HE – Enhanced citizen preparedness in the event of a disaster or crisis-related emergency

HORIZON-CL3-2022-DRS-01-04: Better understanding of citizens’ behavioural and psychological reactions in the event of a disaster or crisis situation

Human actions and behaviour may strongly influence the effects and dynamics of a disaster or crisis situation and on the response, potentially modifying the vulnerability of the population. For example, inadequate design of technological systems may favour cascading consequences due to limited consideration of human performance, and insufficient planning. Linked to this, due to extreme time pressure, crisis managers are often forced to make decisions on the basis of inadequate information. The behaviour of the general public, mostly influenced by demographic factors (e.g. gender, age, income, education, risk-tolerance, social connectivity etc.) and the perception of risks, depends on the availability, form and access to information about the crisis and management of trade-offs (e.g. efficiency and thoroughness trade-offs). Social media play an important role here being a means of disinformation and misinformation.

Recent disasters related either to natural causes (including climate-related and geological hazards), man-made causes (including industrial accidents or terrorist attacks) or the COVID-19 pandemic crisis have shown the lack of sufficient knowledge in the way citizens react in case of disasters or crisis situations, with implications on policy design and implementation for example in the form of preparedness plans. In this respect, taking into account the knowledge gathered by projects funded in Horizon 2020 and ensuring complementarity, behavioural and psychological research on how citizens behave in the event of a disaster or crisis situation is needed to better understand how to best raise awareness in the population and develop tools to facilitate this.

It is hence necessary to better investigate how historical, cultural and emotional factors (e.g. anxiety, panic etc.) during a disaster or a crisis influence rational actions, evaluations of options and information seeking. In addition, the impact of disasters on health also requires looking into the short and long-term consequences of exposure to high stress/threat levels bears, in particular for mental health.

Where possible and relevant, synergy-building and clustering initiatives with successful proposals in the same area should be considered, including the organisation of international conferences in close coordination with the Community for European Research and Innovation for Security (CERIS) activities and/or other international events.

Deadline: 23/11/2022 17:00 Brussels time