BODEGA is a three-year research project co-funded by the European Commission within the EU Framework Programme for Research and Innovation – Horizon 2020 under the topic BES-14-2014: Ethical Societal Dimension, Human Factors in Border Control – Proactive Enhancement of Human Performance in Border Control.
The project started on 1 June 2015 and is coordinated by VTT (Technical Research Centre of Finland) with a consortium consisting of 15 partners from seven European countries: VTT, CEA, AIT, Thales, UIC – International Union of Railways, CEIS, University of Namur, ATOS, Zanasi & Partners Ubium, Happywise, Hellenic Border Guard, Finnish Border Guard – RAJA, ADM.
The aim of the project is to build expertise at the European level about Human Factors and ethical aspects at border lines in a way to enhance its efficiency without side effects to the end users (border guards, managers and travellers).
On 2 and 3 December the BODEGA General Assembly was held in Athens at the Divani Palace Acropolis Hotel.
It was the opportunity to report on the progress of all the work packages, especially WP 1, 2, 3, 4 and 7 which are core inputs for work packages 5, 6 and 8.
This time it was crucial to speak in depth about the field studies that concern four modes of transport: air, maritime, rail and road.
UIC, which is leading this task, presented a proposed organisation of all the field studies as well as a time planning and resources of data collection of each mode of transport. After that, UIC presented a time planning and resources of data analysis, in order to allow each participant in the field studies a common methodology to analyse this amount of data. It was really important to gather and discuss together a common way to organise these field studies in order to cover all the essential aspects of the future smart border package.
The meeting was also the occasion to launch the WP4 kick-off meeting in order to define an in-depth cognitive assessment and first requirements for future smarter borders focusing on human factors.
Moreover, the UIC team, together with the partners form Thales, VTT, Ubium and CEA, arrived in Greece two days prior to the meeting in order to start the pre-test of the interviews. Thanks to the Greek team who did an excellent job of organising the venue, we had the opportunity to observe and conduct several interviews with Greek border guards and their managers both at Piraeus for the maritime part and at Athens airport for the air part. It was very beneficial and helped us to improve our methodology as well as to better understand the current work of border guards in view of a future smart border initiative. This will allow us to give another dynamic to our field study methodology/interview guides as well as redefine in the best way the priorities of this project.
