The past decade has seen a significant increase in the civilian use of unmanned aircraft systems (commonly referred to as drones). With the growing popularity of commercial and industry drone use, a wide variety of sectors have taken advantage of the range of benefits drones and drone services offer.
With the emergence of a European drone ecosystem, the European Commission has played a central role in the development of drone regulatory frameworks, but also in promoting a green and digital European economy. In its recent Sustainable and Smart Mobility Strategy, the European Commission announced its plans to develop a Drone Strategy 2.0 in the coming year, with the aim of integrating drones into the EU’s vector of sustainable services and transport.
This project will provide knowledge-based input to the new version of the Commission’s Drone Strategy 2.0, through an internal report to the European Commission. The report aims to explore how the EU can revise its drone strategy to facilitate civilian drone use while ensuring high levels of social acceptability and reducing its potential negative societal impacts. The consortium carrying out this project is led by Ecorys, which answers a call for a tender from the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Mobility and Transport (DG MOVE) for a study on civilian drones.
PRIO will contribute to different components of the study, in particular by providing a Norwegian case study on technology testing and development in the field of law enforcement. Through interviews, field research and literature reviews, PRIO will assess the opportunities for, and barriers to, drone use in this sector, in addition to outlining its current and potential impact on civil-military relations and technological development.
Project members:
Senior Researcher Bruno Oliveira Martins (Project Leader) Research Assistant Nora Kristine Stai
