Date & Venue: TBC
NIDM, being the nodal institution of capacity building and research in the field of disaster management in India, took an initiative to involve Universities and Institutions working in this field for far outreach of disaster management in the country. In this regard, NIDM had an initial discussion with UNISDR with respect to launch of the University network to fulfil one of the mandates given to it under the Disaster Management Act 2005. Subsequently NIDM, in collaboration with UNISDR and Keio University Japan, conducted a workshop which was attended by about 50 Universities, Institutions and experts of the field of disaster management. As an outcome of this workshop, a Memorandum of Association (MoA) was prepared and finalized. University Grants Commission (UGC), All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) and Association of Indian Universities (AIU) were approached for further strengthening and discussion of modalities for this Network. Meanwhile a need for such an initiative was needed after UGC vide its letter no. No.24-l/20l6(CPP-II) dated 4th October, 20l7 had issued instructions to all the Universities to consider compulsory courses on the subject of disaster management. The network also aims at; 1) helping in bridging the social science and science gap between the institutes and faculty members, 2) exchanging the information, knowledge and data among universities, 3) helping in developing pool of experts, and 4) enhancing multidisciplinary joint research programs.