© SYRR Group
Systemic Risk and Resilience (SYRR) aims to assess and support the management of systemic anthropogenic and environmental risks.
The SYRR research group analyses the increasingly systemic socio-ecological risks associated with global and local change, and with policy, practice and civil society co-generates options for building resilience.
Global change through rising physical and social interdependencies is leading to increasingly systemic and existential risks that lead to cascading impacts and potentially intolerable burdens on communities and societies across the world.
SYRR develops and applies agile systems science to address social-ecological risks that are embedded in complex systems and characterised by potentially cascading, irreversible and existential consequences. We identify risk drivers, model network interactions, assess probabilistic outcomes and co-develop stakeholder-driven options with policy, practice and civil society that are applicable across scales.
Our approach for addressing existential and systemic risk combines advanced quantitative modeling and qualitative research with empirical assessment and soft systems analysis.
SYRR research is conducted along the following thematic research lines:
1. Systemic Risk Assessment and Management
Advance and apply quantitative estimation methods to assess emerging systemic risks and disaster resilience.
2. Socio-Ecological Resilience
Develop and apply ecological network principles to the resilience in socio-ecological systems.
3. Co-production, Engagement and Experiential learning
Effectively apply and develop participatory methods with policy and practice to create impact.
4. Risk and Resilience Policy and Practice
Further develop and apply methods to inform risk management and climate adaptation decision-making in planning, coordination, and policy formation, with attention to complex multi-stakeholder and multi-criteria contexts.
We focus, inter alia, on risk and resilience associated with climate change, disasters, food webs, finance and pandemics. SYRR work builds on activities and experience gained from the previous IIASA programs on Risk and Resilience (RISK) as well as Advanced Systems Analysis (ASA) and Evolution and Ecology (EEP).
In order to address complex resilience problems, SYRR implements Risk&Resilience Labs. These labs bring together research, policy and practice in transdisciplinary co-generative exercises using quantitative and qualitative research methods for creating enhanced insight and impact.
Join us for sessions featuring inspiring speakers tackling contested issues in the risk and resilience space. The hub proceeds mostly online, with a few events hosted personally at IIASA. A chance to learn, and be part of critical conversations.
Models, tools, datasets
Flood Resilience Measurement for Communities (FRMC)
Catastrophe Simulation (CATSIM)
Projects
Smart Policy Support for Integrated Climate Risk Management (SMARTSUPPORT)
Loss and Damage
Staff
Dipesh Chapagain
Guest Research Scholar (SYRR)
Chulwook Park
Guest Researcher (SYRR)
Corinna Zeitfogel
Researcher (SYRR)
Tapio Palokangas
Guest Research Scholar (SYRR)
News
10 March 2026
ERC Starting Grant to explore habitability in a changing climate
Elisa Calliari, a Senior Research Scholar in the Systemic Risk and Resilience Research Group of the IIASA Advancing Systems Analysis Program, has been awarded a prestigious European Research Council (ERC) Starting Grant for a new project investigating how climate change reshapes the habitability of places and how societies respond.
03 November 2025
Two Years of SPARCCLE: Highlights from the Annual General Assembly
The SPARCCLE consortium convened at the CMCC Foundation in Milan on 7-8 October 2025 for its annual General Assembly, marking two years since the project’s launch. The meeting brought together partners from across Europe, along with representatives from sister projects, members of the Stakeholder Advisory Board, and colleagues from the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC).
27 May 2025
Launch of the Global Assessment Report 2025 on Disaster Risk Reduction
The Global Assessment Report is the defining report on the state of art and future on disaster risk. The comprehensive 2025 report comes 10 years after the Sendai Framework, where the global community agreed to further prevent the creation of new risk, reduce existing risk and increase resilience.
Events
Focus
Annual Report 2025
Annual Report 2025: Advancing Systems Analysis Program Highlights
As global challenges become increasingly interconnected, the Advancing Systems Analysis Program continued to develop innovative approaches for understanding complexity and supporting better decisions. In 2025, the program’s research revealed new insights into urban sustainability, resilience in an era of polycrisis, public health, and sustainable development.
23 February 2026
Validating disaster and climate resilience: how to create a gold standard for resilience-measurement
As climate risks intensify, fostering community resilience has become a global priority but a fundamental question remains for practice and policy: how can resilience be defined, measured, and proven to inform implementation? Together with the Zurich Climate Resilience Alliance, IIASA researchers have spent more than a decade developing and scientifically validating a universally-applicable framework to measure community resilience, turning a concept into an evidence-based tool to guide real-world implementation in the most vulnerable communities across the globe.
Publications
Zhang, S., Feng, J., Ren, H., & Yu, Y. (2026). Multi-criteria well-to-wheel sustainability assessment of energy pathways for China’s new energy vehicles. Transportation Research Part D: Transport and Environment 157 e105409. 10.1016/j.trd.2026.105409.
Park, C. (2026). Fractal architectures in motor expertise: bridging deterministic and stochastic control. Array 30 e100967. 10.1016/j.array.2026.100967.
Yokomatsu, M. & Pflug, G. (2026). Optimal risk reduction and insurance for government infrastructure protection. Insurance: Mathematics and Economics 129 e103265. 10.1016/j.insmatheco.2026.103265.
Park, C. (2026). Thermodynamic entropy management in human motor control across circadian and thermal challenges. Journal of The Royal Society Interface 23 (238) e20251023. 10.1098/rsif.2025.1023.
Schlumberger, J., De Polt, K., Claassen, J.N., Tiggeloven, T., Buijs, S.L., de Ruiter, M.C., Gargiulo, M.V., Gill, J.C., Pantaleoni Reluy, N., Šakić Trogrlić, R. , & Ward, P.J. (2026). Empowering ECRs to make research projects flourish: lessons from a European research project. Open Research Europe 5 e312. 10.12688/openreseurope.21517.2.