Dual-use concerns in research and EU funded projects
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Have you ever heard about the term dual-use items?
What is dual-use research referred to?
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO) “Dual-use research of concern (DURC) describes research that is intended to provide a clear benefit, but which could easily be misapplied to do harm. It usually refers to work in the life sciences, but the principles are also applicable to other fields including engineering and information technology”[1].
These types of concerns, refer to specific outcomes that could cause damage both to humans (regarding health, safety, security) and the environment (nature).
This is something we encounter often in EU funded projects. European Commission requests occasionally, from researchers to carry out scrutiny regarding dual-use concerns as the research evolves. The decision of such requests stems from the nature of the research, the programme and the likelihood of the results to be misused. To this end, the definition of ‘dual-use’ as interpreted by the applicable European legal framework can work as a good guide on identifying the possibility of dual – use items in research.
More specifically, we refer to the ‘Council Regulation (EC) 428/2009 setting up a community regime for the control of exports, transfer, brokering and transit of dual-use items’ or other items for which any document(s) must be submitted throughout research activities. According to this regulation the definition of the dual-use items are “in general, those which can be potentially used for both civil and military purposes”[2].
A list of categories of potential dual-use items (including software and technologies) are listed below as they are mentioned in the Regulation:
The possibility of research being misused is something that concerns science constantly and this is because of the consequences this might cause at a societal or ethical level. Either intentionally or unintentionally there is always a possibility that some research results might be used for the wrong reasons or in a wrong way.
Some recommended steps to mitigate the possibility of dual-use concerns in research are:
Things might end up more complicated when research requires pilot testings in multiple countries which means that technology and equipment should move around the different sites. In case of identified software or technologies that can be characterised as potential dual-use items, researchers should examine all national procedures and licenses required in the countries involved in the testings.
Although BorderUAS research activities and outcomes exclusively focus on civil applications, the legal team of the project based on the abovementioned Council Regulation to conduct an exhaustive study in order to meet the EC requirements on dual-use concerns in research outcomes of the project.
One of the main objectives of the project is constantly to ensure that BorderUAS research is compliant with all applicable national, European and international dual-use legislation.
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BorderUAS is a research project that has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 – Research and Innovation Framework Programme, SU-BES02-2018-2019-2020– Technologies to enhance border and external security, under grant agreement no. 883272. The project started on June 2020 and ends in June 2023. The BorderUAS’ consortium consists of 19 partners from academia and industry, as well as public bodies. The present website is part of the dissemination and communication activities undertaken by the BorderUAS consortium within the aim to successfully communicate its research output on a rather innovative topic to a wider public and facilitate the creation of synergies with interested stakeholders.
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The present data protection policy clarifies in a layered manner the processing of personal information of visitors of the BorderUAS’ website. The data processing on the BorderUAS website is pursuant to Regulation (EU) 2016/679 (General Data Protection Regulation), Greek Law 4624/2019 on the protection of personal data and any other applicable law.
The Data Controller is the Center for Security Studies (KEMEA) with offices in Athens, at P. Kanellopoulou str., 4, 10177 Greece. The Data Controller can be contacted by writing to the address above or by sending an e-mail message to kemea@kemea.gr , or by calling at Telephone: +30 2107710805 or sending a Fax at Fax number: +30 211 100 4499.
KEMEA’s Data Protection Officer may be reached at dpo@kemea-research.gryou have any question about the processing of your data when using the BorderUAS website or you wish to exercise any of your rights as data subject.
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Your personal data are processed by electronic means in compliance with the provisions of art. 32 of GDPR 2016/679, national law and in compliance with the principles of data’s confidentiality, integrity, and availability. Your personal data are transferred in an encoded manner using the widely used and secure TLS (Transport Layer Security) encryption standard. You will recognise a secure TLS connection by the additional “s” after “http” (i.e., https://..) in the address bar of your browser or from the lock icon. Moreover, we use suitable technical and organizational measures, which are being continuously enhanced, to protect your data against accidental or intentional manipulation, partial or complete loss, destruction or against unauthorized access by third parties.
This data protection policy is effective as of September 2020.
We keep our Data Protection Policy under regular review to make sure it is up to date and precise. Thus, it may become necessary to change it due to the potential addition of new features to the BorderUAS website or due to further legal requirements. You can have access to the latest data protection information on the BorderUAS website at “permanent link of data protection policy”.
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