PRIO has been awarded $US700,000 in funding by the Complex Risk Analytics Fund (CRAF'D) for its cutting-edge research into a revolutionary early warning system that assesses the impact of conflict and climate shocks on humanitarian needs.
VIEWS, PRIO's Violence and Impacts Early-Warning System, has been awarded the funding because of its research to reshape forecasting for disasters and conflicts, and safeguard vulnerable communities like never before.
VIEWS is a research collaboration between PRIO and Uppsala University in Sweden, directed by PRIO Research Professor Håvard Hegre, that brings together three interrelated research projects: the Political Violence Early-Warning System, Societies at Risk and Anticipating the Impact of Armed Conflict on Human Development projects.
"This funding award to our early-warning system signifies the importance of investments in conflict prevention, and the impact they have in saving lives and livelihoods," says Paola Vesco, lead researcher in the project.
The funding awarded to PRIO is part of a larger $4 million investment by CRAF'd in analytics and artificial intelligence to address climate fragility risks and strengthen the global risk ecosystem. CRAF'd is investing this money to help spearhead a data-driven revolution in crisis action.
With support from multilateral partners, the funds will go towards six projects, including the one at PRIO, that harness advanced analytics and artificial intelligence to address climate fragility risks and strengthen the global risk data ecosystem. The winning projects were selected with the support of leading scientists from a highly competitive pool of 60 applicants.
"These projects are seeds that we are planting for a stronger risk data ecosystem. With careful cultivation, they will grow into powerful tools to help us tackle climate risks and improve crisis action for people and the planet," said Ambassador Thomas Zahneisen, Co-Chair of the CRAF'd Steering Committee and Deputy Permanent Representative of Germany to the United Nations.
