About us

ICEIDR fulfils this mission through five interconnected objectives:

To establish and maintain an effective governance framework supported by appropriate legal, operational, and financial mechanisms, ensuring strategic alignment with IRDR priorities, transparent management, responsible data and intellectual property governance, and the long-term sustainability of the Centre.

To advance interdisciplinary research in informatics and multi-hazard risk reduction through internationally leading research programmes, doctoral training, and co-designed projects with global partners to address emerging disaster risk challenges.

To strengthen international collaboration through joint research initiatives, researcher and student mobility, collaborative funding applications, shared research resources/ infrastructure, and international networks, building on partnerships such as the Global Partnership for Smart Informatics and Multi-hazard Reduction (SIMR).

To enhance DRR capacity development through postgraduate education, structured Early Career Researcher (ECR) programmes, mentoring schemes, and professional training, and targeted support for researchers and institutions in low- and middle-income countries.

To maximise the societal impact of research through open science, knowledge transfer, policy engagement, and partnerships with governments, industry, international organisations, and UN agencies, supporting evidence-based decision-making and disaster resilience at local, national, and global scales.

ICEIDR is established as a globally coordinated centre that brings together complementary expertise from six leading institutions across Europe and Asia. Collectively, the consortium spans key disaster risk domains, including informatics, hydrological hazards, geohazards, coastal and ocean hazards, earthquake and tsunami risks, infrastructure resilience, and disaster policy, providing a unique platform for advancing integrated and transdisciplinary DRR research and practice. Together, the founding institutions provide expertise across major natural hazard systems and the full disaster risk management cycle, enabling ICEIDR to address increasingly interconnected and systemic risks through integrated scientific, technological, and societal approaches.

ICEIDR will drive global collaboration and deliver innovative knowledge, tools, and capacity-building to address the grand societal challenges posed by climate change, rapid urbanisation, and growing disaster risk. This founding consortium comprises:

  • UNESCO Chair in Informatics and Multi-hazard Risk Reduction, Loughborough University, UK 
  • Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China 
  • School of Water Conservancy and Transportation, Zhengzhou University, China 
  • Disaster Prevention Research Institute, Kyoto University, Japan 
  • Department of Hydraulic Engineering, Delft University of Technology, Netherlands 
  • Institute of Hydraulic Engineering and Water Resources Management, RWTH Aachen University, Germany 
consortium members shown on a world map
Global distribution of partner institutions within the ICEIDR consortium