On 11th September 2017, ResiStand’s partners hosted a workshop in Brussels on standardisation potential. The workshop brought together 37 representatives from governmental organisations (e.g., the emergency services), standards developing organisations (SDOs), Industry/SMEs, research, and the European Commission to discuss the findings and outputs of the ResiStand project. ResiStand is a two-year project (May 2016 - April 2018) that aims to identify new ways to improve the crisis management and disaster resilience capabilities of the European Union and individual Member States through standardisation.
Participants representing 12 countries attended the workshop, which kicked off with a introductory presentation from the Project Coordinator, Pertti Woitsch, from Resistand partner Geowise. The presentation provided an overview of:
- What standardisation is
- The standardisation landscape
- ResiStand’s objectives and stakeholder based approach
- The findings of Resistand Deliverable D5.1 – A critical evaluation of standardisation as a tool for improving preparedness, crisis management and disaster resilience with recommendations for future development and actions
Following this presentation, participants split into six groups to discuss the recommendations and policies presented in Deliverable 5.1, including:
- Global disaster management policies
- Standardisation and the European Union
- Standards and research projects
- Coordination of standardisation
- Participation of end-users in standardisation
- Participation of SMEs in standardisation
Once the participants of each group had shared their perspectives, the outcomes of each group discussion were presented to all of the workshop participants.
The afternoon session kicked off with presentations of the ResiStand Assessment Framework (RAF) and the ResiStand Web Catalogue. These presentations were followed by World Café Sessions where participants worked in groups to discuss particular questions, adapted from the RAF, in relation to potential standardisation items that have been identified by the ResiStand project.
The workshop provided ResiStand’s partners with valuable information and feedback that is being considered in the development of the projects two key results: the ResiStand Roadmap and the ResiStand Process. ‘Workshops like this are the best way to collect information for further analysis, as the topics are discussed in groups. This means that the results of the workshop are already affined and proven through a debate between experts representing various stakeholder groups. Similar outcomes can never be achieved through other data collection methods such as web surveys’, said Pertti Woitsch, Project Coordinator. ‘In both sessions, the participants of the workshop showed great expertise and the discussion was very enthusiastic. We are happy with the quality of the gathered information', continued Woitsch.
Partners also had the opportunity to discuss the workshop findings during ResiStand’s 5th Steering Committee meeting that took place the day after the workshop. This discussion of the workshop, led to partners meeting in Helsinki at the beginning of October 2017 to further discuss the ResiStand Roadmap and Process in detail and determine the plan of action for the next few months.
If you are interested in the findings of the ResiStand project, save the date for our final conference taking place on 22nd March 2018 in Berlin, Germany. For updates, please subscribe to our mailing list.
