Open Café Online

You are invited to participate in the NoCoU Open Café. NoCoU is a collaborative project that aims to create an innovative arena to meet, discuss emerging threats, challenges and solutions, and exchange updated knowledge and experiences on civil security for societies. Themes include Fight against Crime and Terrorism (FCT), Disaster Resilient Societies (DRS), Resilient Infrastructures (INFRA – e.g., healthcare, water, energy, transport, digital, communications), and Cybersecurity (CS).

This time NoCoU joinning forces with other relevant networks FI (FremtidensIndustri), NORDSEC (NordicDefenceand Security Cluster) and EUReKKa (Kommuner og fylkeskommuner klimatilpasningsprosjekter i EU).

For the next open cafésin 2026, we plan to conduct an online trip across Norway addressingtwotopics – experiences and needs from end-users(authorities, NGOs, first responders, industry)and research activities. Theupcomingopencafé will visit Stavanger andis organised byUiS. (50 min duration of the digital visit)

Target groups: We welcome participants from user stakeholder groups including professionals involved in safety, security and resilience, crisis and disaster management, policymakers, service providers/operators of critical infrastructure, managers and first responders, public organisations, industry and SMEs, NGOs and academia.

Theme: For the April 2026 open café online, theme improving proposals, we are pleased to welcome experts involved in the evaluation of EC proposals, project coordinators who have submitted successful proposals for 2025 national and EC calls within civil security and advisors from the Research Council of Norway. They will share experiences on what is needed to deliver successful proposals both for national and EC calls. This online session we have schedule 1.5 hours, allowing time for open dialogue.

Date: April 20th 2026

Time: 09:00-10:30

Place: Online event via MS Teams

Price: Free of charge

Register using the following link: https://nettskjema.no/a/609836 (Registered participants will receive the Teams calendar invitation).

Note that NoCoU members or participants who already have the Teams invitation do not need to register

Language: The meeting will be held in Norwegian. Conversations in other languages are welcome to ensure inclusivity. Please note that the conversation will not be recorded.

About open café online: Open Café is a tool/technique/concept that is purely about informal dialogue. The purpose is to create an arena where participants are willing to share questions, challenges, ideas and discuss them within a group. It was originally designed and implemented by the Research Council of Norway (2020). It is inspired by Open Space, founded by Harrison Owen in the 1980s, and rooted in the idea that people can self-organise around a shared purpose.

Open Café is a response to the increase in highly structured online meetings, webinars and workshops. In Open Café, the organisers “let go” of detailed organisation, recognising that participants together will develop a richer and more grounded content for the challenge at hand.