Call for Abstracts (CFA) and Abstracts Submission

Registration is open for the accepted Abstracts and Participants.

Abstract Submission Deadline (Extended): 8 / September /2017 23:59 (Italy time)

The DeSRA 2017 CFA can be downloaded here.

Abstract submission will be open on 31st March 2017.

To submit your abstract go to the Abstract Submission & Registration section.

Overview

The environment is a major operational constraint in the maritime domain. The effectiveness of operations and the command and control (C2) of assets require understanding the environment as a whole, including:

•  Physical factors, such as the meteorological and oceanographic (METOC) conditions, that determine when and where resources/assets can efficiently run operations.
•  Social/economical/political factors, such as the border activity, ecological and industrial pressure, amount of vessel traffic or fishing activity through an area of interest, that constrain how resources/assets can efficiently run operations.

NATO STO CMRE is hosting the DeSRA 2017 Conference to discuss these factors and their impact on civilian and military operations and infrastructures, in ports, near-shore (shallow waters) or at open sea/ocean (deep waters). These impacts could be described through Risk Analysis/Assessment and included in the Decision-Making process along with other relevant criteria for mission optimization and C2 of assets. For this purpose, the DeSRA 2017 Conference will bring together scientists, operators and subject matter experts (SMEs) on scientific and operational topics such as environmental prediction and risk analysis/assessment strategies, which would potentially lead to inputs into the NATO Recognized Environmental Picture (REP), Environmental Functional Services (EnvFS), C2 strategies and other potential Decision Support frameworks. Topic discussions will also include information flow for decision support, Intelligence Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) and operational experimentation, including approaches for validation and verification (V&V).

Military and civilian personnel, researchers and industry developers working on any of these areas or related fields are welcome to participate.

Objectives and Topics

The overarching objective of the DeSRA 2017 Conference is to bring together military and civilian personnel, industry and research communities to discuss and identify environmental risks, planning shortfalls and ways-ahead to assist decision makers and improve operational effectiveness. Researchers and industry will be exposed to real challenges faced in operations. Military and civilian personnel will learn about state-of-the-art techniques and systems on the topics of the conference and have the opportunity to influence their development.

Specific objectives and topics of interest of the DeSRA 2017 Conference are:

• Recognized Environmental Picture (REP) and Risk Assessment
  NATO recently approved the REP concept. Risk assessment is crucial in operations and is linked to the REP by using information layers as inputs. Forecasts of the operational risks can be done through the forecast of the environment, where models play an important role. This conference aims to present and discuss the ambitions of this REP framework and its impact in risk assessment strategies, identify major shortfalls and outline possible joint collaborations.
• Environmental Information Flow for Decision Support and Command and Control (C2)
  different phases are needed to properly support the decision-making and its effects. These phases could be summarized as: Connecting, Collecting (Sensing and Processing), Decision-making (Sense-making and Deciding), and Effecting. Each of these phases could lead operations to different stages of superiority, such as: Cyberspace, Data, Information, Knowledge, Decision and Execution, respectively. This conference aims to bring SMEs on each of these phases to find solutions to improve these superiority stages.
• Maritime Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (MISR)
  Environmental inputs to sustain ISR operations is becoming more and more important in NATO and EU. The maritime domain is one of the key geo-strategic elements for NATO and EU. Executing ISR operations at sea (land and air as well) requires of different steps that have to be coordinated, such as Task (of assets), Collect (by assets), Process, Exploit and Disseminate. This conference plans to bring SMEs on both ISR in general, and on each of its steps in particular, to find joint solutions working in a coalition.
• Operational Experimentation (OPEX) Opportunities
  Development of concepts, technologies, capabilities, etc. requires experimentation for different purposes, such as proof-of-concept or demonstration of capability maturity. The future NATO Environmental Functional Services (EnvFS) could be considered as an example. The aim of most of the experimental capabilities being developed is to turn into operational. To reach this stage, Validation and Verification (V&V) is needed. At this point operational experimentation turns into a key element in the final stages of capabilities. SMEs on operational experimentation from NATO nations to present and discuss current efforts on this topic are expected to attend this conference.

Outcomes

The DeSRA 2017 Conference will be a forum for discussion about key aspects of decision support and risk assessment/analysis and its impact in NATO and EU. The main output of the conference will be a CMRE report containing the conference proceedings, which will be made available on-line on the DeSRA2017 Conference web site. Additional expected outcomes will be focused on strategies to contribute to the C2, REP and EnvFS concepts, and on inputs for fine-tuning research programmes to better support national and NATO risk assessment and decision support services. Specific outcomes could turn into exploitation of Joint Research Projects with participants, or the development of consortia for future research projects, such as EU H2020, national program project calls, and/or multi-national NATO projects.

Additional information

Participants from the military, government, research, academia and industry communities are welcome to the DeSRA 2017 Conference, and may either:

• Attend and contribute: by providing a short abstract (no more than 200 words) and giving a short presentation (10 minutes) about one of the stated objectives/topics of the conference, and providing a summary of intent for participation (background and expected outcome).
• Only attend: by providing a summary of intent for participation (background and expected outcome).

Abstracts will appear on-line on the DeSRA 2017 Conference web site and will form part of the DeSRA 2017 Conference Proceedings (unless specified the opposite).

Attendance is limited to the nationals of the 28 member countries of NATO, as well as Australia, Austria, Finland, New Zealand, Sweden and Switzerland. The meeting will be held at NATO UNCLASSIFIED security level.

The number of participants is limited. Participation will be confirmed once an abstract and/or a summary of intent has been submitted and accepted. Registration and participation have no fee.

The number of participants is limited. Participation will be confirmed once an abstract and/or a summary of intent has been submitted and accepted. Further details about Abstract Submission and Registration can be found in its dedicated Section.