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Information on USTDA Grants Announced at Europe Regional Emergency Management and Response Conference
October 30, 2007

USTDA has announced plans to award two grants to support the development of emergency management and response infrastructure in Eastern Europe. The projects will enable sweeping improvements in infrastructure and capabilities in Romania and Serbia. USTDA has approved funding for both grants and anticipates signing grant agreements with the project sponsors in the near future. The grants are as follows:

Romania: Next Generation Network Infrastructure for Emergency Management – The Government of Romania is planning to establish a Next Generation Network Infrastructure for Emergency Management that will address functionality, bandwidth capacity, geographical reach and transmission/storage security limitations of existing infrastructure. USTDA plans to support this effort by awarding a $700,000 grant to the Romanian Special Telecommunications Service to fund technical assistance on improving the government’s ability to respond to crises. In particular, the grant will provide a functional blueprint for an entirely interconnected telecommunications infrastructure among governmental agencies.

Serbia: Customs/Border Integrity and Integrated Emergency Management Systems – Under a newly adopted law regarding Serbia’s Integrated Border Management Strategy, the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Interior are working together to increase the integrity of Serbia’s borders by facilitating the free movement of trade and people across its borders in an efficient manner. At the same time, the Ministries are simultaneously striving to improve the government’s capacity to respond to emergencies. To further this effort, USTDA has approved a $200,000 grant to the Ministry of Finance to partially fund a study that will determine the best mechanism for improving current customs operations while sustaining and/or building new enabling information technology infrastructure to create an integrated emergency management and response system. In addition to the USTDA grant, Raytheon Company of Waltham, Massachusetts, will contribute additional resources toward the completion of the study.