Collaborative Interest Group Established for Citizen and Societal Security Standards in Ireland

30th September 2014

On the 12th September 2014 the National Standards Authority of Ireland (NSAI) held an inaugural meeting of its Interest Group to Coordinate National Standardisation for Societal and Citizen Security at its Headquarters in Dublin city. This launch followed the establishment in July 2013 of a NSAI Technical Working Group for Standardisation in Emergency Management. Standardisation activity in the context of societal and citizen security has been recognised as an emerging growth area in the standard’s sector in recent years.
In recognising this, a number of the European Commission’s Seventh Framework and Horizon 2020 collaborative research projects have highlighted the importance of standards development as complementary action to their research in order to facilitate the development and functionality of innovative solutions to their respective issues and challenges. Many such projects, such as COBACORE; DESTRIERO; S-HELP; and SECTOR, include Irish partners and have therefore enabled the creation of this unprecedented national standardisation Interest Group.

The Interest Group, which seeks to work in partnership to off-set security threats to modern society, is composed of members from the NSAI, Saadian Technologies Ltd., Q-Valius Ltd, Nova, UCD and the COBACORE Partners, Future Analytics Consulting Ltd. The Group will also work toward influencing International and European Standards in the areas of recovery, reconstruction planning and collaborative crisis management. This group will be linked into the ongoing work of ISO/TC 223 and CEN TC/339 – Citizen and Societal Security and its activities can be recognised as an integral part of the work of its participant EU research projects, such as that of COBACORE, where it acts as a great example of coordination and collaboration with complimentary emergency management/ citizen security projects and initiatives.