Resilience depends on cooperation between cities, communities and regions and strengthening collaboration and cross-sectoral cooperation. Institutional and cultural differences can create barriers and impediments to holistic cooperation between departments in different municipalities.

The SMR project is undertaking preparatory work towards standardization to address these challenges. CEN workshop 88 is already underway, which establishes functional specifications for a Resilience Information Portal.

On 8th November 2017, two further CEN workshops will be kicked off, focusing on standardized approaches to resilience strategy and management. The CEN Workshop on 'City Resilience Development - Operational Guidance will develop a CEN Workshop Agreement (CWA), which will define an operational framework that provides guidance and aims at training and supporting municipalities and their stakeholders. More information is available on the SMR website.

The CEN Workshop on 'City Resilience Development - Maturity Model' will develop a CEN Workshop Agreement (CWA) defining a framework to show the ideal path in the resilience building process of a city. This framework will be based on maturity stages a city should go through. The standard is targeted to policy and decision makers at city level and councilors working for resilience in their city, as well as to any other city stakeholders working on resilience (e.g. critical infrastructure providers, emergency services, citizens, media, non-governmental organizations, academic and research institutions). To participate in the standardization processes, please contact To join the standardization processes, please contact rene.lindner@din.de. More information is available on the SMR website.