Presented a conference paper at the IRSPM 2026 conference in Australia

The research of the Crisis Research Center has reached Australia! We shared the results of the research, which was conducted last year in the PIMA project. The aim of the project, funded by the Swedish Institute and carried out in cooperation with Malmö University and NGO Poruch in Ukraine, was to study how to bring the experiences gained from the Ukrainian war to Estonia and Sweden to develop resilience centers.

Our center’s researchers participated in one of the world’s largest conferences bringing together political science researchers, IRSPM 2026, held in Perth, Australia, from April 8 to 10. There they also gave a presentation, in panel 34, entitled Governing Through Crisis: Adaptive Public Management in Contexts of Conflict, Instability, and Extreme Events, the focus of the presentation was the development of resilience centers in Estonian and Swedish local governments as a way to learn from the experiences of Ukraine.

“Participation in a high-level scientific conference is an important quality indicator for the research work done by our people, who are also researchers in universities. We were very happy to hear that other crisis researchers, for example from the United States of America, were very interested in how and to what extent learning from one context to another takes place – i.e. the transfer of crisis lessons from Ukraine to Estonia and Sweden,” noted Anne-May Nagel, who gave a presentation at the IRSPM 2026 conference and is also a junior researcher-doctoral student at Tallinn University of Technology.

“Learning from Ukraine is very important, but it has remained somewhat unclear how exactly this happens. Previous research shows that a 1:1 transfer from one context to another is not possible, including comparisons of seemingly simple solutions, such as resilience centers. In our research, we found that this has also been the case with learning from Ukraine, that there is no one-to-one transfer and that certain aspects of crisis preparedness are rather emphasized in the development of resilience centers – for example, a great focus is placed on the tangible – the acquisition of generators, for example. However, some other aspects remain in the shadows, such as questions about who will staff the resilience center and keep it open in the long term if necessary,” mentioned Hannes Nagel, the head of the Crisis Research Center and a junior researcher and doctoral student at Tallinn University, who also participated as a speaker.

A research article will also be written about the research that forms the basis of the conference presentation. More on this in the second half of 2026!

🧡 Anne-May Nagel’s participation in the IRSPM 2026 conference in Perth was supported by the Kristjan Jaak Scholarship Fund for doctoral students, while Hannes Nagel’s participation was supported by Tallinn University. Photos: Crisis Research Center in Perth, Australia (KRUK, 2026).

🔸 The PIMA project (Points of Invincibility for Multi-level Adaptation) brought together local-level actors responsible for resilience and preparedness hubs in Estonia, Sweden, and Ukraine to develop a network and a conceptual framework for Points of Invincibility. Through a practical guidance document, the project aims to support municipalities in better understanding the establishment, equipping, and management of such centres. Read more about the project results here.

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