FIRE-RES
To respond to the threat of extreme rural fires, the European Commission is investing in large consortiums, such as FIRE-RES – Innovative technologies and socio-economic solutions for fire-resistant territories in Europe.
The aim of this European project is to develop new models and approaches for fighting major fires.
Started in December 2021 and lasting 4 years, its overall objective is to contribute to a Europe more resilient to extreme fires.
The project aims to develop innovative actions that achieve the following objectives:
To understand the behaviour of wildfires, their determinants and their impact on the landscape, local economy and communities;
To reduce the number of human losses and the negative impacts caused by forest fires on the built environment, landscape, ecosystems and human health;
To design and apply management strategies and tools that enable better governance, greater recovery capacity on the part of communities affected by these events, and more effective communication about the risk of wildfires.
FIRE-RES is formed by a consortium of 34 partners from 13 countries including universities, research centres, firefighting organisations, businesses, industry and civil society organisations, and is coordinated by the Forest Science and Technology Centre of Catalonia in Spain.
LIVING LABS
To demonstrate and implement their innovations in collaboration with local and regional actors, 34 innovative actions are being tested in various regions of Europe and South America in 11 small-scale environments called Living Labs. In Portugal, the Living Lab is composed of two demonstration areas: one in Vale do Sousa and another in Serra da Lousã (led by CoLAB ForestWISE®).
All Living Labs involve collaborations with the public sector, scientific entities, companies and local associations. In Portugal, the project has five partners: CoLAB ForestWISE®, ISA – Instituto Superior de Agronomia, ENB – Escola Nacional de Bombeiros, ANEPC – Autoridade Nacional de Emergência e Proteção Civil and INESC TEC – Instituto de Engenharia de Sistemas e Computadores, Tecnologia e Ciência.
Foto: Verónica Catarino
Open Innovation Challenge
The Open Innovation Challenge is a program that aims to create solutions to mitigate the consequences of extreme rural fires in Europe, making landscapes more resilient and communities safer, by 2030.
Launched by CoLAB ForestWISE®, INESC TEC and the European Forest Institute (EFI), partners in the FIRE-RES consortium directly involved in the selection of innovative social and technological solutions for the problems faced by Living Labs. With a total funding of €168,000, this programme will allow authors of the selected ideas to test their solutions in the field and benefit from consultancy to improve the solutions developed.
PARTNERS
FUNDING
FIRE-RES is funded by Horizon 2020 – Research and Innovation Programme, under the agreement number 101037419. The total financial volume of the application is 19.896.326,62 euros, being ForestWISE a budget of 891.062,50 euros.
PROJECTS
See otherprojects from CoLAB ForestWISE®.
