The call for applications is now open for the PhD program in Security, Risk and Vulnerability at the University of Genoa. Among the available curricula, Risk, Climate Change and Sustainable Development, offered in collaboration with CIMA Research Foundation, is dedicated to addressing risk issues in a cross-cutting way, also taking into account socio-economic and political dynamics, within the broader framework of sustainable development and biodiversity conservation
Risk prevention that no longer considers only technical components but also social, economic and political variables, addressing the complexity of natural dynamics and anthropogenic activities. This is the aim of the Risk, Climate Change and Sustainable Development curriculum, offered by the University of Genoa in collaboration with CIMA Research Foundation and for which applications are now open as part of the Security, Risk and Vulnerability PhD course.
Talking about sustainable development necessarily also requires considering risk mitigation and resilience building, because there is no development if our actions and choices remain threatened by disasters. Building on this consideration, which is also well evidenced by the close relationship between the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, the Risk, Climate Change and Sustainable Development curriculum addresses the issues of risk, including considering the possible effects of climate change in the near future, and placing them within the broader framework of sustainability and biodiversity protection.
Thus, among the lines of research that the track offers are topics that are highly topical, such as the use of artificial intelligence in the hydrological field, and in particular for the management and prediction of flood and drought phenomena; the vulnerability, both social and environmental, of inland and mountainous territories; again, the study of coupled ocean-atmosphere processes, fundamental in meteorological and climate dynamics; and the use of integrated approaches, also based on remote sensing, for forest fire risk assessment.
These different lines of research represent the topics with which CIMA Research Foundation, which will provide teaching, provide operational and scientific facilities for doctoral students and fund three scholarships, has been dealing with for years and on which it has built a solid experience.
In addition, in order to create new collaborations and synergies, the curriculum also offers opportunities for networking with foreign universities for the award of a joint or double or multiple doctoral degree.
“The close link between sustainable development and risk mitigation that lies at the heart of the curriculum and, more broadly, of our work at CIMA Foundation is more important today than ever before. In fact, many of the risks we face today are the result of choices made in the past-and that’s why we can never forget that every option can lead us to increase or decrease risk, to be more or less resilient to it, whether it concerns an investment for a new infrastructure or a choice in agriculture,” says Luca Ferraris, president of CIMA Research Foundation and coordinator of the Risk, Climate Change and Sustainable Development curriculum. “That’s why we think it’s so important, and we’re so grateful, to be able to help educate the younger generation of the scientific community on these issues”.
The call for applications ha been extended to July 6, 2022. Here is all the information to apply: https://sicurezza.unige.net/admission/how-to-apply