FORUM EUROPEEN POUR LA SECURITE URBAINE

Their core work

The European Forum for Urban Security (EFUS) is a Paris-based network of European local authorities dedicated to crime prevention and urban safety policy. They bring together cities and regions to share practices on preventing radicalisation, reducing juvenile delinquency, improving public space safety, and tackling organised crime. Their core contribution is translating research findings into actionable local security policies through city-level partnerships and evidence-based toolkits. In EU projects, they serve as the bridge between academic research and municipal implementation, ensuring that security innovations reach the practitioners who need them.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

EFUS entered H2020 (2016-2018) working on broader, exploratory topics — social media's role in security (MEDIA4SEC) and city-level radicalisation challenges (PRACTICIES). From 2020 onward, their work became more structured and ambitious: they coordinated IcARUS, their largest project, which integrated multiple urban security dimensions into a single framework, and joined specialised projects on risk communication (RiskPACC) and counter-extremism methodology (INDEED). The trajectory shows a shift from participating in general security research toward leading integrated, policy-oriented urban security programmes.

EFUS is moving toward comprehensive, multi-issue urban security frameworks and evidence-based policy tools — expect future work to combine radicalisation, public space safety, and citizen engagement into unified city-level programmes.

How they like to work

EFUS operates primarily as a participant (5 of 6 projects) but demonstrated coordination capacity with IcARUS, their largest grant at over EUR 1M. With 87 unique partners across 22 countries, they function as a network hub — their membership base of European cities gives them reach that few single organisations can match. Their consortia tend to be large and multi-national, which reflects their role as a convener rather than a narrow technical specialist.

Extensive European network spanning 87 unique consortium partners across 22 countries, reflecting their nature as a pan-European association of local authorities. Their geographic footprint covers most of the EU, with no single regional concentration — they are a genuinely continental organisation.

What sets them apart

EFUS occupies a rare position in security research: they are neither a university nor a technology provider, but a network of hundreds of European cities with direct access to local policymakers and practitioners. This means they can test, validate, and scale security interventions at the municipal level across multiple countries simultaneously. For consortium builders, partnering with EFUS provides built-in dissemination channels and a ready-made pilot network of cities willing to implement project results.

Highlights from their portfolio

• IcARUS
  Their only coordinated project and largest grant (EUR 1,044,188), tackling urban security across five dimensions — radicalisation, juvenile crime, trafficking, public spaces, and technology innovation.
• INDEED
  Focused specifically on building a unified evidence-based methodology for preventing and countering violent extremism, representing their most specialised contribution to counter-radicalisation.
• RiskPACC
  Expanded EFUS beyond traditional crime prevention into disaster resilience and civil protection — a potential new direction connecting security with climate and crisis response.