Project Overview

Facts
Project Acronym: RESISTANT

Project full title: Training and Knowledge Sharing Platform For First Responders and Educational Tools for students’ and citizens’ awareness and preparedness against Natural and Manmade Disasters and Risks

Grant agreement ID: 101017819

Programme: Union Civil Protection Mechanism (UCPM – 2014-2020)

Call: Union Civil Protection Mechanism Knowledge Network: Network Partnership

Topic ID: UCPM-2020-KN-AG

Total costs: €299 058.58

EU contribution: €254 199.81

EU financing rate: 85%

Duration in months: 18

Project’s starting date: 1 January 2021

Project’s end date: 30 June 2022

Coordinator: DIETHNES PANEPISTIMIO ELLADOS – INTERNATIONAL HELLENIC UNIVERSITY (IHU), Greece

The Funding & Tenders Portal Link: https://ec.europa.eu/info/funding-tenders/opportunities/portal/screen/how-to-participate/org-details/999999999/project/101017819/program/31082527/details

Rationale

The risk landscape for Europe and its neighbours has been subject to significant changes over the recent years. Europe and its neighbours face a wide range of disaster risks, many of which become progressively more prevalent and urgent to tackle. The majority of disaster risks are cross-border that threaten entire regions and can affect multiple countries simultaneously. Professional knowledge and skills are needed by first and second responders to tackle situations involving crisis management systems and infrastructure. This is essential to inform their participation in the initial permitting process, improving resilience and preparedness through enhanced emergency planning, and ensuring appropriate accident management and recovery.

RESISTANT aims to significantly evolve the foundations of training of first responders. RESISTANT will also put in place a virtual ‘agora’ for first and second responders, academia, market practitioners, volunteers and other civil protection stakeholders to share knowledge and exchange best practices, especially in cross-border crisis management. The ‘agora’ will facilitate discussion and contribute towards the development of a common prevention and protection culture.

RESISTANT's Goal and Objectives

RESISTANT’s aim is to build the first European Crisis Training Platform to train first responders through threefold comprehensive training:

  • educational training with the state-of-the-art knowledge in safety, including tools for characterisation of hazards and associated risks,
  • operational training on mock-up real scale transport, and
  • innovative virtual reality training reproducing the entire accident scenarios, intervention strategies and tactics, including the whole chain of command and communications between all members of the first responders team, facility managers, and public (e.g. volunteer fire fighters, school children, citizens with disabilities).

Operational Objectives (OO)

  • 1: Support civil protection and disaster risk management actors that promote and facilitate the development, dissemination and exchange of knowledge, good practices and expertise.
  • 2: Update and expand a training programme through further development of emergency scenarios to reflect the latest state of the art
  • 3: Implement an educational platform, where educational and training programs for primary, secondary schools, residents of endangered areas, citizens with disabilities of the aforementioned areas and tourists, as well as, for municipalities’ employees, could be demonstrated with the help of Augmented Reality (AR) Techniques.
  • 4: Mapping and status of current initiatives, procedures and resources for coordination, education and training for natural disasters and technological risk mitigation.

Strategic Objectives (SO)

  • 1: Support new and consolidate existing partnerships in civil protection and disaster risk management that enhance cooperation and synergies in prevention, preparedness and response.
  • 2: Establish a European network of trainers for first and second responders, supported by stakeholders from EU and beyond, to share best practices and facilitate dissemination of knowledge and experience generated within the RESISTANT project and relevant follow-up projects from EU to national level.
  • 3: Educate and train tomorrow’s responder trainers through established and regularly updated comprehensive educational, operational and virtual reality training.
  • 4: Establish strong links between first responders’ activities from different countries and constituencies and research and educational projects; Valuing the responders’ experience and their feedback to enrich and harmonise harm criteria, models for hazards and risk assessment, expand communications to other stakeholders, including but not limited to legislators, technology experts, insurance companies, citizens and students to raise awareness and increase preparedness.
Expected Outcomes
  • The implementation of a Trans-European Network of trainers for first and second responders.
  • Design and implementation of innovative training programs for natural disaster and technological risks prevention and mitigation especially focusing on cross-border events that will be implemented in Virtual Control Room (VCR) with an integrated state of the art emergency management system.
  • Implementation and deployment of a dual-purpose platform which will incorporate the training programs for natural disaster and technological risks prevention and mitigation along with a series of educational and awareness programs enhanced with AR techniques for students’, citizens’ and tourists’ preparedness.
  • Mapping of current activities in Croatia, Greece and North Macedonia in the areas of disaster management and of disasters’ education and training. A comprehensive report with data derived from the mapping training exercises will allow decision and policy makers to evaluate the current state, challenges and opportunities for collaborative disaster management across Europe. Results and the mapping itself will serve as a basis for collaboration, knowledge sharing/exchanging and training among the network member countries.