About DEMASST

DEMASST is a Phase 1 demonstration project within EU’s Seventh Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development (FP7). The major goal of the project is to produce a roadmap definition for the Phase 2 demonstration programme Security of Mass Transportation, which will promote large scale integration, validation and demonstration of new security systems of systems going significantly beyond the state of art.

DEMASST takes on the dual challenges of analysis and networking necessary to define and achieve commitment for the strategic roadmap for the Phase 2 Demonstration project. “Mass transportation” in the context of the security terminology used in the European Union is mostly oriented towards urban public transportation, such as metro, tram, commuter train, citybusses and inter-modal, critical nodes, including those connecting long-distance transports with urban transport systems. The approach of DEMASST is thus a broad range of public transport but focusing on rail in megacities.

DEMASST develops a highly structured approach to the demonstration programme built on identifying the main security gaps and the most promising integrated solutions, utilising sufficiently mature technologies, for filling them. In the type of Concept Development & Experimentation approach proposed the experiments must be designed and analysed so as to be maximally informative.

Given the vast variation in mass transportation systems an effective demonstration programme must also identify synergies between demo tasks and use less costly methods than full scale demonstration whenever that helps a broader awareness.

DEMASST proposes to build the methodological infrastructure for this. But an optimal demo project design does not stop with finding scientific answers: the issue of turning demonstration into innovation is top on DEMASST’s agenda. And this approach will have utility also beyond transportation. The project is planned to be carried out between January 2009 and April 2010.