EU projects tackle Covid-19 circumstances with extensions and online meetings

In the face of not being able to conduct personal working meetings, the EU co-funded projects that SAM.I. is involved in have, since the beginning of the first wave of the pandemic, taken steps to compensate for this.

SAM.I. is currently involved in five projects that are co-funded by the EU. The projects FACET, TECS and the newly started I_TEM are Erasmus+ strategic partnerships in different areas from first aid to social services and civil protection. In addition, there are the projects MOSAIC, also an Erasmus+ project coordinated by our Macedonian partners at CDI, and EMPACT, an EU Aid Volunteers Capacity Building project coordinated by our Danish member DPA.

Since all of these projects would normally entail a number of professional meetings, the Covid-19 pandemic forced the consortiums into alternative measures.

Online meetings have taken place on different scales. At the very least, desk work and administrative issues were continued by means of teleconferences. The project EMPACT even held a full-scale online workshop with multiple virtual rooms to approximate the experience of an actual meeting.

Except for I_TEM, which only started this year, all projects have also requested extended project timeframes, to be able to conduct any work that cannot be substituted by online activities after travel restrictions have been lifted – presumably in the summer.

With these workarounds in place, all projects are expected to be able to fulfill their objectives as planned. While all participants have come to appreciate the possibilities that online conferencing offers today, the project partners are eager to continue their work to the full extend.