DAnube river region Resillience Exchange network

Project Information

DAREnet

Grant agreement ID: 740750

DOI

10.3030/740750

Project closed

EC signature date 24 April 2017

Start date 1 September 2017

End date 28 February 2023

Funded under

• Secure societies - Protecting freedom and security of Europe and its citizens

Total cost

€ 3 500 000,00

EU contribution

€ 3 500 000,00

Coordinated by

BUNDESMINISTERIUM DES INNERN
Germany

Periodic Reporting for period 4 - DAREnet (DAnube river region Resillience Exchange network)

Reporting period: 2021-09-01 to 2023-02-28

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

In the recent years several disasters affected the Danube region, including floods, droughts, storms and high winds. Most notably in 2002, 2006, 2013 and in the summer of 2014, parts of the Danube River Basin were being affected by very strong or extreme flooding events. There were significant damages caused by seasonal fires, also the extreme weather conditions are causing hailstorms, damaging houses and triggering flash floods in mountainous regions. These events, which are likely to become more intense, longer and more frequent due to climate change, caused significant human and economic damages in the affected countries and communities. Practitioners will have to adapt fast to this increasing risk as well as keeping pace with an ever faster changing society.
In this context, research, development and innovation (RDI) become key drivers for improving performance and effectiveness of disaster management across borders and disciplines, and thereby creating new possibilities to deepen and enhance cooperation throughout the entire region.
Against this background, the mission of the DAREnet project is to support flood practitioners, dealing with Danube flood prevention, response and recovery, across different disciplines and borders, to deepen and broaden their Research, Development and Innovation related collaboration. To achieve this mission, DAREnet is targeting at five distinct objectives:
• To fully deploy the DAREnet Network concept involving a broad range of civil protection professions and organisations from all countries of the Danube catchment;
• To identify, assess and prioritise research and innovation results that have the potential of being useful, usable and used by practitioners;
• To develop and update on a yearly basis an RDI Roadmap for the entire region enabling practitioners to drive the uptake of new solutions through own initiatives;
• To fully involve all strategic stakeholders in the process, in particular the EUCPM, EUSDR, and to build a long-term partnership for the implementation of the DAREnet RDI Roadmap and Initiatives;
• To establish collaborative innovation as a sustainable region-wide, collective practice.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

DAREnet made further advancements within the national communities of practitioners in Romania, Bulgaria, Serbia, Croatia, Hungary, Slovakia, Austria and Germany. Despite the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine the DAREnet National Contacts (DNC) were able to continuously expand and consolidate the networks. The overall DAREnet network concept has proven to be successful in supporting the national networks in strengthening exchange, collaboration, and networking between practitioners beyond borders.
Activities and processes towards achieving this objective were implemented through seven national network events as well as several joint events using synergies with research and network projects with national or EU funding. Using these connections the DAREnet Secretariat facilitated the implementation of a dedicated DAREnet “Exchange of Experts” (EoE) programme, a comprehensive transnational knowledge exchange concept.
DAREnet formalised the strategic collaboration with the EU Strategy for the Danube Region’s Priority Area 5 through integrating the Budapest Firefighter Association (BTSZ), the coordinating entity of the EUSDR PA 5 Disaster Management Working Group (DMWG), as a project beneficiary. This enabled joint planning and implementation of project activities in full alignment with the macro-regional priorities within the Danube region. This approach was mutually reinforcing and ensured an effective implementation, enhanced the overall project results and ultimately improved sustainability and exploitation possibilities.
DAREnet was able to establish a collaborative innovation environment through the 3rd and 4th call for Practitioner Initiatives and the resulting Portfolio of initiatives. Significant efforts have been made through the continuous collection of challenges and identified potential RDI Topics in a collaborative effort. The 3rd and 4th editions of the DAREnet RDI Roadmap has been presented to a broad audience in the Annual Practitioner Forums which were jointly organised by DAREnet and the DMWG.
Visibility towards all relevant stakeholder groups was ensured and continuously expanded. The final project event brought together key representatives from with DG HOME, DG ECHO, DG REGIO, EUSDR PA5, ICPDR and EUSBSR in a policy panel, were the State-of-the-art report was discussed and endorsed by the panellists.
These activities were continuously supported by a comprehensive set of communication materials and tools, including its web site, a multi-lingual project video, flyers, posters and roll-ups contribute to increasing the project’s visibility and outreach within the Danube region and beyond.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

The DAREnet project achieved the following seven key exploitable results:

1. Roadmapping process
To ensure the continuation and exploitation has the RDI roadmapping process been adjusted and integrated into the DMWG procedures with the aim to support the implementation of the DMWG Roadmap.

2. Knowledge base and glossary of terms
To ensure the continuation and exploitation of the DAREnet knowledge base have the ~1.500 entries been transferred and integrated into EUSDR PA5 DMWG Knowledge Portal, available at: https://disastermanagement-danube.net/knowledge-hub/

3. Glossary of disaster management terms
The glossary was developed within the framework of the DiMaND projects and aims to ensure the common use of terms among disaster management stakeholders in the region. To ensure that the glossary becomes available to non-English speaking stakeholders has it been translated the 11 languages of the Danube countries and made available at: https://disastermanagement-danube.net/glossary/

4. RDI roadmaps and practitioner portfolios
To ensure the continuation and exploitation of the RDI Roadmaps and innovation opportunities identified have they been made available and disseminated for further development and uptake. http://darenetproject.eu/results/

5. National networks
DAREnet enabled building national networks that include a large spectrum of practitioners as well as experts from policy making, academia and industry. To ensure the continuation of the national and international networks, were several organisations integrated into the DMWG. The continuation and further development of the networks will be actively pursued by the DMWG members.

6. Exchange of Experts concept
The DAREnet EoE concept provided the framework for transnational network building activities within the region and allowed for the implementation of several macro-regional knowledge exchange activities. To ensure the continuation and exploitation of the EoE concept were policy recommendations for the implementation of a macro-regional approach provided. They were integrated into the new EoE programme tender of DG ECHO.

7. State-of-the-art report
The SOTA report “Towards a macro-regional cooperation framework in the Danube Region” consolidates previous and ongoing work into an integrated framework concept and brings forward eleven policy recommendations that aim to support building and strengthening macro-regional approaches to disaster management in the Danube Region.

DAREnet Final