ELLINIKI OMADA DIASOSIS ATTIKIS

Their core work

The Hellenic Rescue Team of Attica is a Greek NGO specializing in search and rescue operations, serving as a real-world end-user and field tester in EU-funded first responder technology projects. They bring operational expertise from disaster response scenarios — urban search and rescue (USAR), reconnaissance in hazardous environments, and coordinated emergency response. Their primary contribution to research consortia is validating new technologies (drones, wearables, augmented reality tools, robotic systems) under realistic field conditions, ensuring that innovations actually work for the people who use them in emergencies.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

Their H2020 journey started with an environmental citizen science project (SCENT, 2016), which was an outlier from their core mission. From 2019 onward, they pivoted entirely to security and first responder technology, participating in four consecutive projects focused on emergency response tools — drones, robotics, wearables, and extended reality. The trajectory shows a clear specialization: moving from general participation toward becoming a dedicated end-user validation partner for advanced first responder technologies.

They are deepening their role as a field-testing partner for increasingly sophisticated emergency response technologies — expect future involvement in AI-driven situational awareness and human-robot teaming for disaster scenarios.

How they like to work

They participate exclusively as partners, never as coordinators, which is typical for end-user organizations that bring operational expertise rather than research leadership. With 77 unique partners across 22 countries, they work in large security research consortia (these projects typically have 15-20 partners). Their value to any consortium is clear: they provide the real-world rescue operations perspective that reviewers expect to see in first responder projects.

Broad European network spanning 77 partners across 22 countries, built through large security research consortia. Their connections are concentrated in the EU security and first responder research community rather than in any single geographic cluster.

What sets them apart

As a volunteer rescue NGO, they offer something research labs and companies cannot: authentic operational experience from real disaster response. This makes them a credible end-user voice in EU security proposals, where evaluators specifically look for practitioner involvement. For consortium builders, they fill the essential "first responder end-user" slot with a Greek organization — useful for geographic diversity in Southern and Southeastern European coverage.

Highlights from their portfolio

• INGENIOUS
  Their largest-funded project (EUR 156,500) and most comprehensive in scope — covers wearables, AR, UAV swarms, indoor positioning, and threat detection for first responders.
• CURSOR
  Directly aligned with their core USAR mission, focusing on miniaturized robotic equipment and advanced sensors specifically for search and rescue operations.
• INTREPID
  Most recent project, pushing into extended reality and autonomous robotics for reconnaissance — signals their future direction toward human-machine teaming in emergencies.