News
04.12.09 | PSIC submits Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) proposal on European Information Sharing and Decision Support (EISDS) system.
The Hague, 4 December 2009 - The Public Security Innovation Center (PSIC) has submitted a Seventh Framework Programma (FP7) research proposal at the European Commission. In the present day context of emergency operations, whether it is responding to an actual event or to indications and warnings coming from an intelligence agency; all relevant individuals, teams and entities implicated dispose of knowledge and a network of contacts specific to their role and activities. Police departments, Fire departments and Counter-Terrorism units are all perfectly aware of what is expected of them. However, these response forces all operate within their own spheres and the information stemming from operations remains confined to a specific sphere. That is, until each party is able and willing to actually share the information. The result of this process is often gaps, overlaps and inconsistencies in who actually has the correct and complete information. In other words, the process yields isolated information and leads to clouded decision making.
PISC has formed a consortium of SME’s, Industry, Government and Research organizations from all over Europe to coordinate a large scale integration project to develop a foundation and middleware that overcomes the obstacles faced by past interoperability projects of a similar nature. The aim is to reach cooperation without the common hindrances related to policies, procedures, technologies, systems, cultures and boundaries, professional domains and operational techniques.
The new system must enable the seamless sharing of information for the prevention, protection, response and recovery of natural, industrial and terrorist emergencies through the intermediary of local, regional and national government authorities; along with the private sector, including critical infrastructure owners and operators. The new system will be tested in a trial with a minimum of eight countries and the disposal of close to 100 different technologies from government and commercial providers. The system will be known as European Information Sharing Decision Support (EISDS).
The EISDS’s vision of harmonization omits the concept of a monolithic system. In fact, EISDS will not have a user interface. Rather, EISDS will be a service-oriented architecture middleware. It will take the form of web service components to exchange data amongst existing emergency management End-User applications. EISDS Core elements (hardware, software and connectivity) form the hub that interconnects “the systems, tools and equipment” for the “command and control functions of emergency management.” EISDS core elements not only talk to their connected applications, they communicate in a peer-to-peer infrastructure in which the core elements connect to form local, regional, national and international networks of information sharing.
For more information on EISDS, please contact Léon de Bruijn, tel 06-42716865 or email: leondebruijn@psic.eu.
Project office | Address: Johan van Oldenbarneveltlaan 9, 2582 NE The Hague, The Netherlands | Phone: +31 70 3228 050 Fax: +31 70 3229 049 | E-mail: info@psic.eu