"Emergent" stands for "Emergency Management in social media generation". The project, which is funded by EU running since April 2014 for three years until the end of March 2017 and is engaged in study of the behaviour in social networks in emergency situations. In addition to the Vestlandsforsking, University of Paderborn (Germany), IES Solutions (Italy), University of Siegen (Germany), Oxford Computer Consultants Ltd. and Tavistock Institute of Human Relations (UK), European Emergency Number Association (EENA, Belgium), Federation of firefighters associations of the European Union (FEU, Luxembourg), Fire Department of the City of Dortmund (Germany) and Scientific and Research Centre for Fire Protection (CNBOP-PIB, Poland) are involved in the project. Representatives of ten partners from seven countries are taking part in this meeting.

Social media is a serious and fast growing phenomenon for creating and maintaining social links. The convergence of social networking and mobile media technology is also shifting the way people communicate, and gain or share information, especially during emergency or disaster situations. Thus social media and especially social network providers like Facebook and Twitter create impactful content when citizens share their observations, opinions and emotions, and this is not restricted to normal life events. During catastrophes throughout the world, social media have been widely used. Wherever emergencies or crises occur, ad-hoc communities are built through existing social media channels. But these communities are often not connected at all or perhaps are weakly connected to the emergency management services and the corresponding emergency management processes. Hence a systematic research project concerning the effective identification and integration of valuable and reliable information from social media into emergency management processes is needed.  The European Union has funded this project to understand the impact of social media in emergencies in order to enhance the safety and security of citizens. EmerGent’s results will also strengthen European companies supplying services and products related to Emergency Management.