The INDIMA consortium is composed from a Civil Protection authority, DSU (Department for Emergency Situations) from Romania as coordinator, a Red Cross Society (Hungarian Red Cross), iHELP Institute, an NPO from Poland, and a SME (Publicomm GmbH), a consultancy from Austria.
DSU as national Civil Protection authority is also the focal point of the EUCPM (EZU Civil Protection mechanism) for Romania to DG ECHO (General Direction for Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection operations) which is funding the project and has an extensive record with trainings, exercises, and relief missions. HRC (Hungarian Red Cross) brings a lot of experience from the humanitarian side, while iHELP is an organisation of experts in Civil Protection, fire rescue and USAR. Finally, PCC (Publicomm, a consultancy from Austria) is specialised in project support from several kind of trainings, exercises, and relief mission advice.
Therefore, the consortium covers all relevant sectors of expertise to conduct a project for the “Knowledge Network” Call of the EU. This composition brings the benefit to avoid overlapping’s and duplications, every partner has his clear area of responsibility. The effect can be seen at the work packages. WP1, project management is executed by DSU. DSU has a long standing and long-lasting successful history in managing national and international exercises since several years.
They will be supported in managing the project by PCC, a consultancy, giving technical and organisational advice. WP2, planning and activities and WP3, communication are done by PCC. The SME (Austrian private limited company) offers in-depth thematic expertise in the identification and visualisation of complex processes according to projects, trainings and mission’s handbooks and field guides, for mission support and NGO management. PCC is maintaining a pool of key experts and independent consultants with extensive experience in national and international missions, project management, relief coordination as well as in the organisation of international exercises for civil protection or related areas.
WP4, workshop starts with research (survey and needs assessment) and conducting workshops is the responsibility of HRC with its disaster relief department. HRC is one of the main contributing national partners in Civil Protection in Hungary. HRC will participate with their research experts, doing the evaluation of the results of the online survey and the online workshops. Based on the outcomes of the needs assessment and the stakeholder analysis the thematic of the workshops will be defined. Three online workshops are held on the key issues: communication, legal aspects, and interoperability.
WP5, the SIMEX (VR supported simulation exercise) is prepared and controlled by iHELP, a Polish NPO, established by fire service officers with years of experience in rescue operations and humanitarian crises, mentoring of emergency rescue teams, contingency planning at national/regional level, implementation of projects for improving rescue potential, designing, conducting and evaluation of international exercises.
Assistance for the Virtual Reality support will come from of a subcontractor, the SMURD foundation. SMURD-F has extensive experience in VR simulations e.g., supporting NATO medical exercises. The main coordination of the SIMEX will be organised by FDSU and PCC.
WP6, quality and risk management and the evaluation are the second task of DSU as project coordinator. The QRM supports the project management over the duration of the project. DSU will provide an evaluation team, independent from project management team to evaluate the project.
INDIMA project was designed when Covod-19 was affecting the whole world, even is it was not clear that the restrictions would be that severe and an end of the pandemic is not in sight. Nevertheless, the project is designed as “digital project” with a minimum of physical meetings except the SIMEX in spring of 2022. The extensive use of videoconferences, online surveys, online workshops, and digital platforms is a characteristic of INDIMA, moving to a new level of managing the development of a project and a multinational exercise as well. The management of disasters is based on staff-work and has a long time not changed drastic. So INDIMA want to introduce the integration of as many stakeholders as possible and do this with contemporary means. The SIMEX will be conducted in Western Romania, the initial situation is a “Blackout” situation, and this is the test of the developed concept for integrated disaster management. The outcomes will be implemented into the final concept, which will be presented at month 15 of the project.