Quite a few European research projects so far have dealt with risk and crisis management or related topics. The challenge is to find better and improved risk management technologies and systems on a European level, to strengthen security and to establish Europe-wide technologies for all emergency services across Europe to improve the prevention, mitigation, response and recovery in emergency situations.

So far, emergency services are doing well in forecasting, monitoring, mapping and suppressing hazards such as floods, wood fires, volcanic eruptions and have taken many different preventive measures against these hazards. But since what Europeans fear most are international terrorism, organised crime, proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, nuclear accidents, a world war, diseases etc. one can clearly see, that these are mainly man-made and sudden catastrophes.

So while Europeans may feel secure in case of environmental catastrophes they fear the unexpected, so their trust in response and action capability of emergency services cannot be too high and that should be the major focus for projects like SETRIC, to improve the reaction possibility of emergency services in case of emergency.

All 25 EU-Member states have very different information systems, operational procedures and communication systems, they are very poorly equipped and can afford only slow investments. So there is a need for EU investments and interoperability to design, validate and demonstrate a generic integrated risk management open system also for large-scale and cross-boarder disasters.

In FIT research was focused on information and data support systems to spread information and data and on technical developments such as special equipment for all kinds of emergency situations. There are projects such as DELVE, EURITRACK, EUROPCOM, MITRA, OASIS, ORCHESTRA, STREAM, WIN and many more that are all working on different special aspects of risk management.

The efforts needed to improve crisis management in Europe are the harmonisation of assessment techniques, the standardisation of geo-spatial and analytical tools, the integration of sensors and a more secure and dependable public safety communication.