Pathogen Contamination Emergency Response Technologies

Project Information

PathoCERT

Grant agreement ID: 883484

DOI

10.3030/883484

Project closed

EC signature date 29 April 2020

Start date 1 September 2020

End date 29 February 2024

Funded under

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

Total cost

€ 7 158 393,75

EU contribution

€ 6 905 018,75

Coordinated by

UNIVERSITY OF CYPRUS
Cyprus

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - PathoCERT (Pathogen Contamination Emergency Response Technologies)

Reporting period: 2022-03-01 to 2024-02-29

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

Pathogens can easily spread via water, and when humans are exposed to them, this can lead to serious health complications or even death. Typically, water quality is monitored by different national authorities, periodically and through a strict protocol to ensure the accurate measurement of the state of the water, which requires significant time and resources. Unfortunately, due to the nature of their work, first responders, need to be able to be aware of the potential dangers as fast as possible, as they are more likely to become affected when they need to operate (e.g. conduct a search and rescue mission) in areas where contaminated water is present (e.g. after flood or an earthquake).

Currently, various types of personal protective equipment are used by First Responders today (such as protective suits and gloves), however, there is little availability of operational tools to assist them 1) to assess the situation concerning the possible effects of a contamination event in a short time frame (i.e. less than an hour), and 2) to effectively exchange relevant information with other key stakeholders, such as water authorities, law enforcement agencies, regional administration, health authorities, etc. As a result, new technologies, tools, and methodologies are needed to support the relevant stakeholders when operating in situations with a high risk of water contamination.

The overall objective of the Pathogen Contamination Emergency Response Technologies (PathoCERT) project is to strengthen the coordination capability of the first responders, together with water authorities and other relevant stakeholders, in handling waterborne pathogen contamination events. This will increase the first responders’ capabilities, allowing the rapid and accurate detection of pathogens, improving their situational awareness, and improving their ability to control and mitigate emergencies involving waterborne pathogens. To achieve this objective, the project has researched and demonstrated a collection of novel, cost-effective, and easy-to-use technologies, tools, and guidelines, which were field-validated by the first responders.

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

During the first reporting period (1/9/2020-28/2/2022) the project has progressed significantly, with a significant number of results completed, while others are underway. During the first period of the project, more than 20 technologies have been developed and these can be used to provide solutions for managing various emergency events.
Some of the key project highlights from this period are outlined below, and more details will be provided in the subsequent sections:
• Established the PathoCERT Communities of Practice in 6 countries with more than 120 first responders, experts and stakeholders attending the meetings.
• Developed a prototype of an innovative wearable sensor for rapid water testing.
• Developed a system for autonomous drone flight and a water sampling prototype device.
• Developed a system for monitoring and analyzing the quality of surface waters using satellite data.
• Developed a system for monitoring and analyzing social media posts relevant to possible water outbreaks.
• Developed a threat assessment tool to assist in identifying the different risks related to the event as it evolves.
• Design 5 pilot exercise scenarios and mapping of the project technologies for each pilot.

During the second reporting period (1/3/2022-29/2/2024) the project has progressed significantly and reached all the envisioned Scientific and Technological objectives. Some of the key project highlights from this period are outlined below, and more details will be provided in the subsequent sections:
• Completion of all 32 PathoCERT Communities of Practice (CoP) workshops/meetings in 6 countries and 3 European CoPs, with more than 345 stakeholders engaged in Europe and S. Korea.
• Completion of the integration of more than 15 PathoCERT technologies into a unified cloud-based solution for water contamination emergency response management.
• Successful execution of five exercise scenarios (four full-scale exercises and one tabletop exercise), demonstrating all the developed technologies to more than 330 stakeholders in Europe (videos from Cyprus, Spain, and Greece).

The project has produced several exploitable results subject to PathoCERT’s Intellectual Property Policy for protection, ownership, and exploitable route. In total 32 outputs, subject to IP protection, were recognised (8 methodologies, 17 software and 1 database, 6 hardware) and for each, the desired exploitation route was identified.

The project was extensively disseminated across various channels and target audiences. PathoCERT produced 12 journal articles, 1 book chapter, and 14 conference publications. PathoCERT partners participated in a total of 64 networking activities, reaching out to at least 87,805 stakeholders from all the defined target groups of the project.

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)

PathoCERT will have substantial impact in the following:
• Novel tools, technologies, guidelines and methods aimed at facilitating their operations
• New knowledge about field validation of different tools, technologies and approaches involving first responders in (real-life) scenarios

Specifically, PathoCERT has progressed water contamination emergency response technologies beyond the state-of-the-art, through the development and demonstration of: novel sensing technologies to detect pathogens in drinking and surface water; water sampling guidelines for responding to contamination events; drone-based situation awareness technologies with water sampling capabilities; contamination monitoring technologies using satellite images and smart cameras; social media analysis tool for contamination monitoring; threat and risk assessment tools; joint epidemiological and criminal investigation tools; mobile and wearable user interfaces for FR; Pathogen Contamination Incident Management System and the integrated, PathoWARE platform. Moreover, PathoCERT investigated societal aspects, technology acceptance and gender issues for new policies.

Some of the impacts which were also demonstrated in the pilot exercises include: reduced time required for water sampling during emergencies using drones, reduced time for estimating surface water quality using satellites and cameras, reduced time for detecting and isolating contamination event using social media, reduced time for collecting relevant information using a dedicated information platform, reduced time and mistakes for multi-agency communication, reduce time for detecting contaminants, reduce time to identify the possible threat risks using knowledge bases, reduce the time to isolate and respond to events using decision support tools, reduce the time to coordinate with field first responders, improve operational capacity for all involved stakeholders and reduce human errors. More than 300 First Respodners and relevant stakeholders received training and used the PathoCERT technologies in Full-Scale or Tabletop Exercises.

Overall architecture of the PathoCERT solutions