Global Disaster Resilience Centre publishes 2022 Annual Report

After several years of serious disruption to our research activity because of COVID-19, 2022 saw our team gradually having to adjust to a ‘new normal’ way of working. As restrictions lifted in most countries, our team has been able to resume face-to-face working with many of our 285 partners in 85 countries around the world.

As restrictions have eased, our team have been extremely busy working on 20 funded research grants, including three that successfully completed this year. In delivering these, we have organised or been a partner in 29 conferences and workshops, authored 58 articles, including 15 peer-reviewed journal papers, delivered 24 invited keynotes and talks, and made many more presentations at conferences in the UK and around the world. 

After so much disruption in recent years, we have been especially pleased to see many of our doctoral candidates and early career researchers being able to contribute to events and expand their research networks.

“Most of us will recognise the value of meeting in person periodically and it has been important to do so to sustain our existing partnerships, but also to build new ones”,  said Professor Dilanthi Amaratunga, Co- Director of the GDRC.

“However, we have also been able to take advantage of the improved capabilities for remote working to maintain more regular contact with our partners than would have been practical in a pre-COVID-19 world. We also recognise the opportunities these technologies provide to limit our carbon footprint, primarily through less air travel, while still delivering our planned outcomes, and hopefully, contributing to safer cities and communities around the world.

Professor Richard Haigh,  Co-Director of the GDRC, commented: “For the first time, we have also comprehensively mapped all our activities and outputs to the 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs)”. “We recognise that universities have a central role to play in implementing the SDGs by providing a gathering of experts and scholars from various disciplines to help countries achieve critical development targets by 2030”.

The Annual Report contains details of the Centre’s 2022 activities, outputs and outcomes, including an overview of current research themes and projects; appointments to national/international organisations, committees and strategic advisory bodies; international collaborations, events, achievements and awards, global research impact, publications; as well as education and training.  

Creating Impact through our Research

We collaborate extensively with researchers and stakeholders, both locally and

internationally, to translate research findings into impact. We seek to ensure that our research achieves impact - the demonstrable contribution to society and the economy made by knowledge and skilled people. To deliver this, we engage and collaborate with the public, business, government and the third sector.

The impact cases that we submitted  to the UK Research Excellence Framework exercise which  reflect the effect of our research on, change or benefit to the economy, society, culture, public policy or services, health, the environment or quality of life, beyond academia, were rated as world-leading and outstanding impacts in terms of their reach and significance.

The GDRC Annual Report is available to read along with the details of these world-leading case studies. 

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