Call for proposals
European Maritime and Fisheries Fund –
“Implementation
of the Common Information Sharing Environment (CISE) for the EU
maritime domain: Ensuring interoperability of National IT Systems to
allow for more efficient information exchange within and across borders”
- EASME/EMFF/2016/1.2.1.9/2017/1.2.1.3
Objectives and description
This
Call for proposals is launched with a view to supporting projects to
enhance interoperability of national IT systems to allow for a more
efficient information exchange within and across borders between
maritime surveillance authorities in the EU. Such
enhancements will significantly contribute to improving the awareness
picture of their areas of operational responsibility, to the enhancement
of co-operation between coastguard authorities, and ultimately to the
efficiency and cost-effectiveness of individual and joint maritime
operations.
Initiatives
to develop information exchange between maritime surveillance
authorities at EU and national level have already been ongoing for some
time, but the range of information shared across sectors and borders is
still limited mainly due to the lack of technical interoperability and
the legal barriers (particularly at national level). Maritime CISE, the
Common Information Sharing Environment for the EU maritime domain, is a
voluntary collaborative process in the European Union seeking to further
enhance and promote relevant information sharing between authorities
involved in maritime surveillance.
The
present call is awarding grants for actions to be developed by
authorities responsible for maritime surveillance at national level. It
follows up and builds on two calls for proposals funded by the European
Maritime and Fisheries Fund, which resulted in ten national CISE
projects that are currently ongoing.
Eligible activities
The
activities under this call must involve public authorities carrying out
maritime surveillance and intervention missions at sea in the following
sectors: maritime transport, customs, border control, general
law enforcement, fisheries control, marine environment protection,
pollution response and defence.
Proposals under this call should cover at least one the following types of activities:
1. Development of specific CISE information services using the CISE interoperability solutions (CISE Data and Service models).
These services should enable the exchange of relevant information,
across sectors and borders, between participating authorities.
Applicants may use as reference the following services, prioritised by
national authorities in a recent survey carried out by a consultant on
behalf of the Commission:
o Incident/event notification (alert) service
o Vessel location service
o Vessel voyage service
o Vessel details service
o Risk information service
o Incident history service
o Crew list service
o Intervention asset service
2. Development of CISE-enabled operational functionalities – implemented in the authorities’ maritime surveillance systems.
These functionalities should support the collection and exploitation
(e.g. fusion, distributed search) of relevant information gathered
through exchanges with different authorities using the CISE information
services. They should be tailored to the needs of distinct operational
scenarios (e.g. SAR operation, countering illegal immigration operation,
anti-pollution operation, etc.). They should also enable the
development of common operational procedures, to be used in joint
operations.
Applicants
may use as a reference the example described in Appendix 2 as well as
the following functionalities, identified in the survey included in
Appendix 3:
o Management of notifications for incidents/events
o Incident history service
o Collaboration services
o Dynamic information search and fusion using the Registry of Authorities (Query)
With regard to the activities 1 and 2, projects could undertake designing, implementing and validation tasks.
Projects may include the enhancement of existing software used for
maritime surveillance in order to enhance capabilities to manage the
exchange of data with partner authorities within the CISE context.
3.
Adaptation of the national IT systems for maritime surveillance to
become interoperable with systems of other surveillance authorities
within the CISE context.
Authorities should:
a)
Perform the necessary analyses (studies) identifying relevant
information that need to be, for operational purposes, automatically
exchanged with other authorities across sectors and borders (i.e.
information received/provided today through means of phone, email, fax,
etc.) using, if possible, the CISE Data model and/or
b)
Upgrade the existing software to support an initial automatic exchange
of information with other authorities, across sectors and borders,
through dedicated information services. Partners involved in the
design/development of the required software should, if possible, use the
CISE Data model.
Proposals
under this activity that do not build on the EU CISE data model, but
still provide solutions which respect the general principles described
below (except the one on ‘Building on CISE interoperability solutions’),
will be taken into consideration if a logic explanation is given why
the CISE interoperability solutions do not fit for their purposes.
Independently from the activities performed, projects might also address
the development of (legal) agreements between parties such as Service
Level Agreements (SLA), which will determine the terms and conditions of
exchange covered by specific CISE information services.
While developing the CISE information services and operational functionalities under the proposed projects, the following general principles should be taken into account:
· Enhance operational efficiency & effectiveness
· Reusability and sustainability
· Cross-sectorial and cross-border scope
· Complementarity with other CISE projects (e.g. EUCISE2020)
· Building on CISE interoperability solutions
The following activities are NOT eligible:
· studies and ICT developments aimed at fulfilling the requirements of any EU legislation for the maritime domain;
· activities
already covered by projects funded under the calls for proposals
MARE/2014/26 and EASME/EMFF/2015/1.2.1.5 for "Interoperability
improvements in Member States to enhance information sharing for
maritime surveillance";
· activities already covered by the FP7 'EUCISE 2020' project.
Applicants
who have already received funds under the previous calls for proposals
MARE/2014/26 and EASME/EMFF/2015/1.2.1.5 and/or are participating in the
EUCISE2020 project must demonstrate the complementarity of the
activities applied for under this call for proposals with the actions
already funded.
Eligible participants - Minimum conditions
The following types of entities are eligible to participate in the call:
· Public authorities
(national, regional, local administration) of Member States of the
European Union and EEA involved in the coordination and/or execution of
maritime surveillance activities in maritime transport, customs,
border control, general law enforcement, fisheries control, marine
environment protection, pollution response and defence sectors.
· Private,
non-governmental, international, regional and national entities such
as: research institutes, academies, relevant industry; and public
entities other than the ones mentioned above.
These
entities cannot act as coordinator of the applicant consortium and
should mainly support the objectives of an applicant public authority
involved in maritime surveillance.
Applicants must be legal entities. They can be public or private bodies.
Proposals must be submitted by a consortium of minimum three organisations.
Within
this call for proposals, applicants can participate in maximum two
different project proposals, regardless whether they apply as
coordinator or as partner of a consortium.
Budget and duration
The total budget earmarked for this action is EUR 2,490,000. This budget might be increased under exceptional circumstances by maximum 20%.
It is estimated that proposals
requesting a contribution from the EU of maximum EUR 800,000 would
allow the objectives of this call for proposals to be addressed
appropriately.
The EU grant is limited to a maximum co-funding rate of 80 % of eligible costs actually incurred.
EASME expects to fund up to 6 proposals.
Projects should not exceed the duration of 24 months.
Deadline of proposals' submission
The deadline for submission is 15 June 2017, at 16.00 (Brussels time).
The
application shall be submitted using the correct forms and shall be
duly completed, dated, showing a balanced budget (revenue/expenditure),
submitted in 1 original copy, signed by the person authorised to enter
into legally binding commitments on behalf of the coordinating applicant
organisation.
In
addition to the submission on paper, the applicant is requested to
submit an electronic copy of the proposal (i.e. the grant application
including the declarations of honour and the estimated budget) and all
its annexes on a CD-ROM or USB-stick in the same envelope as the paper
version.
Further information
Please find attached the call documents.
Requests for further information shall be sent exclusively by e-mail to EASME-EMFFcalls@ec.europa.eu indicating as subject ''2016/1.2.1.9/2017/1.2.1.3 - Implementation of CISE projects"
Such questions, together with their answers, if of a general interest, will be published at: https://ec.europa.eu/easme/en/european-maritime-and-fisheries-fund
More information: https://ec.europa.eu/easme/en/implementation-common-information-sharing-environment-cise-eu-maritime-domain-ensuring
Kind regards,
Rosemary STREVINIOTI
Acting Executive Director
Head of Brussels Office
European Office of Cyprus
Rue du Luxembourg 3, 2nd floor
B-1000 Brussels
Tel./Fax: +32 (0) 2 280 22 85
E-mail: strevinioti.rozamaria@ucy.ac.cy
PLEASE NOTE THAT THE GREEK TRANSLATION OF THE CALLS IS PROVIDED AT REQUEST OF ANY INTERESTED MEMBER (based on the decision of 22.12.2016 of the EOC Administrative Council).