Boundaries & Resilience Workshop

École des Mines, Sophia-Antipolis, France

26-28 June, 2023

Recent disasters and extreme contexts (ranging from earthquakes, floods, and the Covid-19 pandemic to cyberattacks) remind us of the importance of cross-border resilience. For instance, during the first wave of Covid-19 in Europe, border closures and lengthy controls significantly delayed the supply of goods that were urgently needed. In the coming years, more diverse and intense disruptions are likely to occur (including war, terroristic attacks, pandemics, natural and human disasters). They challenge the capacity of all types of systems – including societies, organizations or even markets - to absorb shocks. These shocks ignore frontiers. They affect infrastructures, activities and populations in crossborder regions that have been growingly supporting our globalized societies and economies.

More generally, engineering and managing secure, resilient, and robust systems will require full consideration of all sorts of frontiers, borders and boundaries. Countries and organizations will need to cooperate across technical, political, cultural and organizational barriers, at local and international levels, both in public and private sectors. However, how frontiers, borders and boundaries support or impede resilience remains partially understood and requires new capacities and knowledge.

The planned workshop pursues a double goal: First, training young talents and doctoral/master students in the field of cross-border resilience. Second, initiating and nurturing a dialogue across disciplines (economics, sociology, informatics, management, etc.), occupations, and countries in the field of cross-border cooperation. The skills necessary for cross-border resilience should be specifically addressed and expanded in the workshop to support future scientists and professionals.

Hence the workshop covers a large spectrum of topics, including but not restricted to the following ones:

- Cooperation between countries, organizations and corporations for resilience;

- Sustainability and resilience issues in cross-border activities;

- Capabilities developed by resilience actors to manage cross-border obstacles;

- Diversity of boundaries affecting the development of resilience capacities. 

The workshop is funded by the German French University (www.dfh-ufa.org) and will synchronize with the 10th Resilience Engineering Conference (www.resilienceengineering10.org) that will take place in Sophia-Antipolis, France, between 26th and 30th of June, 2023. It is primarily designed to welcome a range of doctoral students, master students, and young researchers.

Important dates:

- Deadline to submit abstract for application: 15th of May 2023

- Notification of acceptance: 22th of May 2023