Team

Bucharest University of Economic Studies (ASE) is the most prestigious institution of higher economic education in Romania and the leader of the higher education institutions in economic sciences and public administration in Romania and Southeast Europe.

ASE is a university with high-quality advanced research, ranked among the top universities in Europe regarding the teaching and learning process and the implication in strategic partnerships with representatives of the national and international economic and social environment. In 2020, ASE received the “HR Excellence in Research award”.

Aon plc exists to shape decisions for the better — to protect and enrich the lives of people around the world. Our colleagues provide our clients in over 120 countries with advice and solutions that give them the clarity and confidence to make better decisions to protect and grow their business.

Aon has four solutions lines: commercial risk solutions, reinsurance solutions, retirement solutions and health solutions. All of this is underpinned by its data and analytics services, where we combine proprietary data, technology, and advisory services to develop insights that help clients reduce volatility and improve performance. Within Aon, MYRIAD-EU work will be carried out by the reinsurance catastrophe management team, a leading industry group of catastrophe modelling specialists.

Arctik is a Brussels-based PR, communications and evaluation consultancy, which specialises in European affairs and sustainability. Arctik provides strategic and innovative communication solutions to European institutions and other actors, enabling them to communicate messages, stimulate constructive dialogues and help them evaluate their impact.

Arctik offers a wide variety of services to meet all communications needs. The company boasts specialist expertise in a range of areas, including networking activities, designing and producing communication tools and the logistical management and coordination of conferences and events. It has a proven track record of delivering tangible results for actors across the European Union. Arctik is part of Technopolis Group.

The British Geological Survey (BGS) is part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), a non-departmental public body of the Government of the United Kingdom that directs research and innovation funding. BGS is the world’s oldest national geological survey, focused on public-good science for government and research to understand earth and environmental processes.

Work in MYRIAD-EU will bring together BGS expertise in shallow Earth geohazards, volcanic hazards and marine geohazards, as well as multi-hazard systems and risk reduction. Its interdisciplinary, international, and multi-sectoral networks and experience will support this project and help to leverage impact within and beyond the UK.

CICYTEX is a research centre belonging to the regional government of Extremadura (Spain) dedicated to agrarian research. The main goal of CICYTEX is to promote state-of-the-art research and innovation in agriculture, food, forestry, pasture, and animal production sectors. The main mission of CICYTEX’s irrigation and fertilisation group (RYN) is the most efficient use of water and fertilisation in horticultural crops.

The group is working mainly on the use of new technologies and crop models to characterise and manage the spatial variability of irrigated large surfaces and commercial plots for more efficient water and fertilisation use. CICYTEX is a core member of ERIAFF, a network of European regions in 15 EU Member States, promoting innovations in agriculture, food, and forestry.

CICERO is one of Europe’s foremost institutes for interdisciplinary climate research, with strong international networks, a high publication rate in international journals, and active participation in international assessments, including the IPCC. Its research produces knowledge that is relevant for decision-makers in various sectors such as health, agriculture, energy, and transport, and contributes to the design of effective national and international climate policies, supports climate adaptation in local communities, informs investors of climate risk, and tracks international CO2-emissions.

The main contribution to MYRIAD-EU will come from the climate impacts group, an interdisciplinary group with high-level expertise on climate, air pollution, and economic modelling under different emission and socioeconomic scenarios.

Worldwide, Deltares works on smart solutions, innovations, and applications for people, environment and society. Its focus is on deltas, coastal regions, and river basins. Managing these densely populated areas is complex, which is why it works closely with governments, businesses, other research institutes and universities.

Deltares supplies answers to social issues by combining technical expertise with an understanding of political, administrative, and economic processes. As an independent, not-for-profit knowledge institute for applied research in the field of water and subsurface Deltares is convinced that sharing knowledge benefits everybody’s innovative potential.The interdisciplinary approach, Deltares’ independent position, and its role as an authority with a reputation for integrity means the team can contribute to a science based societal dialogue. The integrated approach allows them to come up with innovative solutions. For decision-making under deep uncertainty, Deltares has developed the dynamic adaptive policy pathways (DAPP) approach that will be extended in MYRIAD-EU.

The Fondazione Centro Euro-Mediterraneo sui Cambiamenti Climatici (CMCC) is a non-profit research institution. CMCC’s mission is to investigate and model its climate system and its interactions with society to provide reliable, rigorous, and timely scientific results, which will in turn stimulate sustainable growth, protect the environment and develop science-driven adaptation and mitigation policies in a changing climate.

CMCC collaborates with experienced scientists, economists, and technicians, which work together to provide full analyses of climate impacts on various systems such as agriculture, ecosystems, coasts, water resources, health and economics. CMCC also supports policymakers in setting and assessing costs, mitigation, and adaptation policies.

The Forum of European National Highway Research Laboratories (FEHRL) provides a structure for the coordination of road and transport infrastructure research. FEHRL’s aim is to coordinate collaborative research and knowledge transfer. It also looks to provide relevant knowledge and advice to governments, the European Commission, the road industry and road users on related technologies and policies. 

FEHRL has a permanent presence in Brussels for the coordination of activities with other organisations, communications, dissemination, training, and events. It is a well-established and  well-connected organisation with great experience in: voicing to decision/policymakers, liaising with stakeholders and synergy, lobbying topics to R&D&I funding organisations and many more. FEHRL’s main priorities are designed to align with EC transport research topics, and to reflect the activities of FEHRL members.

HOTREC is the umbrella association of hotels, restaurants, bars, cafés and similar establishments in Europe, bringing together 45 national associations in 34 European countries. The association represents and champions the hospitality industry’s interests towards the EU, international organisations, and all relevant stakeholders. It also fosters knowledge and best practices, sharing amongst its members to favour innovation and acts as a platform of expertise for the sector.

Together with other tourism industries, hospitality is the third largest industry in Europe. The sector counts around 1.8 million businesses – 99% of which are small and medium-sized enterprises – and provides some 10 million jobs in the EU alone. Compared to the overall economy, European hospitality also employs relatively unskilled employees (33% compared to 20%) and on average young people (20% aged under 25 years compared to 9%).

The International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) is a non-governmental, multi-national, independent scientific research institute devoted to interdisciplinary, policy-oriented research focusing on selected aspects of environmental, economic, technological and social issues in the context of global change.

Two research groups of IIASA are involved in MYRIAD-EU, the Systemic Risk and Resilience (SYRR) and the Exploratory Modeling of Human-natural Systems (EM) group both within the Advancing Systems Analysis (ASA) Program. SYRR`s contribution to the project will focus on developing the multi-hazard, multi-sector and systemic risk framework within a co-design process. EM`s contribution to the project will focus on Agent-Based Modelling. ASA’s mission is to develop, test, and make available new quantitative and qualitative methods from areas including mathematics, statistics, operations research, and management science for addressing problems arising in the policy analysis of complex socio-environmental systems.

The Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry (MPI-BGC) is a research institute of the German Max Planck Society (MPG). Its research mission is the investigation of the global biogeochemical cycles and their interaction with the climate system. The institute combines strong observational and process-based studies with global scale modelling.  

At MPI-BGC data-driven, simulation-driven, and theoretical approaches are brought together to improve understanding of the Earth System. In cooperation with partners, AI methods are being developed to understand and predict climate extremes and their impacts. Within MPI-BGC, respective MYRIAD-EU tasks will be processed by the department biogeochemical integration (BGI). BGI has strong links with the hazard and risk community and is currently coordinating a Future Earth-IRDR-WCRP Risk Knowledge Action Network (Risk KAN).

The Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research (TNO) is the largest energy research institute in the Netherlands, facilitating the transition to sustainable energy management. It is active in projects both domestically and abroad, in joint efforts with the industry, government authorities and research institutes.

The unit Energy Transition has a twofold mission: to accelerate the energy transition and to strengthen the competitive position of the Netherlands. The unit Energy Transition conducts independent and internationally leading research and we stand for an agenda-setting, initiating and supporting role for government, industry and NGOs.

The wind energy research group is part of TNO’s Energy Transition Unit and focuses on substantially reducing the costs for offshore wind energy, through improved design of wind farms, wind turbines, and turbine parts, through programmes for more efficient maintenance and by integrated application of wind farm system expertise with more than 40 years of experience. Integrating the Energy Transition unit into TNO added R&D subjects focussing on economic modelling as well as non-technical key performance indicators like environmental and socioeconomic aspects.

Risklayer is an independent catastrophe modelling SME borne out of the Center for Disaster Management and Risk Reduction Technology at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) in Germany.

Risklayer specialises in the development of transparent, state – of -the -art multi-hazard risk modelling and has a suite of custom-made software tools and datasets that can be used worldwide for the assessment and communication of catastrophe risk.  Services in risk analytics are founded on its stochastic catastrophe loss modelling technology and databases that cover all major natural hazards – as well as man-made hazards. Risklayer prides itself on converting complex stochastic catastrophe risk models into usable outputs for end users marrying cutting-edge analytics with risk management.

University of La Laguna (ULL) is located in the Canary Islands. Due to its privileged location, ULL activities develop in the frame of a unique network, with ties with LATAM, Africa, and the European Union. ULL is highly involved in promoting research and education in tourism as well as in current social issues which are closely related to natural risks on islands.

The MYRIAD-EU project team includes both members from the Chair of Tourism and the Chair for Disaster Risk Reduction (DRRC). The Chair of Tourism is a large research network of scholars in the field of tourism, connecting ULL with main stakeholders to promote tourism knowledge and innovation at an international scale. The Chair for Disaster Risk Reduction (DRRC) collaborates with local and international institutions, giving scientific support to develop climate resilient pathways based on disaster risk management strategies, with special involvement in the current volcanic event in La Palma.

Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia (UNIVE) has an internationally outstanding reputation of academic excellence in both research and teaching, and is committed to environmental protection, community well-being, social equity and economic development. Activities for MYRIAD-EU will be performed within the Department of Environmental Sciences, Informatics and Statistics, which has a long history of interdisciplinary climate change research, with key expertise in the development of frameworks and methodologies supporting decision making on different environmental problems

UNIVE will develop risk analysis approaches that apply machine learning methods, to assess dynamics in risk drivers in the Veneto pilot. The activities will focus on how water pollution and environmental degradation caused by anthropological pressures and aggravated by observed and future climate change in the selected regions and countries may undermine ecosystems, livelihood and resilience, and amplify threats to sustainable development.

Academic research and education at VU Amsterdam (VUA) are ambitious and encourage free and open communications and ideas. Within VUA, MYRIAD-EU will be carried out by the Institute for Environmental Studies (IVM), one of the world’s leading institutes in natural hazard risk assessment and analysis.

IVM has a long history of natural hazard risk assessment at the local to national scale, and the institute and its staff are at the forefront of driving risk science towards a multi-hazard approach. Research at VUA and IVM is characterised by the successful integration of research and policy, with strong links into Dutch, European, and international networks in disaster risk management and climate adaptation.

Wetlands International – European Association is a formal network comprising 11 non-governmental organisations (NGO) from 7 European countries, working together to raise awareness about wetland ecosystems and to advocate for the sustainable use of wetlands for people and nature, in particular by linking science, policy and practice. This network of members is coordinated by a Secretariat based in Brussels, Belgium and Ede, The Netherlands.  

Given that 90% of disasters are induced by water-related hazards, Wetlands International – European Association’s particular attention goes to ensuring that sustainable management of wetlands and water resources is incorporated into broader risk reduction and climate adaptation practices and the application of  wetland Nature-based Solutions (NbS) for climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction.