Development of a Methodology for Pooling Resources and Optimising Investments in the Field of CBRN Training and Capacity Building Saman Choudary 1* , Grace P. Xerri 2 , Mariachiara Carestia 3 , Olga Vybornova 4 , Jean-Luc Gala 4 , Maaike F. Van De Vorst 5 , Luc Calluy 5 , Wolfgang Karl-Heinz Reich 6 , Tomas Michalcik 6 , Therese Habig 7 , Eugen Schmidt 7 , Elizabeth Benson 8 , Rob Bunday 8 , Daniele Di Giovanni 2,9 1 Department of Communication, Pompeu Fabra University, Barcelona 08018, Spain 2 Department of Industrial Engineering, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Rome 00133, Italy 3 Department of Biomedicine and Prevention, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Rome 00133, Italy 4 Center for Applied Molecular Technologies, UniversitéCatholique de Louvain, Brussels 1200, Belgium 5 Autonoom Provinciebedrijf Campus Vesta, Ranst 2520, Belgium 6 Joint Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear Defence Centre of Excellence, Ranst 2520, Czech Republic 7 Safety Innovation Center, Paderborn 33098, Germany 8 National CBRN Centre, Counter Terrorism Policing, West Midlands Police, United Kingdom 9 Unicamillus-Saint Camillus International University of Health Sciences, Rome 00131, Italy Corresponding Author Email: saman.choudary@upf.edu (This article is part of the Special Issue SICC Series CBRNe Conference) Copyright: ©2024 The authors. This article is published by IIETA and is licensed under the CC BY 4.0 license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). https://doi.org/10.18280/ijsse.140324 ABSTRACT Received: 7 March 2024 Revised: 27 April 2024 Accepted: 13 May 2024 Available online: 24 June 2024 Deterrence, preparedness, and response to evolving chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear CBRN threats are being strengthened by international communities and states. These threats require closer top-down and bottom-up cooperation at all levels in order to enable collaborative shared efforts, foster an environment for learning from one another, pool resources and expertise, and take advantage of synergies with an ultimate objective of improving institutional and collective safety and security. Improving preparedness and response necessitates closer and stronger interactions among various stakeholders, including security practitioners, researchers, policy makers, innovation providers, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), and industry. In this context, forging a dynamic multidisciplinary CBRN network could be a more effective approach to promote synergies and addressing the need for stronger cooperation. A resource pooling strategy helps build a highly cooperative CBRN stakeholder community and ensures the network’s long-term viability and sustainability. This study examines practical methods to ensure sustainability in pooling and sharing resources, knowledge, and best practices in the field of CBRN training and capacity building. It details how a solution-oriented strategy was created, including a generalised method for combining resources and maximising institutional and government investments. This study was conducted by combining the results of a literature review on best practices in resource pooling and sharing, determining its applicability to CBRN defence, and examining the Horizon 2020 project, European Network of CBRN Training Centres (eNOTICE), as a case study to draw real-time input from the project activities. This work proposes a novel and strategic contribution to the field of CBRN defence in the form of a practice-oriented concept and methodology, for establishing and maintaining CBRN networks at local, regional, and global levels. This top-down and bottom-up transversal strategy offers a way forward that can help CBRN- related dynamic interdisciplinary networks to establish, maintain, and develop in a sustainable way. Keywords: CBRNe, CBRN training, CBRN preparedness, CBRN defence, resource pooling, sustainability, network, eNOTICE 1. INTRODUCTION The notion of public security has been transformed by the high count of chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear (CBRN) terrorist events (558 recorded incidents between the years 1990 and 2020) across the world [1]; making CBRN risk assessment and defence a top security priority of Nation-States. The occurrence of terrorist attacks on European soil and the increasing complexity of these attacks, followed by the alarming usage of CBRN materials has raised significant concerns among policy makers to prevent and mitigate CBRN terrorism threats [2]. Improving preparedness and response to CBRN risks requires specialised training, capacity building, and closer and stronger interactions between a range of International Journal of Safety and Security Engineering Vol. 14, No. 3, June, 2024, pp. 933-940 Journal homepage: http://iieta.org/journals/ijsse 933