A dedicated new facility to enhance Scotland’s resilience capability to combat natural hazards is to be set up at the University of Glasgow.
Scotland’s new National Centre for Resilience (NCR) will be located in the University’s School of Interdisciplinary Studies on the Crichton campus in Dumfries.
The NCR will be officially opened later this month by the Minister for Environment, Climate Change and Land Reform, Dr Aileen McLeod, on Monday, March 21, 2016.
About the National Centre for Resilience, Scotland
The NCR is a collaborative partnership set up to deliver a hub bringing together expertise in research, training, data management and impact forecasting to inform and enhance emergency planning in Scotland.
Key projects will include the development of science communications and community resilience for specific hazards such as landslides and floods. The NCR also aims to build relationships and cooperation with other resilience partners in the EU.
The NCR will also work with with key partners such as the Met Office, SEPA (Scottish Environment Protection Agency) and the British Geological Survey through the Natural Hazard Partnership , developing new hazard forecasting tools using cutting edge science to better predict natural hazards.
The University of Glasgow said that ,during the planning stages for the centre, resilience officials have been working on a number of areas, including how to make the best provision of care for vulnerable people during weather-related emergencies; improved forecasting capabilities; resilience research and a training scoping study; and a tool to develop and maintain community resilience before, during and after flooding events.
A spokesperson for the Scottish Government, which is funding the NCR, said the University of Glasgow had been chosen to host the centre as it “already has a proven track record of delivering in a multi-institutional and collaborative environment”.
Dr Carol Hill, Head of the University of Glasgow’s School of Interdisciplinary Studies and Director of the Crichton Institute, said: “We at the Dumfries campus of the University of Glasgow are delighted to have been awarded the contract to host this multi-disciplinary centre and to be able to play an important part in supporting national planning for resilience to natural hazards. The NCR will, I hope, become a national centre of excellence in its work to strengthen co-operation amongst academics, responders and resilience partner organisations as well as communities and individuals operating in the field of resilience.”
