EMFAF-2021-PIA-CISE
The 2014 Commission Communication on better situational awareness by enhanced cooperation across maritime surveillance authorities defines Common Information Sharing Environment (CISE) for the EU maritime domain (herewith Maritime CISE) as a "voluntary collaborative process in the European Union seeking to further enhance and promote relevant information sharing between authorities involved in maritime surveillance.
Its ultimate aim is to increase the efficiency, quality, responsiveness and coordination of surveillance operations in the EU maritime domain and to promote innovation, for the prosperity and security of the EU and its citizens". The basic idea behind Maritime CISE is to ensure that maritime surveillance related information collected by one maritime sector and considered necessary and useful for the activities of other maritime sectors can be efficiently shared with those sectors. CISE is therefore creating the conditions for the information collected by a maritime authority, for a specific purpose, to be easily and securely accessed by/shared with other maritime authorities performing different missions.
Over the 2016-2019 period, thirteen national and cross-national CISE related projects have been funded by grants provided under the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund (EMFF). These projects aimed at adapting authorities' legacy systems to enhance interoperability between maritime authorities at national level and increase their preparedness to connect to the network developed by the EUCISE20204 project. A transitional phase of CISE is currently underway since May 2019. The aim is to prepare the ground for the deployment of CISE into operations post 2023. This Transitional Phase, managed by the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA) and benefiting from the technological and scientific support of the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission (JRC), will build on the results and achievements of the EUCISE2020 project and the national interoperability projects.
In this context, the establishment of a pre-operational “incident alerting service” in the CISE network, where information regarding incidents on board vessels or any type of maritime asset can be exchanged, could bring a greater added value to the entire CISE project and attract interest from current and future participants.
The main objectives of this call for proposals are to enhance the cooperation between public maritime authorities (including European Commission Services and EU Agencies) by promoting the development of at least 2 services at the pre-operational phase and to foster the uptake of CISE in view of its operationalisation.
The developed services at pre-operational phase should relate to risk and incident alerting services that use CISE for information exchange. These services are meant to be complementary to information exchanged through the legacy systems of user communities. In no way these services will substitute or replace existing systems and existing legal obligations under European and/or international law. CISE aims at giving users the possibility to add or to top-up missing information to the information available in their legacy systems. These services should give the possibility to complete information by reaching out to a wider variety of Public Authorities connected to the CISE network.
Proposals should focus on rolling out information services capable of supporting the work of the relevant authorities, addressing at least 3 use cases in the pre-operational environment. It should involve authorities from as many sectors as possible of those identified in the CISE communication . The proposed services should facilitate the work of operators to carry out their tasks in the context of the identified use cases by sharing the needed information, in a timely manner, in their operational system (legacy). The automatic sharing of information on the selected services, should aim at reducing the workload at the operational level and further enhancing the decision-making process at tactical level.
Therefore, the exchange of information shall be automatized connecting the legacy systems of the authorities involved (no simulator or dedicated client) and the actual use of the received information by the receiving legacy system should be proven. Applicants should explain in their proposal how the implementation of the targeted activities will result in concrete and measurable results within the project's duration. Proposals should demonstrate how added value is provided to existing systems.
The implemented services addressing use cases should be piloted for at least 6 months in the operational network, targeting real events. In this regard the applicant should design an operational report where events and/or target activities should be documented.
Link with CMA Goals
Goal I: Healthy marine and coastal ecosystems / Priority 1: Ensure the protection and sustainability of the marine ecosyste