Professor Qiuhua Liang, Co-Director of the IRDR International Centre of Excellence on Informatics and Disaster Resilience (IRDR ICoE-IDR), has been appointed Associate Pro Vice-Chancellor and Director of the new Flagship Institute for Digital Futures at Loughborough University. The appointment follows a competitive recruitment process and has been ratified by the University Senate.

This new role is closely aligned with Professor Liang’s leadership of IRDR ICoE-IDR, a global hub that brings together six leading institutes across Europe and Asia to advance disaster risk reduction through informatics and digital innovation. The Centre harnesses technologies including Artificial Intelligence, data science, digital twins, Earth observation, and high-performance computing to address increasingly complex and systemic disaster risks.

The strategic alignment between the two initiatives will connect the IRDR community’s international expertise with Loughborough University’s wider strengths in digital research. It will support interdisciplinary collaboration and accelerate the translation of research into practical solutions, strengthening IRDR ICoE-IDR’s contribution to building safer and more resilient societies.

For more information: https://www.lboro.ac.uk/internal/news/2026/july/new-apvc-directors-flagship-institutes/.