Anti-terror tech gets €15m from EU

The European Commission is to put €15m into researching technologies designed to combat terrorism.

Some of the €15m will be used to fund a project which will research the creation of a security infrastructure to guard train and underground networks against biological, chemical, nuclear or radiological terrorist attacks.

The project will use information from CCTV, ground-penetrating lasers, line scanners and sensors to detect the presence of dangerous materials.

EC vice-president Günter Verheugen said the recent attacks on London showed the vulnerability of the public transport network and added that it is hoped the extra research will help to protect European citizens.

Other tech projects to receive EC cash to fight terrorism include improving surveillance around harbours and coastlines and protecting the air travel infrastructure.

Technology will play a key part in the EC's anti-terrorist research. The EC is to spend its €15m - set to increase to €250m in 2007 - on technologies for analysing and securing the critical networked infrastructure in the public and private sector, including ICTs; locking down the EU's borders and improving border surveillance; and using technologies to make sure emergency systems and services remain live in the event of a crisis.

The EC wants researchers to put an emphasis on interoperability between systems, hardware, software and services when developing new security technologies.