Area of investment and support

Area of investment and support: Risk management

This programme aims to bring together researchers and business, policymakers and non-governmental organisations to better understand and reduce the risks from natural hazards and extreme weather events.

Partners involved:
Natural Environment Research Council (NERC)

The scope and what we're doing

Our world is becoming increasingly susceptible to risks arising from natural hazards and extreme weather events, including flooding, tsunami, wind and storms. Business, policymakers and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) are taking steps to understand the risks and build resilience into assets, operations, supply chains and communities.

However there is an urgent need to improve assessments of natural hazard risk and for tools to communicate risk to enable decision-makers to take action despite uncertainty. The goal of these innovation activities is to make better use of science in both of these areas.

Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) is working with the academic research base and business, policymakers and NGOs who are looking to understand and reduce the risks they face from natural hazards.

This programme will be of interest to:

  • insurance and reinsurance companies
  • catastrophe modelling companies
  • risk management consultancies
  • actuaries, policymakers and regulators
  • companies interested in understanding the risks to their business
  • environmental consultancies
  • humanitarian and development NGOs working in disaster risk reduction.

Why we're doing it

People have always been at risk from environmental hazards such as floods, droughts, volcanoes, earthquakes, novel diseases and invasive species.

These hazards endanger lives and livelihoods, disrupt supply chains and damage critical infrastructure. Environmental change increases the severity of some of these hazards, such as more intense storms and more frequent wildfires; it also brings the additional risks of a warmer climate and rising sea levels.

Read more about why we are focusing on risk management and environmental resilience in the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) delivery plan.

Opportunities, support and resources available

Funding opportunities

There are currently no open funding opportunities.

Current activities

Environmental risks to infrastructure innovation programme

Natural Hazards Partnership

Who to contact

Jacqueline Wood

Email: jacqueline.wood@nerc.ukri.org

Telephone: 01793 411594

Last updated: 28 April 2023

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