News

#CREST Project’s final review in #Brussels has been concluded with huge success! The outputs of the project were met with enthusiasm. Consortium partners are now ready to take #CREST to the next stage, by bringing its tools to the #security #market and making them available for #LEAs!

CREST Final Conference, Athens and Online, 21-22 February, 2023

The final two-day #conference of the #CREST project has been very successful! After the #KEMEA organisers started the conference by welcoming all participants both in Athens and online, #CREST coordinator Mr. Ovidiu Dumitrache (# SPP) and Mr. George Kalpakis (#CERTH) who represents the scientific manager of CREST provided the audience with an overview of the project. Mr. Eugen Badea (#SPP) and Mr. Ovidiu Dumitrache present the results of the first pilot use case ‘Protection of public figures in motorcades and public spaces’. Then, Mr. Tobias Mattes from #BayHfoed provided participants with an overview of the second pilot use case ‘Counter terrorism security in crowded areas’, followed by Ms. Monika Weinbuch (# MPD) and Ms. Sylvie Dias (#PJ) who presented to the attendees the outputs of the third pilot use case ‘Cross-border fight against organized crime’. Our invited guest Ms. Eva Škruba from the European Anti-Cybercrime Technology Development Association – #EACTDA presented the Tools4LEAs project, which constitutes a new exploitation path for security research results. Next, Mr. Jeremy Kespite from #Europol took the stand to showcase Europol’s Innovation Labs and the pertinent Repository of Tools. The first day came to an end with presentations of sister projects: #ODYSSEUS, #STARLIGHT, #COUNTER, #CTC, and #LAW GAME.

The second day kicked off with the Panel Discussion: “Learning from CREST. Best practices, challenges, and limitations”, moderated by Mr. Ovidiu Dumitrache. Panelists Mr. Eugen Badea (#SPP) Mr. George Kalpakis (#CERTH) Ms. Katerina Polychronopoulos (#UNIVIE) Mr. Eddie Schneid (#Motorola Solutions Israel Ltd – MSIL) and Mr. Kostas Chaintoutis (#Hellenic Police – ELAS) exchanged fruitful insights with the audience. Next, Mr. Levent Altan (Exec. Director, of Victim Support Europe – #VSE) talked about “Addressing the needs of victims as a core element of counter-terrorism responses”. This successful two-day #Conference closed with the concluding remarks of Mr. Ovidiu Dumitrache (#SPP) and Mr. George Kalpakis (#CERTH).

#crest #crestconference #security #IoT #euproject #publicspacesprotection #crossbordercrime #counterterrorism

3rd Iteration of CREST PUC1, Snagov, 2023

The third iteration of #CREST #PUC 1 took place in #Snagov, Romania, during the week of 6-10 February, 2023, organised by #SPP. The set-up, technical preparation, and training during the first three days, produced a flawless execution of PUC1 during the fourth and fifth day. All four scenarios ran smoothly and successfully, followed by the pertinent evaluation as well as a presentation of the #CREST Platform to invited #LEAs.

3rd Iteration of CREST PUCs 2 and 3, Lisbon, 2023

The third iteration of #CREST PUCs 2 and 3 took place in Lisbon, Portugal during the week of 16-20 January, 2023, organised by #PJ, #BAYHFoeD, and #MPD. The preparation and execution of the PUCs has been very successful, as the suggestions for improvement that were gathered during the previous two iterations were incorporated and implemented in the final one. Further, it has been obvious that since the first – and the second -iteration capabilities have increased and the needs of end users have been met. The CREST platform proved to be beneficial for the scenarios the two PUCs as it added essential advantages to the existing systems. LEA experts, academia, and industry offered their insights and provided substantial feedback during each stage of preparation and execution, taking advantage of the feedback that has been provided to the technical partners on how to optimise their technical solutions.

3rd CREST workshop, online, December 7, 2022

The Polícia Judiciária organised a fruitful workshop online, where valuable insights were shared in the topic “Crime & Terrorism & Prevention – Technology: Tools for Police”. More than forty (40) participants participated actively in this event, offering their significant expertise and experience. One of CREST project’s overarching goals is to contribute to advance Law Enforcement Agencies’ (LEAs) work through technological tools improvements as well as to shape an important dialogue about Terrorism in society at large.

2nd CREST Workshop conclusion, Munich, October 13, 2022

The 2nd #CREST workshop on the future of securely exchanging information took place online with more than 50 participants from LEAs, the scientific community as well as technical experts hosted by the Munich Police Department and the University of Applied Sciences for Public Service in Bavaria, Department of Policing. The workshop focused on the status quo of secure exchange of information (e.g. digital evidence), the developments in general and of the CREST modules in particular. A lively panel discussion with experts from LEAs, Europol and technical experts was complemented by CREST project presentations. The outcome was a greater understanding of the steps involved in the process of sending information as well as of the synergies that other Horizon projects and institutions (e.g. Eurojust) could bring for further developments.

#crest #workshop #fct #informationexchange

2nd CREST Workshop, October 13, 2022

We are happy to invite you to our 2nd #CREST workshop, which will take place online on October 13th, hosted by the Munich Police Department and the University of Applied Sciences for Public Service in Bavaria, Department of Policing. Join in and discuss with us on the topic of Harnessing cutting-edge technologies for fighting crime and terrorism in cross-border cooperation: secure exchange of information. Please find below the link for the event and the workshop’s agenda! #CREST #workshop #fct #informationexchange

LogIn Details for Online Participation

Meeting Platform: MS-Teams  

The 1st #CREST #Workshop titled “Emerging technologies for fighting crime and terrorism: opportunities & challenges” was organised by SPP on June 10, 2022 at the University Politehnica of Bucharest – Center for Advanced Research on New Materials, Products and Innovative Processes in #Bucharest, #Romania.

The Workshop started with the presentation of CREST Project by the Coordinator Mr. Ovidiu Dumitrache and Mr. George Kalpakis, Senior Research Associate at the Centre for Research and Technology Hellas, representing the Scientific Manager of the project. Afterwards, keynote speeches where delivered by Mr. Iulian POPESCU (State secretary at the Ministry of Research, Innovation and Digitalization), Mr. Adrian CURAJ (General Director of The Executive Unit for the Financing of Higher Education, Research, Development and Innovation (UEFISCDI), Ministry of Education) and Dr. Nikolai STOIANOV (Deputy director at Bulgarian Defence Institute).

Find out more about topic discussions on the Agenda.

The Second Iteration of the Pilot Use Case 1 (PUC1) successfully took place hosted by the  # SPP  team from 6th till 9th of June, in the context of the EU  # H2020 funded project  # CREST in  #Snagov Romania.

Participants from different European  #LEA    organisations were trained in Snagov, Romania, during the PUC1 on usage of the various  # CREST  modules – crawling software, data gathering, 3D modeling, mission planning assisted by intelligent AR systems.

Initializing the parameters of the PUC and proceeding to the actual execution of the scenarios, the CREST Consortium attracted the interest of the End Users and the project Stakeholders.

CREST Project was invited and participated in RESEARCH AND INNOVATION SYMPOSIUM FOR EUROPEAN SECURITY AND DEFENCE (RISE-SD) held between 31 May – 2 June 2022, at the International Fair Plovdiv in Bulgaria.

CREST was presented on the first day of the Symposium to an audience with the participation of End Users and Decision Makers within the Security sector and atracted the interest of the participants espcially regarding the technologies implemented within the scope of the project’s Pilot Use Cases.

The goal of the symposium was to provide a forum for scientific results dissemination and knowledge exchange, as well as networking opportunities for EU-funded projects in security and defence.

As a result of the symposium there will be a platform for boosting cooperation among scientific organizations, defence industry, security and defence practitioners, policy makers, stakeholders.

The RISE-SD emphasizes the need to deepen collaboration between project teams and organizations to ensure a successful market uptake of the positive outcomes of security and defence research.

CREST project was invited to participate and to be presented in CounteR project workshop which was held online on the 20th of April, 2022. CREST project was presented in fornt of an audience of more than 55 participants representing industry and commercial actors, end-users, suppliers, service-providers, CSOs, sister projects, academia, and institutions. Members of CounteR’s consortium that includes 19 organizations from 11 Member States were also in attendance as guests or as panellists. This webinar sought to share project updates, and also experiences, and get to know the insights and perspectives of industry colleagues.

CounteR’s project manager, Cătălin TRUFIN from ASSIST Software SRL, provided opening remarks and a presentation of the project goals, objectives, milestones, and work packages. He explained that CounteR is a three-year project for supporting the fight against radicalisation that will produce an early-warning for the detection of potential radical content to prevent the spread of radicalisation online.

CREST was presented in the second part of the webinar beeinf a sister project of CounteR, by George Kalpakis, Senior Research Associate at the Centre for Research and Technology Hellas. In the project’s presentation, an overview about the CREST project was delivered, focusing mainly on its platform for prediction, prevention, operation, and investigation.

You may see the CREST presentation by clicking   here

CREST Project organized its 2-dayh plenary meeting which took place on the 9-10 March 2022 in Policia Judiciaria premises in Lisbon, Portugal in a hybrid way (physical and online).

During the first day of the plenary meeting the project Coordinator Mr. Ovidiu Dumitrache from SPP Romania along with the other 9 Workpackage Leaders delivered their presentations showcasing the progress made so far fulfilling the objectives of CREST Project.

During the second day of the meeting, the Executive Board of the project consortium examined the course of actions taken and made discussions regarding the challenges CREST project will face in the near future.

Extensive discussions and collaboration between the partners of the Consortium planned the next steps regarding the Pilot Use Casesimplementation to assure the successful course of CREST Project.

As the CONNEXIONs project came to its end in February 2022, the CONNEXIONs Final Conference took place between 23rd and 24th of February 2022 in Lisbon, Portugal.

.The Final event of CONNEXIONs was hosted by Polícia Judiciária and took place in a hybrid (physical/online) manner allowing participants to attend the event either physically at the premises of Direção Nacional da Polícia Judiciária (PJ), Lisbon, Portugal, or online and will serve as a great opportunity for interested stakeholders and end-users to get familiar with the project outcomes, including the final tools and solutions developed in CONNEXIONs.

The event included demonstrations & lessons learnt from each of the Pilot Use Cases, selected invited speakers and experts in the area of Fighting Crime and Terrorism, as well as a demonstration of Sister Projects & Related initiatives.

CREST project was invited and presented to the onsite an online participants its outcomes and progress achieved so far, attracting the interest of the participant Stakeholders.

CREST co-organised its first workshop along with the sister project CONNEXIONs which took place on December 16th, 2021. The workshop focused on the technologies developed and challenges addressed by the two projects regarding security in public spaces and large-scale public events and their respective Pilot Use Cases. Seventy people from different organisations, including Law Enforcement Agencies (LEAs), Universities, Research Centres, SMEs and NGOs, participated providing an ideal audience to generate interesting discussions and interactions. The workshop took place virtually since the COVID-19 restrictions were still in place. Nevertheless, the two projects demonstrated their Pilot Use Cases successfully allowing for better understanding and deeper insights to be gained.

At the start of the event, an introduction regarding the workshop was given by the CONNEXIONs Scientific Manager, Dr. Theodora Tsikrika (CERTH). Following that, both the CONNEXIONs and CREST projects were presented, respectively, by Dr. Despoina Chatzakou (CERTH) and Ovidiu Dumitrache (SPP)/George Kalpakis (CERTH), and each project’s aims and objectives were further analysed. With the completion of the two projects presentations, the CONNEXIONs and CREST synergies were demonstrated by Dr. Theodora Tsikrika (CERTH), where similarities and differences were highlighted and discussed. Those presentations allowed for a better understanding of the workshop’s core theme. Thus, the analysis of the two projects as well as their synergies prepared the audience for the Pilot Use Case demonstrations.

The first Pilot Use Case that was demonstrated was “Counter-terrorism security in large scale public events” from the CONNEXIONs project. Dr. Constantinos Rizogiannis (KEMEA) presented the relevant pilot demonstration that took place successfully on May 25, 2021 at KEMEA premises. During the pilot, the Hellenic Police alongside with KEMEA partners tested and validated technologies for mission planning and operation, including Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality technologies, 3D models, a Command Center for real-time operation management, and Visual data analysis. The presentation was comprehensive, giving the opportunity to participants to understand the tools which have been developed by the project. The demonstrations of CREST Pilot Use Cases on “Counter-terrorism security in crowded areas” and “Protection of public figures in motorcades and public spaces” followed and the relevant pilot demonstrations were presented by Tobias Mattes (BayHFoD) and Eugen Badea (SPP). The two pilots were fully demonstrated and explained, presenting the tools and technologies developed by the CREST project; further to the aforementioned technologies, additional solutions related to Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), Adaptive mission planning, UAV swarming, and Concealed object detection were also demonstrated.

With the completion of the pilot demonstrations, a panel discussion moderated by Eddie Schneid (MSIL) followed. Partners from the two consortia, namely Alexandru Vladuta (SPP)/ Eugen Badea (SPP), Max Hausner (BayHFOD), Konstantinos Gkountakos (CERTH), and Xavier Español Espinar (EVERIS), discussed the Challenges and Opportunities in the Use of Advanced Technologies for Protecting Public Spaces, explaining important details and responding to participants’ questions.

Finally, we had the wonderful opportunity to welcome representatives from four EU sister projects: PREVISION, IcARUS, PROTECT and CYCLOPES who presented their projects’ objectives and achievements, thus contributing to synergies creation and knowledge exchange. We were more than happy to welcome their contribution to our event and we hope for more interactive activities in the future.

Last but not least, we would like to inform you that our sister project CONNEXIONs last workshop along with its final event will take place in February 2022.

CREST Consortium will continue to organise a series of workshops targeting end users, security enterprises, and EU officials, and allow them to explore the CREST tools with a hands-on approach. Finally, a Final Dissemination Conference will be organised at the end of the project to demonstrate the final results and offer participants the opportunity to interact with the Consortium.

Stay tuned!       

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CREST in cooperation with CONNEXIONs project co-organises a Joint Workshop which will take place on December 16th 2021.

The CONNEXIONs – CREST Joint Workshop will present and further explore the projects’ achievements and the organisation of the performed Pilot Use Cases towards the Fight Against Crime and Terror on the grounds of the Operational Capabilities provided using Internet of Things Technologies.

The summarized Event Program has as follows:

– CREST & CONNEXIONs project presentations & synergies

– Demonstrations of CONNEXIONs & CREST project results

– Panel Discussions

– Sister Project Presentations

– Invited Speakers

CREST project participated in the 24th European Police Congress 2021 which took place between 14 & 15 September 2021 in Berlin Congress Center (BCC), Germany.

The European Police Congress is an international congress for decision makers from police forces and security authorities and industries. Its intention is to strengthen the dialogue between the authorities and enable the participants to establish new contacts to colleagues from all over the world. Every year critical discussions on upto-date issues are held and the latest developments in technologies for the professional use in the security sector are presented by the exhibitors. The European Police Congress is the largest conference for internal security in the European Union. Annually the conference is a meeting place for about 1.950 experts from more than 20 countries. Representatives of polices, border polices, secret services as well as governments, parliaments and industries participate in the conference. The European Police Congress is organized by the “Behörden Spiegel”, Germany’s leading newspaper for public authorities with support of national and European authorities.

CREST progress made so far and its achievements were presented through networking sessions to an extended audience consisting of Police Officers of the EU Member States, Policy and Decision makers from EU and International delegations and Executives of the security market who represented their companies in the congress’ exhibition booths.

CREST 5th Plenary Meeting – April 2021

CREST Project organized its 5th plenary meeting online using teleconference technology due to the COVID-19 restrictions between 12 – 13 April 2020.

During the first day of the plenary meeting the project Coordinator Mr. Mihai Simionescu from SPP Romania along with the other 9 Workpackage Leaders delivered their presentations showcasing the progress made so far fulfilling the objectives of CREST Project.

During the second day of the meeting, the Executive Board of the project consortium examined the course of actions taken and made discussions regarding the challenges CREST project will face in the near future.

CREST Presentation in CC-DRIVER Project event – 12 March 2021

CC-DRIVER Horizon 2020 Project Organised the LEA Clustering activity held online on the 12th of March 2021.

CREST Project presented it’s solution capabilities in an audience of End Users representating several Law Enforcement Agencies across EU Member States. CREST presentation included all the latests project achievements and the progress made so far.

CREST 4th Plenary Meeting – December 2020

CREST Project under the COVID-19 restrictions, organized its plenary meeting using teleconference technology between 9 – 10 December 2020. During the first day of the plenary meeting the project Coordinator Mr. Mihai Simionescu from SPP Romania along with the other 9 Workpackage Leaders delivered their presentations showcasing the progress made so far fulfilling the objectives of CREST Project. During the second day of the meeting, the Executive Board of the project consortium examined the course of actions taken and made discussions regarding the challenges CREST project will face in the near future.

CREST Survey on Helping Victims of Terrorist Attack

Over the last months, we have seen a resurgence of terrorist attacks in Europe, most recently in Nice and in Vienna. Those attacks remind us how urgently we need to educate the public on what to do in case of an attack. With your help, we will develop educational materials that can be used around Europe and globally, to increase awareness, help keep people safe and help people to cope.

CREST People’s Attitude towards Policing October 2020

This survey aims to investigate people’s current attitudes towards policing, security, and the role of technology in policing. This will serve to benefit the design and use of these kinds of tools to be more effective and also ethical.

CREST Project under the COVID-19 restrictions, organized its third plenary meeting using teleconference technology between 19 – 21.05.2020. The VTC was hosted by CREST project partner ITI-CERTH who would be the host in Thessaloniki, Greece if the COVID-19 outbreak wouldn’t change the initial planning.

During the first day of the plenary meeting the the project Coordinator Mr. Mihai Simionescu from SPP Romania along with the other 9 Workpackage Leaders delivered their presentations showcasing the progress made so far fulfilling the objectives of CREST Project. During the second day of the meeting, the Executive Board of the project consortium examined the course of actions taken and made discussions regarding the challenges CREST project will face in the near future.  

Finally, the third day of the meeting was dedicated to the technical aspects of CREST. The presentations delivered from the project’s technical partners aimed to deal with planning upon the next steps regarding the project components. The CREST VTC was attended from approximately 50 representatives of the project’s consortium per day of meeting.

CREST Project consortium realized its second plenary meeting between 11-12 December 2019 in Valencia, Spain. The meeting was organized by Robotnik and was held at Geminis Business Center – Valencia.

During the first day of the plenary meeting the 10 Workpackage Leaders delivered their presentations showcasing the progress made so far within the scope and the objectives of CREST Project. Moreover, the planning for the upcoming period was presented and discussed among the partners of the project. During the second day of the event, several discussions were conducted amongst the consortium partners, regarding security procedures within the scope of CREST project.

Finally, a workshop for the invited LEAs representatives took place at Robotnik premises in Valencia. In this workshop LEAs representatives had the opportunity to be provided with the latest technological developments regarding the implementation of AI & IoT in fight against crime and terror.