CECRS Meeting with the Representative of the Government of Flanders

The CECRS project hosted Mr. Matthias De Moor, Representative General of the Government of Flanders in Poland and the Baltic States, during a visit dedicated to international cooperation in the areas of community resilience, crisis communication, and crisis management.

The meeting was organized in connection with the interest in the CECRS project — an international research and implementation initiative funded under the NATO SPS programme. The project is carried out by Poznan University of Technology (project leader) together with Poznań County, as well as Kyiv Polytechnic Institute and the Bucha District of the Kyiv Region in Ukraine.

During the visit, the project team presented the main objectives of CECRS, including its scientific, international, and implementation dimensions, as well as the activities carried out within the project so far. A significant part of the meeting was devoted to the educational activities implemented within the project, including the training programme “Crisis Management in Local Communities: From Building Resilience and Trust to Threat Modelling.” The training focuses on building community resilience, risk analysis, threat identification, crisis communication, and the use of tools supporting threat modelling, such as ALOHA. An interactive educational handbook developed within the project was also presented, aimed at supporting the teaching process and promoting knowledge related to community resilience and crisis management.

During the visit, the team also presented activities related to the CECRS Summer School, which serves as a platform for exchanging knowledge, experience, and best practices among participants from different environments and countries. In the later part of the meeting, the developing MACC model — one of the key components of the project — was introduced. The model is currently in the phase of development, testing, and validation within the ongoing NATO SPS project.

The visit also included a presentation of the satellite educational project SAFENET, developed around the CECRS initiative and created by young people for young people. The project focuses on digital safety education, raising awareness of online threats, and promoting responsible attitudes toward the use of new technologies. The guest showed particular interest in the social and educational dimensions of the project, as well as in the involvement of young people in activities related to building community resilience.

The honorary partner of the project is Jan Grabkowski, the Head of Poznań County. Additionally, the educational activities carried out within the project are supported under the academic patronage of the Faculty of Engineering Management at Poznan University of Technology.

Representatives of the Ukrainian side of the project also participated remotely in the meeting, presenting their experiences related to implementing project activities under wartime conditions and emphasizing the importance of building the resilience of local communities in crisis situations. The discussions also concerned potential directions for further cooperation between partners from Poland, Ukraine, and Flanders, particularly in the fields of education, community resilience, and the implementation of solutions supporting local communities in crisis situations.