This summer, the EU-funded project Driving Innovation in Crisis Management for European Resilience (DRIVER+) was awarded the Security Innovation Award 2025 for Best Open Source Innovation. The project ran from 2014 to 2020, involving 31 partners across 14 countries.
PRIO was a key partner in the project, responsible for developing and implementing methods and tools for societal impact assessments, as well as for research ethics.
Overall, the project’s aim was to cope with challenges due to increasingly severe consequences of natural disasters and terrorist threats, by developing innovative solutions that address the operational needs of practitioners dealing with Crisis Management.
The award especially recognized the project’s Trial Guidance Methodology (TGM) for its clear, co-creative approach to crisis-management experimentation. The jury praised how the TGM “conceptualizes the assessment through trials in three phases” and offers step-by-step guidance, defined roles and responsibilities and practical tools. They noted that the project “puts a light on those visionaries who are at the forefront of developing advanced solutions to safeguard our society and protect our citizens.”
The TGM remains one of project’s most valuable outcomes, a “cookbook” for designing, running and evaluating trials. Since the project’s conclusion, it has been maintained by the ERCIS Competence Centre for Crisis Management and adopted in follow-on projects, as well as by organizations like the Fire Service Institute of North Rhine-Westphalia.
“The ultimate aim of the kind of EU projects we are part of is often to support end-users and practitioners in boosting their responsible innovation and capability development,” said Stine Bergersen, Senior Researcher at PRIO who led PRIO’s part in the project. “Actually achieving this is rare - especially after a project has ended. That’s why I am particularly proud of DRIVER+.”
The recognition highlights the lasting value of the project in advancing resilient, user-centred crisis-management innovation across Europe.
