Transfer traces analysis currently suffers from several limitations: highly subjective and selective, this process is also very time-consuming, hence inefficient, whereas results are difficult, if not impossible, to compare and share among forensic laboratories. As a consequence, the use of forensic data in cross-border investigations, and in foreign courts is limited. Creating a unified transfer traces automated analysis toolkit would allow for a higher productivity of forensic workers, better crime resolution and enable further collaboration across end-users. In addition to the lack of maturity of its potential components, the economical question is the barrier that hinders the development of such a toolkit as a sole forensic service can’t afford funding the corresponding R&D activities. the SHUTTLE project then intends to run a Pre-Commercial Procurement (PCP) action between forensic institutes across Europe to mitigate these technical and financial barriers and jointly carry out the procurement of the necessary Research and Development (R&D) activities to develop a machine+toolkit that will integrate different tape analysis tools to automate the routine part of the work of trace evidence examiners and, eventually, strengthen further judicial and police cooperation. The SHUTTLE toolkit will be scientific, as the results obtained will be objective and validated, which will strengthen their usefulness and usability. It will be high-throughput, as the instrumentation will be built to process large amounts of samples and data. The acquired data will be stored in a database together with the results of other methods. These databases can be shared and maintained together, and be used to provide a scientifically justified, numerical evidential value. Finally, SHUTTLE, which will be validated in conformity with ISO17025, will unify the methodology used in several European countries and will foster collaboration across countries and institutions in Europe.

PROTAX will contribute to a European Security Model providing solutions for prevention and prosecution of tax crimes. Based on analysis of current approaches of law enforcement, legal frameworks at Member State level and in-depth empirical investigation of human factors, shaping institutional and professional practices of stakeholders PROTAX will develop in close co-operation with practitioners tool kits for security policy makers, law enforcement agencies and tax authorities. They will combine high use-value with a strong European perspective, paving the way towards an integrated European approach. Since serious and organised tax crimes often involve cross-border activities, requiring cooperation across national jurisdictions a shared understanding of risks, threats and security measures will improve European law enforcement practices. PROTAX will produce innovative solutions boosting evolutionary development towards a genuine and sustainable European approach, significantly reducing the damages for European societies caused by criminals in the financial sector. PROTAX adopts a five-pronged approach. 1. We use case studies of tax crimes to investigate the roles of various actors. 2. We conduct focus groups with stakeholders in Member States. 3. We focus on the role of professional enablers as facilitators allowing illicit financial flows through legitimate institutions. 4.We map out various legal and enforcement approaches across the EU. 5. We make recommendations and provide a toolkit improving prevention of tax crimes and enforcement of the law. PROTAX will involve experts from LEAs and tax authorities in structured exchanges to share experience and ideas. A focus will be on cross-border aspects, assuming that tax crimes spread from “source countries” across the EU (e.g., to tax havens). PROTAX guidelines and toolkits will consider standards of data protection, privacy and social acceptability.

Clarus is a multidisciplinary and multi-organisational consortium comprised of 6 academic research organisations; 4 forensic and 3 police agencies (LEAs) from 6 European member states and associated countries. Clarus will study how communication, taken-for-granted ways of doing things, organisational cultures, disciplinary backgrounds or even gender and specific languages can contribute significantly to a context for biased judgements and erroneous decisions at an organisational level in digital evidence examination and investigation. Clarus will achieve its objectives by co-producing, with the direct involvement of end-users, (1) a map of ambiguous information flows and points of miscommunication; (2) a report on potential sources of misunderstandings, errors and biases from organisational cultures, terminologies and communication patterns; (3) a common lexicon with reference points in multiple languages and (4) a bias checking tool for enhancing quality, impartiality and reliability of digital forensics. Clarus will thus produce new knowledge related to issues of communication, language and vocabulary, both within and across borders in Europe in the field of forensic digital evidence in Europe and will highlight areas of risk for the execution of unbiased forensic procedures. Clarus’ vision is: by detecting the organisational context for bias and errors in methods of informal and formal inter-agency communication, as well as the implementation of a common lexicon and bias checking tool, Clarus will improve objectivity, neutrality and fairness in the pursuit of safer justice outcomes in terrorism and serious crime exploiting digital technologies. This will enhance communication and improve efficiency and increase trust between citizens and the professional services in policing, forensic science and the courts leading to: "Improved forensics and lawful evidence collection, increasing the capabilities to apprehend criminals and terrorists and bring them to the court"

The programming of Security R&I is a highly sensitive exercise which has grown in complexity during the past years. Moreover, the uptake of innovation stemming from EU-funded security R&I projects remains a challenge. The goal of ENACT is to set up a Knowledge Network for Security R&I in the Fighting Crime and Terrorism area capable of i) supporting the EU-funded FCT security R&I cycle and the overall community and market actors with actionable evidence, and ii) boosting the Innovation Uptake of the outcomes and results stemming from FCT Security funded R&I projects. ENACT brings together the most unique blend of knowledge, background, skills, resources and connections to: i) deliver a network-enabling service that facilitates the exchange of knowledge and value within the wider FCT community; ii) catalogue, aggregate and exploit the existing knowledge on the FCT area ensuring continuous availability of a structured knowledge base accessible to decision makers of the various R&I domains; iii) communicate project activities and disseminate & exploit project findings in a timely manner, ensuring continuous availability of updated actionable knowledge in each of the four domains addressed, namely capabilities, technology, market and SSH; iv) foster cooperation between FCT market actors in order to improve the market visibility and the uptake of innovation, and; v) ensure the sustainability of the “knowledge as a service” model and the enabled networking environment beyond the project duration. To operationalise these five pillars, ENACT will implement coordination and support measures to extract information from the FCT R&I Community making use of the project’s connections with specific Knowledge Hubs. It will also classify the information according to a recognisable taxonomy, define concrete metrics, derive results based on the exploitation of the acquired information and feed them back into the community, thus contributing to a more impactful EU FCT R&I effort.

Covert evidence gathering has not seen major changes in decades. Law enforcement Agencies (LEAs) are still using conventional, manpower based techniques to gather forensic evidence. Concealed surveillance devices can provide irrefutable evidences, but current video surveillance systems are usually bulky and complicated, are often used as simple video recorders, and require complex, expensive infrastructure to supply power, bandwidth, storage and illumination. Recent years have seen significant advances in the surveillance industry, but these were rarely targeted to forensic applications. The imaging community is fixated on cameras for mobile phones, where the figures of merit are resolution, image quality, and low profile. A mobile phone with its camera on would consume its battery in under two hours. Industrial surveillance cameras are even more power hungry, while intelligent algorithms such as face detection often require extremely high processing power, such as backend server farms, and are not available in conventional surveillance systems. Here we propose to develop and validate a novel, ultra-low-power, intelligent, miniaturised, low-cost, wireless, autonomous sensor (“FORENSOR”) for evidence gathering. Its ultra-sensitive camera and built-in intelligence will allow it to operate at remote locations, automatically identify pre-defined criminal events, and alert LEAs in real time while providing and storing the relevant video, location and timing evidence. FORENSOR will be able to operate for up to two months with no additional infrastructure. It will be manageable remotely, preserve the availability and the integrity of the collected evidence, and comply with all legal and ethical standards, in particular those related to privacy and personal data protection. The combination of built-in intelligence with ultra-low power consumption could help LEAs take the next step in fighting severe crimes.