In a Eureka first, 14 countries across five continents are combining resources to fund international R&D projects that respond to natural and man-made disasters.
In early 2023, in the wake of recent disasters, Eureka’s Turkish Chair proposed an initiative to reinforce disaster resilience through international collaborative innovation. Eureka’s network expressed solidarity with the efforts of governments, non-profit organisations and companies to prepare for, respond to and recover from disasters, and a collective effort was made to boost international research and development that could help vulnerable communities.
This topic resonated with Eureka’s network representatives, irrespective of their region or continent, as no country is immune to disasters; in 2023 alone, 86,000 people were killed and a further 7.7 million people were displaced by sudden-onset disasters (such as storms, floods, wildfires, earthquakes, volcanoes and tsunamis) and slow-onset hazards (like droughts, desertification, sea-level rising and water salinisation). Climate change is forecast to increase the frequency and magnitude of disasters in the coming years. In Europe, most recently, we have seen its impact in the form of severe flooding in Spain.