ANDROID

The CDR-led Academic Network for Disaster Resilience to Optimise educatIonal Development (ANDROID) is an Erasmus academic network that aims to promote co-operation and innovation among European Higher Education to increase society’s resilience to disasters of human and natural origin.

ANDROID, which is funded by the European Commission, runs from October 2011 to January 2015. The network has 67 representatives from 31 countries, 28 in the EU, as well as organisations from Australia, Canada and Sri Lanka.

The network’s teaching and research is concerned with what resilience is, what it means to society, and how societies might achieve greater resilience in the face of increasing threats from natural and human induced hazards. The network will create a European approach that will help us understand the attributes that enable physical, socio-cultural, politico-economic and natural systems to adapt, by resistance or changing in order to reach and maintain an acceptable level of functioning. The network will also raise awareness and promote a common understanding among stakeholders of the importance of disaster resilience education and the essential role of European HEIs in improving society’s ability increase disaster resilience.

ANDROID will:

• Promote discourse among European applied, human, social and natural scientists to, pool their results and findings, discuss methods and develop inter-disciplinary explanations that increase society’s resilience to disasters;
• Describe, analyse, and compare the capacity of European cities and HE to address disaster risk, and thereby reinforce the link between education and society;
• Build the capacity of HE to address emerging challenges in disaster resilience, strengthen the link between research and teaching, and inform policy development.

Its research and engagement has a significant influence on policymaking and practice and includes joint work to describe, analyse and compare the capacity of European cities and higher education institutions to address disaster risk. The network provides data, advice and guidance for policymakers and practitioners on the role of building and construction to anticipate and respond to unexpected major events which damage the environment.

The periodic Exchange Newsletter which gives more news about ANDROID can be downloaded from the ANDROID website.

Read the UNISDR news article on ANDROID network: “EU creates academic network for disaster resilience”.

For further information about the project, please contact Dr Menaha Thayaparan. Email: M.Thayaparan@salford.ac.uk

For further details on the project, please see the ANDROID website.