Partnerships - Cross-Disciplinarity & Knowledge Sharing

Grenoble has long been a place of excellence in risk research. In line with this heritage, researchers from a number of UGA laboratories from different disciplines combine their knowledge to better understand, anticipate and manage natural, industrial, health and financial risks. They develop responses to crisis situations that may arise, and tools to support risk anticipation and assessment.

This inter- and trans-disciplinary research can address a wide range of issues, such as dating seismic damage to resilient urban environments or archaeological sites, managing critical infrastructures, studying their vulnerability and resilience, understanding human behavior during crises to optimize rescue efforts, and questioning the relevance of agricultural insurance, measuring and anticipating unstable ground movements, analyzing information from social networks during crises, using bigdata from the general public and local authorities to build the "digital twin" of a city, studying the effects of climate change on mountain risks (snow cover, glaciers, avalanche risk), or working on buildings and materials to protect against earthquakes.... This research has a strong social utility in a world subject to the global challenges facing our societies and questioning their resilience. This project aims to benefit from the knowledge of both private and public players, and in return from that of scientists, by co-constructing a science that is useful for a more resilient society.

Université Grenoble Alpes is federating this effort within the RISK Institute, for inter- and trans-disciplinary research in engineering, life and earth sciences, humanities and social sciences. The institute harnesses the full range of skills in the knowledge chain, mobilizing the complementary knowledge of all concerned. Building on the networks to which the researchers associated with this initiative contribute, the Risk Institute aims to innovate and explore emerging issues relating to crises and risks, within the framework of local, national and international partnerships.