This proposal describes a series of activities that will support the successful delivery of the TRA conference in Dublin in 2024. A consortium has been assembled that addresses all the key requirements of the call: • They represent the key transport modes with at least 2 partners active in road, rail, waterborne, aviation and cross-modal. • The partners are all active in European research and have the reach to promote the conference across Europe. • The partners have a long history of delivering high quality researcher competitions where Europe’s research leaders are recognised. The partners will work with key stakeholders to ensure the conference themes support European policies. The proposal also has the full support of the Irish Minister for Transport and this will ensure the full support of relevant Irish agencies. The partners will work together to deliver a conference that builds on the success of previous TRA conferences and provide a forum that will allow the key actors in the transport sector come together to develop solutions for society’s needs.

EU borders are constantly faced with a multiplicity of challenges, from increased waves of illegal migration to human trafficking, document fraud, terrorism, smuggling, and public health threats. In the CRiTERIA project we will develop a novel risk analysis methodology, which is, on the one hand, clearly rooted and builds upon existing methodology such as CIRAM and, on the other hand introduces novel more complex and effective indicators, which overcome important limitations of existing models. Such extended risk and vulnerability analysis methodology has to be backed by effective intelligent analysis technology. Building upon existing text, media, data and network analysis technology, in CRiTERIA, we will develop and evaluate advanced analysis technologies and tools that are tailored to the new comprehensive threat indicators of the CRiTERIA methodology. Special focus will be put to the consideration of the role of narratives, events, attitudes, and to the vulnerability of borders and humans as well as on providing semi-automatic tools and methods for risk-related evidence validation and explanation, for identifying risk propagation and interlinking, thus supporting decision processes in risk analysis in an innovative way. When developing this holistic CRiTERIA risk and vulnerability analysis framework for border agencies ethical, legal and societal aspects will be considered from the very beginning. The methodology will be developed in close collaboration with practitioners from border agencies, which will also validate the developed methods and technologies in piloting activities. For achieving its goals CRiTERIA brings together an interdisciplinary team of experts including researchers in the fields of security and risk analysis, in the field of data and media analysis and in the field of ethics, law and societal aspects, as well as border agencies, NGOs and companies.

The interconnection between Information Technologies and Operational Technologies is underway, with many impacts on the related cybersecurity of various application domains. For a long time, we have known that attacks or malfunctions in the cyber world can have critical impacts on the physical world, especially in critical infrastructures. Conversely, intentional perturbations of physical systems, through e.g. attacks on sensor measurements, can have disastrous consequences on digital control mechanisms, and thus on physical processes. In this interconnected cyber-physical world, the advent of Artificial Intelligence (AI) opens the door to various new kinds of attacks, and also offers numerous defence capabilities. In the KINAITICS project, we aim at exploring the new attack opportunities offered by the introduction of AI-based control and perceptive systems, as well as those offered by combination of behavioural understanding of physical systems and cyber-attacks. On the defence side, we aim at offering an innovative spectrum of tools and methodologies, to combine behavioural monitoring and classical cybersecurity tools to protects against these new threats. Importantly, we also target innovative methodologies, which incorporate human factors and their uncertainties in the tools. This last point raises crucial challenges on trustworthy approaches, explanations provided, and how to deal with uncertainties in response decisions. The project will also thoroughly assess the regulation of big data uses and provide guidelines for EU policy actions and cybersecurity experts’ responsible development, thanks to the implication of researchers specialised in legal and ethical aspects of ICT innovation. Our research will strive to counter AI attacks. The seven tools produced during the course of the project, as well as the cyber-defence platform, will significantly improve systems robustness, resilience and response, and will help Europe save 3-4 billion€ yearly by 2030.

Urban water pollution, resulting from rapid urbanisation, industrialization, and climate change, poses a significant threat to public health and environmental impact, compromising water quality. Specifically, water quality deterioration is linked to diffuse pollution from pollutant surface and groundwater bodies, disrupting biodiversity and the quality of aquatic ecosystems while exacerbating the global water crisis. Traditional urban water management plans do not include a holistic monitoring approach to address emerging water pollution ignoring important water pollution sources and pathways. Detecting, preventing, and responding timely to these threats can ensure the preservation of clean and safe water sources and work towards a resilient and sustainable water future across Europe that prioritises both public health and environmental well-being. By committing to the destination of a clean environment and zero pollution, AQUAMON aims to perform innovation activities towards: - Securing high-quality drinking water, - Integrating sewer and wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) control, - Building a water-smart management system for bathing waters to provide informed and safe opportunities for bathing in urban recreational waters, - Restoring our oceans, seas, and river water bodies by deploying unmanned vehicles across the water surface, underwater, and air, - Enhance sustainability to elevate wastewater quality to reuse standards, - Improving urban water quality monitoring management plans and regulation shaping throughout the entire urban water cycle. Designed around the challenges of 8 representative use cases across Europe, AQUAMON will implement effective monitoring strategies to enhance the comprehension of diffuse and point sources of water pollution within a global and climate change context.