A new project to develop technology to detect the presence of explosive and hazardous materials has been launched with €3.35million of European funding.
A group of European companies and researchers, including laser experts and law enforcement agencies, will collaborate on the CHEQUERS project to create novel technology that will detect the presence of explosive and hazardous materials.
The outcomes of the project will provide new anti-terrorism tools for law enforcement agencies, and help health and safety professionals improve industrial safety on things like oilrigs and chemical plants.
CHEQUERS project partners include M Squared Lasers, research organisation Fraunhofer IAF and IPMS (Germany), Fraunhofer UK Research, Vigo System S.A. (Poland), Bundeskriminalamt (the German Federal
Criminal Police Office) and Kite Innovation. Each partner will play a crucial part in the development and rollout of the final applications.
Nils Hempler, Head of the Innovation Business Unit at M Squared Lasers, said:
“As a group of truly specialist organisations, all experts in our respective fields, we can pool the knowledge and resources required to develop truly transformational technologies that address real-world challenges.
“The potential application for this technology is huge; the ability for us to detect explosives and chemical warfare agents for the security sector and even potentially catastrophic leaks in the oil and gas industry could save many lives in the future. We’re really excited about this project and are looking forward to seeing it out in the real world. We aim to make this technology widely accessible to a range of emerging markets.”
Dr. Rasmus Schulte-Ladbeck, Forensic Expert at Bundeskriminalamt said:
“The Bundeskriminalamt as partner in an international consortium of the CHEQUERS project will be leading a group of potential end-users from across Europe. Collaboration with these research partners will provide useful and relevant input to support the development of practicable and user-friendly devices, which CHEQUERS seeks to create. The BKA is looking forward to a successful collaboration with its research partners.”
Starting this month, the CHEQUERS project will take a total of 42 months and is funded by the European Commission’s Horizon 2020 ‘Information and Communications Technologies’ call, whose objective is to sustain Europe’s industrial competitiveness and leadership in photonic market sectors and to exploit new and emerging market opportunities.
