Piraeus, Greece, October 2019 – The partners of the BeSecure-FeelSecure (BSFS) European project, led by the municipality of Piraeus, situated near Athens (Greece), held their kick off meeting on 8 October in this city to discuss each partner’s role and tasks in this project that will last until the end of August 2022.
BeSecure-FeelSecure (BSFS) “aims to reinforce urban security and promote positive perception of urban safety by providing strategies and tools to link the main urban security stakeholders and facilitate their collaboration”1 in both the physical and cyber-space. It has been ‘called’ under the EU Urban Innovative Actions (UIA) programme and receives funding from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). As a partner, Efus is in charge of transferability, dissemination and the sharing of experience and expertise.
> Each partner brings added value to the project based on their expertise and know-how
The BSFS consortium gathers partners with diverse expertise in urban security: the Hellenic Ministry of Citizen Protection brings its expertise and know-how on local-level urban security in Piraeus and on possible solutions; the Panteion Criminology Lab brings unique expertise in the design of crime prevention solutions, and lastly the University of Piraeus Research Centre, SingularLogic and SPACE Hellas bring valuable technical and scientific expertise in the implementation of high-end ICT and cyber/physical security systems. As the project’s main transferability and dissemination channel, Efus offers great potential to do so throughout Europe.
> A holistic approach
The project is based on a holistic approach to tackle urban security issues in Piraeus. The proposed ‘BSFS-solution’ thus consists of three interrelated elements:
1) innovation in governance through the creation of a Local Council for Crime Prevention (LCCP) based on European-level similar best practices regarding the organisational and legal requirements and the type of stakeholders that should be involved;
2) an ICT system for Collaborative Urban Risk Assessment (CURiM) for the collection and analysis of crime-related data;
3) spatial and social interventions based on the recommendations of the newly-created LCCP2.
> Transferability of the BSFS project’s best practices at EU level
Efus will be responsible for disseminating the lessons learnt from the project among European local authorities and providing them with operational guidelines to help them implement a similar holistic approach in their own urban environment.
> Exchange of lessons learnt and innovative solutions with two other UIA “Urban Security” projects
In order to enhance the creation of an EU level dialogue and to learn lessons on innovative urban security-related solutions, BSFS and two other UIA projects (TO-nite (City of Turin, IT, in which Efus is a partner), SURE (City of Tampere, FI)) will favour continuous exchanges between the involved partners.
1. UIA, BeSecure-FeelSecure Project Proposal
2. The above mentioned three axes are identified and defined in the UIA’s Main Conclusions from the Panel of External Experts in the framework of the Strategic Assessment
