On 3–4 November 2026, the SUNSHINE projectopens in new tab took part in the 9th European Civil Protection Forumopens in new tab at Tour & Taxis in Brussels. Organised by the European Commission under the theme “Preparing today, ready for tomorrow”, the Forum brought together close to 2,000 national authorities, first responders, policymakers, and researchers, and marked the 25th anniversary of the EU Civil Protection Mechanism.
Hadja Lahbib, European Commissioner for Equality, Preparedness and Crisis Management, opened and closed the Forum. In her closing remarks, she called for preparedness to become part of Europe’s culture, and pointed to the role of Copernicus and Galileo in helping authorities anticipate disasters and protect communities.
SUNSHINE was part of the EU Space booth in the Civil Protection Village, which hosted 50 stands from almost 60 organisations. At the booth, the SUNSHINE team ran a series of short simulations for visitors. Each session opened with a brief introduction to the project, before participants stepped into the shoes of a crisis team facing multiple disasters in an imaginary country. Across three short simulations, on wildfires, floods, and public warning, they discovered at each step which EU Space services could support their decisions, from the Copernicus Emergency Management Service (CEMS)opens in new tab early warning systems and On-Demand Mapping to the upcoming Galileo Emergency Warning Satellite Service (EWSS)opens in new tab, which will send alerts directly to devices in an area at risk when terrestrial networks are disrupted.
Stemming from an initiative of the European Parliament, and coordinated by the European Commission (DG DEFIS) in cooperation with DG ECHO, SUNSHINE supports the uptake of EU Space Programme data and services in civil protection. Between January 2025 and October 2026, the project delivered four training seminars, two simulation exercises, three technical webinars, and two communication webinars.
All training materials remain available to you
The Forum was also the occasion to look at the project’s legacy. Graduates of the training seminars will act as EU Space Ambassadors within their institutions, passing on what they learned to their colleagues. Webinar recordings, slides, and training materials remain freely available to everyone on the SUNSHINE project pageopens in new tab, so that practitioners can keep building on the programme after it closes in December 2026.
Explore the SUNSHINE project page:
https://civil-protection-knowledge-network.europa.eu/projects/sunshineopens in new tab
Risk drivers
Thematic series