Coordination Meetings

RAIN Workshop, 4th April 2016, Delft, The Netherlands
The RAIN workshop on ‘’Critical infrastructure safety in context of climate change’’ took place at Delft University of Technology (The Netherlands) on 4th April 2016. The event was attended by 38 participants, including members of governmental institutions, consultancies, research institutes, also from outside the Netherlands. The event served as a platform to present the latest results of the RAIN project and discuss them with experts and end users. The speakers introduced both theoretical models and practical tools, together with providing detailed examples of extreme event impacts through case studies. The event concluded in a panel discussion involving both the event presenters and interested stakeholders. The panellists expressed the need of closer cooperation between researchers and end users, especially government institutions. It was also stressed that solutions other than hard engineering need to be better quantified, e. g. policy measures or rescue operations. The workshop was attended by a representative from both the INFRARISK (ROD) and STREST consortia and provided a good opportunity for the three projects to discuss synergies between the projects.
INTACT Workshop, 14th January 2016, Brussels, Belgium
The ‘’Impact of extreme weather on critical infrastructure’’ Stakeholder Workshop took place on Thursday 14 January 2016 in Brussels. The goal of the Workshop was to discuss, in addition to project progress, measures regarding the impact of extreme weather on critical infrastructure. The workshop was attended by a representative from INFRARISK (ROD) and proved a good forum for understanding the Risk Management Framework, and issues such as vulnerability, resilience and decision support requirements in risk analysis being adopted in the INTACT project.
RAIN Workshop, 9th November 2015, Dublin, Ireland
The workshop on ‘’Climate Change and Weather Modelling’’, which took place in Trinity College Dublin (Ireland) on 9th November 2015, provided a platform to discuss the most probable extreme climatological phenomena affecting European infrastructure. The workshop involved the participation of 58 attendees, including a broad range of critical infrastructure professionals, including academics, infrastructural managers and consultants, from the sectors of transportation, communication and energy. The event culminated in a panel discussion involving both the event presenters and interested stakeholders. This discussion assessed the impact of extreme weather and forecasting on disaster response planning, the selection of mitigation measures to combat impacts of a changing climate, and suggested the next steps in disseminating the findings of the RAIN project to the relevant decision makers across Europe. A number of participants from ROD attended the workshop on behalf of INFRARISK. Of particular interest to the INFRARISK attendees was the to get an understanding of the Risk analysis approach being used within the RAIN project.
RAIN Workshop, 27th February 2015, Berlin, Germany
The RAIN workshop on ‘’hazardous past weather events’’ took place at the Freie Universitaet in Berlin on 27 February 2015. Different extreme event types were actively discussed, and a panel discussion at the end of the workshop addressed what we can learn from past events. The discussion revealed how different needs from CI stakeholders can be, and closer co-operation between CI providers and a weather service is the optimum solution, particularly in relation to early warning systems. The workshop was attended by a representative from INFRARISK (ROD) with a view to gaining a better understanding of the type, occurrence and modelling of extreme weather events was carried out in the RAIN project.
Coordination Workshop, 22nd May 2015, Dublin, Ireland
ROD-IS, representing INFRARISK, hosted a meeting with representatives from INTACT, RAIN and SNOWBALL in Dublin in May 2015 to discuss in more detail potential cross work programme coordination activities. While SNOWBALL isn’t a designated coordination project, there are interesting synergies between this and the designated projects and as such they were invited to participate in the discussion. Presentations were given on each project, focusing on overall objectives, progress to date and possible areas of coordination. Various coordination activities were proposed, such as sharing of hazard models, organising joint dissemination events.
STREST Workshop 29th-31st October 2014, Ispra , Italy
ROD-IS, representing INFRARISK, along with the Coordinators of INTACT and RAIN attended this workshop organised by STREST, entitled ‘User requirements for safety assessment and stress tests of non-nuclear CIs against natural hazards’, at the Joint Research Center In Ispra, Italy.  The project Coordinators presented and overview of their respective projects and in depth discussions took place on the coordination mechanisms to be established between the projects.
RAIN General Assembly Meeting, October 2014, Helsinki

ROD-IS presented the INFRARISK project to the RAIN consortium at the RAIN General Assembly meeting held at the Finnish Meteorological Institute in Helsinki. The purpose of the meeting was to introduce the project to the RAIN partners to facilitate discussions on potential areas of coordination between the projects. The presentation gave an overview of the INFRARISK project and progress, the objectives, the methodologies being developed, the expected output, the expected impact and areas of potential coordination.
Clustering Meeting with Commission, June 2014, Brussels

The purpose of this meeting was to outline the coordination mechanisms envisaged by the Commission between projects in the Security and Environmental Calls which are addressing similar issues of CI protection, resilience and crisis management. The specific aims were to;

Obtain a first knowledge and understanding of the objectives of all the projects concerned and to set up the roots of this coordination mechanism and to discuss its operationalization during the duration of the projects. Presentations were made by the Project Coordinators addressing;

1.  The key concepts of the project and their relation with the work programme topic.

2.  Objectives of the project, its expected outcomes and impact.

3.  Conceptual framework and methodology, highlighting the main activities (e.g. demonstration events, prototype development etc.).

4.  Suggest possible area of synergy, complementarities with other projects and explain how it could be done.