Looking back at ICRS 2026

A total of 250 participants attended the ICRS 2026, with up to 230 present on Monday and Tuesday. Over 75 track chairs were involved in preparing the programme for each track, which hosted 206 abstract presentations. ICRS 2026 is a truly multidisciplinary conference and a meeting place for professionals from industry, government and academia.

Opening the conference on Monday, Hester Bijl, the Rector Magnificus of TU Delft, emphasised the importance of cross-disciplinary thinking in addressing the interconnected challenges facing our world. She emphasised that isolated engineering solutions are insufficient in such a system. On Tuesday, Maaike Zwart, the Deputy Mayor of Delft, opened the programme. She discussed how research can address real-life local challenges and bridge the gap between innovation and inequality, achieving local impact with global relevance. Read the article "From theory to impact" on her welcome lecture. 

ICRS 2026 Book of Abstracts

The ICRS 2026 Book of Abstracts can be downloaded via our website and via https://doi.org/10.6100/qp5f-nb93 

Keynote insights

Caroline Field introduced the ‘resilience dividend’, reframing resilience as a proactive strategy that delivers tangible benefits in a VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex, ambiguous) world. Her work transforms abstract concepts into actionable principles for governments, businesses, and communities. Read the article 'Resilience by impact' on her keynote lecture.

“Resilience works when it works for everyone”

Caroline Field

Co-founder of the Centre of Whole of Society Resilience, partner at PA Consulting, and visiting professor at Loughborough University

Lisa Schipper challenged conventional narratives on climate adaptation, stressing that measures are not neutral but shaped by colonial histories and current geopolitics. Read the article 'A critical lens on resilience' on her keynote lecture.

“Adaptation must be reimagined as a process of transformation, not just risk management”

Lisa Schipper

Full professor of Development Geography at the University of Bonn

Georgios Tsionis (European Commission JRC) tied the conference’s central themes – resilience, risk, and vulnerability – to the broader European policy landscape. He reflected on the built environment as both a technical system and a lived space, anchoring his lecture in the physical reality of the venue, TU Delft’s Aula building.

“Resilience in the built environment cannot be addressed in isolation. It must be integrated across disciplines, sectors, and policy domains”

Georgios Tsionis

Deputy head of unit ‘Built Environment’ at the Directorate for Societal Resilience and Society of the European Commission's Joint research centre

Celebrating innovation

On the final day, outstanding contributions from participants were celebrated. Resilience was discussed in a wide variety of contexts across 15 dedicated tracks and an open track. The following presentations stood out:

Inspirational Presentation Winners:

• Max de Vries: Meaningful Boundaries for Flood Resilience
• Wei Bi: From Transport to the Built Environment: Multidimensional Flood Resilience Assessments
• Joël Mongeon: Graph Theory-Based Resilience Framework for Agri-Food Systems

Poster Presentation Winner: Sadiksa Chauhan for Improved Monitoring of Water Resources and Hazards. 

Special Mentions: Shreya Deep Bansod, Shauhrat Sing, Renate Schubert, and Aulia Imania Sukma for offering food for thought!

ICRS 2027

The next International Conference on Resilient Systems will take place from Wednesday, 22 September to Friday, 24 September 2027, in Darmstadt.

Gratitude

A heartfelt thank you to all participants, volunteers, and organisers for making ICRS 2026 a vibrant forum for inspiration, collaboration, and action. Your engagement has sown the seeds for a more resilient future!

Conference photos

We will share a selection of pictures until 30 June 2026. Until this time you can download and view the pictures that were taken. These pictures are intended for personal use only.