From 23 to 26 June 2026, the EU-funded SUNSHINE project held its fourth and final Training Seminar in Zagreb, Croatia. This edition concludes a capacity building journey which has spanned seven months and four countries, having previously taken place in Tallinn, Estonia (November 2025), Strasbourg, France (March 2026), and Timișoara, Romania (May 2026). Across all four editions, the series has brought together almost 100 participants in total.
Over the course of four days, participants, including operational responders, emergency managers, and technical specialists from across Europe, are deepening their knowledge on the full ecosystem of EU Space Programme data and services applied to disaster management. The training spans Copernicus, Galileo, Space Situational Awareness (SSA), GOVSATCOM, and IRIS², positioning the SUNSHINE Seminars as the first EU-level initiative to cover all components of the EU Space Programme within a unified civil protection framework.
The programme combines expert presentations with practical learning formats, including technical lectures, hands-on exercises, product demonstrations, knowledge quizzes, and use case studies based on real disaster events. Emphasis is placed on operational workflows such as the activation and interpretation of Copernicus Emergency Management Service (CEMS), as well as the Galileo Emergency Warning Satellite Service (EWSS).
The Zagreb Seminar is taking place at a moment of genuine programme maturity. Since last year, SUNSHINE has trained civil protection professionals across Europe, organised multiple technical webinars, undergone technical assistance activities with national authorities, and successfully conducted its first Simulation Exercise (SIMEX) in Brussels in March 2026. Across this journey, the project has been building not just knowledge, but a lasting network: graduates of the Training Seminars become focal points within their home institutions, ambassadors for EU Space services, and are connected with their national delegates to the European Commission’s Expert Group for early warning and alert tools.
Looking ahead, the second and final SUNSHINE Simulation Exercise will take place in Brussels on 6–7 October 2026. The exercise will provide participants with an opportunity to apply EU Space-based services in a realistic, scenario-driven operational environment, testing the knowledge and skills developed throughout the programme.
The expression of interest is now open via this link and is available to civil protection and emergency management professionals across Europe who wish to take part in the event. To ensure an appropriate balance between participants and visitors, a selection process will be carried out following the submission of expressions of interest.
Together, the four training seminars and two simulation exercises form the core of SUNSHINE’s capacity-building programme, designed to translate EU Space capabilities into practical tools for disaster risk management and civil protection operations.
The SUNSHINE project team extends its thanks to our host, the University of Applied Sciences of Velika Gorica, and the Civil Protection Directorate of Croatia for making this final edition possible, and for their commitment to advancing European civil protection capabilities. The team would also like to express its appreciation to Davor Spevec, Assistant Director General of the Civil Protection Directorate of Croatia, who delivered the welcome address and highlighted the importance of strengthening preparedness, coordination, and resilience through the effective integration of EU Space-based services into civil protection and emergency management operations.
“The consortium is proud to have delivered this series of seminars as a concrete contribution to the capacity building of civil protection authorities across Europe. SUNSHINE has shown that EU Space data and services can be introduced in a practical and operational way, through training, simulation exercises, and direct engagement with practitioners. This is only a first step. The longer-term objective is to support wider uptake and in this respect, the Union Civil Protection Knowledge Network – the EU platform which brings together civil protection and disaster risk management actors to share knowledge, build capacity and strengthen cooperation under the Union Civil Protection Mechanism – provides an important framework to keep the SUNSHINE community active after the project and to continue turning lessons learned into operational practice.” — Charly Faradji, SUNSHINE Project Manager at Telespazio France.
The SUNSHINE project consortium comprises Telespazio France, ALSO Space, CNES, Edelweiss Resilience, EENA, FDC, IABG and UNISTRA-SERTIT, whose combined expertise ensured the scientific rigour and operational relevance of the training.
