After three years of intensive research, cross-border collaboration, and technical innovation, the CREXDATA (CRitical Action Planning over EXtreme-Scale DATA) project has officially reached its conclusion. Funded by the European Union’s Horizon Europe program, the project has successfully delivered on its mission to redefine how authorities manage critical situations through the power of extreme-scale data and predictive analytics.
A New Frontier in Crisis Management
Since its launch in January 2023, CREXDATA has focused on bridging the “reaction gap” that often occurs during the first moments of a crisis. By developing a next-generation Prediction-as-a-Service (PaaS) platform, the consortium has provided first responders and decision-makers with the tools to process and visualize data of unprecedented volume, velocity, and complexity in real-time.
The platform integrates cutting-edge technologies including federated learning, complex event forecasting, and transparent AI (XAI), ensuring that the predictions provided are not only highly accurate but also explainable and trustworthy for those on the front lines.
Proving Ground: The Three Use Cases
The success of the project was demonstrated through three high-impact pilot scenarios, which showcased the platform’s versatility:
- Maritime Safety: CREXDATA pioneered real-time hazard forecasting and weather-resilient routing for entire fleets. By fusing AIS data with IoT and environmental streams, the project enabled proactive collision avoidance and safer navigational routes, predicting hazardous events up to 15 minutes in advance.
- Weather Emergencies: Working closely with civil protection authorities and fire departments (such as the Dortmund Fire Department), the project improved situational awareness for floods and wildfires. The integration of rescue robots and Copernicus satellite data allowed for precise action planning in rapidly evolving environments.
- Health Crises: The project developed sophisticated digital twins for epidemic modeling (using tools like EpiSim.jl) and lung infection simulations. These tools provided authorities with the ability to simulate various non-pharmacological interventions and vaccination strategies, preparing Europe for future health emergencies.
Visualizing the Future: AR and Human-Centric AI
A standout achievement of CREXDATA was its focus on the human element. Through advanced Visual Analytics and Augmented Reality (AR), the project simplified complex data landscapes. Whether on-site via AR headsets or remotely through interactive dashboards, decision-makers were empowered to see “future worlds” through forecasted representations, allowing for more agile and confident decision-making.
Legacy and Beyond
The final months of the project were marked by a strong presence at major international forums, including the European Big Data Value Forum (EBDVF) 2025 in Copenhagen and the Global Initiative on Resilience to Natural Hazards in Brussels. These events served as a platform to share the project’s 10 exploitable assets -ranging from data fusion toolboxes to specialized machine learning models- with the wider scientific and industrial community.
As the project concludes, many of its results, datasets (such as the Synthetic AIS Dataset of Vessel Proximity Events), and software components remain available via platforms like Zenodo, the AI-on-Demand (AIoD) portal and GitHub, ensuring that the innovations of CREXDATA continue to bolster European resilience for years to come.
The CREXDATA consortium, led by the Technical University of Crete and comprising 14 other esteemed partners from across Europe, wishes to thank all stakeholders, first responders, and the European Commission for their support in making this vision a reality.