80 participants from all fields related to Fire & Rescue in Europe: researchers, experts, national rescue services, civil protection agencies, NGOs, innovation and industry from 15 countries gathered for the first Annual Dissemination Workshop of the FIRE-IN project on 26 June 2018. The workshop was hosted by the National Fire Corps (Corpo Nazionale dei Vigili del Fuoco – CNVVF) in Rome, Italy, at Instituto Superiore Antincendi (I.S.A.).
What happens if a truck transporting dangerous chemicals collides with a train? A fire starts in a tall building or in a mountainous area? What are the rescue procedures in different countries? What resources are available? How ready are the rescue services? What can we learn from the experiences abroad? Are there any existing or emerging technologies which could help?
Answers to these and similar questions were in the focus of the workshops for civil protection agencies, firefighters and researchers from 8 EU countries within the FIRE-IN project. The workshops took place at the beginning of 2018 to gather up-to-date information on the existing challenges and best practices in Fire & Rescue across Europe. 90 experts shared their views on capability gaps in five thematic workshops in Rome, Berlin and Barcelona.
During the Annual Dissemination Workshop on 26 June, the participants were briefed about the preliminary results, which will be summarised and shared among the practitioners, research and industry later this year.
The participants in the Annual Dissemination Workshop also got an opportunity to express their views on research, innovation and standardization in a series of brainstorming sessions and exchange knowledge and experiences with other EU-funded projects from the same field, such as STORM (Safeguarding Cultural Heritage through Technical and Organisational Resources Management), e-Notice (European Network of CBRNE Training Centers) and ENCIRCLE (European CBRN Innovation for the Market Cluster). This was a unique opportunity to find synergies between the projects and create personal connections between the experts involved.
Back-to-back with the Annual Dissemination Forum, the partners in the FIRE-IN project held their Annual meeting and the General Assembly, during which the progress of the first year was discussed, together with representatives from the European Commission.
CBSS is a task leader in the project, responsible for developing the communication and dissemination strategy and tools, and acting as a bridge between the Baltic Sea Region networks, such as CBSS Civil Protection Network and the FIRE-IN consortium.
Nina Jernberg and Andriy Martynenko from the Civil Security team of the CBSS Secretariat briefed the partners about the ongoing communication efforts and stressed the importance of the project for the Baltic Sea Region (FIRE-IN is a Flagship in the Policy Area Secure of the European Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region).
FIRE-IN project is set to improve national and European Fire & Rescue capability development. FIRE-IN has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation programme and consists of 16 partners from 8 European countries, representing research, practitioners, governmental agencies and business. Within the next 5 years, the project will identify Fire & Rescue practitioners’ requirements and needs to connect them with relevant innovative technologies. The results will be shared among hundreds of experts and professional networks from the whole Europe through an innovative e-FIRE-IN platform.