POLINEX

POLINEX is a joint research project funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research as part of its research programme for civil security within the line of funding called „Aspects and measures of counterterrorism“. 

The major goal of this project is the development of a portal for the standoff detection of traces of explosives to avoid attacks on critical infrastructures. The general aim of the sociological subproject consists in the identification of social, ethical and organizational demands for the implementation of this detection technology. This will be accomplished by a three-leveled approach:

A first aim of the sociological research is the development of an empirically grounded acceptance model. This model is to be capable of mapping the attitudes of relevant actors towards the detection system among a range of varying scenarios. This question of factual acceptance and its influencing factors will be complemented by an ethical approach. Here, it will be asked for the personal rights that might be violated by distinctive interventions in case of an alarm. Furthermore, the coupling of the detection system with surveillance techniques will be scrutinized among this ethical dimension.

The second part of the research regards questions of the portal's embedding in the overall process of security measures, among others: Which procedures are appropriate to assign traces of explosives to specific objects and/or persons? Also the organizational implications of  the detection system's interoperability with other security techniques are to be investigated within this part of research.

At a third level, requirements will be examined that arise from and refers to the operator's use of the detection system, as technical demands and communicative competences.

Project Partners:

·         AIRSENSE Analytics GmbH (Project Coordination)

·         Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Universität Hannover

·         Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg
 

Associative Partners:

·         Bundespolizei, Lübeck

·         Flughafen Schwerin-Parchim/Baltic Airport Management GmbH, Parchim

·         Kaba Gallenschütz GmbH, Buehl

·         MGT Maschinen- und Gerätebau GmbH, Neu-Wockern

Find more information on the project's homepage