In the era of climate change and the increased frequency and intensity of natural phenomena associated with catastrophic outcomes, the need for comprehensive solutions is more pressing than ever to manage the associated risk. CO-PROTECT,  is co-financed by the European Union and national resources, under the auspices of EPANEK, aiming to create the Greek cluster for civil protection technological solutions. The project is coordinated by the Satways Ltd, aiming to strengthen cooperation between Greek companies that pioneer the development of innovative technological solutions to deal with natural and man-made disasters with an emphasis on disaster and crisis management caused by earthquakes, floods and forest fires, as well as in the protection of critical infrastructures. Through CO-PROTECT, the 20 SMEs with the collaboration of 6 public Academic and Research organizations are working on possible synergies to create integrated solutions from the combination of specialized products developed by each company. In this way, CO-PROTECT’s SMEs can collectively be more competitive both in the Greek and the European as well as the international market.

A second key objective of the project is to develop a data, process and service interoperability model using common standards between the various technical solutions of each partner in order to achieve both the integration of the individual products they have in more complex systems and to ensure cooperation between systems developed by Greek companies on a local, regional and national scale. Interoperability of systems is important for agencies to communicate with each other, share information and cooperate during crises.

The CO-PROTECT workshop, organized as part of the International Conference SafeAttica 2023, will give the opportunity to participants to get to know the technologies developed by the companies of the cluster, to explore possible synergies (if they belong to the research or academic community) and to consider possible solutions in problems that may concern them (since they represent management and self-government bodies). In addition, the importance of interoperability between companies' products and solutions, using common standards, for effective crisis response will be discussed. Finally, the infrastructure created to demonstrate the integrated solutions of Greek companies for dealing with natural and man-made disasters will be presented, namely:

• The Greek cluster in the field of Civil Protection (Satways)
• The Civil Protection Systems Interoperability Framework (Space Hellas)
• Earthquake Crisis Management Tools (Satways)
• Flood management and response tools (Telenavis)
• Forest Fire Management Tools (Satways)
• Critical infrastructure protection tools (European Dynamics)