The meeting, chaired by Dervilla Mitchell of Arup, brought together 12 IAB members along with representatives from the Department of Transport and UKRI EPSRC.
The session began with updates on the DARe Hub’s progress from DARe Director Prof Phil Blythe (Newcastle University), followed by an in-depth discussion on defining resilience, led by DARe’s Co-Investigator Dr Kristen MacAskill (University of Cambridge). Another highlight of the meeting was a presentation on Agent Based Modelling for extreme weather events in Tyneside, as presented by DARe Researcher Dr David Alvarez-Castro (Newcastle University).
The diverse expertise of the attendees fostered rich discussions and provided valuable feedback for the Hub’s ongoing activities. The positive engagement of IAB members was evident, as they raised pertinent questions and offered insights that will inform the Hub’s future direction.
Overall, the meeting was a great success, demonstrating the beneficial composition of the IAB and its positive impact in driving forward the Hub’s programme.
The Hub is thankful to Arup, not only for providing a great space to hold the event, but also for providing an opportunity to hear about Arup’s transport and climate adaption and resilience work prior to the IAB meeting, and allowing IAB members to visit the ExperienceLab and SoundLab before travelling home.
DARe’s Independent Advisory Board meets every six months and is crucial to assure the quality of the Hub’s research programme. The mandate of the IAB is to constructively critique and review progress of the Hub’s research programme and provide advice and guidance to strengthen the programme, over the duration which the Hub is funded.