The conference concluded ten months of dedicated project activities, led by Malmö University (Sweden) in partnership with NGO Poruch (Ukraine) and the NGO Crisis Research Centre (Estonia). The goal of the project was to establish a network of local-level crisis managers across the three countries, focusing initially on the Points of Invincibility, a resilience hubs initiative launched in Ukraine in 2022 in response to Russia’s large-scale attacks on critical infrastructure.

“Points of Invincibility is a Ukrainian initiative aimed at helping local communities — both in urban and rural areas to continue daily life and work as normally as possible. As Sweden and Estonia also seek tangible tools to support local communities in the face of various crises, bringing together best practices and lessons learned is essential,” said Dr. Tom Nilsson, project coordinator from Malmö University.

The project focused on sharing experiences and mapping both success stories and the challenges municipalities have faced. “An important part of this project was the research conducted to understand how Points of Invincibility, as resilience hubs, function as tools in building resilience,” noted Anne-May Nagel, researcher and co-founder of the NGO Crisis Research Centre. “At the conference, preliminary research results were presented, and further feedback was gathered from participants,” she added.