Trials: New Method of Assessing Innovative Solution in Crisis Management

Implementation of innovative solutions into regular use of crisis management practitioners represents a significant challenge as it must balance willingness to improve operational efficiency with proven reliability. To achieve the set of objectives conducting Trials is a cornerstone of the DRIVER+ approach. Each Trial was focused on a precisely identified need of a specific crisis management organisation. This need is usually either stemming from specific requirements of a crisis situation (e.g. earthquake, flood, large-scale forest fires) or is related to a gap in procedural and administrative aspects of crisis management. The Trial Guidance Methodology (TGM) was created by the DRIVER+ project to offer practitioners pragmatic and easy-to-follow steps in preparation, execution and evaluation of Trials. After each of four Trials conducted during DRIVER+ project (in Poland, France, the Netherlands and Austria), the TGM itself was also evaluated and improved to be a robust, highly practical as well as useful methodology to enable the objective assessment of promising innovative solutions.