The European Centre of Expertise for Innovation Suppliers (ECoEIS)

What is it?

ECoEIS is an organisation of Crisis Management and Disaster Risk Reduction experts acting as the primary contact point for suppliers wishing to engage at a European level. It supports capability development and innovation management across a diverse and complex sector. ECoEIS has adopted the whole suite of DRIVER+ products providing a gateway for suppliers to engage with their potential users.

ECoEIS tailors and adapts the approach to that of different local and national needs. Using its network of experts, ECoEIS also supports you with basic analysis to guide you towards the countries and users most in need of your solutions. ECoEIS is part of the broader network of national Centres of Expertise (CoE's) that maintains and updates DRIVER+ outputs Together with partners from across the European public and NGO family, we contribute to the lessons learned by various European Member States. In this way, you can be sure that in engaging with ECoEIS, you are accessing the most current thinking and are engaged with a pan-European network which will support your development and growth.

Who is it for?

If your Company or Organisation is designing, developing or supplying innovative solutions or products for the crisis management sector in Europe and would like to become better known or to improve your contact with practitioner organisations such as fire or rescue departments, police or security organisations, emergency medical responders or civil protection authorities then ECoEIS can help.

We are a supplier-centred organisation that has close relations with practitioners as well as (applied) research organisations and policy-makers.

How does it work?

ECoEIS uses a suite of tools and systems developed over a 5 year period by the Driver+ programme - a project funded to the tune of some 20€m to provide a structured pathway for the testing and trialling of new solutions.

In simple steps, your organisation will be;

A database-driven online catalogue that documents and presents details of your solutions and outlines any testing and evaluation undertaken to date. It allows you to introduce your company and any solutions you already supply to practitioners relevant to Crisis Management. By sharing existing user experiences in individual countries or localities, visibility through the PoS will ease the successful implementation and usage of solutions for other practitioners.

A Pragmatic Step-By-Step guidance to presenting your solutions to the market by conducting Trials. The Test-bed provides a reference for implementing Trials in any European country using standard Guidance & Technical Infrastructure already approved EU-wide to support you.

The Crisis Management Innovation Network Europe (CMINE) is an open, cooperative and inclusive information network for sharing information, experiences, best practice and lessons learned among crisis management organisations, researchers, industry and policy makers throughout Europe and beyond. CMINE provides a superb window for suppliers to observe discussions on innovation and thereby establishing a shared understanding in the fields of Crisis Management and Disaster Risk Reduction in Europe.

CMINE also links stakeholders from existing projects, networks and initiatives reducing fragmentation, generate new ideas, and help to identify innovative solutions to improve European resilience.

Properly designing Trials from a methodological perspective will be key to demonstrating if and how your innovative solutions can help resolve the needs of your practitioner target group. Before adopting potentially innovative solutions and investing time and money to figuring-out what fits you best, you may want to assess them in non operational contexts (such as a Trial) through a structured approach. For this purpose, the DRIVER+ project has developed a specific methodology called Trial Guidance Methodology (TGM). The TGM consists of phases (Preparation, Execution, Evaluation) and steps (six-step in the preparation phase) explained in the TGM Handbook. It is not a one-size-fits-all methodology. If you are not interested in assessing solutions in a systematic way, the TGM is probably not the appropriate approach.

ECoEIS offers a full range of Training Modules to support you in applying the Trial Guidance Methodology and using the Test-bed Technical Infrastructure. You will learn what the Test-Bed offers and how it can be used to fit your needs.

How to engage

Just get in touch with us through the contact form here or directly at coe@resilienceadvisors.eu and one of the team will be in touch within 24 hours. We'll discuss your aspirations and propose first steps to investigate if and how ECoEIS might be helpful.