During the past five and a half years the DAREnet project facilitated fruitful exchanges and supported the identification of innovation opportunities with the aim to contribute to a more disaster-resilient Danube Region.

This resulted in the compilation of a comprehensive state-of-the-art report, titled:  

“Towards a macro-regional disaster management framework in the Danube Region”

The report was developed in close collaboration with the EUSDR PA5 Disaster Management Working Group and provides insights into a multitude of activities and projects that were implemented in the past years. The report brings forward eleven policy recommendations that aim to support building and strengthening macro-regional approaches to disaster management in the Danube Region.

The project is particularly proud that the report was thoroughly discussed and endorsed by key policy representatives from DG HOME, DG ECHO, DG REGIO, EUSDR PA5, ICPDR and EUSBSR during the final project event in Bratislava.

We look forward to further expanding and consolidating our network to strengthen the cooperation within the Danube region and beyond.

DAREnet would like to thank all partners and colleagues for their collaboration and support.

The report is available for download here.

After more than five years of roadmapping, networking and supporting innovation in civil protection, DAREnet is facing its project end in February. The last meeting will be held from February 14 to 16 in Bratislava, Slovakia and will bring together once more practitioners from all over the Danube Region. The event will be jointly organised with the EU Strategy for the Danube Region’s Environmental Risk Priority Area Disaster Manegement Working Group.

On the main conference day, February 15, DAREnet members together with stakeholders from the European Commission and from the European Strategy Areas for the Danube Region and Baltic Sea Region will discuss on urgent questions concerning the improvement of macro-regional cross-border cooperation in disaster management. The event will further feature keynotes from the Human-Tech Nexus Project and the MYRIAD-EU project.

The final meeting will further focus on the sustainability of project outcome and open up opportunities to preserve the knowledge and keep the community alive, that was generated during DAREnet activities.

The event was jointly organised from 30 November – 2 December 2022 in Aschheim, Germany by the EU-funded #H2020 practitioners’ Network projects #DAREnet and #MEDEA, in collaboration with #IFAFRI – International Forum to Advance First Responder Innovation.

A total of more than 60 experts, first responders and policymakers from disaster, and crisis management, form both sides of the Atlantic, including, among others, the European Commission, the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the German Federal Agency for Technical Relief (THW) and the Hellenic Center for Security Studies (KEMEA) joined the event physically or online.

The event provided a unique opportunity for knowledge exchange, network building and idea generation among the participants. This was done through:

  1. Presentations of innovative solutions by 10 leading companies
  2. Keynote speeches and panel discussions from esteemed guests, such as Albrecht Broemme (THW), Daniel Cotter (DHS), Michelle Royal (FirstLink), Genny Dimitrakopoulou (KEMEA), and Philippe Quevauviller (DG HOME)
  3. Networking sessions and on-site visits

We would like to extend a warm ‘thank you’ to everyone for sharing their experience and insights which made the event a huge success for everyone involved.

In cooperation with the PROFOUND project and the EU Strategy for the Danube Region Environmental Risks Priority Area’s Disaster Management Working Group, DAREnet has jointly organised its 4th Annual Practitioner Forum. The event – entitled Towards a Regional Cooperation Framework in the Danube Region – took place on 17-18 November in Budapest Hungary. The event brought together more than 60 stakeholders from first responder organisations, disaster management, academia and research.

The event aimed at reviewing the state of play of regional cooperation in the Danube Region and to assess the results of recent projects and research in this context. The participants discussed the most important aspects of regional cooperation and exchanged ideas on how to jointly form the regional cooperation framework in the Danube region.

The event was complemented by presentations on the PROFOUND and RISKHUB project results as well as discussions on how to ensure DAREnet sustainability after the project’s end.

A report on the event can be downloaded here.

The three practitioner networks DAREnet, MEDEA and IFAFRI are inviting to a Joint-Network event to provide a platform for an end-to-end-perspective on Early Warning Systems. Stakeholders working on all aspects of people-centred Early Warning Systems (risk knowledge, monitoring and warning service, dissemination and communication, response capability) are encouraged to focus on links between technologies, processes and decision making. The hosting practitioner networks foster innovation and exchange in civil protection and disaster management. Thus, the conference aims to create synergies regarding innovation uptake, (cross-border) cooperation and capability gap analysis through a combination of their activities.

The event will take place on 30 November – 2 December 2022 at the Achat Hotel Schreiberhof in Aschheim, near Munich, Germany (for reservations please mention the keyword “Joint Network Event”).

A detailed agenda and logistics pack is available HERE. You will find the latest Brochure HERE.

Call for Session Proposals

The event organisers are happy to receive session proposals from first responders, researchers, authorities, meteorological services and stakeholders dealing with Early Warning Systems and who would like to use the opportunity to discuss about technologies, processes and roles on all levels of Early Warning to Action.

Possible topics are:

Deadline for session proposals: 31/10/2022, contact: regine.gerhards@thw.de or nico.hybbeneth@thw.de

Call for Technology Solutions

We are still looking for technological solutions that could be presented to and discussed with first responders, authorities and other decision makers in the area of Early Warning Systems and we are happy to receive your applications. Solutions should relate to ongoing research and the gap between Early Warning and Early Action that address communication, visualization, real time warning, forecasting, and monitoring in EWS.

Currently planned are short English-language presentations (approx. 15 min) by the companies on an innovative product, which can also be attended virtually, and a subsequent round of discussions at the stands of the technology providers on November 30.

If you are interested in presenting and exhibiting your solution or have any question, please let us now until 05/11/2022 via E-Mail (project.ifafri@thw.de)

About the co-organising projects

IFAFRI – The International Forum to Advance First Responder Innovation -, is an organization of international government leaders from 15 countries and the European Commission, focused on enhancing and expanding the development of new technology for first responders. More information available at https://www.internationalresponderforum.org

MEDEA – The Mediterranean & Black Sea Security Practitioners’ Network – aspires to contribute to the establishment of safer and more secure societies throughout the Mediterranean and Black Sea region using research and innovation as a catalyst to promote collaboration between practitioners from diverse disciplines and countries. More information available at https://www.medea-project.eu

DAREnet will be hosting a special session on 21 September at 14:30 CET at the IDRiM2022 Conference in collaboration with The EU Strategy for the Danube Region’s Priority Area 5 on Environmental Risks (EUSDR PA5) and the Finnish National Rescue Association SPEK Finland about good practices and needs regarding volunteer management from a macro-regional perspective. The objective is to present the overarching vision of a regional level cooperation framework for the Danube River region to international Disaster Response Management stakeholders and engage in discussion with them.
The Session will be complemented by SPEK, an expert organisation for preparedness, accident prevention, and rescue. SPEK will provide dedicated insights and lessons learned from the ReSit project which aimed to develop a concept of a volunteer organisations network in the Baltic Sea Region.

About IDRiM

The 12th International Conference of the International Society for the Integrated Disaster Risk Management (IDRiM) will be hosted by Babeș-Bolyai University of Cluj-Napoca (Romania), Research Institute for Sustainability and Disaster Management based on High Performance Computing and Faculty of Environmental Science and Engineering from 21-23 September 2022. The conference will fully take place virtually. Registration is possible until 7 September.

More information available at http://idrim2022.com/

EUSDR PA5 jointly with the DAREnet project, launched the Danube Flood Resilience Exchange of Experts Programme (EoE) earlier this year.

Within this framework has the “Exchange of Experts” focusing on the topic of “Exercise evaluation” just been opened for registration!

This particular exchange is related to the design and conduct of participant-driven exercises and is linked to PROFOUND exercise, covering the following activities:

To apply for the exchange, the participants need to be able to contribute to the evaluation, this means that the participants need to:

If you are interested to participate, please fill in the registration form until Friday 06.08.2022 EOB or get in touch with the organisers of the programme at eoe@darenetproject.eu in case of further questions.

DAREnet Coordinator Christian Illing of THW will be participating in a panel discussion on “How to best involve practitioners in research projects” at the Security Mission Information & Innovation Group (SMI2G) brokerage event on 17 May in Brussels. The SMI2G brokerage event gathers European-wide innovators and practitioners who are looking for further consortium partners by presenting game-changing ideas and novel technologies addressing the challenges of Horizon Europe’s Civil Security for Society 2022 Work Programme. Every year, SMI2G hosts top-level keynote speakers, expert panel discussions as well as ground-breaking pitch sessions related to the respective calls. As a result, the event offers participants significant networking opportunities, supporting consortium building efforts and the sharing of valuable information concerning the Horizon Europe Security Calls.

The SMI2G brokerage event is organized by:  The EARTO Working Group Security and Defence research, the SEREN network, EOS, IMG-S, ECSO and is supported by ENLETS.

The event will be held on 16-17 May in hybrid format.

Agenda and registration at https://www.cmine.eu/events/83839.

The DAREnet Partner National Association of Volunteers in the Republic of Bulgaria which has kindly hosted the joint DAREnet / DiMaND event in Plovid, Bulgaria has released a video which was shot during this event. The video presents some impressions of the event and informs about NAVRB’s activities in both projects.

You can watch the video here

Three new project partners have joined the DAREnet Consortium. ARTTIC Innovation GmbH (AI), the Budapest Firefighter Association (BTSZ) and the Serbian National Association of Volunteer Firefighters (VSS) have officially been included as new project partners to DAREnet.

ARTTIC Innovation is a company of the PNO Consultants Group, the European leader in collaboration engineering, consultancy and management services for international research and technology related partnerships. The team at AI has been built since 2006 and has set up and managed numerous projects in EU funding programmes. ARTTIC Innovation is a spin-off of ARTTIC SAS’ German business activities and will take over all tasks from ARTTIC SAS, which has left the Consortium. This includes the DAREnet Network Secretariat (jointly with BTSZ), the project’s communication and dissemination actitivites as well as management support for the Coordinator THW.

The Budapest Firefighters’ Association (BTSZ), founded in 1890, is an independent non-governmental organisation. Through its activities, BTSZ aims to promote volunteering and represent its member organisations (22 volunteer fire brigades and 28 business organisations), both at national as well as at international level. In Budapest, BTSZ has a network of around 1,000 volunteers. BTSZ is a member of the (Hungarian) National Firefighters’ Association and Budapest Rescue Organisation. In DAREnet, BTSZ will take over different responsibilities across the whole project, the one of central importance is the role as the new lead of the DAREnet Network Secretariat. Due to their established position in the Danube region, their extensive expertise and networks in the field of flood risk management is the addition of BTSZ to the project considered as an important factor towards ensuring the targeted implementation as well as the sustainability of the project outcomes.

The Serbian National Association of Volunteer Firefighters (VSS) is a voluntary and non-profit organisation based on freedom of association established for the purpose of organised voluntary participation of citizens in implementing fire protection, rescuing people and property and implementing projects and programs in this area that are of public interest. in DAREnet, VSS will jointly take over the role as DAREnet National Contact for Serbia together with beneficiary MOI SEM.