Mission

To prepare society for future pandemics and disasters, founding partners Erasmus MC, Delft University of Technology, Erasmus University Rotterdam, and Gemeente Rotterdam have joined forces in the Pandemic and Disaster Preparedness Center (PDPC). As part of the Convergence, this initiative aims to reduce vulnerabilities and risks and build resilience through effective disaster prevention, preparedness, and recovery measures.

We are on a mission to:

• Conduct top-level research on pandemics and disasters.
• Establish science-based methods, techniques, and innovation paths relevant to preparing for pandemics and disasters.
• Train the next generation of scientists and experts in fundamental and translational research on pandemics and disaster preparedness.
• Develop prevention and intervention measures and translate them into an improved pandemic and disaster preparedness, response, and recovery.
• Co-create, collect, and share knowledge on disasters and pandemics.

Vision

The current crisis painfully demonstrates how vulnerable our society has become to disasters. Due to climate change and globalization, our society can expect many more unforeseen virus outbreaks and extreme events. Densely populated areas and urban deltas are at additional risk of disruptive events such as a rise in sea levels and extreme weather events.

To prepare for future pandemics and disasters, we need to build, test, and implement innovative models that combine knowledge and field data from various sources and scientific disciplines. With these, we can characterize and predict ecosystem resilience and vulnerability to outbreaks. Convergence of the technical, medical, and social sciences is essential to develop the next generation of approaches and create a resilient society. With the urban delta Rotterdam as our case study, we can develop preparedness measurements to implement internationally.

Read more about the past and current research projects, living labs and the PDPC academy in the handout from 2025 and the booklet from 2022.