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All participants of the Exchange of Experts on 2 April 2024 standing next to the National Firefighter memorial in Arnhem.

Ukraine-Netherlands Exchange: Fostering Scientific Expertise

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The Exchange of Experts in Civil Protection Programme aims at connecting experts across borders to broaden their operational knowledge and skills through practical experience and knowledge sharing. The exchanges offer insight into the work of different civil protection entities across Europe and beyond.

By Knowledge Network – Staff member

On 2 and 3 April 2024, the Netherlands Institute of Public Safety (NIVP) hosted an exchange of civil protection experts with ten representatives from the Lviv State University of Life Safety (LSUofLS) and the National University of Civil Protection of Ukraine (NUCPU) on the topic of education systems in firefighting, modern societal risks and the implications on firefighting procedures, for example, fire hazards of lithium-ion batteries, safety management and wooden buildings fire safety. The exchange also allowed experts to explore other common fields of interest and create a basis for further collaboration.

NUCPU explained how the university trains future firefighters, the organisation of the institution, faculties and specialties of the National University. NUCPU also offers a course on (extreme) psychology and one on practical training in which students are taught to rescue victims, learn sign language and the training of drone operations. Following the Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, rescue training in extreme conditions is proposed. The university has many international collaborations with other universities across Europe, for example Poland and Bulgaria. 

During the next day of the exchange, Dutch experts continued to present on different subjects:  on lithium-ion battery fires prevention and suppression, the need for performance-based design in the Netherlands, fire protection of wood using metal-coordinated epoxy-amine compositions and research of the fire hazard of a lithium-ion power cell.

In the afternoon part the host institute NIPV invited the experts to see in practice how training is organised and the best practice of modern fire-fighting procedures inside the airport infrastructure at the Training Centre FRS (Bocas) Amsterdam, Schiphol airport. During the visit there was a possibility to discuss the learning process and training course details with the instructors of the training centre, as well as giving the possibility for the experts to observe a training exercise of airplane fire extinguishing.

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About the author

The Knowledge Network – Staff member

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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