IMPETUS (Intelligent Management of Processes, Ethics and Technology for Urban Safety) is a Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation project that provides city authorities with new means to improve the security of public spaces in smart cities, and so help protect citizens. It delivers an advanced, technology-based solution that helps operational personnel, based on data gathered from multiple sources, to work closely with each other and with state-of-the art tools to detect threats and make well-informed decisions about how to deal with them. 

IMPETUS provides a solution that brings together: 

• Technology: leverage the power of Internet of Things, Artificial Intelligence and Big Data to provide powerful tools that help operational personnel manage physical and cyber security in smart cities. 

• Ethics: Balance potentially conflicting needs to collect, transform and share large amounts of data with the imperative of ensuring protection of data privacy and respect for other ethical concerns - all in the context of ensuring benefits to society. 

• Processes: Define the steps that operational personnel must take, and the assessments they need to make, for effective decision making and coordination - fully aligned with their individual context and the powerful support offered by the technology. 

Technological results are complemented by a set of practitioners guides providing guidelines, documentation and training materials in the areas of operations, ethical/legal issues and cybersecurity. 

IMPETUS places great emphasis on taking full and proper account of ethical and legal issues.  This is reflected in the way project work is carried out, the nature of the project’s results and the restrictions imposed on their use, and the inclusion of external advisors on these issues in project management. 

The cities of Oslo (Norway) and Padova (Italy) have been selected as the site of practical trials of the IMPETUS solution during the project lifetime, but the longer-term goal is to achieve adoption much more widely. 

The work is carried out by a consortium of 17 partners from 11 different EU Member States and Associated Countries. It brings together 5 research institutions, 7 specialist industrial and SME companies, 3 NGOs and 2 local government authorities (the trial sites).  The consortium is complemented by the Community of Safe and Secure Cities (COSSEC) – a group established by the project to provide feedback on the IMPETUS solution as it is being developed and tested. 

The project started in September 2020 with a duration of 30 months and a budget of eight million euros.

This video from autumn 2021 gives an overview of the project and its main results. A few details in the video are out-of-date (e.g. some tool names have been updated, some things presented as being in the future have now happened), but the overall message is accurate.

 IMPETUS partners

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How might people responsible for safety and security in a city benefit from using a solution such as IMPETUS?

The technological solution provided by IMPETUS provides an example of advanced technology, partly based on AI (Artificial Intelligence) techniques, aiming to help improve safety in public spaces. Other specific tools and packages exist and new ones will surely emerge in future. They bring key benefits to a city:

• Deploying the technology can help you increase your city's resilience to various threats and improve crisis management.

• Using advanced information tools will expand the "ears" and "eyes" of your city, enabling early detection of impending problems.

• Improvements in operational decision-making can help prevent problems from escalating.

The Practitioners Guides developed in IMPETUS provide advice on multiple issues that need to be considered in the successful deployment of such technology, covering the proper handling of personal and other sensitive data, operational issues and cybersecurity. The lessons to be learned from the Practitioners Guides apply to use of any type of advanced technology for public safety - not just the specific tools developed in IMPETUS.

The IMPETUS solution

With its wide coverage, tight integration and validation through detailed testing in two pilot cities, IMPETUS can have an important role in convincing city authorities that practical application of such technology is feasible in the short and longer term. We invite you to learn more by looking at our Description of IMPETUS Tools and Platform.