The transdisciplinary pilot research project ZiVis, funded by the Federal Agency for Technical Relief (THW), seeks to develop, test, and evaluate measures in collaboration with THW that will strengthen the organisation’s resilience in response to the changing security policy landscape and the growing importance of civil protection.
The project’s objectives are to
1. establish a central knowledge management structure within THW (KNOW-HUB) capable of continuously identifying knowledge gaps and needs within the organisation, establishing needs-based civil protection research, and consolidating and making existing knowledge accessible;
2. initiate a comprehensive learning process drawing on the experience of civil protection in Ukraine and, where relevant, other countries;
3. examine how the upcoming changes are affecting operational personnel, particularly with regard to motivation and understanding of their roles; and
4. incorporate both THW’s existing and emerging responsibilities in disaster and civil protection into the research.
Duration: March 2026 – February 2030
An overview of the project is available here. A project presentation is available as a PDF download (in German).
Contact
Akademie der Katastrophenforschungsstelle (AKFS) gGmbh
Dr Cordula Dittmer (Project Lead)
Email: dittmer@a-kfs.de
Marie-Luisa Messerschmidt (Researcher)
Email: messerschmidt@a-kfs.de
Florian Falkenberg (Student Research Assistant)
Email: falkenberg@a-kfs.de
Website: https://a-kfs.de/en/