Who are the PCP WISE partners driving innovation in water management and climate resilience across Europe through Pre-Commercial Procurement?
Our Partner Interview Series highlights the leading organisations in the PCP WISE consortium, showcasing their expertise, contributions, and key roles in the project.
Each partner also shares its vision of how PCP WISE advances the European Green Deal’s objectives—whether by leveraging Environmental Observation (EO) data to tackle critical challenges or pioneering innovative governance and procurement approaches like PCP.
🔍 Discover our latest interview to learn more about The Bavarian Red Cross and its impact!
Briefly introduce your organisation
The Bavarian Red Cross is one of 19 regional associations of the German Red Cross, with over 30,000 full-time staff and more than 200,000 volunteers. Therefore, it is part of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement.
Our remit includes providing humanitarian aid not only during armed conflicts, but also following natural disasters such as floods, which is why PCP WISE plays a role for us in the prevention of natural disasters and is supported by us as an organisation.
BRK has established experience in participating in national and international research projects including FP7 and Horizon 2020.
Introduce the team working on PCP WISE within your organisation
Verena Deuerling, M.Sc.
Ms Deuerling completed her master’s degree in business psychology and is currently pursuing a PhD in Business Administration whilst working. Her research focuses on potential changes in leadership behaviour. She works as a project manager on various international projects at the BRK and, at PCP-Wise, primarily supports the preparation for trials.
Uwe Kippnich, Coordinator BRK Research
Mr Kippnich has held various management and leadership roles at the Bavarian Red Cross for over 40 years and still has been the coordinator of BRK research for many years. He has extensive experience in managing national and international disasters and is high level trained EU Civil Protection expert.
Dr.-Ing. Felix Böhringer
Mr. Böhringer has many years of experience working on research and development projects in both academia and industry. Since 2024, he has been working at Bavarian Red Cross Research, where he supports projects related to drones and situational awareness. He holds a degree in aerospace engineering and a PhD in satellite technology.
What is your organisation’s role in the project? What unique contribution does it bring to PCP WISE?
At PCP – Wise, we play a supporting role as end user – particularly when it comes to testing, strategy development and the preparation of trials, we are able to provide valuable input based on the experience we have gained from other international projects, in preparing trials as well as in the process of pre-commercial procurement, thereby contributing to the project’s successful implementation. In addition to these tasks, we provide support across various areas to ensure the project is carried out successfully.
To what extent do you think PCP WISE will contribute to enhance Europe’s ability to adapt to and mitigate the effect of climate change?
The significance of the PCP WISE project lies in its potential to counter the effects of climate change – particularly in relation to water, whether in the form of floods or droughts, and regardless of their severity – by drawing on insights from environmental observations and data from space. After all, mitigating climate crises, improving decision-making during emerging threats, or even enabling the prevention of crises represents a highly valuable contribution – on both a human and structural level – to Europe’s climate adaptation. Especially when the information is provided soon so search and rescue operations can start early and safe the European population.
In particular, PCP WISE can play an important role for the Bavarian Red Cross in disaster management during flash floods and flooding events. In such scenarios, the primary objective of the Bavarian Red Cross is to save as many lives as possible.
To what extent do you think Environmental Observation (EO) and Innovation Procurement (IP) can help develop innovative solutions for water management and climate resilience across Europe?
Environmental Observations (EO) and Innovation Procurement (IP) already offer a wide range of possibilities for the development of water management systems when considered individually. When combined, they open up an even broader scope of application and more precise implementation options that can strengthen Europe’s climate resilience and thus contribute to addressing and preventing climate and environmental challenges as now and in the future. These solutions can explicitly support us as an aid organisation, as well as many other public protection disaster relief organisations and other relevant stakeholders, thereby helping to save lives and protect the environment. All information is helpful to develop the procedures for working across borders and throughout Europe
