E2mC aims at demonstrating the technical and operational feasibility of the integration of social media analysis and crowdsourced information within both the Mapping and Early Warning Components of Copernicus Emergency Management Service (EMS). The Project will develop a prototype of a new EMS Service Component (Copernicus Witness), designed to exploit social media analysis and crowdsourcing capabilities to generate a new Product of the EMS Portfolio. The purpose of the new Copernicus Witness Service Component is to improve the timeliness and accuracy of geo-spatial information provided to Civil Protection authorities, on a 24/7 basis, during the overall crisis management cycle and, particularly, in the first hours immediately after the event. This will result in an early confirmation of alerts from running Early Warning Systems as well as first rapid impact assessment from the field. The technological enabler of the Copernicus Witness is the innovative and scalable Social&Crowd (S&C) Platform, developed by E2mC. Heterogeneous social media data streams (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram,… and different data: text, image, video, …) will be analysed and sparse crowdsourcing communities will be federated (crisis specific as Tomnod, HOT, SBTF and generic as Crowdcrafting, EpiCollect,…). Two demonstration loops will validate the usefulness of Copernicus Witness and the S&C Platform suitability to allow EC to evaluate possible Copernicus EMS evolution options. E2mC will perform demonstrations within realistic and operational scenarios designed by the Users involved within the Project (Civil Protection Authorities and Humanitarian Aid operators, including their volunteer teams) and by the current Copernicus EMS Operational Service Providers that are part of the E2mC Consortium. The involvement of social media and crowdsourcing communities will foster the engagement of a large number of people in supporting crisis management; many more citizens will become aware of Copernicus.

The BroadWay project will take the first procurement steps to enable ‘interoperable next generation of broadband radio communication systems for public safety and security’ to improve Public Safety and Disaster relief organisation’s (PPDR’s) service to Europe’s citizens, and enhance interoperability across borders. The primary goal of this project is to: ‘Procure Innovation activity to develop and demonstrate TRL8 technologies that will enable a pan-European interoperable broadband mobile system for PPDR, validated by sustainable testing facilities’ This project implements a Pre-Commercial Procurement (PCP) with the purpose to realise innovative solutions for the implementation of the ‘SpiceNet Reference’ architecture as defined by the BroadMap project. A pan-European pilot system will be developed within the timeframe 2021, validated by sustainable test capabilities, and to the satisfaction of a European wide team of public safety practitioners. The BroadWay partnership is comprised of 11 buyers in 11 countries, who represent the organisations with responsibility for transition to broadband for Public Safety Communication within their country. All buyer partners are from EU member states. 4 are the direct responsible Ministry within their country, and 7 are the delegated authority in their country, responsible to operate public safety communication networks. Our buyers represent the operation of public safety communication for 1.4Million public safety practitioners in their respective countries. 49 practitioner organisations from a total of 19 countries have offered to take part in the pilot validation/evaluation activities as members of our Practitioner team. A total of 60 additional organisations have expressed their support for the BroadWay project. The BroadWay team, plus this additional support, covers a total of 23 European Countries with 7 additional countries represented by their ministries responsible for public safety communication.