TENACITy: Pioneering Ethical and Intelligent Travel Security in Europe

Celebrating Innovation, Collaboration and Impact

As TENACITy concludes its three-year journey under the EU’s Horizon Europe programme, the project stands as a testament to what collaboration, trust, and innovation can achieve in shaping a safer and more connected Europe. From its launch in 2022 to the final conference “Strengthening Security & Resilience” in Brussels, TENACITy has transformed the vision of ethical, data-driven travel intelligence into reality.

At its core, TENACITy has delivered a Travel Intelligence Governance Framework (TIGF) a comprehensive approach that integrates advanced digital tools, robust legal and ethical safeguards, and active engagement with practitioners and citizens alike. This framework empowers European security authorities to make informed, evidence-based decisions while preserving the fundamental rights and trust of individuals.

A Journey of Co-Creation and Progress

From the very beginning, TENACITy brought together 17 partners across Europe uniting law enforcement agencies, Passenger Information Units (PIUs), research institutions, technology providers and ethics experts. Together, they co-designed the tools and frameworks that now define the future of travel intelligence.

Early Phase Foundations: The project began by defining common needs through an extensive end-user requirements process, ensuring that every technical solution reflected real operational challenges.

Innovation Through Living Labs: Interactive workshops and Living Labs in Athens and other European cities allowed practitioners to test early tool prototypes, share feedback, and refine system usability.

Piloting and Validation: Under the leadership of KEMEA, two full-scale pilot demonstrations put TENACITy’s solutions to the test in realistic operational settings, confirming their reliability, scalability, and ethical robustness.

Knowledge Sharing: Training workshops, expert roundtables, and participation in key European events such as RISE-SD 2024 and the Thessaloniki International Trade Fair built bridges across borders and disciplines, promoting collaboration on secure, interoperable data use.

These milestones culminated in the Final Pilot & Conference in June 2025 a celebration of achievement and a showcase of the integrated TENACITy platform, where law enforcement officers, policymakers and researchers witnessed the tools in action through live demonstrations and a virtual large-scale exercise.

Smart Tools for a Safer Europe

TENACITy developed an interoperable suite of advanced tools that bring the Travel Intelligence Governance Framework to life combining data-driven precision with ethical oversight. Designed in close collaboration with end users, these tools enhance the prevention and investigation of serious crime and terrorism while upholding European values.

Risk Management Tool (RMT): Parses Passenger Name Record (PNR) data to generate dynamic risk assessments, connecting with other TENACITy tools for enhanced accuracy.
Open-Source Intelligence (OSINT) Tool: Enables extensive, privacy-respecting searches across open and controlled online environments to detect relevant security signals.
Similarity Search Tool: Identifies individuals with obscured or variant identities, improving traveler identification and analysis.
Anomaly Detection Tool: Detects irregular travel patterns using clustering techniques, supporting early recognition of potential risks.
Blockchain Tool: Provides a secure, permissioned channel for the exchange of PNR and related data using Hyperledger Fabric technology.
COPT Intelligence Automation Tool: Assists analysts by suggesting leads and associations through transparent, explainable machine learning models.
TENACITy Training Platform: Equips practitioners with knowledge and hands-on experience to effectively use the toolset and apply the governance framework in real-world contexts.

Together, these tools embody TENACITy’s holistic approach integrating technology, governance, and human oversight to strengthen Europe’s capacity for ethical, evidence-based security.

Building Trust and Capacity

Beyond technology, TENACITy has championed trust and capacity-building as cornerstones of its impact. Through its training platform and evaluation exercises, practitioners gained not only technical proficiency but also a deeper understanding of the ethical and societal implications of travel intelligence. Research on citizens’ perceptions, conducted across multiple European countries, further reinforced the importance of transparency and accountability in fostering public confidence.

Legacy and the Road Ahead

TENACITy’s outcomes from its tools and frameworks to training resources and policy recommendations remain accessible on the project website. Consortium partners continue to build upon these results, ensuring that the project’s impact endures within the European security and data-governance ecosystem.

TENACITy leaves behind more than technological innovation, it leaves a model for collaboration and responsible governance proving that Europe’s digital transformation in security can advance both safety and citizens’ rights in equal measure.