The corona crisis painfully demonstrated how vulnerable our society has become to disasters. The resources we had at our disposal could not cope with the enormous scale of the pandemic or were insufficiently validated. Apart from medical implications, it has also given rise to societal problems, such as loneliness in young adults and growing inequality.

Research at PDPC aims to answer questions related to society at large. Prof. Pearl Dykstra, Professor of Empirical Sociology at Erasmus University Rotterdam: ‘Working together, we must and can use insights from multiple disciplines in the fight against future pandemics and disasters; to address the consequences for social division in society, for example. The complexity of pandemics, disasters, and their aftermath means that a multidisciplinary approach is required.’