The “Southeastern Mediterranean Excellence Development in Fire Research – SEMEDFIRE” project is completed on the 30th of November 2025. The final event of the project took place in a hybrid mode on the 25th of November, 2025. This hybrid event, hosted by the project’s coordinator, the European University Cyprus (EUC), officially marked the end of the project, which was funded by the European Commission under the HORIZON EUROPE Programme.
All six partners of the project partners attended the event virtually or in physical presence at the premises of the Centre of Excellence in Risk & Decision Sciences (CERIDES) of the European University Cyprus. The event was also attended by members of the Advisory Board of the project from Lebanon, Jordan and Israel, and a speech from the Minister of Agriculture, Rural Development and Environment of Cyprus was delivered by Mr. Costas Papageorgiou of the Department of Forests.
SEMEDFIRE’s coordinator and advanced partners presented the results and conclusions of their activities and core achievements of each Work Package, during the 3 years of the project. The project activities, aiming to enhance the Research-&-Innovation (R&I) and Research-Management-Administration (RMA) capacities of the Widening institution, EUC, in Fire Safety and Fire Management, included:
- 8 Staff-Exchange Twinning visits
- 6 Hands-On-Training Short-Courses
- 2 Hands-On-Training Field Exercises
in the key areas of capacity building and knowledge transfer of:
- Main Pillars of a Basic Fire Management Suite (WP3 by Imperial College London (IMPERIAL)
- Integrated Fire Management Strategy (WP4 by Wageningen University & Research (WUR)
- Community Engagement in Forest Fires (WP5 by Pau Costa Foundation (PCF)
- Fire and Civil Protection Governance and Agencies-Interoperability (WP6 by the General Directorate for Civil Protection and Crisis Management of the French Ministry of Interior (DGSCGC) and Nîmes Métropole (NIMES)
All partners expressed their sincere thanks for the successful collaboration in a celebratory conclusion, agreeing that SEMEDFIRE achieved “over and above the expectations” of a Twinning Coordination-Support-Action. The project not only built capacity in for the project’s coordinator and widening institution, by achieved to engage with the totality of local wildfire management and civil protection stakeholders in Cyprus during the exchange visits, the short courses and the field exercises. Additionally, the partners of the project extended the outreach of their actions to key stakeholders from participating and neighbouring countries. The project’s activities were attended by Canadair pilots from Greece, Civil Protection Directorate representatives from Jordan, Fire Service officers from the British Sovereign Base Area Administration in Cyprus, a judicial expert in fire investigation from France, fire management experts from Portugal, civil protection expert trainers from ENTENTE-VALABRE in France and many more key European and regional actors.
The project’s Dissemination, Communication, Exploitation and Outreach strategic plan was executed in absolute synchronisation by the partners, achieving significant exposure and recognition. SEMEDFIRE was featured in numerous occasions in local, regional, national and European media outlets like Alpha, RIK and ANT1 TV channels in Cyprus, the RTP Tv channel in Portugal, news websites in France (Midi-Libre, ObjectifGard, Le reveil du Midi), Cyprus (AlphanewsLive, Kathimerini Cyprus, and Greece (ERT News) and the Greek version of Euronews news website. SEMEDFIRE was also presented during the French Alumni Day organised by the French Embassy in Cyprus, as one of the honoured actions between Cyprus and France in June 2025.
The final event was followed by the last meeting of the project’s steering committee. SEMEDFIRE’s coordinator presented an analysis of the project’s KPIs and the final actions to be completed by the 30th of November, 2025, including the submission of the project’s last public deliverable D6.3 Fire-Governance and Agencies-Interoperability White Paper.
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