Mission
Established in 2009, the Torrens Resilience Institute (TRI) at Flinders University continues to be a national and international center of excellence in the development of advanced thinking in the concepts of disruption and resilience. Becoming an Institute of Flinders University in 2014, TRI assist Federal and State Governments, emergency services, organisations and society to enhance leadership and management capabilities, thus enabling them to prepare for, and respond better to, disruptive challenges.
Our research program builds on multi-disciplinary expertise, strategic external collaborations and focused internal efforts, to address challenging issues. Our partners have a policy relevant track record of research and advice that bridges the divide between theory and practice and aims to support the strategic intent of building capability and resilience to a broad range of natural and human-induced disasters. In addition, they have contributed to a broader international policy dialogue and can bring that unique global perspective and practice to engagement building for national and community resilience within Australia.
Our work also assists the Federal and State Governments achieve their foreign policy and humanitarian objectives by developing resilient national capacities in the countries of South East Asia and the Pacific Rim.
The vision of the Institute is an Australian nation free of the threat from disruptive challenges, where the security of individuals, communities and organisations is assured.
Mission
The Institute shall assist the Federal and State Governments, the emergency services and organisations in Australia to enhance their leadership and management capabilities, and thus enable them to respond better to disruptive challenges.
This will be achieved by:
(1) conducting evidence-based research that will enable informed decisions to be taken on policy, and to assist the development of resilient systems, procedures and practice;
(2) providing information, management tools and specialist technical advice; and
(3) increasing the knowledge and skills of individual leaders and managers through education, training and resilience-focused workshops and seminars.
In addition to building national, community and organisational resilience within Australia, the work of the Institute will assist the Federal and State Governments achieve their foreign policy and humanitarian objectives by developing resilient national capacities in the countries of South East Asia and the Pacific Rim.
The term “Black Swan” is used to refer to very low probability and high consequence events that are difficult to predict or prevent and can result in truly catastrophic outcomes. Classical risk assessment and risk management approaches tend to focus thinking and action on the most likely and severe disruptive events. The Black Swan concept challenges us to think about the unthinkable. To consider events that may be inconceivable or at least highly unlikely. In addition, hybrid emergencies are not simple to manage nor simple to understand as they transpire nor often, post-event. “Systems failures” such as, for example, in cascading disruptions in wide-area infrastructure networks, are equally complex and difficult to detect. In this space, the TRI works with complex, and operationally demanding public and private organisations (emergency and disaster management designers and decision makers, first responders, health care executives and managers etc.) addressing these issues, and how similar organisations around the world are thinking about these problems. Details of our Black Swan Forums can be found below.
The TRI also incorporates the following:
- Flinders University Research Program for Disaster Nursing-ICNP®
- WHO Collaborating Centre for Mass Gatherings and Global Health Security
- City Security and Resilience Networks Australia (CSARN)
http://www.flinders.edu.au/torrens-resilience-institute/
http://www.flinders.edu.au/torrens-resilience-institute/courses/executive-education-program/black-swans-resilience-and-the-unthinkable.cfm
Voluntary Commitments
The Sendai Framework Voluntary Commitments (SFVC) online platform allows stakeholders to inform the public about their work on DRR. The SFVC online platform is a useful toolto know who is doing what and where for the implementation of the Sendai Framework, which could foster potential collaboration among stakeholders. All stakeholders (private sector, civil society organizations, academia, media, local governments, etc.) working on DRR can submit their commitments and report on their progress and deliverables.