In ENGAGE we believe that societal resilience can only be fostered by the collaboration between the different roles of the society. In order to produce actionable knowledge that meets the real needs of the actual European societies, the ENGAGE Consortium is supported by a Knowledge and Innovation Community of Practice (KI-CoP), bringing vital contribution to all the project activities.

The KI-Cop is a dynamic open association including practitioners of the emergency field, researchers, academia, scientists, NGOs, VOSTs and citizens’ representative interested in emergency response, disaster management and civil support. The association was born as advisory board but its presence is fundamental to accomplish several milestones within the project. The board will be dynamically expanding for the entire duration of the project including new partners from different countries. A community network in the domain of emergency response is one of the final goals of the ENGAGE Project.
Practitioners can provide real hand experience to our researchers, gather critical views on the solutions being developed and take part in the validations of the project outcomes. For this reason, KI-CoP members are asked to contribute to several phases of the project.

Several interactive moments are designed to favor a fruitful collaboration between the Consortium and the KI-CoP. A cycle of workshops will be held to gather first-hand experience directly from the practitioners in order to start investigating societal resilience from the right perspective. Several other interactive moments such as interviews, polls and surveys will follow up to favor a fruitful collaboration between the Consortium and the KI-CoP.
Meetings within the project are great opportunities for practitioners to share a critical view on the project work and to raise specific issues and related opportunities. In the final stage of the solutions development, the KI-CoP will ensure the validation of the new created solutions and guidelines for societal resilience through three different simulation.

KI-CoP members are considered co-creators of our solutions and will have the possibility to become their early adopters to improve their emergency response. On the other hand, the participation in our activities can constitute a great occasion for practitioners to build a network with other operators from the field and stay up to date with the latest practical and theoretical knowledge regarding societal resilience. Participation to events and activities is not mandatory but highly appreciated.

We are constantly looking for new practitioners wiling to contribute to our activities. Requesting to join the Ki-CoP is simple. Fill in the  “Request to join the KI-CoP” form on our website. You can also find it by clicking on “Ask to join the KI-CoP” in the section “Community of Practice“. Tell us how  your organization could contribute to ENGAGE or how we could support you. One of our members will soon be in touch with you. Joining the KI-CoP is a great opportunity to become part of a dynamic and interactive network of emergency workers around the world and a simple way to contribute to improve the resilience of our societies.

 

Author: Ilaria Bonanno (DeepBlue)