European Youth Week 2024 (12 - 19 April 2024) is an event organised by the European Commission every second year to celebrate and promote youth engagement, participation, and active citizenship all over Europe and beyond. In honour of European Youth Week, we will be publishing a series of interviews with young people in the field of civil protection.
Niamh Reilly is a Research Assistant in Risk and Emergency Management at Dublin City University. Her primary area of research is crisis communication, with a focus on cross-border disaster, risk, and safety messaging. Reilly has an interest in the multilingual and multicultural dimensions of communication in crisis contexts.
Have you participated in civil protection projects in the field?
As an early-career researcher, I had the opportunity to work on the EU-funded FUTUREPROOF-IE project, where I worked on integrating a public opinion survey into Ireland's National Risk Assessment. This allowed the public to assess key risks and propose emerging ones for inclusion, aligning with EU good practice. Our findings will be shared with other EU member states.
Additionally, as a co-author of the FUTUREPROOF-IE: Scanning for Impact Report, I contributed evidence-based recommendations to enhance Ireland's risk assessment process, aligning with European Disaster Resilience Goal 1: Anticipate by enhancing the traditional risk assessment process with the foresight and forecasting required to scan for risks Ireland has not yet experienced but may face in the future. This is especially relevant in this time of rapidly evolving global crises and security developments.
I am also a member of the Emergency Management Institute of Ireland (EMII), the primary professional organisation for individuals engaged in emergency and crisis management in the Republic of Ireland.
How have you benefited from the Union Civil Protection Knowledge Network (UCPKN) as a young person?
During my first professional engagement as a researcher, I was contracted to the FÓGRA project, an Irish Research Council-funded collaboration between researchers in Dublin City University’s Business and Society Research Cluster and the state meteorological service, Met Éireann. The project focused on assessing the weather and climate service needs of the Irish public and the weather warning system within the broader context of warning and informing. This produced a capstone report of the FÓGRA project’s research findings, “Shaping the Future of Weather and Climate Services in Ireland,” as well as associated academic articles and conference papers and presentations.
As a result of my work on this project, I was selected as one of only two national representatives to the Youth in Civil Protection & Disaster Risk Management study and networking event in Brussels held in October 2022, organised by the UCPKN. This was an incredible opportunity to network with civil protection practitioners from all over Europe.
Following this event, I was one of a small cohort selected from the national representatives, invited to attend the 6th Disaster Risk Management Knowledge Centre Annual Seminar in Paris in November 2022. It was fantastic to reconnect with those I had met previously in Brussels and to gain deeper insights into disaster risk management.
What are your personal highlights in civil protection so far?
The highlight of my experience was the joint launch of the National Risk Assessment 2023 and the FUTUREPROOF-IE: Scanning for Impact Report at Ireland’s National Emergency Coordination Centre in Dublin in April 2024. The event was attended by our Tánaiste and Minister of Defence, Micheál Martin TD, and the EU Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Management, Janez Lenarčič, and received significant national and international media attention. This was a personally rewarding moment for me, marking the culmination of months of intense research and my first exposure to a media briefing.
Another personal highlight was attending the 2023 All-Island Disaster Risk Reduction Conference, where our research on public safety messaging for border communities was presented.
What challenges do you face as a civil protection practitioner?
In my capacity as a researcher, I face the same challenges as other academics trying to gain an understanding of the processes and concepts that influence civil protection activities, and then communicating these findings to policymakers and the first responders, as well as the wider international community.
I feel it is so important that academics work with practitioners, those on the frontlines of disasters and emergencies, because it is easy to become siloed and focus purely on academic output, forgetting to connect and communicate with those we want to benefit from what we discover.
That is why organisations like the UCPKN and the EMII are so important in bringing together what are two halves of the same coin: researchers and first responders, the theory, and the practice.
Any advice you would have for young people getting into the field of civil protection?
I would say that two qualities are key to succeeding in the field of civil protection, whether as a researcher or a practitioner: perceptiveness and cool headedness.
Even though crises by definition often catch us off guard, you will find that the prospect of many of these events has been raised by someone, somewhere beforehand. Being a lateral thinker that can anticipate and prepare for all possibilities is crucial.
Likewise, having a calm personality will help you put some order on the mass of information and chaos you will encounter in this field and forge the best way forward for everyone in times of crisis.
The Knowledge Network editorial team is here to share the news and stories of the Knowledge Network community. We'd love to hear your news, events and personal stories about your life in civil protection and disaster risk management. If you've got a story to share, please contact us.
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