Dr Christos Dimopoulos, CERIDES Director of Science in Civil Protection, had the opportunity to present the detailed Lessons Learnt from the implementation of the FloodNorthALB FSX during the project’s Closing Event, in his capacity as Head Evaluator of the FloodNorthALB UCPM Full-Scale Exercise. The evaluation of the FloodNorthALB FSX was based on the application of the innovative ‘FAcilitate IMprovement‘ (‘FAIM‘) exercise evaluation framework which Dr Dimopoulos has introduced during the implementation of several past UCPM Full-Scale Exercises. Following Dr Dimopoulos presentation, participants engaged in fruitful discussions focused on the optimal exploitation of the evaluation findings.
The FloodNorthALB FSX Closing Event took place in Brussels, Belgium, on the 12th of November 2025, and it was attended by all high-level stakeholders from the exercise, including representatives from the European Commission, DG-ECHO, the Albanian National Civil Protection Authorities, and representatives from partners of the FloodNorthALB consortium.
The European University Cyprus / CERIDES Team responsible for the implementation of the FloodNorthALB project tasks consists of the following scientists:
Dr. Christos Dimopoulos (Scientific Manager)
Mr. Evangelos Katsaros (Researcher)
Dr. Demetris Hadjiloucas (Researcher)
Professor George Boustras (Scientific Advisor)
The aim of the FloodNorthALB project (Managing Complex Floods in North Albania through Cross Border Host Nation Support and Joint Cooperation) is to improve the civil protection preparedness and response capabilities of Albania in dealing with large, complex disasters that require joint response coordination facilitated via the European Union Civil Protection Mechanism (UCPM).
The total budget of the project is in the region of 1M Euros. The total duration is 24 months. The project consortium consists of the following members:
Albanian National Civil Protection Agency (Coordinator, Albania)
European University Cyprus / CERIDES (Cyprus)
Ministry of Interior of Montenegro (Montenegro)
Center of Development and Democratization of Institutions (Albania)
General Secretariat of Civil Protection (Greece)
European University Tirana (Albania)
Ministry of Interior / Cyprus Civil Defense (Cyprus)
Croce Rossa Italiana (Italy)