65^th ESReDA Seminar
From risk imagination to safety intervention –
Managing risks with knowledge.
November 14th – 15th 2024,
NCSR Demokritos, Athens (Greece)

FINAL CALL– VENUE AND ACCOMODATION INFORMATION

Scope

ESReDA’s ‘Risk, Knowledge, Management’ (RKM) project group (PG) addresses the intricate relationships between risk, knowledge and management, aiming to find new ideas for preventing accidents and improving safety management with better utilisation of knowledge. The RKM PG organises the 65th ESReDA seminar to foster an exchange of ideas and expert debate. The National Centre of Scientific Research Demokritos in Athens will provide the forum.

The 65th ESReDA Seminar follows the successful 58th ESReDA Seminar on ‘Using Knowledge to Manage Risks and Threats: Practices and Challenges’ organised by JRC Institute of Energy (Petten, the Netherlands) and held virtually in June 2021.

Although we are told that we live and work in ‘information and knowledge’ society. Preventing accidents and enhancing resilience, by using the relevant safety knowledge and expertise, is not granted and requires continuous efforts to overcome the hurdles in an ‘age of uncertainty’.

The main objective of this forthcoming seminar is to identify the enablers and barriers to the production of knowledge concerning safety risks and resilience and its effectiveness in decision-making and other management and operational activities. The key problematic question we will ask is: ‘What does a management team, a regulator or a front-line operator need to know and can use to manage risks effectively?’

The purpose of the seminar is to reflect upon the following topics:

• Organisational characteristics that promote the ability to invest in identifying new threats, in imagining risks in a context of uncertainty.
• Tools and frameworks that facilitate evidence-based decision-making and effective safety interventions.
• Individual and collective capabilities and non-technical skills relevant to the sharing of information (including inconvenient truths) between the sharp end of operations and the blunt end where systems are designed; plans, schedules and standards are established; tradeoffs are made, and resources are allocated.
• Anticipating and managing the information and knowledge that will be needed at different stages of the system life-cycle; evidencing the added value of building synergy between safety and knowledge management;
• Recognising and rewarding the diverse types of expertise needed to identify early warning signs, interpret observations, analyse data, communicate information, and preserve knowledge.
• Specific challenges to ensure that valid information, relevant knowledge, ‘proofs’ but also ‘doubts’ are available to regulators, the justice system, the media, and the public.
• Technological innovation for risk knowledge management to improve safety and resilience analysis.
• Democratisation of knowledge through participatory approaches and accessibility of information to non-specialists
• Combination and usage of distributed knowledge in complex risk scenarios for crisis management.
• The importance and the role of technology to analyse and to manage adequately risk knowledge as well as to communicate it effectively.
• The role of culture in risk management and the importance of risk communication.
  

 

The 65th ESReDA seminar will be a forum for exploring the above mentioned and other related questions. We aim to discuss theories, concepts, and experiences of enhancing the use of knowledge for better risk analysis, management and governance. Authors are invited to present their research and operational proposals and raise challenges, but also to discuss successes and failures in enhancing risk management through better use of risk knowledge. We want to encourage new ideas, scientific papers, conceptual papers, case studies and cross-sectoral and inter-disciplinary research on the theme of challenges and practices for using knowledge in risk and resilience analysis, management, and governance. This seminar will bring together researchers, practitioners, specialists and decision-makers to discuss strategies and practical experiences.

Papers for contributions to the seminar are invited; please see instructions in the next paragraphs.

Target groups and domains of application

Papers for the seminar are invited from various stakeholders, including practitioners and researchers (industrialists, regulators, safety boards, universities, R&D organisations, engineering contractors and consultants, training specialists) and could address different sectors:

• Energy sector: nuclear and non-nuclear (e.g. fossil, renewables) power plants and networks.
• Process and hazardous industry: oil and gas, chemical and petrochemical facilities, industry 4.0.
• Manufacturing.
• Hydrogen Technology.
• Energy transition.
• Transport (rail, road, air and maritime): supply and distribution network, operations, emerging technologies such as driverless cars and autonomous vessels.
• Aerospace industry.
• Critical infrastructure: electricity, water, telecommunications, information systems.
• Public sector and government.
• Urban planning and management.

 

This seminar is aimed at addressing issues, risks (industrial, natural, Na-Tech, etc.), threats (malicious, cyber-security, terrorism, etc.) and resilience faced by different industries, critical infrastructures, and urban settlements. Other topics may be included if they fit well within the theme of the seminar and are related to using knowledge to manage risks and threats, such as product safety, food safety, biotechnology, health crises, etc.

ESReDA Project Group on Risks, Knowledge and Management

In 2020, ESReDA launched a project group to address the relationships between risks, knowledge and management. The scope defined is of interest to system designers, operators, managers, maintenance, lawyers, insurers, regulators, and many others working on safety and security including natural hazard management. The scope covers the safety, reliability and security related to multiple hazards and threats (natural, high-risk industry, critical infrastructure, communication and transport systems over different territories etc.) involving all stakeholders (public, operators, regulators and government). Risk management integrates all activities and disciplines related to assessment, identification of early warning signs and emerging risks, foresight, investigation of events and lessons to be learned, management of barriers and lines of defence, reliability, and change of policies and culture. In this context, the keyword knowledge defines the main topic of the project: the endeavour to use knowledge to improve the management and governance of risks (from design to operation and dismantling/decommissioning).

Seminar organisation & venue:

Organisation;
The Seminar is jointly organised by ESReDA and NCSR DEMOKRITOS.

Location;
National Centre of Scientific Research DEMOKRITOS, Athens, Greece.
Patriarchou Grigoriou and Neapoleos str. 15310, Agia Paraskevi.

Technical Programme Committee (TPC)

Myrto Konstantinidou	(NCSR Demokritos, GREECE)
Eric Marsden	(FonCSI, FRANCE)
Sever Paul	(AGIFER, ROMANIA)
Tuuli Tulonen	(Tukes, FINLAND)
Frank Verschueren	(ret. from Ministry of Labor, BELGIUM)
John Stoop	(Kindunos, The NETHERLANDS)
John Kingston	(NRI Foundation, The NETHERLANDS)
Maria Luisa Villani	(ENEA, ITALY)
Antonio de Nicola	(ENEA, ITALY)
Dan Serbanescu	(Romanian Academy, ROMANIA)
Peter Kouwenhoven	(Expert consultant NOVARTIS, The NETHERLANDS)
Kaisa Simola	(EC JRC, The NETHERLANDS)
Olga Aneziris	(NCSR Demokritos, GREECE)
Effie Markoulaki	(NCSR Demokritos, GREECE)
Zoe Nivolianitou	(NCSR Demokritos, GREECE)
Nicolas Dechy	(IRSN, FRANCE)
Zsuzsanna Gyenes	(Global Industrial Safety Solutions Ltd, UK)
Ana Lisa Vetere Arellano	(EC JRC, ITALY)
Vytis Kopustinskas	(EC JRC, ITALY)
Zdenko Šimić	(PSI, SWITZERLAND)
Bogdan Vamanu	(National Institute of Physics & Nuclear Engineering, ROMANIA)
Laila Zemīte	(Riga Technical University, LATVIA)
Saulius Gudžius	(Kaunas University of Technology, LITHUANIA)
Antonio Guillen	(ESREDA)
Micaela Demichela	(ESREDA)

Local Organization Committee (LOC)

• Myrto Konstantinidou (NCSR Demokritos, GREECE)
• Effie Markoulaki (NCSR Demokritos, GREECE)
• Klio Makrigiannaki (NCSR Demokritos, GREECE)
• Eleni Bairachtari (NCSR Demokritos, GREECE)

Relevant dates

Submission of abstracts:	30th of June, 2024
Notification to the authors:	20th of July, 2024
Submission of final camera-ready papers:	30th of September, 2024
Registration deadline:	31st of October 2024
ESReDA Board of Directors meeting:	14th of November 2024
Date of the seminar:	14 – 15th of November 2024

From 9:00 to 17:00 (Program will be announced soon)

Procedure to submit an abstract, paper and to register

The abstracts, not exceeding 400 words, should address:

• Objectives of the paper
• Relevance to the Seminar
• Novelty or relevant contribution to the subject
• Methods and findings
• Main conclusions

The language of the seminar is English.

Final papers (4 to 12 A4 pages) should be submitted after the notification to the authors. Extended abstracts (2-5 pages A4 pages including references) are an alternative to full papers. Both extended abstracts and full papers will be published by ESReDA in the online proceedings.

At this time there is no possibility to submit abstracts through the EasyChair platform as the program of the seminar is full. If you have a particular request to participate please send your abstract to Dr. Myrto Konstantinidou ([email protected]) and we will try to accommodate your request if your abstract fits to the seminars’ objectives.

Guidance for authors and speakers about the format to be used for ESReDA camera-ready papers will be sent directly to authors who expressed interest to write a contribution.

More information will be announced soon at ESREDA webpage: https://www.esreda.org/

 

Registration and Seminar fee

Registration will be accepted until 31^st October 2024. 

The registration form for the event can be found at: https://forms.office.com/r/kRxfJsJ4AS

DUE TO THE INTERNAL SECURITY PROCESS OF NCSR DEMOKRITOS ALL PARTICIPANTS SHOULD BE REGISTERED ONLINE UNTIL THE REGISTRATION DEADLINE (31 OCTOBER 2024).

The fees for registration are €300. Fees are to be paid by bank transfer only to ESReDA account:

 

Fee waiver:

• Fees will be waived for one speaker per accepted paper.
• The participation fee for ESReDA members are taken in charge by the Seminar (in the limit of 3 participants per ESReDA member).
• ESRA members (please contact Dr. Myrto Konstantinidou for more information as there is a limitation in participants’ number).
• There are limited places for PhD students also (please send your request to [email protected] by placing your status at the subject of your message).

If there is any question, participants should use e-mail: [email protected] with Antonio Guillén ([email protected]) and Mohamed Eid ([email protected]) in Cc.

Accomodation

NCSR DEMOKRITOS has arranged for special prices to the following hotels for the days of the seminar (with an extension of 2 days prior or posterior to the days of the event).

For your convenience, we have included the discount code in the links below. The links provide discounts on the dynamic prices of the suggested hotels. There is no obligation at all at booking at the specific hotels, Athens provides a huge variety of accommodation for every budget.

Please note that there will be no transfer from hotels to the location of the seminar. NCSR DEMOKRITOS can be reached by public means of transportation (metro and bus, please see the relevant section). There will be a shuttle service from the nearest metro station to and from the location of the Seminar.

The location of the gala dinner will be also reachable by public means and will be announced soon.

AIROTEL Stratos Vassilikos:

114 Michalakopoulou 115 27 Athens

Stratos Vassilikos was renovated to create a new vision in accommodation and relaxation. It addresses mainly to guests of high standards. The hotel emerges as an innovative, cosmopolitan wonderland, offering a next-generation hotel experience. Located at 600m from metro station “Megaron Mousikis” which is a direct line to the nearest metro station of NCSR Demokritos. AIROTEL is offering 15% discount on their dynamic prices with the CODE: DEM2024 or directly through the following link: Stratos Vassilikos BOOKING online

AIROTEL Alexandros:

8, Tim. Vassou, 11521 Athens

An environment worthy of your expectations and needs, not far from the center of Athens. Located at 450m from metro station “Megaron Mousikis” which is a direct line to the nearest metro station of NCSR Demokritos. AIROTEL is offering 15% discount on their dynamic prices with the CODE: DEM2024 or directly through the following link: Alexandros Hotel Booking online

Brown Acropol, Athens:

1, Panagi Tsaldari (Pireos) Str., 105 52, Athens

Brown Acropol is a brand new design hotel, the very first by Brown Hotels in Greece, inspired by the legendary cosmopolitan vibes of the 60s as well as the urban heritage of Athens. The hotel’s interiors and philosophy are based on a retro aesthetic, seasoned with a contemporary take on upscale leisure and lifestyle coolness. Brown Acropol is located next to Omonia square and “Omonia” metro station. Brown Hotels offer a 10% discount on their dynamic prices with the CODE: CORPBROWN or directly through the following link: CORPBROWN-10%

Brown Kubic, Athens:

26-28, Agiou Konstantinou Str., 104 37 Athens

Right by the iconic National Theatre of Athens, and only a few steps away from the renovated Omonia Square, you will find the as-smart-as-it-gets Brown Kubic. The 112 rooms put forward a discreet urban chic design and a smart, tech-focused attitude. Brown Kubic is located near “Omonia” metro station. Brown Hotels offer a 10% discount on their dynamic prices with the CODE: CORPBROWN or directly through the following link: CORPBROWN-10%

Dave Red, Son of Brown, Athens:

25, Veranzerou St. & M. Kotopouli St., 10432, Athens

DAVE Red is the youngest “Son of Brown” and he’s as fun as it gets. We have everything set for you, from an inhouse gym, to a charming massage room, and, of course, an incredible rooftop lounge with your very own hot tub and staggering views of the city. 87 rooms with exquisite urban design, funky props and a vintage playroom!! Dave Red is located near “Omonia” metro station. Brown Hotels offer a 10% discount on their dynamic prices with the CODE: CORPBROWN or directly through the following link: CORPBROWN-10%

Athens Hotel Royal Olympic:

28-34 Athanasiou Diakou Str., 11743 Athens

This is a family run five-star property in the center of Athens. The hotel lays just in front of the famous Temple of Zeus and National Garden. They are underneath the Acropolis and only 2 minutes’ walk to the new Acropolis Museum. The “Acropolis” metro station is at the same area. After the recent complete renovation, the Royal Olympic was transformed to an art hotel very elegantly decorated and more important very well looked after in every detail. The hotel offers very competitive prices for a 5 star hotel with the CODE: DEMOKRITOS 2024 or directly through the following link: https://royalolympic.reserve-online.net/?bkcode=DEMOKRITOS%202024&checkin=2024-11-12&adults=1

How to reach NCSR Demokritos

Access to NCSR “Demokritos” from the centre of Athens

By Bus: Take the bus B5 from the Central Railway Station towards Aghia Paraskevi, and get off at the “4th stop of Ag. Paraskevi”. The bus stop is very close to the main entrance of NCSR “Demokritos”. Depending on the traffic, the journey from the centre of Athens may take from 45 to 60 minutes.

By Metro and Bus: Take line 3 of the metro (blue line) to “Doukissis Plakentias or Airport” direction and get off at “Nomismatokopio” stop. Follow the “Kondylaki” exit where you can reach the bus station. Take the B5 bus or the 407 bus towards the direction of Aghia Paraskevi, and get off at the “4th stop of Ag. Paraskevi”. The bus stop is next to the main entrance of NCSR “Demokritos”. Depending on the traffic, this journey from the centre of Athens may take ~ 30 minutes.

By Taxi: Taking a taxi from the centre of Athens to NCSR “Demokritos”. Depending on the traffic, the journey from the centre of Athens may take from 20 to 30 minutes.

Access to NCSR “Demokritos” from the Athens International Airport “Eleftherios Venizelos”

By Bus: Take the X95 bus to “Nomismatokopio” metro station. This takes approximately 40 minutes. From there you can take bus B5 towards the direction of Aghia Paraskevi, and get off at the “4th stop of Ag. Paraskevi”. The bus stop is very close to the main entrance of NCSR “Demokritos”. Depending on the traffic, the journey from the airport may take from 45 to 60 minutes.

By Metro and Bus: Take line 3 of the metro (blue line) towards Egaleo and get off at “Nomismatokopio” stop. Follow the “Kondylaki” exit where you can reach the bus station. Take the B5 bus or the 407 bus towards the direction of Aghia Paraskevi, and get off at the “4th stop of Ag. Paraskevi”. The bus stop is next to the main entrance of NCSR “Demokritos”.

You may find a map of the location of the seminar at the following link:

https://www.demokritos.gr/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/DemokritosGoogleMap.html

Shuttle service

NCSR DEMOKRITOS will offer a shuttle service from the nearest metro station (i.e. “Nomismatokopio”) to the location of the seminar at specific times on the days of the seminar. The same service will be offered to participants from NCSR DEMOKRITOS to the metro station at the ending time of the seminar for both days. The exact time schedule of the shuttle service will be announced in the final program of the seminar.

About DEMOKRITOS

Founded in July 1961 as a Research Centre for Nuclear Research, Demokritos is today the largest multidisciplinary Research Centre of Greece. It has approximately 180 Researchers in tenured and tenure-track positions, and over 500 Research Personnel working in projects funded mainly by grants from State Funds, the European Union and Private Industries. The Centre consists of five independent Institutes focusing on different scientific fields. The Institute of Nuclear & Radiological Sciences and Technology, Energy & Safety (INRASTES) is an interdisciplinary R&D establishment pursuing basic, translational and applied research to address challenges of great scientific and socioeconomic impact in a broad spectrum of scientific and technological fields.

The System Reliability and Industrial Safety Laboratory (SRISL) is part of the Institute of Nuclear & Radiological Sciences & Technology, Energy & Safety Radiation Protection of NCSR ‘Demokritos’. The laboratory has been conducting top research on the safety and reliability of industrial systems for almost 35 years providing industry with relevant tools for the analysis of occupational and industrial accidents, the identification of hazards in industrial installations and the quantitative assessment of risks. SRISL, in collaboration with other European research organisations, focuses its research efforts on problems addressing the support of decisions concerning the management of risk, the land use planning around dangerous sites, the evaluation of the role of the organisational and management systems of a company on the safety of the installations, the assessment and management of emerging risks, and the collection, and analysis of accident data towards increased prediction and prevention of future accidents.