The Risk and Crisis Research Centre Opens | 2010 |
“Bringing excellence together” is the motto of Mid Sweden University’s Risk and Crisis Research Centre (RCR). At the opening in 2010, national and international contacts in the field were invited – since it is through collaborating with the best that excellence is achieved.
Among other things, RCR studies, how people assess risks, how organizations manage crises and what affects society’s vulnerability. The research primarily focuses on “recurring everyday crises” – for example forest fires, disease outbreaks and violence in close relationships – and how different organizations work together when a crisis occurs.
– People’s perception of how we manage risks, and what constitutes a risk, has been changing gradually since the cold war. Earlier, it had mostly to do with national security; however, these days, it is mainly about risks for people and societies unrelated to war, like terrorism and climate changes, but also about everyday things like power failures and having a safe place to live, says professor Anna Olofsson.
One of RCR’s initiatives is the Risk and Crisis Management Programme (180 credits), which Mid Sweden University is the only Swedish university to offer as a first-cycle programme. That is where the security managers, risk analysts and security coordinators of the future are trained – competences that are in increasing demand from companies, public authorities and municipalities. What RCR is focusing on at the moment is to build a national Crisis Lab in Östersund, where the crisis management of the future is to be developed, educated and practised.