Global Resilience Institute

The Global Resilience Institute (GRI) is an interdisciplinary institute committed to developing and deploying practical and innovative tools, applications, and skills that strengthen the resilience of individuals, communities, infrastructure, systems, networks, and societies.

Climate change, urbanization, and social tensions have damaged communities, constrained resources, forced migrations, and caused cascading failures around the world. Cities and their rural hinterlands across the world are struggling to retain livelihoods, lifelines, health, infrastructures, ecosystems, and economies in a sustainable manner. Resilience in this context refers to the ability to reduce fragility during and recover effectively after extremes or stresses, while also investing in preparedness and mitigation, in a way that preserves lives and assets while ensuring continued progress and prosperity. From building back better and designing financial incentives to developing nature-inspired systems and equitable social capital, resilience strategies need to be multifaceted and interdisciplinary.

Northeastern University has responded to these threats by investing in global resilience over the last several years. GRI continues to lead new and important convergence research across colleges and disciplines.

Vision

1. Continue to advance its global and national reputation and thought leadership through the development of multi-faculty research products as well as growing investments in novel interdisciplinary capabilities for responding to strategic opportunities.
2. Further develop and sharpen the “Global” aspect of GRI by building a base for sustained “North-North,” “North-South” and “South-South” collaborations in the resilience space with NU-based GRI as a major global resilience hub.
3. Serve as a startup launchpad by leveraging NU-based and/or NU-affiliated (including NU alum) companies, the structure of NU’s Center for Research Innovation (CRI), and NU connections with the private and public sector as well as government laboratories and federal agencies.