European Commission Promotes Public-Private Dialogue in Security Research
ESRAB recommended the creation of a European Security Board to foster greater dialogue between public and private voices. |
As part of its objective to develop a long term perspective on European security research, the European Commission created in 2004 a “Group of Personalities”, composed of high level industrialists, members of the European Parliament, and representatives of international organisations and research institutes, chaired by then Commissioners Philippe Busquin and Erkki Liikanen.
The report of this Group of Personalities, in combination with the Commission's Communication on “Security Research: The next Steps”, led to the creation of the European Security Research Advisory Board (ESRAB) in April 2005.
As reported in CSIA's newsletter, ESRAB's final report, published in September 2006, concluded that multidisciplinary, mission-oriented research on security should be undertaken at EU level, including capability development, systems development and system-of-systems demonstration. In addition, ESRAB recommended the creation of a European Security Board to foster greater dialogue by bringing together representatives from the public and private sector to develop a strategic security agenda.
The
European Security Research and Innovation Forum (ESRIF)
had its first meeting in September and is expected
to issue a Security Research Agenda in 2009. |
A first announcement on the creation of a European Security Research and Innovation Forum (ESRIF) was made at the German Presidency Conference on Security Research in Berlin in March of this year by Commissioner Günter Verheugen responsible for Enterprise and Industry, and Commissioner Franco Frattini responsible for Justice, Freedom and Security.
The objective of ESRIF is to:
- Bring together all the relevant stakeholders to discuss issues
of cross-cutting concern
- Identify proposals for forming a strategic security
research and innovation agenda, laying out a shared and clear view of European
security research needs and priorities
- Share ideas, views and best practices in order to make better use of existing capabilities to enhance the use of technology in security-related domains.
Nominations for membership of ESRIF were carried out by the EU Member States. With the adoption of the Commission's Communication on Public-Private Dialogue in Security Research and Innovation and the first official meeting of ESRIF both in September of this year, public-private dialogue has now taken off. ESRIF is to present a Joint Security Research Agenda towards the end of 2009. The forum will be chaired by Gijs de Vries, who served before as the EU counter terrorism coordinator.
Further information can be found here: http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/newsroom/cf/newsbytheme.cfm?displayType=news&tpa;_id=168