Open Topic

ExpectedOutcome:

Projects’ results are expected to contribute to all of the following outcomes:

• Improved European common forensics investigation capabilities, evidence collection and cross-border exchanges in the domain under consideration;
• Police Authorities and forensic institutes are provided with innovative, harmonised and modern tools and procedures for forensic applications in the investigation of the crime under consideration, in full compliance with applicable legislation on protection of personal data;
• Forensic practitioners and Police Authorities active in crime scene investigations are provided with modern and innovative training curricula in the forensic domain under consideration.

Scope:

Under the Open Topic, proposals are welcome to address new, upcoming or unforeseen challenges and/or creative or disruptive forensic solutions for fighting crime and terrorism, that are not covered by the other topics of Horizon Europe Calls Fighting Crime and Terrorism 2021-2022, Fighting Crime and Terrorism 2023 and Fighting Crime and Terrorism 2024.

Adapted to the nature, scope and type of proposed projects, proposals should convincingly explain how they will plan and/or carry out demonstration, testing or validation of developed tools and solutions. Proposals should also delineate the plans to develop possible future uptake and upscaling at national and EU level for possible next steps after the research project.

Research proposals should consider, build on if appropriate and not duplicate previous research, including but not limited to research by other Framework Programmes’ projects. When applicable, the successful proposal should build on the publicly available achievements and findings of related previous national or EU-funded projects.

If relevant for the proposals, a coordination scheme should be implemented for the successful proposals submitted under this topic, as well as with the successful proposals funded under other topics of this or previous Horizon Europe Fighting Crime and Terrorism Calls.

Proposals funded under this topic are expected to engage with the Europol Innovation Lab during the lifetime of the project, including validating the outcomes, with the aim of facilitating future uptake of innovations for the law enforcement community.

Specific Topic Conditions:

Activities are expected to achieve TRL 5-7 by the end of the project – see General Annex B.