This first ENACT analytical report presents an analytical exercise carried out on the Research and Innovation (R&I) priorities set by the European Commission for the Fight against Crime and Terrorism (FCT) between 2014 and 2024. These priorities have been identified by classifying the focus of 76 FCT research topics and subtopics according to the EU Security Taxonomy developed by the Commission under the EU Security Market Study released in 2021.

The way in which the different taxonomy items appear reflected in the FCT research topics along the 10 years of study show an uneven distribution of priorities along the different areas of interest, both in the policy and in the functions dimensions. In the policy dimension, the analysis shows the emphasis put by the Commission services in the research against Economic crime, corruption and fraud, against the Trafficking of humans and goods and, notably against Illegal markets in the dark web. Regarding the Functions dimension, those which appear among the most frequent research needs are Investigation & Forensics, and Data, information & intelligence gathering management, and exploitation. Finally, in what regards technology, and despite EU-funded security research being mostly non-prescriptive in terms of the typology of technolgies to be employed to address the posed challenges, Internet-based investigation technologies and Data analytics technologies are the most frequently referenced ones.

This analysis constitutes a starting reference base for the work to be carried out by the ENACT network during the coming months and opens the door to answering other research questions that are relevant to support EU policy-makers in the drafting of future FCT R&I priorities.