Chemical Biological Radiological Nuclear and explosive (CBRNe) incidents, whether accidental or malicious, can have a high impact on society, even more so in very complex environments such as railway premises. These can be soft targets for ‘orphan’ contamination sources or for Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) which have been combined with toxic chemicals or radioactive materials, thus enhancing the lethal impact of the attack. Beyond terrorist attacks, the railway sector is also vulnerable to accidents involving freight trains carrying hazardous materials, or the sabotage of trains transporting dangerous goods.
After about four-and-a-half years of dedicated work on this topic, the EU-funded PROACTIVE project, coordinated by the UIC Security Division, produced valuable results for security practitioners, including the rail sector, and civil society.
UIC Senior Security Research Advisor Grigore Havarneanu showcased the key exploitable results in the CBNW Magazine: https://nct-cbnw.com/proactive-for-an-inclusive-cbrne-preparedness-and-response/. Short version of the article available here: https://nct-cbnw.com/project-proactive-an-inclusive-human-centered-approach-in-cbrne-preparedness-and-response/.
In addition, “Results in Brief” were recently published for the project in this CORDIS article by the European Commission: https://cordis.europa.eu/article/id/448499-boosting-first-responders-response-to-hazardous-threats
It is worth noting that the project outcomes are very much in line with the recent Codes of Practice published by the European Commission for industry-academia co-creation and citizen engagement for knowledge valorisation. Since 2019 PROACTIVE has been creating successful partnerships for knowledge valorisation and included the railway sector in this process. Moreover, it established and strengthened links between research entities, practitioners and societal actors for better uptake of research results.
While the project ended in 2023, the UIC Security Division continues to promote the key results to ensure their uptake in various end-user communities. These results are an important first step in helping railways improve their CBRNe threat preparedness and enhance the security of both their passengers and staff in close cooperation with specialised security practitioners.
PROACTIVE can be followed on X/Twitter (@PROACTIVE_EU), LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/company/proactive-eu/) and YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/@PROACTIVE_EU/), as well as the project website https://proactive-h2020.eu/.
