Trilateral Research joins twenty-two partners from across the EU in the newly launched three-year Horizon 2020 STRATEGY project to improve the interoperability of crisis management systems, tools and operational procedures for effective disaster response within and between borders.
Crisis management involves the coordination of a number of organisations and authorities across countries. It is often the case that differences in organisational set ups, decision-making processes, infrastructure and approach can result in poor disaster response.
The STRATEGY project aims to facilitate a harmonised approach to crisis management across Europe. The project will review existing, evolving or new proposed standards for disaster response and develop pre-standardisation items and policy guidelines to ensure the interoperability of crisis management systems, tools and operational procedures.
The STRATEGY project was formally launched at a virtual kick-off meeting on 16-18 September 2020, which was attended by more than 50 representatives from partner organisations, including industry, SMEs, research organisations, standardisation bodies and civil protection practitioners from across Europe as well as a representative from the European Commission. The meeting provided an opportunity to discuss the contributions of the different partners in relation to their areas of expertise and review the objectives and structure of the project, including ethics, privacy and data protection issues.
STRATEGY will focus on these key aspects:
- Map existing crisis management standards to highlight areas for improvement
- Validate the efficacy of selected standards in simulated crisis scenarios with first responders
- Draft pre-standardisation items and CEN-CENELEC Workshop Agreements (CWAs) based on the outcome of scenario validation
- Improve the interoperability of crisis management systems, tools and operational procedures
- Maintain European societal values and fundamental rights.
Consortium partners will validate the efficacy of selected crisis management policies and procedures within a training programme comprised of 8 table-top and 1 full-scale exercises. The project will evaluate the efficacy of these standards based on feedback from first responders and technology providers in realistic disaster environments.
Processes identified in past H2020 projects, such as RESISTAND, DRIVER+, IN-PREP, RECONASS, IDIRA, ZONeSEC and INACHUS, will also be validated during these events.
Trilateral Research’s role in STRATEGY is to monitor the validation and testing activities to ensure compliance with the relevant ethical and legal requirements. We will consider the extent to which introducing new standards may propagate risk of creating new needs or burdens for practitioners, citizens, businesses or public authorities, and what measures can be taken to mitigate and avoid unwanted negative impact to societal values or risks to fundamental rights.
Meet the team
The project is coordinated by Satways Ltd (Greece). Other consortium partners include Fraunhofer International (Germany), Woitsch consulting (Finland), Inov Inesc Inovação (Portugal), Sintef (Norway), Trilateral Research (UK), Institute of Communications and Computer Systems (Greece), Deep Blue (Italy), TNO (Netherlands), Kentre Meleton Asfaleias (Greece), Atos IT (UK), Austrian Standards International (Austria), Finnish Standards Association (Finland), Asociacion Espanola de Normalizacion (Spain), Romanian Standards Association (Romania), Swedish Institute for Standards (Sweden), Service D’aide Medical Urgente (France), Ministero Dell’Interno (Italy), Veiligheidresgio Ijsseland (Iceland), Hellenic Police (Greece), European Organisation for Security (Austria), and the Ministry of National Defence (Portugal).
For more information please contact our team.
