Mountain Rescue Service of Serbia (SMR, https://gss.rs/en) is а voluntary and non-for-profit organization founded in 1952 and driven primarily by the cause of helping and rescuing endangered or injured people in rough alpine terrains and unaccusable urban areas.
The primary task of SMR is to save human life and to help those in jeopardy.
MRS has around 1000 members altogether, of which 250 are licensed active rescuers. Currently there are SMR stations in Belgrade, Niš, Novi Sad, Boljevac and Kruševac, while the stations in other cities are currently in the process of forming.
Rescue operations domains:
- Rescue in general mountain conditions
- Vertical rock rescue
- Cave rescue
- Search and rescue on ski terrains
- Rescuing with rescue dogs
- Rescue in inaccessible urban areas
Serbian State of Emergency law includes Mountain Rescue Service of Serbia as part of protection and rescue structure in Serbia and defines it as a strategic partner of Department for State of Emergency – Ministry of Interior for rescuing in difficult-to-access terrains.
MRS of Serbia is a long-standing member of the following international associations: • ICAR – CISA (International Commission for Alpine Rescue) • FIPS (Federation Internationale des Patrouilles de Ski) • ECRA (European Cave Rescue Association)
The irreplaceable role of Mountain rescue service of Serbia is best evidenced by data on the number of interventions, which rescuer work on the toughest terrain providing assistance to those in need. On average, every year our rescuers have over 1000 interventions on ski resorts and rough mountain areas – mostly first aid and transport of injured skiers, and have over 50 complex search and rescue operations in all parts of the country, often as a part of a joint task force with other rescue services. Due to the growing trend of outdoor activities and ski tourism the number of interventions is steadily increasing. Through its history Mountain rescue service of Serbia has helped more than fifty thousand people that sustained injuries in our jurisdiction.
So far SMR did not directly participate in R&D activities in the sense that is planned in this project. To facilitate our full inclusion in research activities SMR count on TECSR, who will act as the national RTD lead and guide us in this process.
Role of SRM in the project: SMR will participate in this project as a practitioner, sharing the fifty years of experience and domain knowledge in actual needs, constrains and challenges occurring in rescue operations in extreme conditions (WP2). SMR will participate with our rescuers in all project workshops and other co-development activities to help the consortium to obtain adequate information on the environmental exposure, physical effort and high stakes stress impacts during rescue operations. Both ski terrain rescuers and cave rescuers will be involved. In the infield testing of SIXTHSENSE prototypes, SMR will provide training facilities (for earlier stages) and real-world operations (for the later prototype) to measure stress level on rescuer’s body during rescue operation in rough mountain terrain as well as in 240m deep cave.
SMR will also present project activities and results (WP10) within the international organizations that we belong to, in order to raise the awareness and improve willingness of first responder organizations to adopt new technologies and take active role in technology development.
