ECHO Newsletter: Issue 2
Welcome to the second edition of the ECHO newsletter!
It’s been a busy year for ECHO, an EU project that strengthens urban resilience planning and management in Europe. In this issue, we will recap all the key activities that have taken place since January 2026, including ECHO’s first General Assembly Meeting, our EU Project Workshop, international events, and much more.
For questions about the ECHO project, contact Carr Communications’ EU Project Manager, Dr Sean Travers, at stravers@carrcommunications.ie
ECHO’s first General Assembly Meeting in Malaga
In March, ECHO held its first General Assembly Meeting in Malaga, Spain. At the meeting, the ECHO partners shared updates on their respective work packages at six months into the project. Among the topics discussed included the ECHO Knowledge Hub, which is a web-based cooperative knowledge-sharing platform, as well as the project pilots and insights gathered from our local round of workshops in Slovenia, Italy and Spain.
The day provided a wonderful opportunity for the entire consortium to brainstorm and plan the next steps of the project. Read more about the meeting here and watch our video of the meeting on the ECHO YouTube channel.
ECHO’s first EU Workshop
At the General Assembly Meeting in Spain, ECHO held its first EU Workshop. This workshop was built upon the insights from ECHO’s local workshops held in December 2025. At the EU Workshop, these local insights were connected with a wider, cross-border perspective, with the overall aim being to form a critical foundation for the development of ECHO’s Resilience Strategy. The Resilience Strategy is a plan for how peri-urban areas in Europe can prepare for, respond to and recover from multi-hazard threats affecting their infrastructures.
Participants included authorities at national, regional and local levels, including representatives from civil protection, Critical Infrastructure operators and Emergency Service Providers across several critical sectors, and other relevant stakeholders. This diversity ensured that the findings reflected not only the operational perspectives of Critical Infrastructure operators, but also governance, emergency response and community-level insights, all of which are essential for strengthening the resilience of essential services across Europe.
Read more about the EU Workshop here.
Technical Meeting in Greece
In May, ECHO held a Technical Meeting in Athens, Greece. Here, the project’s technical partners met to discuss the ECHO solutions. These are technologies designed to support resilience planning and management for multi-hazard threats. Among the technologies discussed included ECHO’s Knowledge Hub, Novel Threat Monitoring and Forecasting Service, and Resilience Plan Evaluation Service. In attendance were ECHO’s project coordinator Netcompany and the following ECHO project partners: Institute for Corporative Security Studies (ICS), Engineering Group, and the Centre for Research & Technology Hellas (CERTH).
Learn about the event and all of ECHO’s technological solutions here.
New clusters and synergies
ECHO was delighted to join two new clusters: the ECSCI Cluster and the COcyber Synergy!
The ECSCI Cluster aims to create synergies and foster emerging disruptive solutions to security issues via cross-project collaboration and innovation. Likewise, the COcyber Synergy aims to create a unified front for European cybersecurity. We look forward to new networks and synergy-building activities with like-minded projects.
In addition, ECHO has formed a new synergy with the CO-SECUR Project! CO-SECUR is a Horizon Europe project that aims to improve citizens’ security perception and behaviour in public spaces. We anticipate a fruitful collaboration and knowledge exchange on urban resilience and end-user co-creation. Check out the CO-SECUR website here.
Another social media milestone
We were thrilled to announce that ECHO has reached an exciting milestone: we have achieved over 500 LinkedIn followers!
We would like to thank you for your continued interest, engagement and support in our project. We shall endeavour to provide you with all the latest ECHO updates and news.
ECHO presents to the National Council of Slovenia
In April, our project partner, the Institute for Corporative Security Studies (ICS), presented ECHO at a consultation with the National Council of Slovenia on strategy for resilience of Critical Infrastructure. The consultation examined the current state of critical infrastructure management in Slovenia and identified gaps in existing policies, legislation, competencies and operational capacities. Click here to learn more about the consultation and ECHO’s contributions.
ECHO at Days of Corporate Security
In May, ICS also presented ECHO at the 17th International Conference ‘Days of Corporate Security’. This conference explored the latest insights, research findings and examples of good practice in the field of corporate security. Here, Dr Jolanda Modic, PhD from ICS presented the strategy for Critical Infrastructure resilience that was drafted in our sister project, ENDURANCE Project, and continued in ECHO.
Also at this event, ECHO’s other partner, the Municipality of Kranjska Gora, received an award for the most secure municipality in the country in 2025! Henrika Zupan, Mayor of the Municipality of Kranjska Gora, accepted the award. Learn more about this exciting event on our website and watch a special interview with Henrika Zupan conducted for ECHO here.
Projects to Policy Seminar in Brussels
June was a jet-setting month for ECHO, with Netcompany and Carr Communications presenting the project at three events in Brussels!
First, our project coordinator Netcompany and project partner Carr Communications presented ECHO at the Projects to Policy Seminar. Here, EU policymakers met with newly launched, EU-funded security research projects to ensure they are aligned with relevant policy priorities. This event was co-organised by DG HOME and the European Executive Agency, as one of the activities of CERIS – Community for European Research and Innovation for Security. ECHO greatly enjoyed learning about the latest EU policy developments and sharing our work in urban resilience with the European Commission.
Dr Paraskevas Bourgos from Netcompany highlighted ECHO’s involvement of our end-users in the project solutions’ development, to ensure that we incorporate the knowledge and needs of stakeholders across the Critical Infrastructure ecosystem. Dr Sean Travers from Carr Communications then discussed innovative ways of dissemination and stakeholder building in the project via its online stakeholder network, the ECHO Resilience Ecosystem.
COcyber Final Event
Two weeks after the Projects to Policy Seminar, Carr Communications presented ECHO on a panel at the COcyber Final Event. The panel was entitled ‘Need for Speed: From Policy to Practice in Strengthening Europe’s Cyber Posture’. Here, Dr Sean Travers outlined the project’s Resilience Strategy, technologies for multi-hazard threats, and the policy gaps addressed by both.
The panel was entitled ‘Need for Speed: From Policy to Practice in Strengthening Europe’s Cyber Posture’ and explored how European cybersecurity initiatives are turning collaboration into practical action. Also on the panel were representatives from the CHIEF PROJECT, CyberHubs – European Network of Cybersecurity Skills Hubs, and SPECTRO – SPecialised Education programmes in CybersecuriTy and Robotics. We thank the COcyber Project for the opportunity to share our findings with policymakers, practitioners and fellow projects dedicated to keeping Europe safe. Read more about the event here.
CERIS Disaster Resilient Days
ECHO closed out the month with Netcompany exhibiting the project at the CERIS Disaster Resilient Days (DRS). ECHO was featured at a booth in the walking exhibition held at this event. Here, Dr Paraskevas Bourgos and Christina Tsiftsi discussed ECHO’s solutions with policymakers, practitioners, researchers and innovators from across Europe and beyond.
Thank you to CMINE – The Crisis Management Innovation Network for their support with this event. We look forward to further collaboration with fellow Secure Societies projects in this cluster over the coming months and years.
Keep an eye on the ECHO website in the coming weeks for blogposts and an in-depth look at these events. All project news, updates and information on events can be found on our Project News tab at the top of the Homepage.
ECHO on television
ECHO was featured on television – twice!
After our General Assembly Meeting in March, ECHO project partners Centro de Emergencias Sanitarias 061 and Universidad Politécnica de Madrid were interviewed on local television in Malaga! Also featured were ECHO project partners Diputación de Málaga and Hidralia. Watch the full segment here.
The Institute for Corporative Security Studies’ (ICS) presentation of ECHO at the consultation with the National Council of Slovenia in April was also live streamed on RTV 365, Slovenia’s national public broadcasting organisation. Watch the full presentation here.
Videos
ECHO has a new promotional video!
This video was presented at the Projects to Policy Seminar in Brussels to members of the European Commission, policymakers and fellow resilience projects. The video outlines what the ECHO Project is, what it does and its overall aims. Watch the video on the ECHO YouTube channel and don’t forget to subscribe!
ECHO has also shot three new videos with our project pilot representatives, including interviews with Neza Strmole from Gasilska Zveza Slovenije, Marco Padrini from the Autonomous Region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia, and Grašič Valerji from Telekom Slovenije. These interviews discuss our project pilot regions, where we will test and validate the ECHO solutions. Keep an eye on our project social media channels for more interviews with pilot representatives.
Until next time
We look forward to keeping you up to date on ECHO’s progress and our efforts to make smart solutions for resilient European communities.
Keep up with the latest ECHO news by following us on LinkedIn, Twitter/X, and BlueSky.
Our next ECHO newsletter will be published in December 2026.
