The overall objective of the Call, is to improve civil protection preparedness and response to all kinds of disasters inside or outside the Member States/Participating States of the Mechanism by providing a testing environment and a learning opportunity for all actors involved in civil protection assistance interventions: a full-scale exercise. Within more analysis, the scenario for the exercises should be built on risk assessments such as extreme weather, wildfires, floods, earthquakes, tsunamis, industrial risk, critical infrastructure disruption, marine pollution, epidemic/health risk, CBRN, and other multi-sectorial emergencies.

In addition to the main theme, cross-cutting issues such as gender, age, persons with disabilities, human rights, environmental sustainability, green economic practices, digitalisation, resilience in infrastructure, the protection of cultural heritage, etc. are encouraged to be considered and included as relevant.

The beneficiaries will design, plan, prepare, implement, conduct, and evaluate one full-scale exercise project in Member States/Participating States or eligible third countries. Specifically, the full-scale exercise project must include the following elements and activities: Activation of the Mechanism, deployment of an EU Civil Protection Team and of assets and teams of the European Civil Protection Pool (ECPP), full team or skeleton teams depending on the scenario and objectives, a realistic and challenging scenario linked to risk assessments, the use of the Common Emergency Communication and Information System (CECIS), the involvement of national operational structures, an EU Host Nation Support Guidelines as well as EU Observers programme. Additionally, it is necessary to have management and control structures for the project and for the conduct of the exercises, information exchange between the affected country(ies), participating states and the ERCC, evaluation, lessons learned and way forward and EU visibility.

Proposals must be submitted by a consortium of at least three applicants (beneficiaries; not affiliated entities), which complies with the following conditions:

• UCPM-2021-INT — Full-scale Internal: The consortium must involve at least three applicants from at least three different Member States.

• UCPM-2021-EXT — Full-scale External: The consortium must involve three applicants from at least three different Member States or eligible non-EU countries. A minimum of one applicant shall be a civil protection public entity established in one of the eligible non-EU countries (see the PDF document).