News

The Prep2Shelter project – Prepare to Shelter: Strengthening Preparedness and Community Awareness for Natural Disaster Sheltering – has been approved for funding under the Call Knowledge for Action in Prevention and Preparedness 2025, of the European Union Civil Protection Mechanism. It was one of 12 winning applications selected from a total of 92 submissions. 

The project will run for two years, starting in March 2026.

Methodology to support emergency shelter planning

Prep2Shelter aims to develop a multi-criteria methodology to support the planning of emergency sheltering solutions, enabling the identification and assessment of existing infrastructures that meet the requirements to serve as emergency shelters in the event of a disaster.

The project adopts a collaborative approach, involving both the institutions responsible for risk and emergency management and the perspectives of communities with previous disaster experience. This ensures that the results incorporate science‑based criteria, the practical needs of operational teams on the ground, and the priorities of the populations who may ultimately rely on these emergency shelters.

LNEC leads European consortium 

The project will be carried out by a European consortium led by LNEC, involving four additional partner institutions from four different countries: the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology (INGV), Italy; the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA), Greece; the University of Iceland; and the Portuguese Innovation Society (SPI), Portugal.

The project will also benefit from the active participation of civil protection stakeholders from several European countries, at both municipal and national levels. 

This will strengthen coordination across different scales of action and facilitate the sharing of specialised knowledge.