The goal of the ForAn project is to increase the participation of German utilizers in projects of the European security research program. To this end, the Fraunhofer Institute FOKUS is expanding the TopicMatcher, the research portal for European research projects, developed in the fit4sec and BERKoS projects, and adapting it for the goals of the ForAn project.

The TopicMatcher is a specialized search engine for the professional search and evaluation of project ideas. Based on existing topics and search terms, the TopicMatcher enables explorative - i.e. interest-driven - searches for relevant data sets, such as open calls for proposals and suitable project reports. In addition, the TopicMatcher submits further suggestions in the thematic environment of the search on the basis of specially created term ontologies. The results are listed according to relevance to the thematic interest and can be saved in a personal list and finally exported bundled as a dossier.

In addition, a workshop program is being developed in the research network to provide interested parties with comprehensive advice and support in writing their project proposal. In a mentoring program, experienced utilizers pass on their knowledge to newcomers to European security research. The network covers all areas of civil security research and is organized and managed by the users themselves. Universities, research institutions and companies also benefit from the planned activities by finding suitable utilizers with an affinity for research in the network for joint project applications.