PROJECT AIMS AND SCOPE
Since the Love Parade disaster in 2010, event safety has increasingly become the focus of disaster management and public perception. The current COVID-19 pandemic has also brought event safety issues back into the social spotlight. Soccer matches, concerts, festivals and many similar formats became unimaginable and unfeasible since the outbreak of the pandemic. For a few months now, society has been returning to normality and the event industry is faced with the challenge to design new hygiene and safety concepts to ensure the safe and smooth reopening of large public events. Despite the economic, cultural and social importance of events, a convincing concept for reopening has not yet been found. NORMALISE aims to close this gap and to contribute to a responsible and safe reopening of major events during the COVID-19 pandemic. In doing so, NORMALISE focuses on the safety of visitors as well as on aspects of occupational health and safety.
PROJECT GOALS AND METHODOLOGICAL APPROACH
The NORMALISE research project aims to improve infection prevention in the complex socio-technical context of events by setting a baseline for the evaluation of non-pharmaceutical interventions. The acceptance of measures by the event audience and the feasibility of implementation by event organizers are to be investigated, taking into account aspects of event safety and occupational health. These objectives will be implemented in five work packages.
A mixed-methods design will be used to improve the ability to evaluate infection prevention measures in the complex socio-technical context of event planning and event conduction: Based on a literature review and explorative expert interviews, non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) for safe event reopening will be identified in a first step (WP1). In a second step, these NPIs will be assessed for acceptability, feasibility, and effectiveness. A representative online survey of the public will be conducted to determine the acceptability of event-related NPIs (WP2). The feasibility and effectiveness in the event context will be evaluated in workshops with stakeholders who are professionally involved in events (WP3). The obtained results will be compiled into a scheme for the evaluation of acceptability, feasibility, and effectiveness of NPIs in the socio-technical environment of (large-scale) events (WP4) and then disseminated to the public (WP5). This is intended to re-enable safe large-scale events in the context of COVID-19.
