Study on strengthening EU-funded security research and innovation : 20 years of EU-Funded Civil Security Research and Innovation : final report

Since the beginning of the 21st century, the European Union (EU) has considerably reshaped its approach to security policy, and in this context, the EU has taken up an increasingly more active role in supporting research and innovation (R&I) initiatives within the context of civil security over the past 20 years. This evolution has occurred concurrently to the prioritisation of internal security within the EU policy agenda, as exemplified by the inclusion of a specific pillar on "Protecting citizens and freedoms" as one of the four main priorities of the 2019-2024 Strategic Agenda for the EU. This study provides a comprehensive assessment of the contributions, benefits and potential shortcomings of the research and innovation efforts, the investments made have been analysed and benchmarked against other (i) national civil security research programmes around the globe (both within and outside of the European Union), as well as (ii) other areas of research funded by the EU. Finally, the delivered impact and added value (including knowledge generation, value creation and market uptake) have also been identified.