A strategic project of particular importance for Cyprus was inaugurated on Tuesday at the CERIDES Centre of Excellence of European University Cyprus, in the presence of the Commissioner for the Environment of the Republic of Cyprus, Klelia Vassiliou.
SEMEDFIRE, (South Eastern Mediterranean Excellence Development In Fire Research), is a project under Horizon Europe, the ninth in a series of the European Union’s Research and Innovation Framework Programmes 2021-2027, with a budget of €95.5 billion.
The three-year SEMEDFIRE, the first Twining project awarded to European University Cyprus enhancing its status as a leading academic research institution in the South-East Mediterranean region and beyond, brings together world-renowned experts in the field of forest fires.
What stands out, especially in relation to the Cypriot involvement is that SEMEDFIRE aims to upgrade the knowledge and expertise of a leading Cypriot research centre in order for CERIDES to become a beacon of excellence in fire research both in Cyprus and the South-Eastern Mediterranean region.
Speaking at the inaugural session, Environment Commissioner Klelia Vassiliou said that the Republic of Cyprus, at the initiative of President Nicos Anastassiades, undertook mobilising the policies of the countries of Europe and the Middle East through a scientific approach in order to address the risk in the region, the magnitude of which places it in the so-called “red zone”, i.e. the zone of countries most at risk worldwide.
This is precisely why, the Commissioner stressed, CERIDES’ efforts to become a Euro-Mediterranean centre of knowledge, research and innovation in natural disaster management through an integrated and strategically analysed approach are of paramount importance. At the same time, she added, the effort of CERIDES is building a bridge in the south-eastern Mediterranean on civil protection issues.
For his part, CERIDES Director and project coordinator Dr George Boustras said that the Southeastern Mediterranean is a target area for CERIDES Excellence in Innovation and Technology of European University Cyprus. He explained that CERIDES has been active in the South East Mediterranean for years, coordinating or participating in a number of European funded actions aimed at disaster prevention or management with an emphasis on forest fires. Through the SEMEDFIRE project, Professor Boustras added, we look forward to creating the conditions that will allow us to offer at the national and regional levels a research infrastructure that will pioneer and evolve – with the help of our partners in the network – into a reference point for fire prevention and management issues.
In order to achieve the SEMEDFIRE objectives, CERIDES will work closely with Hazelab at the Imperial College of London, the Department of Fire Geography at Wageningen University & Research in the Netherlands, the Civil Protection of the French Republic, the Pau Costa Foundation in Spain and the Metropolitan Municipality of Nîmes in France.
Welcoming speeches and presentations by leading academics and representatives of public authorities from the European Commission, Cyprus, Greece, France, Spain, the Netherlands, Lebanon, Israel and Spain, were included in the project’s inaugural session.
