The UK’s Department for International Development (DFID) as well as the research councils NERC and the Economic & Social Research Council (ESRC) have launched a new programme with substantial funding for Science for Humanitarian Emergencies & Resilience (SHEAR).

The SHEAR programme focuses on four main areas: (1) disaster risk assessment (mapping and analyses), (2) sub-seasonal to seasonal forecasting, (3) disaster risk monitoring, and (4) the integration of these into practical decision making. The programme is targeting lower to middle income countries across sub-Saharan Africa and south Asia, focusing on the co-production of knowledge using a multi-disciplinary and problem-centred approach. This new international research programme is jointly funded by the three UK agencies but open to applicants globally, in line with the programme guidelines.

NERC research will specifically address:

• Hydrological controls on landslide risk as part of multi-hazard risk assessment.
• Real time monitoring of risk, for example satellites and big data.
• Applications of weather and climate forecasting.

This overall aim will be to improve the characterisation of the hydrological controls on natural hazards thereby enabling better prediction of their occurrence and scale, with a focus on landslide risk.