On October 26, the Scientific Committee of the Integrated Research on Disaster Risk (IRDR) approved the development plan for establishing “IRDR International Center of Excellence (ICoE) under Fudan University on Risk Interconnectivity and Governance on Weather/Climate Extremes Impact and Public Health”(ICoE-RIG-WECEIPHE).

Interconnectivity map of global risks (WEF-GRR, 2020)

IRDR is an international comprehensive research programme, jointly established by the International Science Council (ISC) and the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR). Supported by academic communities, IRDR builds its trans-disciplinary centers of excellence (ICoE) worldwide to facilitate global governance on disaster risk reduction through technical innovation, knowledge sharing and engagement in humanitarian assistance.

The ICoE under Fudan University is the first center founded in Chinese mainland, as well as being the only trans-disciplinary center of IRDR to cope with issues on risk interconnectivity and governance in the fields of climate change, weather/climate extremes, air pollution and public health. The establishment of this Center is an important measure to facilitate the implementation of major United Nations (UN) global agendas, such as the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR), the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, and the Sustainable Development Goals. It is also the great efforts of Fudan University to implement national commitment on sustainable development and to achieve the goals of the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-2025) for National Economic and Social Development and the Long-Range Objectives Through the Year 2035, in order to build a community of shared future for mankind.

The Center is jointly developed in Fudan University by the Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences/Institute of Atmospheric Sciences (AOS/IAS), School of Public Health, Department of Environmental Science and Engineering, School of Data Science, and Fudan Development Institute (FDDI). The Center will facilitate in-depth cooperation with national and international research institutes, international research programmes/networks, for the development of the platforms of the Center in a more open manner. The Center will focus on science and education in service to society, and reach its goals through strengthening integrated research, professional support, sharing best practices, specific leadership capacity, and skill training. 

ZHANG Renhe, (Academician of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Vice President of Fudan University, Dean of AOS/IAS), will be the Director of the Center. TANG Xu (Outgoing Director of the Department of Weather and Disaster Risk Reduction Services, World Meteorological Organization, Professor of FDDI and AOS/IAS), will serve as its Executive Director. The Center will integrate FDU-wide resources, and strengthen the collaboration between natural sciences and social sciences. Taking advantage of artificial intelligence and big data sourcing, the Center will actively work on identifying the pattern of systematic risks in the fields of climate change, weather/climate extremes, air pollution and public health as well as their interconnection, and lead our faculty and students to engage themselves in practices of local, national, regional and global governance in the above mentioned fields.

Writer: Huang Tianjing

（From:Fudan-News www.fudan.edu.cn/en/2020/1118/c344a107080/page.htm  ）