Lawful evidence collection in online child sexual abuse investigations, including undercover
HORIZON Research and Innovation Actions
Basic Information
- Identifier
- HORIZON-CL3-2024-FCT-01-03
- Programme
- Fighting Crime and Terrorism 2024
- Programme Period
- 2021 - 2027
- Status
- Closed (31094503)
- Opening Date
- June 26, 2024
- Deadline
- November 19, 2024
- Deadline Model
- single-stage
- Budget
- €3,000,000
- Min Grant Amount
- €3,000,000
- Max Grant Amount
- €3,000,000
- Expected Number of Grants
- 1
- Keywords
- HORIZON-CL3-2024-FCT-01-03HORIZON-CL3-2024-FCT-01Child sexual abuseCybercrimeData protection and privacyEducation and training of police authoritiesElectronic evidenceFight against crime and terrorismForensic technologies, othersHuman rightsIncident Handling and Digital ForensicsPolice authoritiesSecurityTheories, techniques and tools for the identification, collection, attribution, acquisition, analysis and preservation of digital evidence
Description
Projects’ results are expected to contribute to all of the following outcomes:
- Development of safer justice outcomes through an increased understanding of the EU-wide legal aspects of online investigations, including undercover, in the area of child sexual abuse;
- Improved understanding of the EU-wide legislative frameworks that impact (undercover) investigations in this area;
- Modern and robust methods at the European level are proposed at all steps of an investigative process in this area, overcoming various types of biases and obstacles to the collection of evidence that is admissible in court and respects the dignity, privacy, protection of personal data and anonymity of victims;
- Forensic practitioners, Police Authorities and other relevant security practitioners active in online (including undercover) child sexual abuse investigations benefit from innovative guidelines, manuals, education and training curricula.
The use of online undercover investigation techniques is an important asset for Police Authorities in infiltrating the networks of sexual abusers of children. These methods have proven very effective in understanding offender behaviour and interaction of online service providers, and have ultimately facilitated the shutting down of communication channels used by these offenders, as well as their prosecution. An increasingly important need for Police Authorities’ activity in these spaces is the ability to effectively infiltrate particularly dangerous online groups of offenders, while making sure that the evidence obtained will be admissible in court. EU values and fundamental rights shall stay in the core of any future measures. Research in this area should tackle legislative frameworks to collecting evidence in online, including undercover, investigations of child sexual abuse, leading to guidelines and manuals that would make the capability available across the EU to target these offenders more effectively. The results of this research topic (training, manuals guidelines) should be shared among all European Police Authorities, notably via CEPOL, provided that the Agency opts out from applying for funding under this topic. The successful proposal should build on the publicly available achievements and findings of related previous national or EU-funded projects as well as create synergies with similar on-going security research projects from the Calls 2021-2022 on Fighting Crime and Terrorism in the area of digital forensics and countering child sexual abuse, in order to avoid duplication and to exploit complementarities as well as opportunities for increased impact.
Since the use of undercover agents online could be beneficial in other crime areas too, particularly in counter terrorism, analysis of possibilities for the developed approaches to be adapted to these other crime areas would be welcome. Special care needs to be given to ethics and fundamental rights protection throughout the research and the solutions proposed. This topic requires the effective contribution of SSH disciplines and the involvement of SSH experts, institutions as well as the inclusion of relevant SSH expertise, in order to produce meaningful and significant effects enhancing the societal impact of the related innovation activities.
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.
Destination & Scope
Proposals for topics under this Destination should set out a credible pathway to contributing to the following expected impact of the Horizon Europe Strategic Plan 2021-2024: “Crime and terrorism are more effectively tackled, while respecting fundamental rights, […] thanks to more powerful prevention, preparedness and response, a better understanding of related human, societal and technological aspects, and the development of cutting-edge capabilities for police authorities […] including measures against cybercrime.”
More specifically, proposals should contribute to the achievement of one or more of the following impacts:
- Modern information analysis for Police Authorities, allowing them to efficiently fight criminals and terrorists who use novel technologies;
- Improved forensics and lawful evidence collection, increasing the capabilities to apprehend criminals and terrorists and bring them to the court;
- Enhanced prevention, detection and deterrence of societal issues related to various forms of crime, including cybercrime, and terrorism, such as violent radicalisation, domestic and sexual violence, or juvenile offenders;
- Increased security of citizens against terrorism, including in public spaces (while preserving their quality and openness);
- Improved intelligence picture and enhanced prevention, detection and deterrence of various forms of organised crime;
- More secure cyberspace for citizens, especially children, through a robust prevention, detection, and protection from cybercriminal activities.
This Destination will also promote, whenever appropriate and applicable, the proposals with:
- the involvement of the Police Authorities in their core,
- a clear strategy on how they will adapt to the fast-evolving environment in the area of fight against crime and terrorism (evolution of related technologies, evolution of criminal modi operandi and business models related to these technologies, etc.),
- a focus on tools that are modular and can be easily plugged into another platform, and not on a platform (in order to avoid platform multiplication),
- tools that are developed and validated against practitioners’ needs and requirements,
- a robust plan on how they will build on the relevant predecessor projects,
- the (active) involvement of citizens, voluntary organisations and communities,
- education and training aspects, especially for Police Authorities and other relevant practitioners, as well as information sharing and awareness raising of the citizens,
- a clear strategy on the uptake of the outcomes, defined in consultation with the involved stakeholders,
- a well-developed plan both on how research data for training and testing will be obtained, in order to reach the requested Technology Readiness Levels (TRLs), and on how the specific TRL will be measured.
Where possible and relevant, synergy-building and clustering initiatives with successful proposals in the same area should be considered, including the organisation of international conferences in close coordination with the Community for European Research and Innovation for Security (CERIS) activities and/or other international events.
Eligibility & Conditions
General conditions
2. Eligible countries: described in Annex B of the Work Programme General Annexes
A number of non-EU/non-Associated Countries that are not automatically eligible for funding have made specific provisions for making funding available for their participants in Horizon Europe projects. See the information in the Horizon Europe Programme Guide.
The following additional eligibility conditions apply:
This topic requires the active involvement, as beneficiaries, of at least 2 Police Authorities[[In the context of this Destination, ‘Police Authorities’ means public authorities explicitly designated by national law, or other entities legally mandated by the competent national authority, for the prevention, detection and/or investigation of terrorist offences or other criminal offences, specifically excluding police academies, forensic institutes, training facilities as well as border and customs authorities.]] and 2 forensic institutes from at least 3 different EU Member States or Associated Countries. For these participants, applicants must fill in the table “Information about security practitioners” in the application form with all the requested information, following the template provided in the submission IT tool.
The following exceptions apply: subject to restrictions for the protection of European communication networks.
3. Other eligibility conditions: described in Annex B of the Work Programme General Annexes
4. Financial and operational capacity and exclusion: described in Annex C of the Work Programme General Annexes
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Award criteria, scoring and thresholds are described in Annex D of the Work Programme General Annexes
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Submission and evaluation processes are described in Annex F of the Work Programme General Annexes and the Online Manual
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Indicative timeline for evaluation and grant agreement: described in Annex F of the Work Programme General Annexes
6. Legal and financial set-up of the grants: described in Annex G of the Work Programme General Annexes
Specific conditions
7. Specific conditions: described in the [specific topic of the Work Programme]
Documents
Call documents:
Standard application form — call-specific application form is available in the Submission System
Standard application form (HE RIA, IA)
Standard evaluation form — will be used with the necessary adaptations
Standard evaluation form (HE RIA, IA)
MGA
Additional documents:
HE Main Work Programme 2023–2024 – 1. General Introduction
HE Main Work Programme 2023–2024 – 6. Civil Security for Society
HE Main Work Programme 2023–2024 – 13. General Annexes
HE Framework Programme and Rules for Participation Regulation 2021/695
HE Specific Programme Decision 2021/764
Rules for Legal Entity Validation, LEAR Appointment and Financial Capacity Assessment
EU Grants AGA — Annotated Model Grant Agreement
Funding & Tenders Portal Online Manual
Support & Resources
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Horizon Europe Programme Guide contains the detailed guidance to the structure, budget and political priorities of Horizon Europe.
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Latest Updates
Call HORIZON-CL3-2024-FCT-01 has closed on the 20 November 2024.
126 proposals have been submitted.
The breakdown per topic is:
- HORIZON-CL3-2024-FCT-01-01: 11 proposals
- HORIZON-CL3-2024-FCT-01-02: 23 proposals
- HORIZON-CL3-2024-FCT-01-03: 8 proposals
- HORIZON-CL3-2024-FCT-01-04: 20 proposals
- HORIZON-CL3-2024-FCT-01-05: 26 proposals
- HORIZON-CL3-2024-FCT-01-06: 23 proposals
- HORIZON-CL3-2024-FCT-01-07: 4 proposals
- HORIZON-CL3-2024-FCT-01-08: 11 proposals
Evaluation results are expected to be communicated in mid-April 2025.
NEW UPDATE!
We would like to inform you that on 22 October 2024 from 14:30-16:30 CET, there will be an online training on "how to fill out the security section part for proposals" submitted to the Horizon Europe Cluster 3 Civil Security for Society calls. The training is organised by SEREN5. If you want to attend, please register on: https://forms.office.com/e/QXwZuJbwnk