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

excellence alone. Such systems are socially dependable and thus capable of evoking an experience of security. Similarly,
trust issues form the scope of a number of border security issues. Documents and data, practices must be reliable across
cultures and national borders. Programmes such as the ‘registered traveller’ must hold the confi dence of users that they are
fair and just. Information transparency in security matters is not only about the trueness of available documents, but also
about the reliability of claims to transparency. The civil security challenges presented by crisis management depend highly
on the trust of the public.
Education, training and other forms of long term trust-building will be important for this eff ort. Likewise one should explore new
forms of communication between public authorities and the population, assuring e.g. coherence in public communications,
and appropriate measures for an improved cross-cultural understanding among crisis management stakeholders.
11.3 CONCLUSIONS
A holistic approach to security research and innovation must include eff orts to ensure that the social, cultural, legal and
political aspects of security are taken into account. Research programmes should refl ect relevant ESRIF key messages, and thus
promote overall “societal coherence”.
This could be achieved by working for
Societal Security
Human beings are at the core of security processes
Societal Resilience
Certain risks cannot be catered for, nor avoided. Societies must prepare to face shocks and have the ability to recover
Trust
Assuring security implies nurturing trust among people, institutions and technologies
Awareness raising through education and training
Security is a common responsibility of all stakeholders; the citizen is at the forefront
Interoperability
Interoperability in multiple dimensions is essential to allow security providers to work together
The overall societal security system is only as robust as its weakest link, and in meeting societal resilience needs, human and
organisational aspects have proven themselves, on frequent occasions to be the weakest link. It is therefore recommended
that technological research and development projects awarded under the future security research programme should be
evaluated also against the criteria of how well they take into account the triangle of mutual dependency of technology,
organisational dynamics and human limitations.
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