network results in a harmonized EM vulnerability. Thus, a device to generate EM attacks will have the same impact anywhere in Europe, facilitating the implementation of simultaneous EM attacks.
Meanwhile, with the proliferation of wireless systems, access to radiated emission equipment is radically democratized, which facilitates the manufacture of EM interference transmitters able to disturb the technologies used for management of the railway network.
Consortium
Duration 1 August 2012 - 30 November 2015
UIC Role
Website: https://secret-project.eu
Description Graffolution aims at building an innovative dual web-based awareness and prevention framework which involves local experts and stakeholders as well as sprayers and citizens to act together against graffiti vandalism. The framework contributes to raise the awareness on illegal graffiti and its negative consequences on individuals and the whole community.
Stakeholders such as cities, public transport services and law enforcement agencies will be enabled to share their knowledge and learn from each other to setup or adjust their graffiti vandalism prevention strategies based on reliable data and approved methods. Stakeholder collaboration and information exchange will be enforced on a national and pan-European level. The Graffolution project also places emphasis on the support of the whole community to build up access to successful alternatives for adolescents and young adults to live out their creativity without damaging public or private property.
Duration 31 March 2014 - 28 February 2016
Consortium Leadership: SYNYO GmbH, an SME based in Vienna, Austria Partners: University of Barcelona (Spain), University of Arts London (UK), Sine –Institute gGmbH (Germany), Ferroccarrills de La Generalitat de Catalunya, London Borough of Islington and UIC.
Involvement of UIC security divison for rail UIC is involved in several WPs of the project including the collection of information on European railways graffiti prevention initiatives and best practices (WP2). On WP4, UIC is involved in demonstration activities and definition of end users’ needs and expectations for the rail sector. UIC also provides support to the dissemination (WP5) of results through the UIC members wide information network.
Website: http://project.graffolution.eu
Duration 1 July 2015 - 30 June 2016
Consortium 5 partners from 3 countries (BE ,FR, DK) Leadership: CEIS (Belgium) Partners: FRS (France) , UIC (France), CRISE (France), FHFRS (Denmark)
Project description: TETRIS supports member States in their counter-terrorism strategies by developing tools allowing for a better understanding of the terrorist threats targeting railway systems and training those involved in managing the consequences of an attack.
Benefits for rail The project will deliver the following outputs:
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