2 0 1 9 / 2 0 A N N U A L

R E P O R T

National Centre for Resilience

I am delighted to share the 2019/20 National

Centre for Resilience Annual report with you.

2019 was a very productive year for the NCR as

we continued to build on our achievements from

last year. 

We have made significant inroads into realising

our mission and strategic objectives. Continuing

to build evidence that we can bridge the gap

between academia, policy and practice in the

field of natural hazard resilience. Establishing

useful and productive cross sector collaborations

to find practical solutions to real life challenges.

Amongst our successes from this year, we have

funded and ensured delivery of quality applied

and research projects, built on and delivered

against our communications strategy and held

productive knowledge exchange events to

disseminate our research and inform our future

work.

I hope you will find this year’s report interesting

and thought provoking. If you would like to find

out more, please contact the team who will be

delighted to provide you with more detail on

how to get involved.

Pat Boyle

NCR Steering Group Chair

A word from our Chair

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Prof Carol Hill

Head of School of Interdiciplinary Studies

University of Glasgow

In 2019 I was delighted to work with the NCR team to facilitate a series of stakeholder

engagement workshops exploring the challenges faced when working to recover from a

significant disruptive event. A wealth of data was gathered that has been analysed; projects

have been worked up and research commissioned. As a result a work plan was developed to

take the Centre through to at least 2021. Then Covid 19 came. But it hasn’t been all change. In

fact never has understanding recovery been more important. Demonstrating adaptability and

flexibility the NCR is looking at how it can play a role in supporting the national effort to recover

from this current crisis. In doing so it will draw upon all the hard work from the last 12 months,

in particular, the useful and productive cross sector collaborations’ referred to by the Chair in

her welcome above.

 

As policy makers it is important that we ensure that

evidence is at the heart of our work. The NCR seeks

to link policy with practice and research and does

so by creating networks to allow these collaborations

to take place. I would encourage you all to engage

with the conversation.

Suzanne Wilkie

Resilience Division

Scottish Government

I have been involved with the NCR since its inception in 2014 and launch in 2016 and it has been

wonderful to see it forge its identity and grow in knowledge, influence and stature. The past year

has been particularly fruitful and has seen the NCR deliver increasingly valuable outputs as the ties

between academia, policy and practice continue to grow and to strengthen, through workshops

and presentations promoting knowledge exchange and learning across these sectors.

 

As this learning is taken forward, I am excited by the cross-sectoral, cross-organisational

partnerships I have seen developing and the projects they will deliver with the NCR, addressing

not only Scotland’s resilience to natural hazards, but also the

new questions posed as the country responds to and recovers

from COVID-19.

This reflects the interdisciplinarity which is at the heart of

what this School does.

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" W E A I M T O C R E A T E A N D I N T E G R A T EK N O W L E D G E O F N A T U R A L H A Z A R DI M P A C T S B Y P R O V I D I N G A C C E S S T OA N E T W O R K T H A T C O N N E C T SR E S E A R C H E R S , P O L I C Y M A K E R S A N DP R A C T I T I O N E R S S O T H E Y C A N L E A R NF R O M E A C H O T H E R T O I M P R O V ER E S I L I E N C E R E S P O N S E I NS C O T L A N D . "

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Launched in 2016, the NCR is a cross

sector partnership spanning Scottish

universities, government and practice. It

is committed to improving country

wide resilience to natural hazards.

Its Steering Group ensures close

working ties with academic institutions,

government and resilience professionals

from regional and local authorities,

third sector and wider resilience

communities.

 

The NCR is an academic research hub,

using evidence to inform policy and

practice. It bridges the gap

between academia, policy and practice

by promoting cross sector partnerships,

encouraging each to learn from the

other to improve resilience when

planning for, responding to and

recovering from natural hazard events.

The NCR utilises existing knowledge and

commissions new projects to answer

real life issues faced by resilience

practitioners and communities. Using its

networks, it creates links for researchers

to help them adapt their project

outputs into tailored briefings and tools

for end users and then maximises the

potential use and impacts of this

work by disseminating research outputs

beyond the immediate

project stakeholder group and into the

wider resilience audience.

The National Centrefor Resilience

AN I N TRODUCT ION

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STRATEG IC D IRECT ION

In 2019 we published a revised strategic framework to

support our mission.

We set out six key goals to deliver within the first year of

our two year programme addressing challenges caused

by the effect of natural hazards on people within the

recovery phase.

These goals were designed to ensure strong

organisational focus and direction promoting cross

sector working and a strong interdisciplinary approach to

ensure that our outputs make a positive impact on the

recovery phase.

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In 2019 we expanded our Steering Group, welcoming the Regional Resilience

Partnerships (RRP) to ensure that our governance is led by a broad representation

of resilience experts across academia, policy and practice in Scotland.

By ensuring that the NCR is led by a strong core of cross sector resilience experts we

can work closely with our partners to increase the relevance and reach of our work,

thereby strengthening the key pillars that underpin the organisation.

You can find a full list of Steering group members and organisations on page 17.

ORGAN I SAT IONAL

GOVERNANCE

Research PracticePolicy6

Expanded

digital

platforms

7 Research papers

3 Case studies

5 executive

summariesEffective

dissemination

Resilience course

database

Cross sector

knowledge

exchange

events

WHAT WE D ID TH I S YEAR

DeliveredResearch projects

Developed

Published

Applied projects

Facilitated Events

Facilitated

cross sector

partnerships

Funding

calls

Supported

academic

project

proposals

Partnership

Expansion

Summary Reports

Network

expansion

Identified

practitioner

challenges

Newsletter

reach

increase

Focused

theme

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R e c o v e r y i st h e k e y t h e m ef o r o u rp r o g r a m m e o fw o r k f o r 2 0 1 9 -2 0 2 1

In 2019 we made one call for fundingapplications. The quality of this year’sapplications was very high and wereceived a large number of excellentproposals. We saw a broad cross section of researchand applied projects split across themesthat support our aim to address recoverychallenges and which clearly promotedcross sector collaboration.  The projects selected for 2019 deliverywere reviewed by our fundingassessment panel on their individualmerits and scored against our strategicobjectives. Not all project applications could befunded. However, we would like to thankall of the project teams for applying andwould encourage them to submit furtherapplications in future funding calls.

20 1 9 /20 PROJECT

DEL IVERY

Research PracticePolicy

88 88

Community FloodingTHE CONSERVATION VOLUNTEERS

Flooding Good Practice FrameworkSCOTTISH FLOOD FORUM

When does response end and recovery begin?UNIVERSITY OF GLASGOW

Building a movement:Community development & resilience in response to extreme eventsUNIVERSITY OF STIRLING

The role of local business in community resilience to natural hazardsUNIVERSITY OF GLASGOW

Hot spots of Scottish community resilienceSCOTLAND'S RURAL COLLEGE

Developing a digital floodevacuation modelROBERT GORDON UNIVERSITY

DEL IVERED PROJECTS

We funded the following applied and research projects

in 2019/20:

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Flooding good practice frameworkScottish Flood Forum

We commissioned the SFF to deliver a series of pick up and go resources

that provide information for professionals who support flood risk

communities. This project worked collaboratively across sectors to deliver

easily accessible online tools that help to improve preventative and reactive

skills.

https://www.gla.ac.uk/media/Media_723515_smxx.pdf

https://scottishfloodforum.org/resources/local-authority-assistance/

  

Community Flooding The Conservation Volunteers  

This project delivered new training, empowering community volunteers and

schools to monitor, record and alert local councils to flooding hot spots.

Training provided skills to proactively clear debris to prevent future flooding

and build preventative measures to guard against, plan for and recover from

flooding emergencies. It promoted strong cross sector relationships and

collaborative working between communities, schools and councils and

proved that a scaled up approach could to be rolled out nationally.

https://www.gla.ac.uk/media/Media_723516_smxx.pdf 

  

Developing a Digital Flood Evacuation Model for ClimateChange and Wellbeing. Mabon, L. and Jiang, Y. (2019)   

This project developed a 3D virtual reality model to simulate the flooding of

an urban space in real time. Showing how a built-up area is likely to flood

can help emergency services, local governments and community leaders to

consider how a flood might unfold in their local area, helping them to be

better prepared for future contingencies in the event of extreme weather.

It used lived experiences from the effects of Storm Frank on the Ballater

community as a basis to work collaboratively to develop a prototype model

for future development and practitioner collaboration.

 

http://eprints.gla.ac.uk/206588/1/206588.pdf

 

20 1 9 /20 PROJECT PUBL I CAT IONS

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20 1 9 /20 PROJECT PUBL I CAT IONS

Hot Spots of Community Resilience in Scotland. Meador, E. (2019)

This project produced an open access database for resilience experts and

practitioners to help them clearly understand the level of resilience related

facilities that are available in rural communities across Scotland. It

highlights areas of strong and weaker levels of resilience by identifying

individual community infrastructures that are currently available and in

place.

http://eprints.gla.ac.uk/206589/1/206589.pdf

The Role of Local Business in Community Resilience toNatural Hazards. Clelland, D. (2019)

This report looks at the level of business engagement within community-

level activities that specifically plan for and respond to the impacts of

extreme weather and other emergencies.

http://eprints.gla.ac.uk/191629/1/191629.pdf

Building a Movement: Community Development andCommunity Resilience in Response to Extreme Events. Engstrom, S., Docherty, P. J. and Robertson, T. (2019)

This project explored ways local and international communities are

impacted by and react to extreme events. It captured good practice

models in community resilience to inform and link Scotland to

international developments and good practice objectives by identifying

existing policy, practice, legal and conceptual systems/frameworks that

engage and work with communities to promote resilience to natural

hazards.

http://eprints.gla.ac.uk/206109/1/206109.pdf

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20 1 9 /20 PROJECT PUBL I CAT IONS

When Does Response End and Recovery Begin? Exploringpreparation and planning to support community’sresilient recovery.Baxter, H. (2020)

This project looks to provide academic insight, recommendations,

mechanisms and illustrative tools to help emergency responders and

resilience practitioners to identify appropriate approaches to

incorporate into their natural hazard emergency response planning and

preparation in order to maintain community social capital in the

immediate aftermath of natural hazard events and support the Scottish

climate change adaptation programme.

http://eprints.gla.ac.uk/216387/1/216387.pdf

Climate Change, Climate Justice & Mental HealthKnowledge Exchange. Ingle, H. and Jafry, T. (2019)

This event looked to start the conversation on the effect of climate

change on mental health in Scotland and internationally.

http://eprints.gla.ac.uk/184477/1/184477.pdf

Creating the Conditions for Community Resilience:Aberdeen, Scotland—An Example of the Role ofCommunity Planning GroupsBaxter H (2019)

https://rdcu.be/bzZRV

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In 2019/20 we took an evidence based approach and selected one key theme forinvestigation and project delivery. We embarked on a knowledge exchange approachthat sought to create strong and productive cross sector collaborations andpartnerships between policy, practice and academia. We collaborated with partners andorganisations to promote our work and engage our core audiences exploring keythemes that informed our outputs and future planning.  Utilising our growing network, we promoted the translation and integration of scientificevidence and best practice to address real life issues. We did this through disseminationof case studies and executive summaries and hosting events that provided space foracademics to present their outputs to policy makers and practitioners. We continue tolearn and understand the challenges that are faced, the best practice that is used andthe research that is in existence with the aim to build an overview of the resiliencelandscape in Scotland.   We asked practitioners to explore their experiences in recovery and identify challengesand requirements, this helped shape our programme. We then engaged academics tohelp identify practical solutions to resolve the identified practitioner challenges andneeds.   We delivered against a communications strategy designed to maximise our work andoutputs. We extended our organisational reach to relevant audiences through our digitalplatforms and network, using clear and consistent messaging and marketing. As we move into the second year of our recovery programme we are building on thework that we have achieved this year.

20 1 9 /20 KNOWLEDGE EXCHANGE

AND COMMUN ICAT IONS

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BU I LD ING KNOWLEDGE EXCHANGE

Research and practice collaborationscreated

Cross sector research output dissemination

Research presentations

Case study dissemination

Research network expansion

Knowledge gap identification

Academic symposium: Skimming theCream – Developing potential to builddairy farmers’ resilience in Malawi andScotlandin partnership with University of Glasgow School of

Veterinary Medicine and Lilongwe University of

Agriculture & Natural Resource

Resilience in Farming – Scotland and Malawi -Royal Agricultural Showin partnership with Scotland’s Rural College (SRUC) and

Lilongwe University of Agriculture & Natural Resource

Improving Recovery NationalResilience Responder and Practitionerworkshops in partnership with Scottish Government and

Scottish Flood Forum

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Annual report releasedStrategic objective framework publishedOnline content developmentSocial media campaignsNCR relaunch eventsIncrease of newsletter reach Media engagement press releases/interviews Networking at conferences 

    

20 1 9 /20 COMMUN ICAT IONS

H IGHL IGHTS

O U T P U T SO N L I N E

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A I L S A M A C K A Y

C E N T R E M A N A G E R

K A Y L E I G H P A R K E R

P R O J E C T A N D C O M M U N I C A T I O N S

O F F I C E R

MEET THE TEAM

P R O F C A R O L H I L L

U N I V E R S I T Y O F G L A S G O W

S U Z A N N E   W I L K I E

S C O T T I S H G O V E R N M E N T  

P R O F F A B R I C E R E N A U D  

R E S E A R C H D I R E C T O R

  D R H E L E N B A X T E R

R E S E A R C H A S S O C I A T E

P A T B O Y L E  

S T E E R I N G G R O U P C H A I R

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Pat Boyle Independent Chair 

Carol Hill Head of School of Interdisciplinary Studies, University of Glasgow 

Charlie Coull Head of Resilience, Scottish Government

Suzanne Wilkie Head of ScoRDS, Scottish Government 

Fabrice RenaudProfessor in Environmental Risk/Community Resilience, University of Glasgow 

Ian LiskHead of Environmental Hazards and Partnerships, Met Office/Natural Hazards Partnership 

Kirsty MacRaeDirector, Scottish Flood Forum 

Clive MurraySenior Resilience Coordinator, North of Scotland RRP (Scottish Government) 

Ross BairdSenior Resilience Coordinator, East of Scotland RRP (Scottish Government) 

Keith ColvilleCorporate Emergency Planning and Business Continuity Officer, North of Scotland RRP (Perth

and Kinross Council)

Martin OgilvieLocal Authority EU-Exit Contingency Planning Co-ordinator, West of Scotland RRP (Dumfries and

Galloway Council) 

Ailsa MackayCentre Manager, National Centre for Resilience 

David BeardsSenior Policy Officer, Scottish Funding Council 

Anne-Marte BergsengKnowledge Exchange, Communications and Adaptation Research Manager, ClimateXChange

Diane McKainStrategic Relationships Manager, Met Office

Mark WellsCorporate Support Manager, SEPA 

Helen ReevesScience Director of Engineering Geology and Infrastructure, British Geological Survey

NCR STEER ING GROUP

Bridging the gap between research, policy & practice

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 @ResilienceScot 

nationalcentreforresilience@glasgow.ac.uk

glasgow.ac.uk/ncr 

CONTACT US

NAT IONAL CENTRE FOR RES I L I ENCE

MAXWELL HOUSE

THE CR ICHTON UN IVERS I TY CAMPUS

DUMFR I ES

DG 1 4UQ

THE NAT IONAL CENTRE FOR RES I L I ENCE I S FUNDED BY

THE SCOTT I SH GOVERNMENT AND I S HOSTED BY THE

UN IVERS I TY OF GLASGOW

REPORT PREPARED BY A I L SA MACKAY

THE UN IVERS I TY OF GLASGOW CHAR I TY NUMBER SC00440 1

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