The first week of June found a cheerful crowd at BAO, Brussels, discussing the most pressing issues and the future of European Disaster Resilience: roundtables, a multitude of presentations from ongoing projects, lively discussions, refreshing coffee breaks and plenty of time for networking and exchanging ideas and views. Needless to add the soft jazz music for the evening, it’s unmistakably another great event organized by CERIS, the Community for European Research and Innovation for Security.

As always, there is no time to waste at such an event: the days are jam-packed with thematic panels. This year, B-prepared project, represented by Zoltán Székely (SFC), made its debut  in the panel “Breaking the walls and/or Bridging Sectors and Disciplines?” as a CERIS presentee. The title could not be more fitting for such an interdisciplinary project: B-prepared not only involves different disciplines of IT, but first and second responders, disaster resilience and elearning professionals, sociologists and many more highly skilled and motivated people for one goal: providing citizens an effective and enjoyable way to become better-prepared for disasters.

What are those walls that need to be broken down? There are many. The walls of understanding between these professionals of different disciplines, to avoid working in silos. The walls between the research and innovation projects’ outputs and entering the market as successful products. The walls of disinterest and unconcern, behind which there is the understanding of our common interest of disaster preparedness, as citizens and as a Union. 

Most of these projects face these walls sooner or later, however, the strengthened sense of community after these events helps us in becoming a step closer to our goals. And it’s rightly said that we cannot build a community in the ‘official’ atmosphere of a towering Commission building, however, not even without someone who has a clear vision and power of will to make this happen.

This was also the last CERIS event chaired by Philippe Quevauviller, the founder of this community, before his retirement from the EC. Mr. Disaster, this is not any legacy to live up to. We salute you!