Online Safety and Security for Protection of Public-Facing Professionals and Democratic Resilience Politician, Reporters, Teachers, Emergency services staff and Police officers are public-facing professionals (PFPs). This means they operate in the public eye with at times dramatic repercussions for their private lives (e.g., ‘trial by social media’, unwanted identification, online harassment and threats to themselves or their families). Online attacks are often framed as a way to ‘redress injustices’ or holding public professionals to account. They, however, can have dramatic negative consequences. Therefore, it is important to better understand the challenges faced by PFPs for their participation in online spaces and provide mechanisms to them and their organisations to effectively safeguard, manage and mitigate against these risks. OSPREY will build a knowledge base for PFP-specific risks, harms, protection needs and harm impacts, focusing on mapping shared and profession-specific risk profiles and safeguarding requirements; create a comprehensive knowledge-base on attack vectors and motivations of perpetrators across to understand disparate types/motivations (e.g., personal grievances, ideological driven campaigns, foreign political campaigns) to guide improved protection approaches; co-create advanced AI tools, mechanisms and solutions shaped for PFP-specific challenges empowering secure participation in online spaces; toolkits and trainings to improve knowledge of PFPs, their employing organisations, LEAs and law/policy makers how to prevent, manage and mitigate online harms as well as legislate for better safety of PFPs; improve public awareness on online harm impacts, including practical approaches to allyship and bystander activation.

The increased risk for powered two-wheelers (PTW) drivers is still very high: the risk of being killed for a PTW driver is 22 times higher than that of a car driver. The motorcyclists die on curves in 49% of cases. When taking a curve, riders alternate between taking short-term information to control their trajectory and anticipating hazards in the road environment. Because of the complex dynamics of the PTWs, motorcycle crashes are frequently caused by loss of control. The transition of riders to electric PTWs (ePTWs) raises road safety issues related to the change in the sound signature and vehicle dynamics. The lack of noise makes it more difficult to judge the speed when approaching a bend or induces more distraction to look at the speedometer, both of which make it more difficult to control the trajectory. The dynamics of electric drives, which differ from internal combustion engines with very high torques at low engine speeds, are problematic during re-acceleration out of bends and during low-speed maneuvers, such as starting at a traffic light and performing a right-turn maneuver. In both these cases, there is a risk of losing adherence and, therefore, the trajectory. These elements are unfavorable for road safety. The eMC2 project proposes to fill in the gaps in knowledge about the difficulties encountered by ePTWs riders by comparing them to those encountered by users of thermal PTWs. Based on the results obtained, the project proposes a set of accompanying measures for a "safe" transition of riders from thermal PTWs to electric PTWs.

In order to support the fight against radicalization and thus prevent future terrorist attacks from taking place, the CounteR project will bring data from disperse sources into an analysis and early alert platform for data mining and prediction of critical areas (e.g. communities), aiming to be a frontline community policing tool which looks at the community and its related risk factors rather than targeting and surveilling individuals. This is a key point in ensuring the privacy of citizens and the protection of their personal data, an issue that has been of great concern to policymakers and LEAs alike, who must balance the important work they do with the need to protect innocent individuals. The system will incorporate state of the art NLP technologies combined with expert knowledge into the psychology of radicalization processes to provide a complete solution for LEAs to understand the when, where and why of radicalization in the community to help combat propaganda, fundraising, recruitment and mobilization, networking, information sharing, planning/coordination, data manipulation and misinformation. Information gained by the system will also allow LEAs and other community stakeholders to implement prevention programs and employ counternarratives rather than relying solely on surveillance. The CounteR solution will cover a wide range of information sources, both dynamic (e.g. social media) and offline (e.g. open data sources) and combined with world-renowned expertise in radicalization processes and their psychology. The CounteR solution will allow LEAs to take coordinated action in real-time while also preserving the privacy of citizens, as the system will target “hotspots” of radicalization rather than individuals. In addition, the CounteR solution will support information sharing between European LEAs and foster collaboration between diverse agencies by providing an open platform which prioritizes harmonized information formats.