On the 5th and 6th of December, DARWIN Project Co-ordinator, Senior Scientist at SINTEF & Associated Professor at Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Ivonne Herrera, attended the Security Research Event 2018 at the SQUARE in Brussels, Belgium.
The theme for the event was “Making Europe a safer place: demonstrating the impact of EU-funded security research.” The SRE consisted of a conference, where the main challenges relating to the theme of the event were discussed, and an exhibition featuring around 50 projects showcasing their results. Approximately 1000 people attended the SRE this year which was an increase on the previous year’s attendance of around 600 people.
The conference consisted of a panel of five experts in the field of disaster and resilience who discussed their experience in the development of resilience guidelines for crisis management, experiences of fire fighters, EU research and whether or not the new Galileo emergency service can be used in the future in disaster management. DARWIN succeeded in creating an environment based on trust where the team and the community of practitioners were willing to think outside the box and share their learned experiences from which the content of the guidelines were produced.
An example is the DARWIN Wiki as a knowledge platform that includes actionable knowledge (Capability Cards) relevant for health care and Air traffic management. They can be a source of inspiration to other critical infrastructures. The guidelines are available here: bit.ly/2IEfkOQ
Other work includes development of a white paper collaboration from the following five H2020 DRS-7 projects: SMR, IMPROVER, RESILIENS, RESOLUTE and DARWIN.
One important note was the importance of the use of first responders as a source of information and the need to address disasters as they happen today and not the ones that happened ten years ago. It was noted that there is a need to be ahead of events and problems need to be identified before disaster strikes. The involvement of first responders has been essential in identifying and validating solutions. The new Galileo emergency service can support warning to populations as a mass service alert. This could be of particular importance when no other means of communication are available during a disaster event.
To learn more about the Security Research Event 2018, click here: https://www.sre2018.eu/
