DRIVER+, Innovation in Crisis Management for European Resilience
Launched in May 2014, DRIVER (Driving Innovation in Crisis Management for European Resilience) is an FP7-funded project whose main aim is to cope with current and future challenges due to increasingly severe consequences of natural disasters and terrorist threats.
In September 2017 the project was revamped as DRIVER+, with some significant changes. The project’s structure has been streamlined to ensure a clearer link between goals and results and a smoother path towards successful fulfilment of plans. In addition, the involvement of external stakeholders, crisis management experts, practitioners and solution providers has been significantly enhanced. DRIVER+ has been opened up wide to the outside world and its success now depends largely on its capacity to forge strong bonds with external collaborators.
To inaugurate the start of this new phase of the project, all partners met up in Rotterdam on 25-27 September for a fruitful kick-off meeting. The event set the stage for activities over the coming years and enabled invited EU-funded projects, initiatives and practitioner organizations to swap notes on concrete collaboration opportunities in the near future.
Objective of DRIVER+: April 2020
In pursuit of its overarching objective DRIVER+ is committed to achieving the following long-term goals by April 2020 (end date of the project):
- A pan-European Test-Bed for Crisis Management capability development enabling practitioners to create a space in which stakeholders can collaborate in testing and evaluating new products, tools, processes or organizational solutions.
- A Portfolio of Solutions (PoS) in the form of a database-driven website that aims at documenting all DRIVER+ solutions. These will be tested via trials during the project lifetime. Ultimately, the PoS will be opened up to any external organizations willing to share data and experiences of solutions.
- A shared understanding in Crisis Management across Europe, through the enhancement of the cooperation framework. This will be achieved, amongst other measures, by building a dedicated Community of Practice in Crisis Management (CoPCM), closely aligned to and supporting the Community of Users (CoU) initiative from DG HOME and the Disaster Risk Management Knowledge Centre (DRMKC).
To achieve the above, a series of events, each serving a particular set of objectives, will be organized during the project’s lifetime. Drawing on the DRIVER+ Test-bed components, four trials will be organized to operationalize and test the solutions, whose results will be stored in the PoS.
Furthermore, before the trials and final demonstration, three Policy-Research roundtables will be organized with the participation of policymakers. The idea is to favor exchanges on the potential EU policies to be addressed and the involvement of DG HOME, DG ECHO and the Emergency Response Coordination Center (ERCC).
To complement the aforementioned activities, two Innovation for Crisis Management (I4CM) events will be organized, one in Warsaw and the other in Copenhagen, to address the Crisis Management practitioners and stakeholders at regional level. Lastly, a final conference will be organized in Brussels to communicate the project’s final results.
GMV’s Participation
As well as participating in all DRIVER+ projects, the technology multinational GMV will make a key contribution to the project’s pan-European Test-Bed for Crisis Management capability development. Also, within the Portfolio of Solutions (PoS), which will be tested via trials during the project lifetime, GMV will include its complete SOCRATES control and command suite. Lastly, GMV will be acting as coordinator of all solutions to be included in the first of these trials.
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To find out more about the project:
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Are you active in the field of crisis management, either as a practitioner, researcher, policy-maker, or a solution provider interested in showcasing your innovative products, and would like to collaborate with us? Contact us at: [email protected]. TAlso, please note that the DRIVER+ website is currently under re-construction and will be launched early December. Stay tuned for more information to come at www.driver-project.eu or follow us on Twitter and Linkedin.
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This project has received funding from the European Union’s 7th Framework Programme for Research, Technological Development and Demonstration under Grant Agreement (GA) N° #607798. The opinions expressed in this document reflect only the author's view and reflects in no way the European Commission's opinions. The European Commission is not responsible for any use that may be made of the information it contains.