PEN-CP 1st Innovation Prize (PIP-2022/23) : CMT

PEN-CP 1st Innovation Prize (PIP-2022/23)

Innovation Awards and Prizes

Customs authorities face challenges each day! Not only to prevent smuggling, but also not to hold up a passenger or the numerous amounts of the goods for inspection. What are the goods? What is in the container, box, car or train? Do we need to inspect this container or these goods? How good is the information and how fast can we make decisions? And many more questions. Therefore, customs is in constant search of innovative ways to face these challenges. Participate in the 1st PEN-CP Innovation Prize -call for submissions and help customs administrations to work more efficiently and effectively in the future!

OVERVIEW ON THE 1st PEN-CP INNOVATION PRIZE

The PEN-CP Innovation Prize welcomes innovators of security and other customs-relevant technologies, solutions and services to share their leading-edge innovations with the European customs community. Joining the Innovation Prize contest gives the participants an opportunity to promote their customs-relevant technologies and to get a better understanding of the challenges that customs administrations face today, amid the growing international trade, changing security landscape, increased responsibilities, and louder calls for trade facilitation.

The Innovation Prize is awarded to the contestant with the most useful, original innovation that has already demonstrated its value to customs operations (Track #1) or that has the largest potential to benefit customs administrations in the future (Track #2). The Innovation Prize is managed by the Pan-European Network of Customs Practitioners (PEN-CP), and the winners are chosen by a team of PEN-CP customs practitioners as well as external experts.

The 1st PEN-CP Innovation Prize, PIP-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/ ). PEN-CP has also a pleasure to cooperate closely with the European Start-up Network, particularly when it comes to reaching out to innovator communities in Europe and beyond ( https://europeanstartupnetwork.eu/ ). 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

SCOPE FOR SUBMISSIONS

The scope of the Innovation Prize is broad by design because the freedom of scope gives the contestants opportunity to propose solutions that can surprise customs by their originality and creativity. Following three topics of high customs interest can be mentioned for inspiration.

One topic of interest is data analytics that can help customs to manage large volumes of information and unlock data-driven decision-making for more effective coordination of customs operations.
Next, advancements in detection technologies are interesting for customs administrations that are always looking for better ways to control goods without slowing down the pace of cross-border traffic.
A third key topic of high interest concerns new pieces of laboratory equipment that allow faster and more reliable identification of goods or that come with more portable, robust or user-friendly designs.

In any case, the contestants are encouraged to present solutions for addressing any and all customs challenges, also outside these three illustrative topics.

TWO SUBMISSION TRACKS

Track #1 — Products & services already in use by customs

The first track of the Innovation Prize is about any product or service, which has already demonstrated its value for customs operations, in terms of effectiveness, cost-efficiency, practicality, or other advantages. As part of the application, the contestants should provide a brief description of their product and/or service, state the benefits of their innovation for customs operations, and describe how their innovation is currently used by customs.

Track #2 — Products & services not (yet) in use by customs

The second track is about any product or service, which is not yet used by customs but which could be adopted by customs in the near future (for example, a product or service currently sold to / used by other governmental or private sector actors). Applicants should describe their product and/or service and explain how their innovation could add value to customs operations.

Please note each applicant can make only one submission per track!

FACTS AND GUIDANCE

Who can participate? Start-ups, scale-ups, SMEs, large and any other type of companies with innovative products and services of any size and sector (no geographical restrictions apply).
Schedule: The PIP-2022/23 submissions can be made between 18th October 2022 and 31st March 2023 (= the call is open for 5.5 months)
How to participate? As the first step, send an “PEN-CP Innovation Prize — 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
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, small financial contribution ; and, broad visibility and publicity among European and global customs communities.

Limitations: each applicant can make only one submission per track!

For more 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)