International projects

Eager to develop the international dimension of its projects, the National Crisis Center (NCCN) is involved in several international projects. These projects allow the NCCN to develop and expand its expertise in a variety of fields and to learn from the perspectives of various European and international partners, while contributing to the development of best practices in crisis management and emergency planning at the international level. 

Current projects

eNOVATION: 2024 - 2027

In today's rapidly changing world, the rising risks from chemical and biological agents pose global security concerns. This project aims to better prepare first responders like police, firefighters, military, civil protection and medical teams to handle these risks. The project focuses on education and training, equipping them with user-friendly technologies and tools to enhance risk assessment on-site, provide comprehensive situational awareness to crisis managers, and offer better protection to practitioners and potentially exposed citizens.

The goal of eNOVATION is to make the eNOTICE CBRN Training Centres network better and stronger across Europe. This means involving more centres and improving their capabilities to handle chemical, biological, and toxin threats. Thus, the project will now include CBRN Center of Excellence Regional Offices and CBRN Centres of Excellence of partner countries as key contributors.

The eNOVATION project will research and compare ways to detect, identify, monitor, and decontaminate chemical, biological and toxin agents. Furthermore, the project aspires to provide access to upgraded training methods using new technologies like virtual and augmented reality. 

The Belgian National Crisis Centre will be the coordinator, leading a consortium of 22 partners in this project, which will run from September 2024 to August 2027.

P106: 2024 - 2027

In 2024, the Belgian National Crisis Center (NCCN), along with our partners ISEMI, the University of Lodz and the consortium leader GOPA PACE, will start to implement Project TEST P 106 under the EU CBRN Centre of Excellence (FPI) framework. 

Project P106 will strengthen CBRN (chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear) risk preparedness and response worldwide. For three and a half years, the partners within this project will organise training, table-top exercises and simulations in the field for participants from CoE partner countries across 8 regions worldwide. 

NCCN will designate Belgian experts from all disciplines (NCCN, Police, Firefighters, Civil Protection, Ministry of health, military, universities of LLN and Antwerp, Sciensano, FANC, ...) to evaluate the P106 exercises in Europe, Eastern Europe, Africa, and Asia.

PreparEU: 2024 - 2025

The PreparEU project aims to explore and investigate how there can be more or better cooperation and information exchange at European level in order to strengthen national risk communication and activities aimed at increasing citizen’s resilience. The question of how to reach vulnerable groups with risk information will also receive special attention within this project. The overall objective is to reach a number of conclusions and recommendations for better cooperation at European level in order to increase risk awareness and preparedness of the population across the European Union. 

The National Crisis Centre participates in this project together with three other institutions from Sweden, Norway and Spain.

RiskPACC: 2021 - 2024

RiskPACC is a European research project on risk perception and increasing citizens' disaster resilience. This project finds its origin in the observation that there is a gap between the risk perception of citizens and that of civil protection authorities on the one hand, and between the risk perception of citizens and their responses to these risks on the other hand. RiskPACC seeks to close this gap, using a co-creation approach that aims to facilitate interactions between citizens and civil protection authorities, thus identifying their respective needs and developing a repository of international best practices and potential technological solutions. The RiskPACC project was launched in September 2021 and is funded by the European Union. It brings together 20 partners, of which the NCCN is one of the seven case study partners, focusing on its educational package BE-Ready.  

More info: riskpacc.eu

Completed projects

Bullseye: 2019 - 2023

The Bullseye project aims to improve the knowledge and response capabilities of first responders in the event of an attack using biological or chemical agents. Funded by the European Union and coordinated by the National Crisis Center, the project is composed of a consortium of 8 partners from 5 European Member States. They are working on the harmonisation of CBRNe procedures and on exercises to apply and evaluate these procedures, as well as on better training for explosive detection dogs through the development and extension of their training centers.

More info on this project can always be obtained upon request. 

Marhetak: 2019 - 2023

Marhetak is an EU-funded project, via Interreg Euregio Meuse-Rhine, by the three countries of the Euregio Meuse-Rhine (EMR) that seeks to strengthen the collaboration between emergency services in this region in case of crisis. The project was launched in 2022, following the evaluation of crisis management of the 2021 floods, which affected all three countries. The National Crisis Center is strongly involved in this project and will contribute to it, in particular by developing a common crisis management tool for all stakeholders of the EMR. Thanks to Marhetak, the National Crisis Centre was able to further strengthen its collaborative relationships with cross-border partners, including Veiligheidsregio Zuid-Limburg, EMRIC, Wallonia and Waterschap Limburg.

More info: marhetak.info

Shotpros: 2019 - 2022

The Shotpros project, funded by the European Union, started in 2019 and ended on September 13th 2022. This project resulted in the development of a virtual reality training tool and curriculum to better train police officers to make the right decisions and take the right actions when faced with a stressful and risky operational situation. 13 partners were involved, including Belgium as represented by the NCCN. 

More info: shotpros.eu