International Council for Science (ICSU), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and the other concerned parties signed the cooperation letter for the establishment of the International Program Office for the Integrated Research on Disaster Risk (IRDR) in Beijing on Feb. 22.

The International Program Office for IRDR will be established in Beijing at the headquarters of the Center for Earth Observation and Digital Earth (CEODE), CAS—the first time an international office of this type has been hosted in Asia.

IRDR is a major new 10-year international research program co-organized by ICSU, the International Social Science Council (ISSC) and the United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UN-ISDR). It brings together the experts from the natural, social, medical and engineering sciences to deal with the challenges brought by those natural or man-induced disasters, mitigate the impact of the disasters and improve the policy-making mechanism. ICSU, ISSC and UN-ISDR selected Beijing following an international call for offers in November 2009.

Jointly funded by the China Association for Science and Technology (CAST) and CAS, the International Program Office is established to support the realization of the program. Its objectives are the scientific character of the hazards and risks, understanding the decision-making process in a complex and ever-changing risk context, and the reduction of risks and losses through knowledge-based actions.

The establishment of the office will help enhance not only  the competence in the field of disaster prevention and mitigation within China, but also the management and coordination capacity in the field, thus exerting a wider impact on the international arena, noted Prof. TAN Tieniu, deputy secretary-general of CAS.

Soon after the ceremony, a worldwide recruitment of the IPO-IRDR executive director was conducted. Five final candidates would compete for the position.