Increasing concerns about new threats related to a possible major accident on a nuclear power plant or a tactical nuclear explosion, linked with the war in Ukraine, impose to EU Countries to improve their current capabilities to prepare for and respond to these possible large-scale accidents. The need for advanced technologies, interoperable risk assessment tools, and comprehensive emergency coordination strategies has never been more critical. GUARDIANS will deliver advanced, cost-effective technologies, and strategies to improve disaster emergency management in Europe. The project will enable the development of advanced radiological technologies (radioactive gas sensor, active dosimeter network), innovative and scalable strategies for triage (video analyses, digital triage), decontamination, and medical countermeasures (hydrogel, new strategy for stable iodine distribution). Autonomous means such as drones and robots equipped for radiological measurements and enhanced observation capabilities will increase overall responsiveness. A central web-platform GUARDNET, built upon existing operational tools, will facilitate real-time information processing, synthesis, mission management, and simulation services, to support decision-making. The active participation of first responders/receivers and decision-makers, along with the execution of two field tests and the assessment of the alignment between population needs and authorities' response strategies will ensure that GUARDIANS produces a new and enhanced operational capability to respond effectively to a radiological or nuclear emergency. GUARDIANS will significantly enhance European Member States' ability by providing stakeholders with state-of-the-art capabilities, innovative technologies, and effective coordination strategies. This will accelerate the decision-making process, reduce intervention times, and mitigate human and environmental impacts through improved protection of populations and infrastructures.

Unmanned vehicles (UVs) now play an increasing role in Public Protection and Disaster Relief (PPDR) missions such as border surveillance, cropping monitoring or local law enforcement. However, fast location of isolated people in the case of natural or man-made disasters still continues to be a crucial and arduous task. MOBNET will design a Search and Rescue (SAR) system for the location of isolated victims in the case of natural or man-made disasters such as earthquakes, hurricanes or large snow storms. It will also help first responder services to find fugitives or smugglers hidden within buildings. To that end, the use of European Global Navigation Satellite (EGNSS) systems (both Galileo early services and EGNOS) and Digital Cellular Technologies (DCT) will play the key role in these situations in which it is difficult, dangerous or even impossible to access the affected areas. The EGNSS and DCT technologies will be tightly synchronised to provide accurate positioning. However, this demanding synchronisation exceeds the current capabilities of most GNSS and cellular equipment. In order to achieve the required performance, novel EGNSS and DCT methods will be applied. Furthermore, an effective and reliable communication link between Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) and the ground station will be designed. This datalink will ensure uninterrupted command and control communication among devices and the integrity of communication signals. Thus, the UAVs will always operate as intended. Research will be driven by the end-user and industrial partners to ensure that it addresses the needs of the PPDR services. The potential for a fast and reliable SAR system will be illustrated by a prototype that will work at long distances. The developed SAR system will take advantage of the Galileo and EGNOS capabilities and will strengthen the position of European Industry in the field of security services. It will greatly facilitate their missions and the rescue of isolated victims

FIRE-IN has been designed to raise the security level of EU citizens by improving the national and European Fire & Rescue (F&R) capability development process. FIRE-IN addresses the concern that capability-driven research and innovation in this area needs much stronger guidance from practitioners and better exploitation of the technology potentially available for the discipline. We argue that this is to be achieved by practitioners more effectively coordinating on operational needs, on available research and innovation, on standardisation, and on test & demonstration and training. Further, we claim the need for the development of a common research culture that is to be achieved by better cooperation between practitioner and research/industry organisations. FIRE-IN addresses these objectives through four main areas of activity: (i) the identification and harmonisation of operational capability gaps based on the contribution provided by a significant and heterogeneous practitioner network, (ii) the identification of promising solutions to address those gaps through monitoring and screening of research outcomes and the continuous involvement of research and industry representatives, (iii) the definition of a F&R Strategic Research and Standardisation Agenda (SRSA) based on the previous elements as well as (iv) the development of a concept for more efficient use of test & demonstration and training facilities to support innovation and joint skill development. The overarching result of the project will be a proven process for organising F&R capability-driven research based on a wide practitioner and research and innovation network. The network will be linked at cross-domain and cross-border level and will feed harmonised operational requirements (or challenges) into national and EU capability development, i.e. research, innovation, procurement and standardisation programmes.