Broadband communication systems

Deadline: Aug 24, 2017  
CALL EXPIRED

Topic Description

So far each EU Member States has adopted its own (broadband) radio-communication system for security forces (police, first responders, etc.). Such systems are not necessarily compatible with each other. The EU has funded projects to help to overcome this issue, including a CSA (under Call DRS-18-2015) for buyers of such systems to develop the core set of specifications and tender documents to be used for national procurements, or the legal setting of alternate organisational solutions which remain to be implemented taking into account the requirements for interoperable next generation PPDR broadband communication systems.

The SEC-04-DRS-2017 will be modified during the update of the 2017 Work Programme according to the following principles:

If the above-mentioned CSA has foreseen to go along the way of establishing a new organization intended for taking EU-wide responsibilities a short Phase 0 may be needed:

Phase 0: Legal establishment of the new organization, and transfer of the PCP contract from the consortium of buyers to this new organization.

If the above-mentioned CSA does not foresee the need for establishing a new organization, Phase 0 will be skipped, and the PCP would start with:

Phase 1: Plan and implement the tender procedures, based on the set of specifications and tender documents delivered by the CSA launched under Call DRS-18-2015 and available upon request to the European Commission, for procuring:

• prototype communication equipment's that will constitute the foreseen communication system
• prototype instruments for validating the components of the foreseen communication system

Phase 2: Establishment of a (networked) validation centre equipped with these instruments. Sustainability of the Validation Centre beyond the lifetime of the project should be addressed, both with respect to its legal status and its funding sources.

Phase 3: Testing and validation of the prototype components of the foreseen communication system

Phase 4: Demonstration of the foreseen communication system in a multidisciplinary (firefighters, police departments, medical emergency services, etc.), international (involving practitioners from at least 10 Member States or Associated countries), and realistic scenario.

For grants awarded under this topic SEC-04-DRS-2017, beneficiaries will be subject to the following additional obligations aiming to ensure exploitation of its results:

To ensure that the outcome of the PCP action becomes also available to EU Member State national authorities as well as EU agencies not participating in the PCP for further procurement purposes, the proposal must necessarily state:

(1). Agreement from participating procurement authorities to negotiate, in good faith and on a case-by-case basis, with non-participating procurement authorities that wish to procure a capability or a product fully or partly derived from the PCP action, the use of the information required to run such a procurement process, and solely for that purpose.

(2). Commitment from participating procurement authorities to consult with any legal entity generating information to be released for the purpose set out in paragraph (1), unless contrary to applicable legislation.

(3). Commitment from participating procurement authorities to negotiate the use granted under paragraph (1) on Fair Reasonable and Non-Discriminatory (FRAND) terms.

The respective option on additional exploitation obligations of Article 28.1 of the Model Grant Agreement will be applied.

The outcome of the proposal is expected to lead to development up to Technology Readiness Level (TRL) 8; please see part G of the General Annexes.

Indicative budget: The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU of € 10million would allow for this topic to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.

Established EU-interoperable broadband radio communication system for public safety and security, providing better services to first responders and police agencies and allowing shorter reaction times to prevent from casualties or victims, deployed by 2025.

For this impact to be as large as possible across the EU, special conditions have been attached to the CSA launched under Call DRS-18-2015 as regards access to standards, specifications, and all other relevant documents.

This activity directly aimed at supporting the development and implementation of evidence base for R&I policies and supporting various groups of stakeholders is excluded from the delegation to the Research Executive Agency and will be implemented by the Commission services