Scientific knowledge is an added value for all actors in DRM as it helps in the formulation of alternatives, its discussion, and in finally making better decisions for developing and implementing policies and projects. Despite all these benefits, taking advantage of existing knowledge of different actors is not an easy task in practice. The DRMKC aims to be a point of reference for EU policy-makers regarding the evidence-based contribution to Disaster Risk Management (DRM) policies development while it supports the work done by Member States and other groups from the DRM community to implement those DRM policies.

The Disaster Risk Management Knowledge Centre (DRMKC), launched in September 2015, aims at enhancing the EU and the Member States resilience to disasters and their capacity to mitigate, adapt, prevent, prepare, respond and recover from emergencies through a strengthened science and policy interface.
With this in mind, the DRMKC collects and translates complex scientific data and analyses into usable information that serve to support decisions, from preparing DRM policies to advising on response action, while it facilitates that knowledge is shared at all levels.
We can highlight different tools and activities:
1. Projects Explorer, gathering research projects related to DRM for re-using results and detecting gaps.
2. INFORM, for assessing humanitarian crises and disasters.
3. EIOS, a system for epidemic event detection based on different sources of data.
4. Science for DRM series Reports, merging knowledge from different actors on how to reduce risk.
5. Advice on methodologies for Disaster Risk Assessment and Capacity Assessment.
6. Risk Data Hub, a system to facilitate the collection of loss and damage data by governmental authorities to use it for different disaster risk actions.
All these contribute to Goal 1, target 1.5. Reliable, comprehensive and on-time data, information and knowledge on disaster risk enhance resilience. In particular, EIOS is developing an early detection system for preparing authorities to first prepare to and respond to global health risks, and later reduce this type of risk. This directly contributes to target 3.D.
Climate change is a driver of disaster risk, so, as a consequence, all activities tackle climate change related impacts. Pooling and sharing methodologies for Disaster Risk Assessment and Capability Assessments, the DRMKC integrates the evidences on disaster risk into policy making, directly incorporating climate change into the process (in line with target 13.1 and 13.2).

The DRMKC is supported and coordinated by a number of Commission services (DG CLIMA, DG ECHO, DG HOME, DG ENV, etc.) and in partnership with key networks at the level of Member States. A Steering Committee meets regularly to propose, discuss and establish the activities and priorities of the group.
One of the pillars of the DRMKC is actually Partnership. We believe that in order to fully exploit and translate science into policy and operational procedures in DRM, the group must reinforce the development of partnerships and networks .

Most of the activities and tools are done in collaboration with other experts, such as within working groups, and usually working closely with the final users of these, ensuring that the products are multi-disciplinary and "ready for use". Furthermore, the activities are well associated, to ensure that knowledge moves in a continuum: it is created, stored, shared and transferred to potential users, where it is again created.

The DRMKC produces the tool or facilitates the process for results to be obtained. The outputs and impacts are owned by the final users.

Some characteristics of the DRMKC may hinder an efficient management of knowledge for policy-making and operational procedures in DRM: it is a big organization, with many levels of governance interacting with individual agendas so coordination is indispensable. At the same time, the DRMKC strives to assist different communities in understanding what their knowledge requirements are, identifying opportunities (at the user's and supplier's side) and enabling relationships whereby the potential user is finally satisfied. The main constraint is adapting and collecting needs for activities to be ready to provide on time and required outputs quickly.
Nonetheless, the stability and continuity given by the public agencies engaged and the multidisciplinary nature of the whole organization are interesting requisites for knowledge to be produced, stored and shared and for putting DRM knowledge in practice. The current situation with a landscape changing due to climate change and increasing impacts due to the different interlinked hazards acts as facilitator for the DRMKC to be largely accepted by MS. Moreover, the position of the Joint Research Centre (JRC), which is well linked to the rest of the policies DGs and can provide objective data and research results, is an opportunity for taking advantage of synergies and to build trustful relationships.

The European Commission has worked to overcome some of the common challenges when dealing with knowledge by encouraging collaboration, inside and outside the EC, for knowledge to be created and shared. The Joint Research Centre (JRC) team of the DRMKC, rooted in that idea, works with many sectors and communities to ensure that knowledge is stored and accessible for its use. In the last 3 years, the DRMKC has been growing, disseminating its added value and creating trust among partners through different activities, providing a space for the different types of knowledge to be exploited to finally reduce disaster risk.

https://drmkc.jrc.ec.europa.eu/