I527-290 ESRIF Final Report (WEB).indd - European Commission

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9.2 Challenges
Already in its intermediate report on mid term challenges and in line with the tasks given in the ESRIF Terms of Reference, ESRIF
WG 9 identifi ed a number of challenges to be further explored and analysed with representatives of all stakeholders during
the course of its work.
9.2.1 Challenge to map competences
For the strengthening of its security structures and infrastructures, Europe can rely on strong in-house technological and
industrial competences. In order to understand and value the European Security Technological and Industrial Base (STIB), it
is an important fi rst step to map these competences, covering all relevant technology, system and service areas, all types of
technical and industrial players and all EU-27 Member States. Such a mapping will allow the identifi cation of the strengths and
weaknesses of the STIB and will support the policy makers in defi ning the research, technology and development priorities for
the EU, strengthening its technological capacity, and developing new competences where deemed necessary for the security
interests of the EU and the Member States.
In this context ESRIF WG 9 took into account the work done in the PASR-2006 supporting activity STACCATO, in particular on
the Taxonomy and the Competence database and to use these inputs as a basis for further elaboration. As further activity,
ESRIF WG 9 took up the task to consider, among others, the value of regional conferences for encouraging industries, SMEs,
research institutes as well as academia to register and to defi ne their competences in the competence database.
9.2.2 Challenge of networking
However, it is not suffi cient to describe the competences of the STIB in isolation. A broader value lies in pooling and clustering
these competences to maximize the synergy, complementarity and cross-fertilization between diff erent technologies, players,
stakeholders and services.
In this context, the ESRIF WG 9 considered it important to, among others, explore and assess the potential value of Centres of
Excellence in the security domain.
9.2.3 Challenge of an appropriate legal context and framework
The security market is drawing on the requirements of the defence market and at the same time has to comply with regulations,
processes and specifi cations of the civil market. In addition, it is strongly governed by national rules and regulations, which
could require a European harmonisation.
It is important to understand the diff erent rules, conditions and regulations that govern the security market. In order to
achieve this, ESRIF WG 9 took up the task of analysing already existing rules, conditions and regulations and – in a second
step – performing a gap-analysis to identify which new rules and regulations are required and which existing rules needed
to be modifi ed or abolished.
9.2.4 Challenge of standardization processes and standards to organize the market
The market for security solutions in Europe is highly fragmented and this fragmentation hinders the STIB in exploiting its
overall potential and accessing market opportunities in a more eff ective way. There is a need to make a thorough analysis of
the security market conditions, looking more closely to the demand side, and in particular to consider the role of standards
and standardization as processes for organizing the market.
ESRIF WG 9 identifi ed the importance to address these issues and in particular to explore the value of a European Security Label.
9.2.5 Challenge to reach out to end-users
The end-user community is much dispersed, fragmented and consists of a large variety of stakeholders, be it public institutions
and agencies, ministries, policy makers or be it private users such as transportation companies, electricity distributors, critical
infrastructures, etc. It is diffi cult to identify the end-users and even more a challenge to convince the end-users to support in
general the work of ESRIF and more specifi cally concrete research projects.
ESRIF FINAL REPORT - PART 2 • Working Group: Innovation Issues