Kick-off meeting of the project "Universal CBRNE Protection System Supporting the Safety and Open Nature of Higher Education Institutions" (UNICOPS)

Two days of discussions, dozens of experts from seven countries and a common denominator - security. The inaugural meeting of the UNICOPS project was held at the Training and Conference Center of the University of Lodz.

The event was attended by more than 50 representatives of partner institutions from Poland, Slovakia, Greece, the Czech Republic, Cyprus, Germany and Spain.

WSB Academy was represented at the meeting by prof. Adrian Siadkowski, dr Łukasz Szymankiewicz and Adam Golębiowski.

The UNICOPS project involves the development of an integrated system for protection against chemical, biological, radiological/nuclear and explosive threats (CBRNE). Its main objective is to increase the level of security of academic communities while maintaining the openness of higher education institutions. The project includes a number of research and implementation activities. These include an analysis of current procedures, legislation and the level of awareness of CBRNE risks in the academic community. Study visits are also planned to assess the functioning of current solutions and prepare recommendations based on data analysis and good practices. A significant element of UNICOPS is also the development of a training program that will combine traditional forms of education with modern technologies, such as virtual reality and the THOR educational game. The goal is to equip representatives from different areas of the university with the skills to effectively respond to CBRNE incidents.

The meeting was opened by Prof. Michal Bijak, coordinator of the project, presenting the main assumptions and schedule of activities. This was followed by presentations of the institutions comprising the consortium and speeches by the leaders of the individual work packages, who discussed the scope of the planned tasks.

Participants of the event also had the opportunity to hear a speech by Wiktor Wojtas, a representative of the European Commission's Directorate General for Migration and Internal Affairs. In his speech, he referred to the current activities of the European Union in countering CBRN threats and the strategy for ensuring security in the European context.