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SAMRISK-2-Samfunnssikkerhet og risiko

RegulAIR: The integration of drones in the Norwegian and European Airspaces

Alternative title: RegulAIR: Integrasjonen av droner i det norske og europeiske luftrommet

Awarded: NOK 12.0 mill.

The RegulAIR project deals with the integration of drones in European and Norwegian civilian airspaces, and it looks at this issue addressing aspects of security, regulation, and imagination. Over 2022, these issues grew in the mediatic and political agendas in Norway, as multiple drone sightings have taken place over critical infrastructure, raising security problems. The project's activities in 2021 and 2022 have shown some important preliminary results. Drones remain a safety and security threat in civilian airspaces, and today's technological responses are not capable to address that threat. Additionally, national and European regulations remain an obstacle to both drone use and to responding to the potential threat they pose. The project team is engaged with key stakeholders in Norway and in Europe, and its preliminary findings have been widely discussed with policy makers, drone users, and security officials. The project team has been participating in public debates in Norway and beyond, and in the RegulAIR 2022 international conference it has gathered specialists from the US, UK, Brazil, Denmark and Canada, as well as key Norwegian stakeholders.

As drones evolve and proliferate, Norway and the EU face a daunting challenge: how to unlock the technology's vast potential while mitigating its significant safety and security risks. Rising to meet this challenge will require a total reconceptualization of the civilian airspace – a formidable task given the complexity of the systems involved, the high rate of technological progress, and the multiplicity of stakeholders seeking to steer its outcomes. What are the unique security considerations that will shape the process, and how will those considerations evolve as the technology advances? What are the various discursive roles of communities of knowledge and practice in shaping regulatory responses to the challenge? And what can we learn from other regulatory bodies working to resolve the same challenges elsewhere? So far, efforts to address these questions in the EU and Norwegian contexts have lacked the input of various academic disciplines that are uniquely equipped with specialized knowledge on technological transformation and reconceptualization. Two fields in particular, Critical Security Studies (CSS) and Science and Technology Studies (STS), hold particular promise in this regard. Drawing on eminent experts and practitioners from these key communities of knowledge and practice in the EU, Norway, Canada, and the US, RegulAIR seeks to bridge that fundamental gap by bringing cutting-edge research, advanced technology forecasting, stakeholder mapping, and constructive multi-stakeholder dialogues to bear on the drone integration challenge. In this way, the project will significantly enhance Norway's and the EU's capacities for reconceptualizing the airspace, while providing concrete knowledge-based recommendations on how to safely integrate drones in the civilian airspace and meet the expectations of end-users, regulatory bodies, industry entrepreneurs, and law enforcement agencies.

Funding scheme:

SAMRISK-2-Samfunnssikkerhet og risiko