Imagine firefighters, paramedics, and police all arriving at a major disaster — but none of them can see the full picture or talk to each other properly. ASSISTANCE built a shared digital dashboard that pulls live feeds from drones, robots, and sensors so every team on the ground knows exactly what's happening in real time. On top of that, they created VR and augmented reality training scenarios so responders can practice complex multi-agency operations before a real crisis hits. Everything was tested in three live demonstration pilots across Europe.
When a major disaster strikes, multiple first responder teams arrive on scene with no shared picture of what's happening. Firefighters, paramedics, and police each have their own radio channels and information silos, leading to delayed decisions, duplicated efforts, and increased risk to responders. Training for these multi-agency scenarios is expensive and logistically difficult to organize with live exercises.
The project delivered adapted unmanned aerial platforms for emergency deployment, a fully integrated situation awareness platform combining live drone feeds, sensor data, and resource tracking, a deployable hybrid mobile communications network for field operations, and VR/AR/MR training scenarios tailored to different first responder organizations. All components were validated across 3 demonstration pilots.
If you are a civil protection authority struggling to coordinate multiple response teams during large-scale incidents — this project developed an integrated situation awareness platform combining drone feeds, sensor data, and real-time resource tracking into a single operational picture. It was validated in 3 demonstration pilots with 19 partner organizations across 8 countries.
If you are a training company looking to expand into emergency response simulation — this project built tailored VR, mixed reality, and augmented reality training curricula specifically designed for first responders. The training network connects multiple VR platforms and scenarios, letting different organizations share and reuse immersive training content.
If you are a drone or robotics manufacturer seeking validated use cases in public safety — this project adapted unmanned aerial platforms and developed drone swarm coordination for disaster response. The adapted unmanned platforms were delivered as physical solutions with documented modifications for emergency deployment.
The project was publicly funded research (RIA), so core results are typically available for further development or licensing through the consortium partners. Specific licensing terms would need to be negotiated with Universitat Politecnica de Valencia as coordinator or the relevant technology-owning partners. No commercial pricing has been published.
The platform was designed for multi-agency, cross-border operations and tested with 19 partners across 8 countries. The situation awareness modules were built to serve different first responder organizations simultaneously — firefighters, health services, and others — suggesting architectural readiness for large-scale deployment.
IP is distributed across the 19-partner consortium, which includes 5 industry partners and 6 research organizations. As a publicly funded EU project (RIA), results follow Horizon 2020 IP rules where each partner owns what they developed. Contact the coordinator for specific component licensing.
All results were tested in 3 demonstration pilots under controlled conditions. The adapted unmanned platforms were delivered as physical working solutions, and the full SA platform integration was completed. These were structured tests, not live emergency deployments.
The project developed a robust hybrid and secure deployable land mobile communications infrastructure specifically for field deployment. This was designed to provide ad-hoc network coverage where existing infrastructure may be damaged or unavailable during disasters.
The project explicitly addressed EU data protection requirements and fundamental rights compliance. EuroSciVoc tags include data protection as a core research area. Solutions were developed in compliance with applicable legislation including privacy and personal data protection rules.
The project ended in July 2022. Based on available project data, ongoing support would depend on individual consortium partners continuing development. The 5 industry partners and 2 SMEs in the consortium are the most likely candidates for commercial follow-up.
The 19-partner consortium spans 8 European countries and brings a balanced mix of capabilities: 5 industry partners (26% industry ratio) provide commercial grounding, while 6 research organizations and 2 universities deliver the technical depth. The coordinator is Universitat Politecnica de Valencia in Spain, a major technical university. With only 2 SMEs in the mix, the consortium leans toward larger institutional players — which is typical for security research but may slow commercial spin-off. Partners from Switzerland, France, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Sweden, and Turkey give the platform geographic diversity relevant to cross-border emergency operations. The presence of organizations like CATEC (drone adaptation) and VAS (communications infrastructure) points to specific industrial capabilities that could be commercialized independently.
Universitat Politecnica de Valencia (Spain) — look for the project PI in the university's computer science or telecommunications department.
Want an introduction to the ASSISTANCE team to discuss licensing the SA platform or VR training modules for your organization? SciTransfer can arrange a direct connection.
