The Institute for Climate Resilience (ICR) at CMCC is deeply engaged in interdisciplinary research at the intersection of climate, ecosystems, and society, to support operational (shorter term) to strategic (longer term) decisions, planning, and investments towards climate-resilient development. Resilience encompasses the coping capacity of systems to resist against shocks or recover after disturbances, as well as their ability to adjust and transform under changing conditions to either maintain current development trajectories or undertake new ones.

This also involves synergic mitigation, disaster risk reduction and adaptation pathways.

At ICR we capitalize on and continuously advance, data, methods, models, and tools developed over the years and largely exploit observations and measurements deriving from multiple platforms and processing methods, towards a digital representation of some Earth System components. We formulate, test, and disseminate rigorous results to inspire new scientific questions, benefit society, and guide policy. This includes: i) investigating regional to local, including urban, climate change, variability, and extreme events; ii) deepening knowledge of interrelated climate-driven hazards and cascading impacts at multiple spatio-temporal scales; iii) quantifying feedback among climate, terrestrial to coastal ecosystems, and human systems; iv) combining climate and non-climate drivers with societal, technological, infrastructural exposure and vulnerability aspects for comprehensive risk assessments; v) bridging top-down (science-driven) and bottom-up (user-driven) approaches to translate complex data into actionable information and co-design innovative solutions with stakeholders; iv) providing advice and building capacity for policy makers to support their decisions and interventions effectively, even in the face of uncertainty, and promote climate resilient and sustainable development.

ICR activities

ICR activities consider the evolving global post-pandemic landscape, including new EU and international initiatives, priorities, and programmes such as the Common Agricultural Policy, Climate Law, Green Deal, Digital Strategy, Copernicus, DestinE, Horizon Europe, Recovery Plans, and One Health.

In pursuing our scientific vision and ambitious goals, the Institute and our Research Divisions align with the CMCC mission, ensuring that approaches, data, and software adhere to the overall Foundation’s strategy in the context of open science principles.