BODEGA (Proactive Enhancement of Human Performance in Border Control) is a three-year research project, funded by the European Commission under the Horizon 2020 framework, started in June 2015.

Aim of the project is to build an expertise at the European level about human factors at border crossings in a way to enhance its efficiency without negative side effects for the end users (border control agents and managers, as well as land, air and maritime travellers).

On the 12^th November 2015, the BODEGA consortium organised in Brussels the first project workshop (WS1). Consortium members as well as 18 representatives from national and European border management public authorities conveyed at CEIS’ facilities in order to share their experience and to discuss around a prospective scenario allowing for comparison between border management as it is done today and as it could be completed in 2020 should the Smart Borders Package be implemented.

The fruitful debates allowed for sharing existing best practices in several Member States already using e-Gates and to identify the aspects on which to focus in order to propose relevant recommendations for adaptation to upcoming changes.

The Hellenic Police / KEMEA was invited as a key-note speaker at the eu-LISA working-level conference held in Tallinn on the 8^th October 2015 entitled “The future tested: Towards a Smart Borders reality”.

The one-day conference brought together 140 delegates from European Union Institutions and Agencies, national authorities of EU Member States, international organisations, the academia and other stakeholders. The event offered the opportunity to present the BODEGA project to a large and qualified audience.

On December 2015 the BODEGA consortium carried out the first field studies in the port of Athens. Rich feedback was collected from the end users (border guards and travellers) by means of systematic observations, interviews and short surveys.

Further field studies are scheduled for the coming months at different crossing points in several locations across Europe: Greece (Athens and Rhodos), Finland (Helsinki), France (Paris and Marseille), Belgium (Brussels), Germany (Frankfurt), Poland-Belarus (Terespol/Brest) and Italy (Rome).

The European Smarter Borders Forum (ESBF) is a LinkedIn group created by the BODEGA consortium whose objective is to foster exchanges of ideas among border control professionals, researchers and representatives from the industry in the context of the current discussion on the Smart Borders package at the EU level.

Lead by VTT the BODEGA consortium comprises of 15 partners from 7 European countries, specialised in different aspects of border control: human factors, technologies, law enforcement and ethics.