SAFE, as partner of the consortium led by SCK•CEN (Belgium) and composed also by RIVM (The Netherlands) and Landau Network Fondazione Volta (Italy), has been officially awarded by the European Union – DG DEVCO, the project “P73 – Protection of Critical Infrastructures from CBRNe events in Lebanon, Jordan and Iraq”. The project, 2.5 million € in value, will start its activities in July and will last for a total of 36 months.
The project foresees three main areas of interest:
1. Critical command chain protection in Lebanon;
2. Protection of critical water infrastructure in Jordan;
3. Protection of various critical infrastructure in Iraq.
SAFE will lead entirely the Lebanese component of the project, managing an approximate budget of 1.1 million €. A full-time expert will be based in Beirut for the upcoming years, supported by a project management team locally and from Italy. Through its network of members, SAFE will also support the implementation of activities in Iraq.
The expected outcome of the project as a whole is the enhanced resilience against CBRN attacks or events, thanks to enhanced capabilities of the organizations and individuals in Partner Countries to assess the vulnerabilites of the various critical infrastructures, to reduce these vulnerabilities with adequate prevention measures as well as enhanced regional cooperation and understanding of tailored risk assessment methodologies.
The project will be coordinated by DG DEVCO, under the EU CBRN Centres of Excellence programme. Strong cooperation will be established with the Head of the Regional Secretariat (RS) for the Middle East based in Amman, National Focal Points (NFPs) as well as National CBRN Teams.