ARMOUR

As it often becomes apparent when browsing through H2020 projects, a vast number of online platforms have been developed in the past years as part of European projects. Due to the lack of resources in the project for developing a stand-alone online instance and in order to ensure the sustainable availability of the material, the ARMOUR consortium decided for the integration of the outcomes on the www.firstlinepractitioners.com platform, a joint effort of 4 EU-projects.

Many online-platforms, which have been developed as part of EU-projects, lack traffic and visibility – especially when they target the same or similar end-users. As a platform is often related to one single project, it is always a challenge to establish a system of maintenance after a project has ended. The lead implementing partners usually can’t work without any reimbursement of costs, the responsible persons have changed or they have already started new projects, which require their full effort and resources. 

Furthermore, even if an exploitation strategy is mandatory and even if projects launch attempts for ensuring the sustainability of the platforms, these online instances are usually branded by one particular project, which might create problems with the transfer into new projects or a broader marketing strategy. 

Users are moving fast and if no content is added anymore to a platform or if a platform is not maintained after the project’s lifetime, platforms get outdated, the traffic is dropping to zero and at one point the sites usually disappear from the internet. 

Using an established platform

In order to avoid these issues after ARMOUR has ended, the ARMOUR consortium decided an alternative strategy for ensuring the visibility and sustainability of the project. Against the background of ARMOUR and provision of the trainings and the practical exercises, there is a strong correlation between the project and the platform www.firstlinepractitioners.com, which has been developed by SYNYO as part of the H2020-projects TAKEDOWN and MINDb4ACT as well as the ISFP project CHAMPIONs. 

Due to the fact that the target group is overlapping, ARMOUR decided to build on the existing www.firstlinepractitioners.com platform framework, develop and integrate the ARMOUR-specific training components into this framework and adapt the platform in order to ensure the visibility of the ARMOUR project. Based on the fact that www.firstlinepractitioners.com has a strong identity including a recognizable and target group focused URL and that it includes already useful content for the target group, this approach ensures the avoidance of duplications and it provides substantial services for the target groups. Furthermore, it allows to increase traffic for ensuring high impact.

The integration not only includes a dedicated project sub-page for presenting ARMOUR, but it also provides the train-the-trainers methodology and material on the ARMOUR Toolkit Site that has been integrated into the predefined section. 

Links

https://www.firstlinepractitioners.com/

Keywords

Radicalisation, platform, resilience, trainings, webinar, extremism, prevention