10 EU-funded projects building societal resilience to disasters and emergencies

Europe is confronted by multifaceted hazards and threats, such as large-scale wildfires or flooding, which present a challenge to traditional responses and approaches. There is an urgent need for holistic solutions that improve anticipation, prevention and response, through innovations such as advanced early warning systems and more robust decision-making support. It is also critical that such solutions actively involve communities and strengthen the capabilities of first responders. 

A recent publication by the European Commission showcases 10 EU-funded projects that are building societal resilience and citizen engagement, with the shared aim of better anticipating, managing and recovering from such crises. 

Building societal resilience and citizen engagement 

Extreme weather and climate events can have devastating consequences for citizens and communities. To address this, the C2IMPRESS project has pioneered novel risk assessment frameworks empowering citizens to take climate action. Similarly, the RiskPACC project saw citizens and civil protection authorities come together to co-create solutions for enhancing disaster resilience.  

To equip civil protection authorities and first responders with advanced technological support, GOBEYOND has developed multi-risk early warning systems for geohazards and weather events, based on impact-forecasting algorithms, while PARATUS has pioneered an open-source platform to analyse and evaluate various disaster response scenarios.  

Similarly, MEDiate has developed a decision support system that takes account of multiple interacting natural hazards and cascading impacts, while MEDEWSA has strengthened forecasting and early warning systems across the European-Mediterranean-African region using novel tools such as AI.  

Advanced triage technology pioneered through the NIGHTINGALE project could transform emergency care by integrating artificial intelligence, wearables and real-time coordination, while RESCUER has developed a cutting-edge sense augmentation toolkit to help firefighters, police officers and paramedics navigate the challenging conditions they face daily.  

Finally, The HuT has shown how effective communication and strong decision support can help societies better prepare for natural climate-related disasters. TRANSCEND brought citizens into the design and development of security technologies to help make societies safer. 

Policy framework 

These research projects integrate science, technology and community engagement, to strengthen information sharing and improve the efficiency of crisis response in the EU. They derive from a strong policy framework, which places innovation and social engagement at the centre of disaster preparedness.  

The EU’s preparedness union strategy places strong emphasis on societal resilience and citizen engagement, while the European Disaster Risk Management framework integrates policies focused on prevention and the reduction of disaster risks. Moreover, the Union Civil Protection Knowledge Network is all about connecting researchers and policymakers with practitioners on the ground. Similarly, the CERIS network brings together the security research community to identify opportunities, such as the growing role of digital- and space-related solutions as enablers of resilience. 

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