As many as 10 VU Amsterdam and UT researchers are participating in the Adapt! Consortium. Over the next ten years, Adapt! will investigate which cultural, social and policy capacities are needed to cope with major crises. It will receive a Gravity Grant of EUR 23 million for this purpose from the Dutch Research Council (NWO).
Giving meaning to adversity
Societies are increasingly plagued by floods, pandemics and terrorist attacks. These crises threaten not only the well-being and security of a society, but also the cohesion and unity within it. Adapt! wants to contribute to how communities can give meaning to adversity, while maintaining connection and solidarity, and how governments can encourage this. It does so, among other things, by learned lessons from around the world and looking back at crises experiences from the past 200 years.
Combining disciplines
Adapt! brings together researchers from five different universities, led by historian Beatrice de Graaf (Utrecht University). Together, they combine insights from different disciplines such as psychology, history, philosophy and public administration. To create lasting impact, the Adapt! Academy will be established, bringing together research, education and practice. In a newsmail later this year, an interview about the project will be published with principal investigators Rik Peels (VU Amsterdam) and Ellen Giebels (UT).
