Global Customs Innovation Award (GCIA-2022/23) : CMT

Global Customs Innovation Award (GCIA-2022/23)

Innovation Awards and Prizes

PEN-CP invites Customs Administrations from all over the world to share information on their innovations for tackling any and all types of customs challenges and problems. The most impressive solutions and most promising ideas will win the trophy Global Customs Innovation Award (GCIA-2022/23):

GCIA-2022/23 Track #1 — Innovative solutions that have already demonstrated their value for customs

GCIA-2022/23 Track #2 — Innovation ideas that have potential to improve customs operations

GCIA-2022/23 is the 4th one in the series of PEN-CP Innovation Awards, starting from the year 2019. The two winners of our previous Global Customs Innovation Award (GCIA-2021/22) are Australian Border Force & UK Border Force. Join the line of GCIA winners via submitting your innovations to PEN-CP by 17 April 2023.

BACKGROUND AND CONTEXT

Innovation is the driving force of progress that propels organizations towards higher performance and achievements. Customs administrations are no different from any modern organization in the way they strive to bring innovation activities into the core of their activities. In the customs world, innovative solutions can be basically any new technology, way of using existing technologies, process improvements etc., which make customs operations more effective and efficient. These solutions can take a shape, for example, of an enhanced or totally new data analytics tool, detection technology, laboratory equipment, or a concept of operation.

The Pan-European Network of Customs Practitioners (PEN-CP) is a customs security practitioner project funded under the EU Horizon 2020 programme. PEN-CP acts as a customs innovation boosting network that provides comprehensive innovation intermediary services for its 13 customs partners. Among many other activities, the project scans and keeps track of innovative solutions that have potential to overcome the challenges that customs face today amid the growing international trade, changing security landscape, increased responsibilities, and louder calls for trade facilitation. The Global Customs Innovation Award (GCIA) is one of the key innovation instruments that PEN-CP employs to discover promising solutions for customs. The award puts a spotlight on innovative solutions from around the world that hold significant potential for improving customs operations or that have already demonstrated their value for customs.

GCIA-2022/23 is officially launched during the WCO Technology Conference and Exhibition lunch event, in Maastricht, the Netherlands, on Tuesday 18 October 2022 ( https://na.eventscloud.com/website/35016/ ). The primary PEN-CP Online Platform web-link to announce and administer the call for submissions is the following: https://pen-cp.sym.place/groups/profile/302707/pen-cp-innovation-instruments-and-innovation-events

TWO SUBMISSION TRACKS

The Global Customs Innovation Award GCIA-2022/23 consists of two submission tracks:

Track #1 — Innovative solutions that have demonstrated their value for customs

The first track of the Innovation Award is about any solution, technology or service, which has already demonstrated its usefulness for customs operations in terms of effectiveness, cost-efficiency, practicality, or other factors. As part of the application, the contestants would outline their innovative solution and summarize the benefits of these innovations for customs operations.

Track #2 — Innovation ideas that have potential to improve customs operations

The second track is about innovation ideas which your administration have not yet implemented but which hold significant improvement potential. Applicants on the second track are asked to describe their innovation idea and explain how it would add value to customs operations.

Note: there are no limits in the number of your submissions per track!

GOALS AND BENEFITS

In the frame of: “From Innovation Observers to Innovation Drivers - PEN-CP serves as Customs innovation boosting network, powered by an innovation-centric online platform, and tailored innovation intermediary services”, the GCIA-2022/23 has following four goals and benefits:

To identify, share and learn from promising innovations and solution ideas in the broad context of problems and challenges in Customs.
To create new types of ‘innovation pipelines’ or ‘upscaling of innovations’, where raw ideas born with Innovation Award submissions are taken further with other types of instruments, in a step-by-step manner, towards operational solutions.
To introduce and promote new thinking and novel approaches for increasingly innovative Customs administrations in the future.
And, during this process, to have a bit of fun, too.

FACTS AND GUIDANCE

Who can participate? Customs administrations and customs officers across the globe. You are free to choose if the submissions are in the name of an individual officer, team/ unit, or full administration (please comply with the rules of your administration, thanks).
Schedule: GCIA-2022/23 submissions can be made between 18 October 2022 and 17 April 2023 (= call is open for 6 months)
How to participate? As the first step, send an “GCIA-2022/23 — Expression of Interest” email to pen-cp@cross-border.org and pen-cp-arttic@eurtd.com (please include both email addresses). Detailed instructions on the submission protocol, including web link to the submission page, will be sent back to you.
Format for describing the innovations: For both Track #1 and Track #2, please aim for a 1-2 page summary document (maximum length is 3 pages). Technical details, illustrative diagrams etc. can be added as annexes (no page limit on annexes)
Submission language: English preferred; French is also possible
Evaluation process: The submissions will be evaluated and ranked by a team of PEN-CP customs practitioners as well as external experts
Scoring criteria - Track #1: Innovation originality & realized value for customs operations
Scoring criteria - Track #2: Innovation originality & potential value in customs context
Winners of both tracks will receive: a PEN-CP trophy; and three PEN-CP coffee break kits; and, broad visibility and publicity among European and global customs communities; and invitation to influence the follow-up innovation upscaling activities.

For additional information: please feel free to contact the activity leader Ron Roelofs of the Customs Administration of The Netherlands: rkw.roelofs@douane.nl

ANNEX. ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

PEN-CP in a nutshell

PEN-CP, the Pan-European Network of Customs Practitioners – EU Horizon 2020 funded Customs security practitioner project – acts as a European Customs innovation boosting network, powered by an innovation-centric online platform, and tailored innovation intermediary services. PEN-CP focuses on accelerating innovation efforts across three core Customs technical areas: Data and risk management; Detection technologies; and Laboratory equipment. We have a broad variety of innovation and knowledge instruments in use, including Technology grants, Challenge competitions, Innovation awards, Annual studies and Expert reports. Across our activities, we aim to connect innovation-spirited Customs officers, helping them to ‘find friends in Customs innovation’. The vision is to become a robust & permanent Customs innovation boosting network, helping to accelerate both incremental and radical innovations, for the direct benefit of Customs administrations in Europe and even beyond. Our punchline is following: “PEN-CP & 13 European Customs Administrations: from Innovation Observers to Innovation Drivers”.

PEN-CP Innovation Awards and Prizes

The purpose of the PEN-CP Innovation Awards and Prizes is to bring in limelight the most innovative solutions and solution ideas, in the context of a broad variety of challenges contemporary Customs administrations are facing. During years 2019 to 2022, we have executed three rounds of Customs Innovation Award calls, all with somewhat different scopes, submission formats, and scoring criteria.

First, in 2019, we introduced a broad innovation award scope, named as “Improvements in existing solutions and technologies, and introduction of new solutions and technologies; improvements in existing processes, as well as introduction of new processes (PCIA-2019)”, attracting seven submissions by different PEN-CP partner administrations. Then, following the voting performed during PEN-CP Year-1 event in Budapest, the submission by UK Border Force on “Using a human security radar screening passengers on the move” was selected as the winner (all PCIA-2019 submissions can be checked in PEN-CP Magazine 11, pages 19-29). Since then, interest has been indicated by a handful of Customs administrations to follow-up with some of the PCIA-2019 submissions; this all in the frame of PEN-CP’s Innovation upscaling and Resource pooling ambitions.

Second, in 2020, based on the PET-1 and PET-3 work with the actual Customs User Needs and Challenges, i.e. the PUNIs, we published the following two innovation award calls, both receiving multiple submissions by PEN-CP partner administrations: (i) “Novel approaches to cope with the growing international e-commerce traffic (PCIA-2020-PET-1)”; and (ii) “Future opportunities with mobile laboratory capabilities (PCIA-2020-PET-3)”. The winning submission of the PET-1 topic was titled as “e-commerce in an integrated data approach” (by Dutch Customs); and the winning submission of the PET-3 topic was titled as “New applications for mobile FTIR-instruments in the field – from the detection of gasoil fraud to screening of cannabis” (by Belgian Customs).

Third, in 2021, we invited the global Customs community to join our Customs Innovation Award (GCIA-2021) action under the following thematic: “Actions and ideas from customs that demonstrate innovative approaches to data quality; with two tracks: one for tested solutions and other for novel ideas”. The two winners and submission topics were the following: (i) Australian Border Force: “Authorized Economic Operator (AEO) bulk upload function”; and (ii) UK Border Force: “Designed and embedded carrier connectivity dashboards, to identify carriers importing freight into Great Britain that are not submitting mandated pre-arrival safety and security declarations”.

PEN-CP consortium partners (17 in total):

DIRECTORATE GENERAL OF CUSTOMS OF ALBANIA (ALB), Albania
BUNDESMINISTERIUM FÜR FINANZEN (AUT), Austria
SERVICE PUBLIC FEDERAL FINANCES (BEL), Belgium
MAKSU- JA TOLLIAMET (EST), Estonia
NEMZETI ADO- ES VAMHIVATAL (HUN), Hungary
THE REVENUE COMMISSIONERS (IRL), Ireland
VALSTS IENEMUMU DIENESTS (LVA), Latvia
MUITINES DEPARTAMENTAS PRIE LIETUVOS RESPUBLIKOS FINANSU MINISTERIJOS (LTU), Lithuania
CARINSKA UPRAVA NA REPUBLIKA MAKEDONIJA (MKD), North Macedonia
MINISTERIE VAN FINANCIEN (NLD), the Netherlands
TOLLREGION OSLO OG AKERSHUS (NOR), Norway
FINANCIAL DIRECTORATE OF THE SLOVAK REPUBLIC (SVK), Slovakia
HOME OFFICE (GBR), the United Kingdom
ARTTIC (ART), France
TECHNISCHE UNIVERSITEIT DELFT (TUD), the Netherlands
UNIVERSITE DE LAUSANNE (UNIL), Switzerland
CROSS-BORDER RESEARCH ASSOCIATION (CBRA), Switzerland (PEN-CP Coordinator)