PEERS Glossary of terms

A dictionary of terms ascribed to the Disaster Resilient Societies, CBRN and standardisation areas

In late 2022, a group of six Horizon 2020 projects led by the “Resilient Europe and Societies by Innovating Local Communities” project (RESILOC) collaborated to develop a set of disaster resilience terms and definitions with the aim of creating a glossary which other projects could use.

The initiative acknowledged that there were recognised sources for definitions, such as the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR), the European Commission (EC) and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) and that individual projects were best advised to adopt threes rather than expend effort creating their own.

This led to the first Glossary of some 300 terms for Disaster Resilient Societies (DRS) projects being developed by what became known as the Societal Resilience Cluster (SRC) of projects. The SRC is a group constituted through the Community of European Research and Innovation for Security (CERIS) of DG HOME and enabled through the facilitation of the Crisis Management Innovation Network Europe (CMINE).

Building on this foundation, our project, PEERS, took on the task of expanding and updating the glossary. PEERS led the established CBRN and Standardisation Cluster (CSTAC), and early in its life, it recognised the necessity of broadening the existing terminology to reflect the specialised language used in CBRN and standardisation contexts. To achieve this, PEERS incorporated terminology from the EU CBRNe glossary developed under the ENCIRCLE project, which had been adopted by the European Union Civil Protection Mechanism. The integration of these additional terms created a more comprehensive glossary, reflecting the linguistic needs of those working across the Disaster Resilient Societies (DRS), CBRN, and standardisation domains.

Throughout its duration, PEERS encouraged partners to adopt and reference the glossary in their deliverables. This collective effort helped maintain consistency and reinforced the shared understanding promoted by the earlier SRC work. As the PEERS project approaches its conclusion (i.e., in October 2025), a final version of the glossary has now been released. It is publicly available and intended for open use by all researchers and practitioners operating in these interconnected fields.

This final iteration represents not just the culmination of one project’s work but an ongoing collaborative effort involving more than ten EU-funded projects. It is not subject to intellectual property restrictions, and users are free to integrate and refer to it. However, as a matter of professional courtesy, those who use or reference the glossary are encouraged to credit the community of contributors who dedicated their time and expertise to its development and maintenance.

Though no glossary can claim perfection, this consolidated and carefully curated body of terminology stands as a major achievement in the effort to align language, reduce ambiguity, and foster collaboration across diverse resilience and standardisation initiatives. It will continue to serve as a valuable tool for future projects and stakeholders navigating the complex landscape of disaster risk and crisis management in Europe and beyond.

Go to PEERS glossary of terms