ENTRANCE Article in PEN-CP Magazine

The H2020 project ENTRANCE (for EfficieNT Risk-bAsed iNspection of freight Crossing bordErs without disrupting business) is concerned with developing, implementing and testing through field-trials a comprehensive user-based Toolbox for risk-based non-intrusive inspection of cross-border freight movements. It aims to address the specific challenges that EU border security practitioners are facing and enhance their capabilities to protect society against a wide range of threats while minimally disrupting cross-border flow of goods.

The Toolbox that ENTRANCE aims to deliver is composed of five key elements, namely:

1. Automated Risk Assessment, Threat Recognition and Information Sharing Platform (ENARTIS) which will bring together all risk-assessment and threat detection data into a single integrated, automated and secure platform.
2. Suite of Non-Intrusive Inspection (NII) technologies for detecting contraband hidden in high-density cargo which will combine two novel automated first-line techniques for detection of contraband and a second-line technique to provide more information in case further investigation is required
3. Enhanced relocatable unit for non-intrusive detection of a wide number of threats with improved identification and discrimination capabilities for materials ranging from explosives, illicit drugs, chemical warfare agents, radioactive and nuclear material, including enriched uranium and plutonium
4. Trans-European network of Radiation Portal Monitors (RPM) for passive detection of illicit nuclear and radioactive material combining detection facilities of different types and technologies
5. Novel high-speed RPM detection technology for passive detection of nuclear and radioactive with minimal disturbance of flow

“The tools for customs officers developed by the ENTRANCE project present a very ambitious technological level for carrying out checks on containers, lorries and wagons, without having to open then empty them. I am convinced that the efficiency gains in the search for targets, such as explosives and drugs in particular, will represent a significant potential advantage” Guillaume Sannié (CEA, France), ENTRANCE Coordinator

Adopting a use case approach involving detailed contextual analysis, the ENTRANCE Toolbox will be validated by a variety of field trials conducted on different sites. The site selection was made in such a way that it should support a broad variety of scenarios, with different environments (road, seaport, rail at border crossing point, train in motion and stopped …) and different configurations. Field trials will permit not only to validate the new technologies developed by ENTRANCE but also make the involvement of practitioners pivotal in the project’s assessment and success.

Guillaume Sannié, from the Commissariat à l’Energie Atomique et aux Énergies Alternatives (CEA) in France, is the coordinator of the ENTRANCE project. The sixteen partners of the consortium include research institutes, border authorities and industry. The project started on 1 October 2020 with a partly physical and partly virtual kick-off meeting.

“The efforts carried out by the partners at the proposal stage to carefully define all the objectives make the development of the project easier today. ENTRANCE therefore started on the first of October 2020 in good conditions and, what’s more, with no COVID-caused delays” Guillaume Sannié (CEA, France), ENTRANCE Coordinator

PEN-CP has been identified by ENTRANCE as one of the main related H2020 projects with which to establish collaborative links and create synergies. To contact ENTRANCE: entrance-coord@eurtd.com