Demonstration event at National Stadium in Warsaw

Three European projects SAFE STADIUM, HoloZcan and NEST joined forces and organized a complex demonstration event at PGE National Stadium in Warsaw on May 17, 2023. The event focused on the latest technological solutions and procedures for protecting public spaces in the context of CBRN terrorist attacks. The event was based on complementary focus of each of three projects. The HoloZcan project is developing a novel AI-supported technology solution for the detection of biological threats, while the NEST project is using multiple sensor systems to detect CBRN agents. The SAFE-STADIUM project focuses on the CBRN protection procedures of sport facilities.

 

In accordance with the established scenario, during an improvised football match with the participation of the public, a van was driven onto the pitch, from which terrorists in possession of a dangerous substance ran out. After spraying an unknown chemical agent, the attackers and several other people were killed. The situation required the immediate removal of spectators from the stadium and the implementation of rescue and identification operations and decontamination. In the course of the ongoing operations, it turned out that among the people leaving the facility, there was another terrorist who had released an agent of a biological nature. This complex scenario allowed to test technological solution developed by HoloZcan and NEST project, as well as, procedure developed within Safe Stadium. It also gave an opportunity for police and fire fighter forces to practise cooperation during improvised terrorist attack. 

 

All three project are financed by European Union: SAFE STADIUM (agreement 101034226 – SAFE STADIUM) by Internal security Funds – police, NEST (agreement 101018596 – NEST) and HoloZcan (agreement 101021723 — HoloZcan) by H2020 programme.

fot. Bartosz Kałużny (CKiPR UŁ)

Safe Stadium at European Group of Policing

Safe Stadium project was presented at the meeting of European Group of Policing Football and National Football Information Points (NFIP) Network Experts – “European Think Tank”. The meeting was organized by Swedish NFIP unit on 16-17 May 2023 at Swedish Police Academy Stockholm. The presentation focused on project solutions elaborated for sport facilities such as CBRN safety procedures, ICT/equipment recommendations and  training materials. The meeting was also an opportunity to discuss potential, new solutions in legislation area that could integrate CBRN safety into mass event regulations. In upcoming months project members hopes to consult those solutions also with other institutions, such as Council of Europe.

 

Meeting in Rome of Safe Stadium consortium partners

On January 30-31, 2023, was held in Rome a meeting of SAFE STADIUM Project’s consortium. This time the Gemelli Polyclinic in Rome (Fondazione Policlinico Universitario Agostino Gemelli IRCCS) was a host of the meeting.

Representatives of the University of Lodz, as a leader of the consortium, moderated a discussion about the progress & plans regarding different thematic areas. As the work in the project progress, the discussion between partners focused on project concrete solutions:

  • Set of recommendation tailored to the needs of sport focusing on infrastructure including security by design; available software & detection/protection equipment solutions improving CBRN safety. Task implemented within Work package: 5 Development of elements of the system – infrastructure, ICT, equipment.

 

  • Procedures, tools, plans and guidelines in the area of CBRN safety covering: action schemes (graphic visualisation of most important safety procedures designed for stewards); vulnerable spots protection (a checklist for sport facilities that could support safety check before organized events); PPE (personal protective equipment most suitable for sport facilities), detection and decontamination procedures; evacuation procedures combined with crowd management and cooperation with LEA as well as basis in triage procedures at mass sport events. Tasks implemented within Work package: 4 Development of elements of the system – procedures, tools, plans and guidelines.

 

  • Training programme for main target groups of the project. Partners agreed on topic and size of training materials for main target groups members: (1) security staff; (2) stewards, (3) managing staff, (4) non-security-staff and (5) tenants. Tasks implemented within Work package 6: Development of elements of the system – training materials and eLearning platform.

 

It was agreed that within upcoming months partners will focus on finishing WP4 and WP5 procedures and recommendation as well as on transferring elaborated solution into flexible and tailored training materials for sport facilities. Project members will also test part of prepared tools, as Safe Stadium project will be involved in organization of an event focusing on services’ activities in the incident involving CBRN, scheduled for May 2023 in Poland.

Safe Stadium in Indonesia and Thailand

EU CBRN CoE Project 61 Sound Management of chemicals and their associated wastes was very significant project in South East Asia. Project 61 Consortium carried out training activities in Indonesia (Bali) and in Thailand in November and December 2022. In addition to these training activities, the Project 61 final meeting was organized in Indonesia (Bali), where delegates from EU CBRN CoE, UNICRI and also National Focal Points from Indonesia, Philippines, Cambodia, Lao PDR, Thailand and Viet Nam participated.

International Security and Emergency Management Institute (ISEMI) as part of Project 61 consortium participated at final meeting of EU CBRN CoE Project 61 on 28th and 29th of November 2022 in Indonesia. During this meeting ISEMI informed about Safe stadium project and distributed Safe Stadium Project leaflets to 6 National Focal Points from Indonesia, Philippines, Cambodia, Lao PDR, Thailand and Viet Nam and also representatives from EU CBRN CoE and UNICRI. ISEMI proposed to carry out project related to CBRN Protection of public spaces and mass events in South East Asia. Moreover, ISEMI disseminated information about Safe Stadium project and shared leaflets in Bangkok on 7th of December 2022 during EU CBRN CoE Project 61 National training in Thailand.

 

Safe Stadium at Major Sports Events Experts Meeting

Safe Stadium was presented at Major Sports Events Experts Meeting held at Council of the European Union on 12 October 2022. Major Sports Events Experts are part of Law Enforcement Working Party which handles work relating to legislative activities as well as cross-border policing and related operational issues in various areas including security of major events and sports events. Safe Stadium delegates presented project aims and ambitions which cover also improvement in legislation area – review of available legislation, development of proposals to regulate CBRN at mass Events. At the same time, a proposal was made to cooperate at expert group level, which, if accepted, will be pursued in the areas of legislation, training and project promotion. We will keep you informed of further progress in this area.

 

Joint Union Actions Event for DG HOME Projects

Safe Stadium members participated at Joint Union Actions Event for DG HOME Projects organized in Brussels on 26.09.2022. The event was organized for beneficiaries of projects awarded under the 2019 and 2020 Annual Work Programmes and brought together almost 200 projects, under both AMIF and ISF funds, representatives of DG HOME and other European Commission services, as well as other relevant stakeholders.

The event aimed to:

  • create a networking platform for projects and to strengthen synergies between the Union actions and national programmers;
  • share good practices in the area of project management, communication & dissemination as well as risk management;
  • ensure and strengthen a common understanding of mutual expectations between the Commission and the project beneficiaries.

We are pleased to inform that two project members, Michał Bijak (University of Lodz) and Lubos Trudic (ISEMI) were also invited as event speakers in the area of synergies and other funding opportunities for ISF grants.

Partners of the Safe Stadium consortium visited Malmö

On September 19-22, 2022, representatives of the Center for Prevention of Biological Threats of the University of Lodz and representatives of the Warsaw Metropolitan Police participated in the symposium “14th International CBRNe Protection Symposium” organized in Malmö, Sweden.

The symposium was hosted by the Swedish government institution FOI Swedish Defense Research Agency. The event was opened by the Deputy Director General of FOI and the Chief of the Swedish Police. Introductory speeches were also given by representatives of the Lithuanian and Austrian governments. In turn, the keynote speaker was a representative of the anti-terrorism unit of the European Commission’s Directorate General for Migration and Home Affairs – Viktor Wojtas. The symposium featured a presentation of the European Commission’s efforts to create funding opportunities for projects aimed at preventing and combating CBRNe threats.

Topics of the symposium included such issues as:

  • CBRNe threat detection, identification, monitoring and medical treatment;
  • Forensic analysis of CBRNe events;
  • Physical protection;
  • Decontamination;
  • History of CBRNe events;
  • Health risk assessment;
  • Operational training and case studies;
  • Commercial development technologies.

The above issues were presented during the symposium by representatives of international institutions dealing with the detection, prevention and response to CBRNe threats, including The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, The US Department of State, The Northern Arizona University (NAU), and The Military University of Technology in Warsaw.

As part of the symposium, there was held a demonstration of the decontamination of officers of the Swedish services on board in case of a CBRNe threat, and an extensive exhibition of protective equipment was organized, during which the latest products and research were presented.

We are pleased to report that during its presentation, the Safe Stadium Project was evaluated as one of the best examples of funding for the activities of services in the detection, prevention and response to CBRNe threats

Stay tuned. SAFE STADIUM consortium’s work continues!!!

Needs of sport facilities in area of CBRN safety

We invite you to read summary of Safe Stadium research phase on needs of sport facilities in area of CBRN safety. The research followed a three-stage research process, supplementing the findings from the desk research, which analysed over 100 documents. The first stage saw seven of the consortium partners sport facilities collecting information using two questionnaires and conclusion form observation of safety procedures during organized sport and cultural events. The second stage added data from 14 Polish sports facilities. The third stage then involved an online survey of 95 respondents from across the Europe.

We encourage you to read the Executive summary, that it is the result of the first phase of the project.

Safe Stadium Research Executive Summary_website

SAFE STADIUM Consortium partners coordination meeting- 01.06.2022

On the 1st of June 2022, an on-line meeting of the SAFE STADIUM consortium partners was held.  During a joint debate, representatives of scientific institutions, former special forces officers and experts from various security fields from 5 European Union countries discussed the progress of work conducted under the project, which focuses on increasing the level of protection of multi-sport arenas against terrorist threats caused by the use of CBRN agents.

 The meeting was opened by the project coordinator Prof. Michał Bijak from the Centre for Prevention of Biological Threats at the University of Lodz (SAFE STADIUM project leader), who presented the agenda and the order of the meeting.
During the speeches of the following speakers the issues concerning the content and the final shape of the information materials prepared in the form of leaflets, brochures, schemes of action, directed to the people managing the safety at sports arenas (WP 4) were considered. They discussed the way to implement e-learning platform (WP 6) to increase awareness and develop effective response to the occurrence of potential threats and discussed issues concerning the definition of threats of CBRN type that can occur during mass events. Experts from various fields of security presented their proposals for the development of an effective system of detection and removal of contamination caused by threats of biological, chemical and radiation nature and referred to the issues related to the development of the system of evacuation and medical assistance to people affected by a terrorist incident (WP5). Important issues raised during the meeting was the development and implementation of a training program, which is dedicated for employees of services providing security during events in multi-sport arenas (WP6) and the development of a model of spreading biological threats (WP7). The effects of the undertaken works
and verification of the worked out solutions will be crowned with exercises carried out on large-area objects being the arenas of mass events.
The works of consortium are in progress. Stay tuned.

Two study visits in Lodz, Poland

The works of the international consortium Safe Stadium aimed at assessing the vulnerability of large-scale sports venues to terrorist threats related to the potential use of CBRN agents are entering final stage. This time project experts met in Lodz at two facilities administered by MAKIS (Municipal Arena of Culture and Sports). The opportunity to visit the venues were, respectively: a concert of an Australian music formation Dead Can Dance (05.05.2022) and a speedway match (08.05.2022). During the concert at Atlas Arena, which can accommodate about 13 thousand spectators, gathered several thousand fans. While the speedway match on Motoarena, which can accommodate over 10 thousand seats, was attended by 4500 fans of both teams. This two visit were very important for the project, as they focused on different types of events, previous visits were held in relation to football matches (Lech Poznan, Poland; MSK Zilina, Slovakia; Lodz Widzew, Poland and Real Madrid, Spain). Since sport objects may hold various types of events (various matches, concerts, conferences) those visits allowed to observe safety procedures at different context. Two visits in Lodz were the last planned within the project research phase, which included also desk research and survey with sport facilities employees. Conclusions from research phase will be used to create special safety procedures and a system of comprehensive training for people administering multi-level sports and entertainment venues.  

Stay tuned.