The Mediterranean and Black Sea region is an international centre of economic and commercial development and transactions. At the same time, though, it is characterised by a very volatile and dynamically changing security environment that poses severe threats and challenges on the societies and their prosperity. MEDEA aspires to contribute to the establishment of safer and more secure societies throughout the Mediterranean and Black Sea region using research and innovation as a catalyst to promote collaboration between practitioners from diverse disciplines and countries. The MEDEA project, during its 60 months of implementation aims to:

• Establish and Operate the MEDEA network. A multi-disciplinary network of security practitioners, with active links to policy makers and users/providers of security innovations across the M&BS countries focusing on Border Protection and other Security- and Disaster-Related tasks. All MEDEA members will engage in activities towards maintaining its sustainability and longevity even after the end of the project.

• Engage participants in anticipatory governance on emerging security challenges that the Mediterranean and Black Sea regions would face in the coming years (present until +10 years), based on a threefold structure that forms the backbone of the project: i) understanding the unsatisfactory state of play, ii) design the desirable future and iii) define a resilient pathway on how to achieve this.

• Push for the “co-creation” of security technology and capabilities innovations between practitioners and innovation. Their evaluation and prioritization will be based on a multi-criteria analysis (technology, operational, cost-benefit, etc.) and it will be linked to Human Development, Policy Making and Organizational Improvements in-terms of facilitating their use by the practitioners.

• Establish and annually update the Mediterranean Security Research and Innovation Agenda (MSRIA), that identifies areas where security & defence research is needed (including the research needs that are not covered by civilian research) and establishes recommendations for European Security & Defence technology investments. It will constitute the common position of the Mediterranean practitioners’ for future call for proposals from European and National funding mechanisms.