CARISMAND Partners Gathered in Bucharest – Steering Committee Meetings 11-13 April 2016

Project CARISMAND - „Culture And RISk management in Man-made And Natural Disasters“ - involves 19 partner organisations from 11 countries – academic and research units, non-profit organisations, and local authorities. Their contribution to the project is being developed within 12 work-packages.

After six months of the project start, partners gathered for an overview of the progress in each work-package, discussions on any questions deriving in the process, introduction of new members, one-to-one meetings, and networking opportunities.

The specific aim of CARISMAND dealing with issues of preparedness, response to disasters and after-crisis recovery in the context of society’s cultural specifics, required also on-site experience from the perspective of local institutions – actors in disaster management. On 11th Aprilconsortium members visited the Romanian General Inspectorate for Emergency Situations, the headquarters of the Special Telecommunications Service, including the 112 unit, and the Floreasca Hospital Emergency Unit. The on-site visits were kindly hosted by the Romanian partners in the project - SMURD Foundation, “Mihai Viteazul” National Intelligence Academy (MVNIA), and the Romanian Special Telecommunications Service (STS).

12th and 13th April were busy days of full-day meetings led by the project coordinator Prof Dr Joe Cannataci, University of Groningen (RUG). The project coordination team and work-package leaders reported on the status of their activities with particular focus on:

• Work carried out so far
• Activities or pressing issues to report on
• Concerns, if any
• Questions for the consortium
• List of upcoming tasks and deliverables and expected contribution from other partners

Furthermore, updates on CARISMAND dissemination and communication strategy were presented as well as the evaluation report on the Kick-off meeting held in October in Groningen, the Netherlands.

A special section in the agenda was dedicated to the updates and pre-event arrangements on CARISMAND First Stakeholder Assembly which is also taking place in Bucharest on 14-15 April and is themed “Disaster, Communication, and Cultures”.