The EMMA consortium officially launched its work during the first face-to-face Transnational Partner Meeting held in Cullera (Valencia, Spain) on 18–19 November 2025, hosted by Consorci de la Ribera (CRIB) together with Ayuntamiento de Cullera.
A strong start for a European response to climate-disaster volunteering
EMMA (Erasmus+ KA220-VET) brings together six partners from Spain, Italy, Denmark, Romania, and Greece to develop a European training system for municipal staff to better manage and coordinate citizen volunteers during climate-related emergencies. The project runs for 24 months (01/10/2025–30/09/2027) and is supported by an Erasmus+ lump sum grant.
What happened during the two-day meeting
The kick-off meeting focused on aligning the consortium on the project plan, responsibilities, timelines, and the first concrete steps across all work packages.
Day 1 (18 Nov): project implementation and municipal experience-sharing
- WP1 – Project Management: the consortium aligned on coordination, roles, and management priorities, and reviewed the overall project roadmap.
- WP2 – Methodological model: partners agreed the approach to collect best practices, run interviews and focus groups, and begin shaping the methodological framework and training curriculum.
- Municipal insights: partners exchanged real experiences from disaster response and volunteer engagement, reinforcing the need for practical tools and training that municipalities can apply during climate-related emergencies.
- WP3 – MOOC and toolkit: the consortium reviewed the planned learning pathway and pilot actions. Initial options for the MOOC platform and the digital toolkit were shared to guide upcoming technical work.
Day 2 (19 Nov): dissemination, sustainability and next steps
- WP4 – Dissemination and sustainability: partners discussed the communication strategy (website, channels and social media), as well as the project’s valorisation approach. Draft logo proposals and promotional material concepts were presented, and it was agreed that the final logo will be selected at the next online meeting.
- The meeting concluded with a shared roadmap, a partner feedback questionnaire, and a group photo.
Immediate next steps
Following the kick-off meeting, the partners confirmed the first operational milestones for the coming weeks:
- Project governance setup and planning, including committees, meeting routines, and risk/quality monitoring.
- WP2 launch, starting with best-practice collection, interview and focus group preparation, and initial data gathering to support the methodological model.
- WP4 launch, including the dissemination plan completion, visual identity finalisation, social media activation, and preparation of the first newsletter.
The consortium also confirmed the next online meeting on 17 December 2025 at 12:00, and began planning the next in-person Transnational Partner Meeting in Denmark.