SRA-Europe, www.sraeurope.org , Julie Barnett, SRA-E Communication Officer
The SRA Europe Meeting in 2009
In 2009 the SRA-Europe (SRA-E) meeting will be held 28 June-1 July in Karlstad, Sweden. The main sponsor of the conference is the newly created Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency, and the conference will be co-hosted by Karlstad University, the Swedish National Defence College, and the County Administrative Board of Värmland.
The conference theme is From the Everyday to the Extraordinary: Challenges for Risk Analysis and Management.
There will be four main strands to this theme: Everyday Risks and Prevention of Injuries, Management of Natural Risk and Climate Change, Disaster Risk Management in an International Context, and Future Risks and Technologies for Security and Safety. The conference aims to facilitate exchange of experiences from different disciplines, fields, and application areas.
The conference will start on Sunday evening, 28 June with an opening reception and will last through lunch Wednesday, 1 July. The conference language is English. The opening reception will be hosted by the county governor at the historic governor’s residence in the centre of the city. A conference dinner will provide the delegates with an opportunity to enjoy the beautiful countryside and midsummer light in the county of Värmland. The conference dinner will be held on Tuesday evening. A steam locomotive will take our chartered train through the beautiful Värmland countryside to Rotternerospark. The park is renowned for its statues and gardens that surround the manor house made famous in the works of the Nobel Prize-winning author Selma Lagerlöf.
Full details of the conference can be found on the SRA-E Web site (http://www.sraeurope.org/), and booking for the conference will open 1 April 2009.
1st China-Europe Risk Forum in October 2009 in Beijing
As announced in the Fourth Quarter 2008 RISK newsletter (page 10), Professor Chongfu Huang, president of the Chinese Risk Analysis Council, and Dr. Roberto Bubbico, president of SRA-Europe, are organising the 1st China-Europe Risk Forum in October 2009 in Beijing in connection with the 2nd International Conference on Risk Analysis and Crisis Response (see http://iee.pku.edu.cn/racr2009). The objective of the risk forum is to develop partnerships between Chinese and European researchers in the field of risk analysis. This involves exchanging insights around ongoing research programmes and also jointly defining future research programmes and preparing projects and short-term initiatives.
The forum will last two days and be focused on the general theme of emerging risks. Specifically, it will focus on the following topics:
- Emerging Risks Related to New Materials, Technologies, and Products
- Emerging Risks Related to New Production Processes
- Risk in Complex Industrial Systems
- Risks Related to Transport Systems and Networks, focusing on pipeline (“life line” transporting utilities, products, and information)
- Development and Integrations of Improved Approaches and Methods for Risk Assessment and Management
- Emerging Risk Policies, Monitoring, Governance, and Communication
- Emerging Risk Related to Underground and Confined Systems (tunnels, parking, railway stations, shopping malls...)
Each of the above groups will involve 6 to 12 scientists from both regions. If you are interested in participating, please contact Roberto Bubbico (bubbico@ingchim.ing.uniroma1.it) or Olivier Salvi (olivier.salvi@ineris.fr).
2009 SRA-E Executive Committee Elections
The next election for the Executive Committee of SRA-E will be held during February-March 2009. Four positions need to be filled. Announcement of the results and introduction of the new members of the Executive Committee will take place at the Karlstad annual meeting in June 2009.