"Port security remains of paramount importance for Europe both due to potential threats on passenger life and the potential for crippling economic damage arising from intentional unlawful attacks on port facilities. Challenges arise due to the complexity of operational modalities of sea and hinterland traffic and the lack of efficient organisational and technological interfaces linking ports to border control authorities, the police and other intervention forces, and transport-logistics operators. Considerable progress with port security has been achieved in recent years primarily associated with adoption of the International Ship and Port Facility Security (ISPS) Code . SUPPORT is aimed at building on these achievements by engaging representative stakeholders to guide the development of next generation solutions for upgraded preventive and remedial security capabilities in European ports. The overall benefit will be the secure and efficient operation of European ports enabling uninterrupted flows of cargo and passengers while suppressing illegal immigration and trafficking of drugs, weapons and illicit substances all in line with the efforts of FRONTEX and EU member states. SUPPORT will deliver public formal specifications and open standards based tools that will aid security upgrade in EU ports and will be complementary to and usable by other EU projects and initiatives in this area. Emphasis will be given to bring together advances from research on security with results from the main EU projects in maritime and intermodal transport, specifically those concerned with security and interoperability issues. Thus, SUPPORT will address ‘total’ port security upgrade solutions encompassing legal, organisational, technology and human factors perspectives. These solutions should provide substantial improvements in the performance, reliability, speed and cost of European port security which will be demonstrated during the course of the project."