As the PEERS project draws towards a close later this year, its thoughts have turned towards the sustainability of much of its work.

Over the past two years, PEERS has run many events and demonstrations of the new knowledge it has drawn together relating to CBRNe. Most notably, it has consulted more than 300 practitioners on practical aspects regarding their access to professional standards, procurement, operational and guidance information.

Keen not to lose the momentum built during this process, a new CBRNe Information Group (CIG) has been formed to exist beyond the end of the project and to continue delivering the benefit of having such a well-informed and knowledgeable group of people available to serve professional stakeholders such as researchers, practitioners, product suppliers and policy makers.

Part of its role will be to continue to grow and curate the extensive CBRNe dataset created by PEERS and to help future stakeholders use and build upon its content.

We are delighted to say that one new project, the “EMBRACE Biotox Hub” has already committed to building on the work by adding more specialist content over the next three years as it develops its own biotoxin knowledge repository.

Building the CBRNe Information Group has been a long-term activity undertaken within the framework of the Crisis Management Innovation Network Europe (CMINE) adding further networking excellence by creating a dynamic network of people interested in continuing to contribute to improved knowledge long after an individual project finishes.

The CBRNe Information Group operates from a sound ethical foundation with clear rules and governance procedures overseen by the CBRNe and Standardisation Cluster of projects known as CSTAC.  Within CSTAC, a group of experienced subject matter experts will oversee all aspects of governance, transparency and moderation of the growing dataset.