Mónica Amaral Ferreira, a researcher at Instituto Superior Técnico / Civil Engineering Research and Innovation for Sustainability (CERIS), has taken over the presidency of the Board of the European Centre on Urban Risks (CERU) for the 2025-2028 triennium. The swearing-in ceremony took place on 24 May 2025.

‘Taking on the presidency of CERU is a duty to contribute to strengthening urban resilience in the face of increasingly complex, interdependent and unpredictable risks’, says Mónica Amaral Ferreira. The Técnico researcher also highlights CERU’s role in sharing technical and scientific knowledge about risks, both nationally and internationally, to strengthen prevention and improve response capacity in the event of a disaster.

CERU’s work focuses on urban reality, developing projects in partnership with local authorities, universities, civil society organisations and technical bodies, in the areas of training, institutional capacity building, promoting resilience and raising risk awareness.

Among the priorities for the new mandate, Mónica Amaral Ferreira highlights the strengthening of cooperation and the enhancement of training and capacity-building activities. ‘We aim to develop pilot projects with entities, companies and civil society organisations, promoting a culture of prevention’, she stresses, adding that she intends to create partnerships with government, academic, public and private entities, aspiring to implement programmes with a direct impact on communities.

CERU, established in 1999, is a private non-profit association, endorsed by the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and falls within the framework of the EUR-OPA Major Hazards Agreement, established by the Council of European that brings together 22 countries from Europe and the Southern Mediterranean, aiming to promote international cooperation to ensure better prevention, protection against risks and better preparation in the event of major natural or technological disasters.