Strong stakeholder response to explore uses of social media for civil security!

The European Commission’s fifth annual Security Research call for proposals closed on 23 November. As with previous Security Research calls Europe’s stakeholder community had four months to respond to the research topics in the call.

One of the items in the societal security category that sparked keen interest across Europe’s research community, for example, was topic SEC-2012.6.1-3, which sought proposals on the “use of new communication/social media in crisis situations”.

Interest in this topic was already strong at the EU’s annual Security Research Conference during 20-21 September in Warsaw and its pre-event “brokerage” sessions where stakeholders presented their research skills and ideas. A number of presentations focused on the interplay between social media and civil security response.