Project INN-QUAKE enhances disaster resilience and preparedness in remote regions

While the risks for natural disasters are growing, remote and hard-to-reach areas pose a challenge to the rescue operations. INN-QUAKE supports creating strong capacity to respond to disasters in remote, hard-to-reach areas, and reaching interoperability between a wide range of rescue organizations. The aim is to be able to deliver large-scale operations in an efficient way.

Remote and hard-to-reach areas pose a challenge to the emergency response

INN-QUAKE focuses on the area of Tyrol, Austria as the cross-border mountainous region faces a high risk of cascading disasters, driven by a high susceptibility to floods, wildfires, and landslides, alongside a moderate risk of earthquakes. Compounding this vulnerability, Tyrol’s growing popularity as a tourist destination places an increasing number of people, residents and tourists, in remote, mountainous areas during outdoor activities. Consequently, a large-scale seismic event could expose a substantial population to severe danger. To mitigate these potentially disastrous effects, it is critical to strengthen regional operational efficiency, emergency response, mountain search and rescue, evacuation, and wildland firefighting capabilities. The other participating countries face also similar issues with remote and hard-to-reach areas in emergency response. INN-QUAKE supports the integration of multi-flexible expert teams, such as small teams of mountain rescuers, cave rescuers, other search and rescue teams and an EU Civil Protection Team, in overall response efforts, focusing especially on working together in remote areas.

The project is co-funded through Union Civil Protection Mechanism (01/2026-12/2027) and it features 3 exercises. A Table-Top Exercise focuses on Host Nation Support guidelines and procedures, specifically addressing challenges in transit countries to develop a more resilient system, while a Command Post Exercise features urban-wildland interface and response to remote areas. The project culminates to the Full-Scale Field Exercise to be conducted in the Tyrolean Alps in 2027.

Initial Planning Conference highlights enhancing the interoperability of small response teams in remote areas

INN-QUAKE’s Initial Planning Conference, organised in May 2026 at the the military training ground of Wattener Lizum, in Tyrol, Austria, focused on outlining the main events for the Full-Scale Exercise. The event gathered together the project partners and core stakeholders, including the Red Cross, firefighters, mountain rescue, and the military. One of the main achievements of the event were the collaboration on enhancing the interoperability of small response teams in remote areas during cascading disaster scenarios. Additionally, potential exercise sites were evaluated, and the first key parameters for the field exercise were established.

In the autumn, the project is going to organise the Table-Top Exercise and a webinar on Host Nation Support. The project enhances the ability to execute timely, efficient and targeted response operations independent of the geography of the affected area.