Industry-University Research Partnerships Planning Grant - Center for Climate Risks Assessment

George Mason University, MIT, and the City University of New York propose the creation of the Center for Climate Risk Applications (CCRA) Industry-University Cooperative Research Center (IUCRC) for modeling catastrophic impacts and risk assessment of climate change
targeting the financial and insurance sectors of the economy. 

The Center partners will collaboratively operate CCRA to address industry challenges related to natural perils, conducting research to (1) improve the capacity of yearly to decadal climate predictions, (2) model catastrophic impacts of natural perils to infrastructure systems, and (3) quantify how global climate change modifies the frequency, intensity, and impact of weather-related hazards on people and property. Specifically, CCRA will address quantifying the impacts of climate change-driven perils, vulnerability, and exposure which generate risk to insured / financed assets across regions and sectors. 

To accomplish this, CCRA will co-develop research projects with industry partners centered around the three drivers of risk to improve natural catastrophe modeling under a changing climate: hazards, vulnerability, and exposure. The Center will leverage expertise in climate science, engineering, social sciences, and earth observations to improve existing natural catastrophe modeling methods to improve insurance sector operations and resilience of their asset portfolios to extreme events.