UPNA Highlights EU-DRIVE's Impact on Disaster Preparedness and Climate Resilience
Our project partner, the Public University of Navarre (UPNA), recently published an overview detailing their role within EU-DRIVE (European Upskilling in Disaster Resilience and Innovation in Vocational Excellence). As a key partner in Spain, UPNA is helping lead initiatives to bridge technical and vocational training with real-world disaster risk management, specifically addressing extreme wildfires, floods, and droughts across Europe.
Supported by local associates including the Navarra Firefighters, Civil Protection, the Forestry Service, and Tesicnor, UPNA’s team led by Dr. Fermín Alcasena Urdíroz at the ISFOOD Institute, recently joined partners in Nicosia, Cyprus to kick off our 4-year project.
Read the full article to learn more about how regional collaboration and innovative training technologies like Virtual Reality (VR) and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) will strengthen Europe's climate resilience.
The article, published in the spanish language is available here and an english translation is provided below.
The Public University of Navarre (UPNA) is participating in a European project to improve training for fires, floods and droughts.
The Public University of Navarre (UPNA) is participating in a European project called EU-DRIVE, an initiative aimed at improving professional and technical training in disaster risk management, civil protection, and climate resilience. The project, with partners from six countries, focuses particularly on forest fires, floods, and droughts, and seeks to strengthen professional skills in this area (especially among public sector personnel) through a scalable and sustainable training model. In the Navarre region, the project includes the participation of the regional government (through the Navarre Fire Service, Navarre Civil Protection, and the Forestry and Game Management Service of the Department of Rural Development and Environment) and the company Tesicnor as partner entities.
EU-DRIVE, an acronym for “European Upskilling in Disaster Resilience and Innovation in Vocational Excellence,” is funded by the European Union's Erasmus+ program through the European Union's Education, Culture and Sport Executive Agency (EACEA). The initiative will run for 48 months, until March 2030, and has a total budget of €3.9 million, of which €227,720 corresponds to the participation of the Public University of Navarre (UPNA). The project leader at UPNA is Fermín Alcasena Urdíroz , a researcher at the ISFOOD Institute and a specialist in forest fire risk management and extreme fire modeling.
Six countries involved
The project is coordinated by the European University Cyprus (EUC) and brings together nineteen partners from six countries (Cyprus, Spain, France, Greece, Italy, and Moldova). Of these, fifteen are beneficiary partners and receive funding, while four participate as associate entities without direct funding.
The consortium comprises public bodies, research centers, universities, and organizations dedicated to vocational training. Its objective is to address the need in the labor market for professionals prepared to work in the different phases of disaster risk management: prevention, preparedness, response, and recovery. To this end, EU-DRIVE will work on designing training curricula, developing micro-credentials, providing simulation-based training, and implementing digital tools such as virtual reality and geographic information systems.
The initiative falls under the umbrella of the Centers of Vocational Excellence (CoVE), which promote cooperation between institutions and businesses to develop training solutions linked to labor market needs. In fact, EU-DRIVE plans to create five regional centers of competence in disaster risk management and a transnational alliance to foster collaboration between entities in different European countries.
Navarrese entities in the project
Navarre's participation will link the academic and technical knowledge of the Public University of Navarre (UPNA) with the experience of entities involved in emergency management in the Navarre region. Navarre Firefighters, Navarre Civil Protection, the Navarre Government's Forestry and Game Management Service, and Tesicnor will contribute an applied perspective on emergency response, forest management, public safety, and the use of technical solutions in high-risk situations.
EU-DRIVE will focus on developing the technical, digital, environmental, and cross-cutting skills necessary for disaster risk management. The training will cover emergency response, risk assessment and planning, logistics management, the use of geographic information systems, data analysis, disaster modeling, remote sensing, sustainable management of forest and water resources, communication, leadership, decision-making under pressure, stress management, and psychological resilience.
With this approach, the project seeks to improve skills development in the disaster risk management sector (especially in the public sector) and support innovation in vocational training. Its aim is to establish a model of professional excellence in disaster resilience that can be applied sustainably and adapted to other European regions.
The consortium's first in-person meeting was recently held in Cyprus. This meeting addressed the project's management structure, work packages, coordination among participating entities, and the planned lines of action for the development of EU-DRIVE over the next four years.
Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor EACEA can be held responsible for them.
