Building a secure and resilient society.
The Centre for Active Resilience and Security (CARS) was established by the Institute for Security Science and Technology (ISST) in 2023. CARS is an Imperial Centre of Excellence and is the flagship initiative delivering the resilience pillar in Imperial Futures, part of Imperial’s ‘Science for humanity’ strategy.
Increasingly transcending threats from cyber, biological, physical, environmental, and social domains exist in our increasingly connected world. CARS’ mission is therefore to work with academics, industry, government and broader society to build a secure and resilient world.
Why active resilience?
Strengthening active societal resilience is a priority in the UK and around the world.
Governments recognise the compounding and increasingly complex challenges we face. Threats from the climate crisis, geopolitics, cyberattacks and beyond demonstrate the need for more proactive management of our critical infrastructure. Effective, sustainable solutions require a 'whole-of-society' approach to resilience, backed by reliable evidence and actionable recommendations to inform policy and decision-making.
Our approach
CARS will undertake research and innovation, community building and engagement, and provide education and development opportunities. CARS will serve as Imperial’s global hub for resilience research; highlighting, promoting, enhancing, supporting, and connecting activities related to improving societal resilience.
As seen in the success of the ISST, CARS will drive inter- and transdisciplinary collaboration, as well as knowledge integration across sectors.
CARS aims to become an integrated, human-centric, whole-of-society, diverse and inclusive, sustainable hub with system-of-systems approaches and evidence-based policy recommendations for stakeholders to strengthen societal and economic resilience.
CARS is led by Professor Washington Yotto Ochieng (Head of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Interim Director, Institute for Security Science and Technology), Professor Julie McCann (Vice-Dean (Research), Faculty of Engineering), and Professor Jonathan Eastwood (Professor of Space Physics and Deputy Head of Department (Physics) for Infrastructure and Health & Safety).