A team from the Department of Electronics, Information and Bioengineering – Politecnico di Milano, coordinated by Prof. Andrea Aliverti together with research fellow Alessandro Molani, is taking part in the European project BEHOLDER.
Funded under the Horizon Europe programme, the initiative aims to enhance citizen safety through the development of an integrated detection system based on the Internet of Things (IoT), capable of identifying nuclear, biological, chemical, radiological and explosive threats.
Launched in June 2025 with a three-year duration, BEHOLDER brings together 14 partners from 7 European countries, coordinated by the Dutch Institute for Safe & Secure Spaces. The project’s goal is to deliver by 2028 a scalable and interoperable platform, designed to improve real-time detection, assessment and response, thereby contributing to the protection of public spaces across Europe.
A key element of the project is the development of open and accessible data standards, ensuring vendor-independent integration and promoting widespread adoption. The system will also be tested in real urban environments through pilot projects, in order to validate performance and provide practical insights for responding to complex threats.
To ensure long-term sustainability, BEHOLDER will include a comprehensive training programme for stakeholders, equipping cities with the skills required to effectively manage the platform. Workshops and interviews with end users will help identify specific operational and training needs, forming the basis for a modular curriculum covering system functionalities, operational procedures, safety protocols, and data interpretation for situational awareness. An online platform will provide continuous updates, courses, Q&A sessions, and resources to support system evolution and advanced use cases.
By combining cutting-edge detection technologies with the evolving infrastructures of smart cities, BEHOLDER marks a significant step forward in urban security, with the ultimate goal of making European cities safer, more resilient, and better prepared to face tomorrow’s challenges.