Centre for Risk Informed Science and Policy (CRISP)

About CRISP: Echoing the applied mission of risk analysis, CRISP will translate new knowledge into actionable guidance to inform policies in areas of crucial societal importance, for example, pandemics, climate change & security. CRISP will articulate its work around four thematic areas:

1. Risk Science. Profs. Aven and Flage will generate and stimulate foundational research on risk. The particular focus on conceptual clarity will underpin the formulation of a common language among thematic areas as well as strengthening the conceptual strength of policy advice and guidance.
2. Risk Evidence. Profs. Guikema, Balog, Payne and Abrahamsen will develop research on making use of the risk concepts to strengthen the quality of the evidence supporting risk decisions. They will address the challenges of emerging digital and automated approaches to health care and environmental decision making.
3. Risk Communication. Profs. Bouder, Lund Petersen, Löfstedt and Dr. Pettersen Gould will lead research on better understanding public preferences to support effective communication in the growing post-trust and post-truth environments.
4. Risk Governance. Profs. Renn and Hegland Engen will focus research on systemic challenges and regulatory / governance architectures while articulating the coherence of CRISP’s scientific advice.
   

CRISP's objectives

CRISP is designed to generate scientifically integrated evidence on risk. It will develop concepts, theories, principles, approaches and existing and emerging methods to offer practical guidance for supporting policies and decision-making related to risk. Its scientific focus will be on systemic challenges that affect risk analysis, e.g. automatisation, post-trust & post-truth environments. Its investigative focus will be on high impact societal issues that require integrated advice, e.g. pandemics, climate change & security.

• The centre’s primary object is to develop a unique interdisciplinary centre that will be the main contributor to risk science in Norway and worldwide.
• Its secondary object is to develop theories, methods, and practical guidance to support the development of evidence, interventions and policies to mitigate against poorly informed risk-behaviour, from institutions to everyday lives.

Research questions

Major issues involving risk abound and the vulnerabilities resulting from a more inter-connected and digitalised world are rapidly increasing the stakes of being able to deal with them. Research puzzles for CRISP include:

• How to govern pandemic response in ways that maintain acceptable public health outcomes and sustainable economic and social relations for all?
• How to systematically structure the health/economic trade-offs of the response?
• How to balance risks and benefits of various options to meet the objectives of a carbon-free economy?
• How to understand and facilitate social acceptance of new energy choices?

Current research approaches designed to tackle major risks from climate change to Covid19 suffer from severe methodological weaknesses that derive from their very narrow view of what scientific disciplines and methods should contribute. CRISP will join together the methodologies that have been successfully developed among the seven branches of risk analysis to achieve the scientific goals of the centre. For instance, although not exclusively, statistical and computer science will be the main contributors to risk assessment. Economics valuation methods will support risk characterization. Social science mixed methods (e.g. content analysis, surveys, interviews and ethnographies) will be used to understand risk perception, risk communication. Policy analysis will also draw on elite interviews. Group Delphi, Cross-Impact Analysis, and Narrative Discourse Analysis will be used to research the complex systemic questions of risk governance.

Impact

CRISP will contribute to the development of an internationally leading research environment in Norway by mobilising a team of world-renowned risk scholars, from Norway, Europe and the USA. One key advantage of establishing the centre at the University of Stavanger (UiS) is the ability to build on the pre-existing knowledge and research experience accumulated over decades of risk assessment and management research. UiS has built an international reputation across the different disciplines of risk and has already made strong impacts in distinct sectors such as petroleum and climate change. UiS competence in journalistic and media research will also feed into CRISP’s Risk Outreach station, as ensuring that research results are framed, phrased and conveyed in the best format to decision-makers and the general public.

The Centre for Risk Informed Science and Policy (CRISP) has applied for Norwegian Centres of Excellence (Sentre for fremragende forskning – SFF).