4TU’S RESILIENCE ENGINEERING CENTRE OFF TO AN EXCITING START
On June 7th we officially launched the new 4TU-Centre Resilience Engineering, founded last January. We were honoured to have three highly respected keynote speakers: Prof. Hans Heinimann, Programme Director of Future Resilient Systems at Singapore ETH Centre (SEC) and a global research and thought leader in the field of resilience, Dutch Delta Programme Commissioner Wim Kuijken and our own Prof. Tatiana Filatova, leader of our capacity building programme DeSiRE.
Fltr: Hans Heinimann, Wim Kuijken and Tatiana Filatova
(pictures: Klaas-Jelmer Sixma)
Hans Heinimann, Wim Kuijken on resilience
Heinimann showed in his address how today’s world is in urgent need of centres of expertise like the new Dutch Centre Resilience Engineering. ‘We are experiencing regime shifts that cannot be predicted with historic data. The concept of resilience provides us with a framework and a strategy to prepare ourselves for such shifts.’
Kuijken pointed out that conventional Dutch water management has always been based on responding after an incident – such as a flood – whereas resilience engineering offers a means of taking pre-emptive action in this and other areas of challenge.
Read more about the 4TU-Centre Resilience Engineering, check photos of the launch event, read more about the event or about Professor Heinimann’s presentation on resilience
DeSIRE: A GLOBALLY LEADING RESILIENCE ENGINEERING RESEARCH PROGRAMME
The first focal point of the 4TU-Centre Resilience Engineering has been to set up an extensive capacity building programme called DeSIRE: Designing Systems for Informed Resilience Engineering. With a budget of 5 million euros, DeSIRE is to strengthen Resilience Engineering (RE) research and education and to become a globally leading RE programme.
Strategic focal points:
- Resilience thinking in design and engineering
- Quantification and measurement of the resilience of social-technological-environmental (STE) systems in time and space
- Resilience coordination and governance
Other key features and ambitions:
- > 40 scientists involved
- 16 new tenure track positions (TTs) endorsed by the Deans of 13 4TU faculties
- Solution Teams, in which researchers collaborate with practitioners on real-world cases
- Real cases selected, for example, from the Rockefeller Foundation’s 100 Resilient Cities, which include Rotterdam and The Hague, or from NG Infra (a partnership of Dutch infrastructure providers Schiphol Group, Port of Rotterdam Authority, Rijkswaterstaat, ProRail, Alliander and Vitens), and other partners.
- Establishment of an RE Academy
- Training of 100 Resilience Fellows (practicing engineers and policy-makers)
Learn more about the DeSIRE programme kick-off and the DeSIRE programme
RESILIENT CITIES ROTTERDAM & THE HAGUE EAGER TO TEAM UP WITH RE CENTRE
Representatives of the cities of Rotterdam and The Hague and the 4TU Centre Resilience Engineering signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on June 7th. The RE Centre and the two municipalities hope to benefit from one another’s knowledge and experience with regard to improving urban resilience.
‘The MoU signifies the coming together of multidisciplinary scientists, government and practitioners in the field. It is an exciting and important step towards futureproofing cities and societies,’ commented the RE centre’s Managing Director, Dr. ir. Marjolein Dohmen-Janssen. Rotterdam and The Hague are the only two Dutch cities to have joined the global 100 Resilient Cities Network.
Read more about resilience in Rotterdam and The Hague