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BDE-Secure societies - protecting freedom and security of Europe and its citizens Community Group

This group closed in April 2016; work has moved to the Big Data Europe Community Group.

This is one of 7 Community Groups established under the BigDataEurope Project, a Coordination and Support Action under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Programme, each one tailored to a specific Societal Challenge. The discussions in this group will be used to design and realise the ICT infrastructure needed to benefit from big data technologies, maximising the opportunities of the latest European RTD developments, including multilingual data harvesting, data analytics, and data visualisation.

This Community Group is specifically interested in the challenge related to secure societies - protecting freedom and security of Europe and its citizens, and is lead by the European Union Satellite Centre (SatCen).

This group will not publish specifications.

Group's public email, repo and wiki activity over time

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BigDataEurope Workshop on H2020 societal challenge Secure Societies

Chairs, when logged in, may publish draft and final reports. Please see report requirements.

This group does not have a Chair and thus cannot publish new reports. Learn how to choose a Chair.

Introducing the BDE societal challenges: Secure Societies

The Horizon 2020 programme reflects the policy priorities of the Europe 2020 strategy and addresses major concerns shared by citizens in Europe and elsewhere. The programme identified seven challenges.

The Societal Challenge “Secure Societies” is one of the challenges and its primary aims are:

  • to enhance the resilience of our society against natural and man-made disasters, ranging from the development of new crisis management tools to communication interoperability, and to develop novel solutions for the protection of critical infrastructure;
  • to fight crime and terrorism ranging from new forensic tools to protection against explosives;
  • to improve border security, ranging from improved maritime border protection to supply chain security and to support the Union’s external security policies including through conflict prevention and peace building;
  • to provide enhanced cyber-security, ranging from secure information sharing to new assurance models.

This Challenge should bring together all security stakeholders: industry – including SMEs, research organisations, universities, as well as public authorities, non-governmental organisations and public and private organisations in the security domain. The active involvement of end-users is of high importance. The Secure Societies Challenge will contribute to the implementation of the policy goals of the Europe 2020 strategy, the Security Industrial Policy, the Internal Security Strategy and the Cyber Security Strategy.

In the frame of the H2020 BigDataEurope project, the EU SatCen is the partner responsible for the “Secure Societies” societal challenge. The mission of the EU SatCen is to support the decision making and actions of the EU in the field of the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) by providing products and services resulting from the exploitation of relevant space assets and collateral data. Thus the EU SatCen can represent in the framework of the BigDataEurope project, and in line with the Secure Societies H2020 Societal Challenge, the Stakeholders involved in the decision-making process of the EU in the CFSP field.

The data used for space and security applications complied with the definition of Big Data in terms of:

  • Volume – Data received each day from satellites are on the order of terabytes (the sole Sentinel 1 and Sentinel 2 will deliver 2.6 Tb of images per day);
  • Variety – Data are coming from different sensors in orbit on several governmental and commercial satellites;
  • Velocity – Data have to be delivered and processed in a short time frame to allow providing users requiring fast responses with 24/7 information;
  • Veracity – Decision making and operations require reliable sources;
  • Value – Information to be provided has to be useful and clear.

Moreover datasets to be used for security applications can be composed not only by satellite data but also by aerial imagery (e.g. from Remotely Piloted Vehicles), data from intelligence sources (e.g. GEOINT, HUMINT and OSINT), in-situ data and data from other sources (e.g. media, public data, web-based communities, user-generated content, Automatic Identification Systems –AIS- data, phone communications, video sharing sites, wikis, blogs and publicly available sources).

The massive amount of data related to specific positions on the Earth’s surface has been defined as Spatial Big Data; new challenges in hardware and software developments, data analysis, data management, data exploitation and information extraction have therefore to be faced.

SatCen is currently building a “secure societies” community, gathering its user requirements in order to develop a technical Big Data platform implementing relevant demonstration applications/pilots coordinated with the University of Athens, the secure societies technical partner. The security community has been building through several events, as yearly workshops (the first workshop was held in Brussels on 30th of September 2015), hang-out webinars and discussions in the frame of SatCen internal events and participations to conferences, workshops and other H2020 projects.  The so far collected users’ requirements led to the development of the first pilot, where particular importance has been given to the integration and fusion of data from remote and social sensing in order to add value to the current data exploitation practices.

To engage with the BigDataEurope project:

  • Subscribe to the BigDataEurope Newsletter;
  • Participate to other planned BigDataEurope events as stakeholders workshops, webinars and hang-outs;
  • Follow us on the Social Media (Twitter, LinkedIn);
  • Participate in one of the BigDataEurope Pilots (please contact us directly for details).

Online hang-out “Big Data in Secure Societies” outcome

The EU SatCen organised the 18th of November 2015 (11.30-12-30 CET) an hang-out session on “Big Data in the security domain” in the framework of the BigDataEurope (BDE) project with regard to the “Secure Societies” Horizon 2020 Societal Challenge. This webinar was the first of a scheduled series in the BDE project for the Secure Societies domain and it has been followed by members of SMEs, universities and public entities from Europe. The aim was to give some details on the use of Big Data in Secure Societies and on the recent developments in the framework of the BDE project with regard to this societal challenge.

The first presentation was delivered by Sergio Albani (SatCen), Secure Societies domain leader; his presentation highlighted the role of SatCen in the BDE project and the SatCen Big Data activities addressing the “Secure Societies” challenge. The second presentation was delivered by Michele Lazzarini (SatCen) who showed how SatCen is collecting requirements on Big Data management and exploitation from relevant stakeholders. The webinar was concluded by the presentation of George Papadakis (University of Athens), who illustrated how the requirements of the Secure Societies community are currently taken into account in implementing a relevant pilot in the BDE Big Data platform.

Presentations are available on BDE website and BDE slideshare page.

BigDataEurope first workshop on “Big Data in Secure Societies” outcome

The 1st workshop on Big Data in Secure Societies, organised by the EU SatCen in the framework of the BigDataEurope project, was held in Brussels on the 30th of September.The aim of the workshop was to discuss on Big Data needs, requirements and use cases in the security domain contributing to the building of a Security Community through interactive sessions with the audience.

The workshop was a success with 45 people coming from the European Commission (DG CNECT, DG HOME, DG GROW, DG RTD), JRC, EDA, EUROPOL, Frontex, ESA, DLR, CDTI, ASD-EUROSPACE, EARSC and a number of other entities and private companies covering the domains of Space and Security, Fight against Crime and Cybersecurity.

Keynote speeches were delivered by representatives from the European Commission and EUROPOL-EC3 as well as by the BigDataEurope Project Coordinator and the Secure Societies Domain Leader.

Final report (below), presentations and photos are now available.

 

We would also like to draw your attention to other ways you can engage with the BigDataEurope project:

  • Visit the BigDataEurope website to keep in touch with the latest project developments;
  • Subscribe to the BigDataEurope Newsletter;
  • Join the Secure Societies group or others you are interested within the established W3C Community Groups;
  • Participate to other planned BigDataEurope events as stakeholders workshops, webinars and hang-outs;
  • Participate to the webinar on the Secure Societies challenge which will be held the 18th of November 2015 at 11.30 CET;
  • Follow us on the Social Media (Twitter, LinkedIn);
  • Participate in one of the BigDataEurope Pilots (please contact us directly for details).

WS7.1SecureSocietiesReport

2016 Conference on Big Data from Space (BiDS’16) – call for abstracts –

The Big Data from Space conference (jointly organised by ESA, SatCen and JRC) aims at bringing together researchers, engineers and users working in the area of Big Data from Space. The 1st edition, held at ESA-ESRIN in October 2014, was a success with nearly 400 participants coming from more than 25 different countries.
The 2nd edition will be held in Tenerife in March 2016 and will include a scenario on Space and Security.
Deadline for abstract submission is 30 October 2015.
For more information, visit the conference webpage.

Objectives

The main objectives of Big Data from Space Conference are:

  1. Identify priorities for research, technology development and innovation;
  2. Widen competences and expertise of universities, research institutes, labs, SMEs and industrial actors;
  3. Foster networking of experts and users towards better access and sharing of data, tools and resources;
  4. Leverage innovation, spin-in and spin-off of technologies, and business development arising from research and industry progress;
  5. Increase and promote the value stemming from the huge quantity of data made available nowadays (and in the future);
  6. Contribute to the EO innovation for Europe, as one of the main pillars for the Ground Segment evolution strategy.

Themes

Contributions to the Big Data from Space Conference on all the aspects related to data volume, velocity, variety, veracity and value are invited. The themes addressed by the Conference include (but are not limited to):

1)     Data Lifecycle

a)     Processing and Analysis

b)     Visualization and Visual Analytics

c)     Multi-temporal Analysis

d)     Onboard Computing, Compression and Transmission

e)     Quality, Provenance and Trust

2)     Infrastructures and Services for Big Data

a)     Storage and computing platforms

b)     Interoperability and Standards

c)     Heterogeneous Data Sources (including auxiliary and collateral data)

d)     Linked Data and Semantics

e)     Data Openness, Privacy and Security

f)     Software Defined Networking

g)      User Management and Access to Resources

3)     Big Data Scenarios

a)     Space Science and Astronomy

b)     Earth Observation

c)     Space and Security

d)     Big Data Exploitation

 

BigDataEurope Workshop on H2020 societal challenge Secure Societies

The BigDataEurope Consortium is organising a workshop on Big Data in Secure Societies, which will be held the 30th of September 2015 in Brussels at the Spanish Office of Science and Technology (SOST), Rue du Trône 62. The workshop is the first of a scheduled series within the BigDataEurope project for the H2020 Societal Challenge “Secure Societies – Protecting freedom and security of Europe and its citizens”.

Registration are now open, feel free to register here!

Objectives

By dedicated sessions on specific topics involving the main representatives from the BigDataEurope project and the Security domain, the workshop aims to:

  • Identify current and future Big Data needs and challenges in the H2020 Secure Societies Societal Challenge;
  • Contribute to the building of a Security Community aiming at collecting Big Data user requirements and sharing Big Data strategies;
  • Show and discuss real user scenarios and use cases, e.g. related to the provision of products and services in the Space and Security domain;
  • Influence the BigDataEurope project and define the pilots for the Security domain;
  • Support the design and realization of the necessary ICT infrastructure on which the deployment and use of the BigDataEurope platform will be based.

This workshop will address a wide audience comprising data users and service providers from a variety of fields in the Security domain, offering a key opportunity for Security stakeholders to participate in the BigDataEurope project and in the Big Data platform development.

Background

The “Secure Societies” Horizon 2020 Societal Challenge is related to the protection of freedom and security of Europe and its citizens.

The primary aims of the Secure Societies Challenge are: to enhance the resilience of our society against natural and man-made disasters; to develop novel solutions for the protection of critical infrastructure; to fight crime and terrorism; to improve border security; to support the Union’s external security policies; to provide enhanced cyber-security.

An example of major activity within this Societal Challenge is the provision of geospatial products and services, mainly resulting from satellite data. In fact the datasets used in the Space and Security domain comply with the definition of Big Data in terms of variety (Earth Observation data, aerial imagery and collateral data), volume (several governmental and commercial satellites are currently in orbit), velocity (24/7 availability to users requiring fast responses), veracity (decision making and operations require reliable sources) and value (provision of useful and clear information).

BigDataEurope will provide support mechanisms for all the major aspects of a data value chain, in terms of employed data and technology assets, the participating roles and the established or evolving processes. BigDataEurope will engage with a diverse range of stakeholder groups representing the Horizon 2020 Societal Challenges and implement a Big Data Aggregator Platform Infrastructure comprising key open-source Big Data technologies for real-time and batch processing to meet their requirements.

 

Other Info

Contact

Sergio Albani (EU SatCen): Secure Societies Domain Leader

Opportunities to Engage

There are many other opportunities for stakeholders to engage with the work being undertaken by BigDataEurope, including:

Call for Participation in BDE-Secure societies – protecting freedom and security of Europe and its citizens Community Group

The BDE-Secure societies – protecting freedom and security of Europe and its citizens Community Group has been launched:


This is one of 7 Community Groups established under the BigDataEurope Project, a Coordination and Support Action under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Programme, each one tailored to a specific Societal Challenge. The discussions in this group will be used to design and realise the ICT infrastructure needed to benefit from big data technologies, maximising the opportunities of the latest European RTD developments, including multilingual data harvesting, data analytics, and data visualisation.

This Community Group is specifically interested in the challenge related to secure societies – protecting freedom and security of Europe and its citizens, and is lead by the European Union Satellite Centre (SatCen).

This group will not publish specifications.


In order to join the group, you will need a W3C account. Please note, however, that W3C Membership is not required to join a Community Group.

This is a community initiative. This group was originally proposed on 2015-04-22 by Phil Archer. The following people supported its creation: Phil Archer, Martin Kaltenböck, George Papadakis, Simon Scerri, Vangelis Karkaletsis. W3C’s hosting of this group does not imply endorsement of the activities.

The group must now choose a chair. Read more about how to get started in a new group and good practice for running a group.

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Thank you,
W3C Community Development Team