FINAL TRANSNATIONAL MEETING OF THE CONSORTIUM AT BRUSSELS, IN THE FINNOVA FOUNDATION HEADQUARTERS
The consortium of the Erasmus+ SETOFF project has met during the last three days, 22, 23 and 24 January, at the Finnova headquarters in Brussels, the European capital. The aim of this project is to train personnel in the different stages of both civil protection and the private sector in protection and security. The aim is to improve job security in the field of crisis management and protection and rescue, and to incorporate the private sector in the process of managing future crises and emergencies.
The meeting brought together the 8 project partners from Greece (International Hellenic University, ELINYAE and Sustainable City – City Network), Belgium (EuroCore Cosulting SPRL.), Spain (Finnova Foundation and Benaguasil City Council) and North Macedonia (C3I and MAGMA).
The headquarters of the Finnova Foundation hosted the fourth and last transnational meeting of the consortium where the partners analysed the progress of the project and discussed the next steps to be taken in the final stretch of the project. Furthermore, this meeting has had the final objective to disseminate the results as much as possible and to increase the impact of the training on public and private security personnel and on all those interested in risk management. The meeting will also focus on the sustainability of the project, new opportunities and synergies in order to move forward with the SETOFF project. The partners also stressed the importance of underlining the validity of the course throughout Europe as, upon completion of the project, the trainee obtains a certificate validated by ECVET.
The consortium was also involved in several events that were also held at Finnova’s offices in Brussels. In these events, different actions have been developed together with the FIREPOCTEP+ project, financed by the Interreg POCTEP 2021-2027 Programme, which aims at the adaptation to climate change through the prevention and management of the landscape exposed to large forest fires (GIF) in rural areas between Spain and Portugal.
Firstly, both projects attended the launch of the Waste Forest Challenge promoted by the Proptech Association – EU PropTech House, which aims to use forest mass and forest fire residues for construction and building materials. In the same space, networking activities were also carried out, together with Firepoctep+ partners, on topics such as communication, finance and legal issues. At the same time, the participating partners had the opportunity to present their organisations with an Elevator Pitch. In addition to all this, the winners of the Finnova – Technovation Girls CV Firepoctep + Challenge presented their Firepoint app, created with the intention of providing a solution to the challenge of firefighting.
On the second day of the event, a forum entitled “FIREFIGHTING Interreg Legacy” took place in which several experts in the field of forest fire and crisis management presented their perspectives on these topics. As one of the topics of the SETOFF being fires, the attendance to this forum was of great value for the partners of the consortium.
During the 3-day stay in Brussels, the partnership also took the opportunity to visit several institutions based in the Belgian capital. Among the visits included in the work programme was the visit on 23 January to the European Emergency Response Centre, the main body of the programme, which has been present throughout the training offered by the programme. During this visit they had the great opportunity to present the SETOFF project to European institutions. The partners also went to NATO headquarters to present projects and share experiences.
About SETOFF
SETOFF (Smart Education and Training Programme for Central and Local Government Officials: Embracing Vulnerability as our Greatest Strength and Innovative Risk Management Tools), aims to improve the readiness and occupational safety of both civil protection and private sector Safety and Security Personnel against future crises and emergencies by developing an innovative e-training curriculum based both on a successfully tested and implemented simulation model combined with the latest scientific knowledge and on comprehensive needs analysis.
The SET-OFF consortium consists of 8 partners including universities and training organisations with expertise in civil protection issues, municipalities and non-profit research organisations, as well as technical consultancy service companies from Greece, Macedonia, Belgium and Spain.
