IRDR 23rd Scientific Committee Meeting

Prof Emily Chan, Mr CS Wong and Mr Sida Liu of the CCOUC team, as International Centre of Excellence in Disaster and Medical Humanitarian Response of Integrated Research on Disaster Risk (ICoE-CCOUC of IRDR), participated in the 23rd Scientific Committee Meeting of the IRDR on 16 June 2020 via Zoom. The meeting was attended by 37 participants from around the world.

The overall objective of this special online session of Scientific Committee Meeting is to oversight IRDR main tasks for 2020 and guide the implementation, taking into account the context of COVID-19 and the new time frame of IRDR, which has been extended to the end of 2021. The meeting has two specific objectives:

- Review the progress on the main tasks for 2020 and advise on the overall timeline, including a technical report on hazard definition and classification;

- Discuss the concrete actions required and input needed for the new DRR research agenda, particularly how to ensure broad and comprehensive consultations in the course of the agenda preparation.

The importance of including biological hazards in DRR research agenda was highlighted in the meeting.