Specific Challenge:

A reason for the difficult interaction among practitioners, and for the low levels of interoperability of equipment and procedures implemented by first responders, lies in there being insufficient harmonisation and standardisation, which pre-normative research and demonstrations may address effectively.

The security market in Europe is an institutional market that is highly fragmented (because of the lack of standardization and harmonised certification), and with a strong societal dimension (it directly affects in many ways the citizens). In this context, the Mandate M/487 to Establish Security Standards coordinated by the European Committee for Standardization has clearly recognized the whole field of "crisis management and civil protection" as one of the three priorities for establishing standards in the security sector. It has identified the need for crisis management and civil protection standardization activities to facilitate response, effectiveness, efficiency and cooperation as top priorities, especially in what regards to natural hazard emergencies.

Scope:

Proposals are invited to address issues related to pre-standardisation, in particular:

• Sub-topic 2: [2019] Pre-standardisation in crisis management (including natural hazard and CBRN-E emergencies)

Generally speaking, the development of standards for civil protection in the areas of crisis management (including for systems, tools and services related to natural hazard and CBRN-E emergencies) will increase interoperability of equipment and procedures. Innovation actions should bring validated and positively-assessed practices into standards within or outside current standardisation processes. The involvement of well-established standardisation organisations is required. The complementarity of the proposed activities with activities supported by the European Defence Agency (EDA) in the CBRN-E area should be described comprehensively.

Expected impact:

Medium term:

• [2019] standards for interoperable equipment and procedures in the area of crisis management and civil protection (including natural hazard and CBRN-E emergencies in support to operations involving international crews;