SUNRISE Kick-Off Meeting: October 2022
On October 5th and 6th 2022, the SUNRISE project officially launched with a kick-off meeting at the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM) in Spain.
SUNRISE is a €10M EU-funded Horizon Europe project that aims to improve the resilience of critical infrastructures affected by pandemics. The 3-year project will develop effective strategies and technologies to ensure availability, reliability, and continuity of ‘lifeline’ services in Europe, such as electricity, drinking water and healthcare. It will also improve procedures to reduce the exposure of workforce to infectious diseases and disruptions to healthcare services, and it will enhance collaboration (public-private, cross-border, and cross-sector) between critical infrastructure stakeholders to strengthen the EU’s response to pandemics and understand their cascading effects.
The kick-off meeting was hosted by project partner Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM) and held over two days. It brought together representatives from the project’s 41 partner organisations in-person for the first time. Beginning with a welcome from Prof. Juan Carlos Dueñas, Deputy Vice-President for Research at UPM, this was followed by an address from the SUNRISE project coordinator, Mr. Antonio Álavarez Romero from ATOS IT Solutions and Services Iberia. ATOS, as coordinators, will guide and manage the delivery of the entire project. Mr. Álvarez Romero highlighted the importance and significance of the SUNRISE project and recognised the contributions of the project’s 41 partners for the next three years. Day one of the meeting also included an introduction from the Project Officer, who will oversee the project on behalf of the European Commission.
Throughout the two days, partners presented their project teams, their organisations, and their roles within the project. This included in-depth presentations on the various working areas of SUNRISE, including epidemiology, data sharing, cyber-security, and artificial intelligence (AI). An overview of the tasks and results that will be produced throughout the project, as well as detailed plans for the first six months, were also presented. The meeting ended with an open forum discussion and agreement on key action points for all partners. Overall, it was a very productive meeting, which focused the consortium’s efforts on the project’s targets and delivering a positive impact for its stakeholders across Europe.
To learn more about SUNRISE and the partners involved, see our Downloads and Project Partners sections of the website.
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