The University of Eastern Finland is involved in a new international project which addresses the urgent need to improve disaster risk reduction capacities in the Baltic Sea Region. The project aims to strengthen cooperation between authorities and civil society in crisis management. The special role of the University of Eastern Finland is to enhance knowledge among current learners and future leaders in educational settings.
“Educating future leaders is of paramount importance. UEF’s contribution will be to prepare and deliver pedagogically sound, transnationally tested, justified and improved teaching and interactive learning on how to increase societal resilience in crisis scenarios,” says Associate Professor Aija Lulle from the University of Eastern Finland, who leads a sub-project.
Teaching and learning activities will consist of lecture and interactive workshop plans and will be based on an adjustable methodology. They will help to replicate and transfer the cooperation model in transnational and regional settings.
Enhancing Capacities in Disaster Risk Reduction by Facilitating Public-Civil Cooperation, CREWS, is a multi-partner project, selected for funding by the EU’s Interreg Baltic Sea Region Programme from among 107 applications. It leverages the potential of civil society in both environmental disaster and military crisis scenarios, aiming to empower local communities and bridge the gap between formal and informal actors in disaster management.
By promoting a whole-of-society approach to crisis management, CREWS will develop a collaborative model and a digital tool to support effective coordination between formal and informal actors, such as volunteers. These tools will be adaptable to diverse regional needs and a range of disaster scenarios, including extreme weather events and military crises.
Led by the Altona District Office of the City of Hamburg and funded by the EU’s Interreg Baltic Sea Region Programme, CREWS will run from March 2025 to February 2028. It also notably supports the Policy Area Secure (PA Secure) of the EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region (EUSBSR), by building capacities for preparedness and response and promoting a shared societal security culture across the region.
The project is led by the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg, the District Office of Altona (Lead Partner) and the partners are the City of Warsaw, the Council of the Baltic Sea States Secretariat, the Danish Civil Protection League, the Estonian Rescue Board, the Fire and Rescue Department under the Ministry of Interior of the Republic of Lithuania, the Hamburg Fire and Rescue Service (HFRS), Jelgava Municipality Institution “Jelgava Digital Centre”, Klaipeda University, the Lithuanian Red Cross Society, the State Fire and Rescue Service of Latvia, the Finnish National Rescue Association and the University of Eastern Finland.
Official project website
https://interreg-baltic.eu/project/crews/
