Over the past 5 years the majority of the REDIRNET consortia have participated in Projects SECRICOM and FREESIC; this has involved partners engaging significantly with a wide range of public safety officers across the EU. A benefit of this engagement has been the recognition that in addition to agency interoperability of communications a pressing need exists for agency interoperability of additional IT systems such as databases, sensor systems and cameras. REDIRNET provides a framework for addressing this need with detailed mapping of user preferences and related legal requirements using innovative technologies.

The consortium is aware that frequently it is non-technical issues that hinder agency interoperability regardless of the quality of technical solutions. Consequently user engagement across a range of agencies EU-wide will be ongoing throughout the duration of REDIRNET. This will lead to the first of two elements of the REDIRNET framework - a quality repository of user identified interoperability issues and proposals for their resolution.

The second element of REDIRNET will be technology. REDIRNET will provide a decentralized framework for interoperability for first responders’ systems based on a public meta-data gateway controlled by the agencies themselves via a REDIRNET socio-professional web. Agencies will be able link up to partner agencies of their choice and operational need; they will also be able to manage the scope of such interoperability. To help set up these link-up arrangements REDIRNET will be enhanced with semantic web methods in accordance with the vocabulary and processes of the user community. Inter-operating agencies will need only to develop one gateway (to REDIRNET) leading to a cost effective solution; agent technologies will also be developed to facilitate the integration of user systems into REDIRNET.

Aspects of REDIRNET will address not only current but future challenges. Published project results being timely for 2016 developme.

Project duration: 01.03.2014 - 30.08.2016.