NERIS
Network of European organisations involved in emergency and recovery preparedness and management
President: Thierry Schneider, CEPN
Contact: sec [at] eu-neris [dot] net
Created in June 2010 as a network of European organisations involved in emergency and recovery preparedness and management the NERIS Platform is currently composed of 56 organisations from 24 different countries from which 28 supporting organisations. The objectives of the Platform are to contribute to improving the effectiveness of current approaches for preparedness, promoting more coherent approaches, identifying gaps and needs for further developments, addressing new and emerging challenges and maintaining and improving know-how and technical expertise in this field.
The Strategic Research Agenda (SRA) has been structured in three main research areas covering new challenges in atmospheric & aquatic modelling, new challenges for better dose assessments and decision support based on improved knowledge and new challenges in stakeholder involvement and local preparedness and communication strategies. Several projects have been developed to contribute to the development of the research in this field, notably in the EC Research Framework Programme with the projects NERIS TP (2011-2014) and PREPARE (2013-2016).
The vision of the NERIS platform is that “by 2020, all European organizations being members of the association are sharing common views and common approaches and are developing and using compatible technology and methods for consequence management of the emergencies”. In respect to this vision, cooperation with international organisations with a mandate to harmonise response in Europe and worldwide has been established to favour them to become aware of NERIS scientific capabilities and research developments.
On 5 December 2013, NERIS signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with MELODI, ALLIANCE and EURADOS to confirm their joint commitment towards the consolidation and implementation of a strategic vision of radiation protection research in Europe. In this perspective, NERIS, together with the signatories of the MoU, is participating to the European Joint Programming CONCERT project on the organisation of the research in radiation protection in Europe in the perspective of Horizon 2020 of the European Commission.
Role in the project
NERIS is in charge of identifying the research priorities in the field of emergency and recovery preparedness and to regularly update its SRA (WP2). NERIS is also involved in the elaboration of the joint research roadmap (WP3). Further NERIS will also contribute to the development of access to infrastructure and to E&T in the field of emergency and recovery preparedness (WP6 & 7). NERIS is member of the management board and the Executive Board (WP1).