What is the Science Pillar?

Scientific knowledge plays an essential part in prevention, emergency preparedness and planning for a better disaster response: in data collection and analysis, guidelines and standards, or modelling to better anticipate what happens during a disaster. It can identify, analyse and map risks, and give scientific expert assessment and recommendations. Early warning and alert systems give essential time to prepare and react when disaster hits. 

Science supports disaster management in many ways, like predicting the impact of floods, designing buildings more resistant to earthquakes, or modelling pandemics. But integrating and applying scientific knowledge in disaster management is not always straightforward. Scientific knowledge can be found in different national, scientific and technical communities and it is not always easy for the scientific community to coordinate with decision-makers at the right level and at the right time. 

The Knowledge Network will enhance the use and sharing of existing and developing scientific knowledge in all phases of disaster risk management, in particular by:

• providing more opportunities for the scientific community to engage in a constructive dialogue and collaboration with practitioners, policy- and decision-makers, and vice versa. 

• putting high-quality data and analytical tools at the disposal of the UCPM Member and Participating States and the community to facilitate evidence-based decision-making and operations, 

• striving to make the scientific knowledge easily accessible and operational, so that it can respond to the needs of different stakeholders. 

The ambition of the Knowledge Network’s scientific activities is to be a space where scientists, practitioners, decision-makers and policy-makers meet to learn about, share, better use and further develop existing scientific knowledge, to learn from each other, and to better prevent, prepare for and respond to disasters. This space aims to become an open community where everyone can contribute their ideas, trigger new scientific debates and, collectively, shape its future development. 

The scientific activities of the Knowledge Network are led by the Disaster Risk Management Knowledge Centre (DRMKC), the European Commission's science and knowledge service. Established in 2015, the DRMKC brings together experts and knowledge from different locations inside and outside the Commission to provide solid scientific evidence for policy-making.