CERIDES and European University Cyprus are proud to report the acquisition of another significant project in the area of Disaster Risk Reduction and Management. In particular, CERIDES has been successful in its bid for the funding of the Directorate-General (DG) for European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations – (ECHO) project BALANCE. The project is funded through the Union Civil Protection Mechanism (Call: UCPM-2020-EX-AG). CERIDES will act as the Coordinating Organisation of the project.
BALANCE exercise project aim is to improve Civil Protection Preparedness and Response capabilities of Montenegro in dealing with large disasters that require joint response coordination facilitated via the Union Civil Protection Mechanism. Western Balkans countries can be slowed down in joining the EU due to a huge earthquake because it will have significant economic, social and political impact to country and regional development. Thus, sharing capacities and resources, scientific support decision making, use of proven innovative tools, and joint training will lead to improvement of cross border cooperation procedures of the Mechanism.
The BALANCE Consortium comprises of academic and civil protection organisations from the countries of Montenegro, Croatia, Albania, Cyprus, Greece, Bulgaria, Italy and Spain.
The kick-off meeting of the BALANCE project took place online on Thursday the 18th of February 2021. The meeting was chaired by Mr. Geir Ellingsen, ECHO Project Officer, and was attended by representatives from all partner organizations. During the meeting Mr. Evangelos Katsaros, CERIDES Research Associate and Manager of the BALANCE project, provided an overview of the project’s activities, milestones, and main implementation considerations.
The CERIDES Team which will be responsible for the management, coordination, and implementation of the BALANCE project, comprises of the following scientists:
Mr. Evangelos Katsaros (Project Manager)
Dr. Christos Dimopoulos (Scientific Manager)
Professor George Boustras (Scientific Advisor)
Ms. Fotini Tsaliki (Scientific & Administrative Officer)