Equipping port infrastructure with cutting-edge security system has become more and more important as geopolitical instability linked to terrorist threats is constantly growing. For this reason, facility managers adopt port security plans that include monitoring and surveillance systems for its physical boundaries as well as devices aimed at preventing and controlling the effects of cyber attacks.

The SECNET project – co-funded by the Interreg Italy-Slovenia Programme – aims to improve port security through both technological and procedural innovations, at the same time ensuring the efficiency and sustainability of maritime transport. This project involves as partners the Port of Koper and the Port Network Authority of the North Adriatic Sea (Venice and Chioggia), together with the University of Primorska, the University of Trieste and the Executive Secretariat of the Central European Initiative (CEI).

SECNET main objective is to strengthen the institutional capacity of the Programme Area’s ports and to lay the bases for a coordinated and permanent governance of port security at cross-border level. From an operational point of view, the ports of Trieste, Venice and Koper will benefit from the SECNET project in that it will result in innovative instruments for enhancing port security to be designed and jointly developed within a cross-border institutional platform. In doing so, relevant know-how and best practices will be identified to support the ports’ competitiveness as well as better connection and integration to TEN-T corridors.

The Port Network Authority of the Eastern Adriatic Sea (Trieste) is Lead partner of the SECNET project, which will last 18 months (01/10/2017-31/03/2019) with a total budget of about 1.3 million euros.