The largest Trust Service Provider in EU is in search for partners to work on Beyond the state-of-the-art “biometrics on the move” for border checks : HORIZON-CL3-2023-BM-01-03

InfoCert is the largest Trust Service Provider in EU, providing trust and identity services (both according the traditional and the decentralised paradigm). We believe this call offers the appropriate place to validate the announced EU ID wallet - extend with appropriate biometric checks - for border control. We are willing to collaborate with a consortium which could demonstrate the benefit of this approach.

Beyond the state-of-the-art “biometrics on the move” for border checks

TOPIC ID: HORIZON-CL3-2023-BM-01-03

Programme: Horizon Europe Framework Programme (HORIZON)
Call: Border Management 2023 (HORIZON-CL3-2023-BM-01)
Type of action: HORIZON-RIA HORIZON Research and Innovation Actions
Type of MGA: HORIZON Lump Sum Grant [HORIZON-AG-LS]
Deadline model: single-stage
Planned opening date: 29 June 2023
Deadline date: 23 November 2023 17:00:00 Brussels time

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

Updated, European-based, knowledge and development on robust biometrics technologies that could be used for recognition (identification and verification) of people crossing external EU borders, demonstrating a clear advancement beyond the current state-of-the-art;
Maximisation of travellers’ experience and of security reassurances, minimising handling of personal data and maximising accuracy, reliability and throughput of the recognition process;
Contribution to improving the operational response capacity of the EBCG at border crossing points and to capabilities that strengthen the Schengen area, by providing security at its external borders that also reassure on maintaining the free movement within its borders.
Scope:
Biometrics are one of the most usable and most reliable ways to validate the identity of an individual. Biometrics that are traditionally used in the context of border controls include fingerprints and 2D facial images; other biometrics are also used for identity management outside the European Union, or at national level, such as iris; and further others are used in other applications in the private sector and in consumer market.

As for many other technologies, applications of biometrics to improve capabilities in civil security, such as in the border management or law enforcement sectors, may have higher requirements than applications in the consumer market. This applies to the requirements on reliability, usability, scalability, throughput and strict minimization of risks to personal data protection and fundamental rights (including the elimination or minimisation of any risk of bias or discrimination).

Research should assess and develop the fit-for-purpose border management of biometric identification modalities beyond fingerprints and facial images, and/or innovative modalities of acquisition of those and other biometrics. Proposed projects should particularly investigate biometrics modalities that currently do not offer satisfactory performance (in terms of accuracy, reliability, usability, minimisation data protection risk and risk of bias etc.) but potentially offer significant advantages over existing solutions in the short or medium term for applications in a border checks context.

Any innovation in biometrics shall imply clear improvements on acquisition, processing and validation, compared to the state-of-the-art, “on-the-move” (i.e. while the travellers are moving and without cooperation from them), contactless and with stand-off biometric capturing from long-distances (ideally, but not mandatorily, more than 10 meters), and/or of when multiple travellers cross borders, on foot or inside the same vehicle. The solutions should also take into account the different nature and scenarios of BCP operations (e.g. open-air conditions, night, time, time constraints, space constraints, etc).

The solutions should comply with the requirements of current and foreseen EU large-scale IT systems on borders and visa (e.g. the Entry/Exit System), as well as with interoperability frameworks between EU large-scale IT systems on borders, visas, asylum and migration, as well as on police and judicial cooperation.

The proposed solutions should comply with data protection by design and by default, meet robust fundamental rights impact assessment frameworks as well as apply privacy-preserving and privacy-enhancement by design solutions. Developed solutions could indeed help reduce the amount of biometric data needed to achieve improved reliability of identification, including by acquiring and using less personal data compared to the state-of-the-art.

Please, visit the following page to get more information regarding this call.