This summer’s Governing Board meeting of the Global Earthquake Model (GEM), took place on 25-26 June 2015 in Pavia, Italy. GEM has been a long-standing partner of IRDR and aims to effectively contribute to enable commitments to disaster risk reduction under SFDRR by providing communities and organizations with state-of-the-art tools and data, technology transfer and training and risk assessment projects. SC member Djillali Benouar from Algeria attended on behalf of IRDR.

The governance meeting approved John Schneider as new secretary General elect and elected Mauro Dolce from the Italian Civil Protection agency as new Chair of Governing Board. It was reported that, in addition to IRDR, UN-Habitat and UNDP are considering joining as associate participants.

Nominations for the science board were invited that would add to the board’s expertise in physical risk / vulnerability / risk modelling, or in socio-economic impact / resilience / integrated risk research. Proposed candidates should also be able to demonstrate leadership experience in organizations related to earthquake risk assessment and / or disaster risk management and an ability to contribute to providing strategic and practical guidance in view of the priority needs for development and sustainability of GEM Foundation.

The meeting discussed GEM’s projects and, in particular, how GEM can contribute to the post-Nepal earthquake April 2015 strategy. The GEM Governing Board approved GEM’s support through N-SET to construct the official earthquake hazard map of Nepal. Efforts to implement the Sendai Framework were also discussed and the next board meeting will take place on December 3-4 2015 in Pavia.