• Operators of public transport, motorways and railways,
• Infrastructure owners and operators,
• European and international organisations related to surface transport,
• Research & development institutions,
• Public and private security organisations and
• Industry
Twenty-five high-quality presentations from domain experts from various European countries and the U.S. were selected and invited to the conference. The conference was divided into sessions with the following topics:
• Emerging threats in transport systems,
• Perspectives of stakeholders, organisational issues,
• Presentation and introduction of best practice and technological innovations,
• Results of research projects related to transport security and High-priority future development topics.
During the conference, all participants were invited to collect topics for in-depth discussion in the concluding panel discussion. After the series of interesting presentations, the panel discussion was the final highlight of the conference. The following topics were discussed under the lead of Prof. Jürgen Krieger (BASt):
• Threats, such as terrorism, cyber-attacks, CBRN, climate change, radicalisation and migration, insider threats
• Resilience as the future paradigm in transport security
• Usefulness of experiences from the past for predicting the future
• 100% elimination of risk vs. risk minimisation
• Collaboration between authorities and operators
• Challenges:
– Information sharing, mutual trust and cooperation,
– Convincing politics of the importance of transportation security,
– Common standards and protocols,
– Security research roadmap,
– Fair and proper distribution of responsibilities, resources and costs
• Operator’s perspectives:
– Societal impacts of security measures,
– Role of the virtual world: especially social media,
– Reliable and objective information sources,
– Global threats,
– Passenger perspective,
– Resilience of staff
• High-priority emerging research topics:
– Role of Social Media,
– Disaster impact on transport operator staff – the day after an incident,
– Passenger behavior in case of an incident
The feedback obtained on the conference was very positive. Participants reported repeatedly that they gained many new insights into topics they have been unaware of before. Contact networks were enlarged. During and after the conference, a high volume of information was posted and shared on social media, such as Facebook and LinkedIn. Thanks to the EUSTO platform, it is possible to continue the discussion on the eight selected topics in a structured way after the conference and beyond the lifetime of the EUSTO project. For these discussion topics, special discussions threads were created and remain available on the EUSTO platform for future discussion.
As foreseen, this conference was a unique opportunity to get in contact with experts in the field of surface transport and its protection, as well as to exchange knowledge and experiences. Overall, it was a worthy official closing event of the EUSTO project.
We would like to thank all presenters and participants for their exceptional contributions to the conference. Finally, we also thank the European Commission for providing funding for participants’ travel costs and conference organisation.
Co-funded by the Prevention, Preparedness and Consequence Management of Terrorism and other Security – related Risks Programme of the European Union
Photos from the 4th EUSTO Workshop
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