Last week, the federal government, the states of North Rhine-Westphalia and Rhineland-Palatinate and the Federal City of Bonn region agreed on the key points of a supplementary agreement to the Berlin/Bonn Act. Resilience is a key topic of the supplementary agreement.
To date, Germany has lacked a centralised location of national importance to drive resilience research forward by permanently bringing together research networks. Although there are already various interdisciplinary research projects funded by the federal government that deal with aspects of resilience research, they are temporary and not comprehensively coordinated. There needs to be a place where different disciplines from different scientific institutions can work together on an ongoing basis, including with practice partners, in order to promote the transfer of knowledge from the outset.
The focus will be on future-oriented management of natural extremes in order to strengthen the resilience of the population, particularly with regard to climate change and adapted construction. This should help to increase social resilience overall.
The proposed concepts of the region, such as the “International Resilience Center @ Ahr-Valley” (IRRC) and the “Global Forum Bonn (GFB) – A Federal Republic of Germany Centre for Comprehensive Research and Advice on Sustainability Transformation”, are welcomed by the federal government. However, it is necessary to harmonise these concepts in the further process. The content and expected budget requirements also still need to be examined and harmonised.
More information here.