SOURCE

Virtual centre of excellence for research support and coordination on societal security

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The aim of the SOURCE network of excellence is to establish a comprehensive network of actors concerned with societal dimensions of security research, development and operationalization. This network will link with a wide range of security sectors and types of actors implicated in societal security. It will develop tools and methods for bringing together these different actors, integrating their widely diverse perspectives, premises, needs, expectations, experiences and concrete challenges. It will develop and implement systems, tools and resources of information-gathering and dissemination with the aim of providing a common basis for better understanding and closer collaboration of the range of societal security actors working in Europe today. It will set up the institutions and infrastructure necessary to assure a lasting and sustainable network in the form of a Virtual Centre of Excellence – which is the final aim of the project.

THe SOURCE Network of Excellence is based on five activities:

  • Network-building

  • Research

  • Education and training

  • Documentation; and Dissemination

Each activity is reflected in one or more workpackages, each linked and based on the evolution and findings of the others.

 
 

Activities

Network-building contains the core activity of the network as it is laying the foundation of the future Virtual Centre of Excellence which is the overall aim of the SOURCE project. The SOURCE network gathers excellence from 5 highly diverse sectors— the scholarly research sector, the industrial sector, law-makers and policy makers, civil society, and end-users—each of which has an essential and unique contribution to make to the security of European society.

The education and training activities are geared towards these five sectors: a PhD course for the academia, training for the industry, course material for policy makers and a handbook and video for first responders and the police and security agencies.

Joint research activities aim at forming the state-of-the-art knowledge on societal security and are focusing on four different topics: the perceptions on societal security, the institutions working with societal security, the relation between societal security and economics and finally the ethical and legal frameworks surrounding societal security.

Partners

  • Arttic, France

  • Totalforsvarets Forskningsinstitut, Sweden

  • Centre for Irish and European Security Limited, Ireland

  • Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft zur Förderung der Angewandten Forschung, Germany

  • Nederlandse Organisatie voor Toegepast Natuurwettenschappelijk Onderzoek, Netherlands

  • Centre for European Policy Studies, Belgium

  • Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium

  • Vienna Centre for Societal Security, Austria

  • King’s College London, UK

  • European Organisation for Security, Belgium

  • Fundacion Tecnalia Research & Innovation, Spain

  • Fondation Nationale des Science Politiques, France

  • Ecole Normale Superieure, France

  • Institut for Fredsforskning Stiftelse, Norway

Web

Runtime

02/2014 - 01/2019

Funding

FP7 (European Commission)