ECHO at the Projects to Policy Seminar
4th August 2026
On 10th-11th June 2026, Netcompany and Carr Communications represented ECHO at the Projects to Policy Seminar in Brussels.
Hosted by the European Commission (DG Home) and the European Research Executive Agency (REA) under the activities of CERIS, this annual event gathers newly launched Secure Societies projects to ensure that relevant policy priorities are integrated into project activities during their early phases. 160 participants from 40 new projects were in attendance, alongside representatives from six Directorate Generals and four EU agencies. As with ECHO, many of the new projects are developing technologies to keep European citizens safe in the coming years. The two-day event featured panels, presentations, and a number of breakout sessions focused on specific topics.
In the breakout sessions, ECHO’s Project Coordinator, Dr Paraskevas Bourgos, highlighted the project’s involvement of end-users in the project solutions’ development. This approach ensures that the knowledge and needs of stakeholders across the Critical Infrastructure ecosystem are incorporated to enhance urban resilience. Indeed, the entities most exposed to the multi-hazard threats tackled by ECHO are often the least equipped to manage them, such as the small and medium-sized municipalities, local emergency services and regional utilities. ECHO’s holistic co-creation of its solutions, then, enables all Critical Infrastructure stakeholders to prepare for, respond to and recover from challenges and crises regardless of their type, size, location, budget and readiness.
ECHO’s Dissemination and Communication Manager, Dr Sean Travers, discussed ECHO’s innovative means of stakeholder building, specifically the ECHO Ecosystem. This is an online network that facilitates the identification and sharing of proven best practices in planning and managing infrastructure resilience in urban environments across the EU. The Ecosystem strengthens collaboration amongst traditionally siloed Critical Infrastructure stakeholders, including Critical Infrastructure operators, Emergency Service Providers and local/regional authorities, as well as other experts such as technical providers, academics and other organisations relevant for strengthening resilience. Exclusive project materials are circulated in the network to keep members up to date with ECHO’s progress, and members are invited to participate in ECHO’s EU Workshops, where they can contribute to the development of the project solutions. The stakeholder network is therefore one of the ways that the project gathers feedback from users during the solutions’ development.
Further sessions at the event centred on topics such as current European policy, the use of and access to data, and the exploitation of research results, with a key insight being that resilience lies both in project themes and in the projects themselves, uniting technical innovation with communications to ensure the long-term safety of European citizens. Overall, the seminar offered a valuable opportunity to showcase ECHO’s urban resilience solutions and ensure they align with European policy.
