The European Security Research and Innovation Forum (ESRIF) has published its Final Report.
ESRIF was established in September 2007 aiming at developing a mid and long term strategy for civil security research and innovation through public private dialogue by 2009. EDA staff have joined this Forum and have contributed to the ESRIF work. Utimia Madaleno, EDA’s Deputy R&T Director, chaired the Working Group 7 on Situation awareness and the role of Space.
The European Defence Agency promotes synergies between the military and civilian domains. For projects like Software Defined Radio and Unmanned Aerial Systems the EDA is coordinating with the European Commission and with the European Space Agency in order to increase civil-military standardisation and interoperability as well as to spend European taxpayer’s money most effectively.
In November 2009, Ministers of Defence launched the European Framework Cooperation for Security and Defence Research, which aims at a systematic synchronisation between R&T investment under the EDA umbrella, by the Commission and by the European Space Agency - thus maximising complementarity of civilian security, space and defence-related research programmes. EDA has been tasked to set up, together with the Commission and the European Space Agency, the details of the coordination scheme and to develop proposals for possible subjects for this cooperation.
The ESRIF Report will provide a very important input for European cooperation.