Final DRIVER+ demonstration in Brussels

The DRIVER+ final conference held late February in Brussels is one of the last activities of this EU-funded project. The aim of DRIVER+ was to develop a framework for assessing new solutions to increasingly complex crises in Europe. XVR Simulation was an integral part of the DRIVER+ project from start to finish, providing the training, software and technical expertise needed to successfully carry out these assessments during the so-called trials.

XVR On Scene was used to visualise the large-scale incidents, such as wildfires, earthquakes and floods, which brought together national and international emergency services and allowed for joint-agency cooperation at all command levels. Crisis management teams used XVR Crisis Media to simulate news items and social media messages, as well as the crisis communication flow between local, national and international emergency services. Additionally, XVR Resource Management was used to simulate logistical issues, resource scarceness and emergency service response times.

(Copyright: DRIVER+ project)

The XVR team cooperated with the DRIVER+ partners to design and develop the technical infrastructure. The XVR technical experts led the implementation of this infrastructure in the five trials that were organised in the project.

These trials allowed agencies to test innovative crisis management solutions in a simulated environment, before spending precious time and money on solutions that might not be the right fit for their problem. Furthermore, the infrastructure facilitated data exchange between the solutions, the simultaneous use of multiple simulators and extensive data collection to support further study and evaluation.

XVR has gained valuable experience during this project, which will benefit XVR users as well as contribute to the future development of XVR’s products. The efforts of the DRIVER+ project partners have been gathered to create the DRIVER+ trial guidance methodology (TGM). This methodology allows crisis management practitioners to systematically test and assess new solutions before implementing them. To provide education and practice on how to best use the TGM and its supportive tools, XVR and the Estonian Academy of Security Sciences led the development of the DRIVER+ Training Module.

These project outputs contribute to a new, structured way of supporting innovations in crisis management that will benefit all European citizens.

(Copyright: W. Luttenberger / Rotes Kreuz Steiermark)

Centres of Expertise
Over the course of the DRIVER+ project, several emergency response organisations and academies became official DRIVER+ Centres of Expertise, including XVR users Estonian Academy of Security Sciences, the Austrian Red Cross and Valabre. We would like to congratulate them on all their efforts and hard work. The certification allows them to pass on the valuable learnings and experience gathered during the project to emergency services in their regions.

The DRIVER PLUS Project
The DRIVER+ project was launched in 2014 and was designed with a focus on furthering sustainable innovation and resilience in Crisis Management. The pan-European project was comprised of 4 elaborate Trials and 1 Final Demonstration, with 31 partners from 14 different countries. To read more about the outcome and findings, or download any of the handbooks, please visit the official DRIVER+ website.