FOCUS mid-term symposium and winter school

The FOCUS project ( Foresight Security Scenarios: Mapping Research to a Comprehensive Approach to Exogenous EU Roles, http://www.focusproject.eu) has gone half way and recently held its mid-term symposium and winter school in Vienna, with 59 participants from 14 countries. We have also completed the problem space descriptions that build the foundation for the main part of FOCUS foresight that is now under way. As well, we have populated our growing IT-based knowledge platform with results from the problem space descriptions.

The FOCUS winter school was hosted by the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences (BOKU), with an emphasis on security research from a multidisciplinary point of view. Methods used in FOCUS were introduced in lectures, and seminars held that addressed cross-cutting issues, such as ethics aspects in security research and related scenario planning. Participants were particularly interested in analytical and practical approaches to security cultures, including citizens’ acceptance of risk management and civil protection strategies and technologies. The second day of the winter school was merged with the FOCUS mid-term symposium, where methods and so-far results were presented and discussed by end-user representatives from the Austrian Ministry of the Interior, NATO, and first responder organization Magen David Alom of Israel. One of the conclusions was that scenario foresight for the planning of security research should also consider practical mission scenarios and capability needs, such as “plane crash 2035”.

Presentations are available online on http://www.focusproject.eu/web/focus/downloads.