Simulated chemical blast to test emergency response plan

Plans for emergency readiness and response to a biological incident in Israel or a chemical explosion near the Northern Ireland border are being forensically prepared by Irish researchers.

The results of their efforts should be seen in the next two years as the team from University College Cork put their plans into action with major practice runs to see if the software system can be expanded elsewhere.

The project recently secured €3.5m in EU funding and comes on foot of the initial design by the group, led by business information systems lecturer and researcher Karen Neville.