Dear Colleague

I encourage you to attend an important event on Wednesday 14th September 2011, in the development of a new programme of research and knowledge exchange in the area of Probability, Uncertainty and Risk in the Environment (PURE).  The PURE programme will bring together researchers, industrialists and policy-makers in uncertainty and risk for natural hazards.

The origins of PURE were the approval in May 2010 by the Council of NERC (the Natural Environment Research Council) of an Action of Assessment and Quantification of Uncertainty and Risk in Natural Hazards.  This Action is designed to significantly change the way in which uncertainty and risk are assessed within Natural Hazards (NH) science by developing new methods for the assessment and quantification of uncertainty and risk.  It aims to propagate best practice and a drive towards standardisation, across the wider NH community.

Two high level goals reflect the structure of the action: 

1)         to improve the assessment and quantification of uncertainty and risk in NH, by developing new methods and demonstrating their applicability to enhance the uptake of NH science; and
2)         to stimulate good practice guidance and standardisation of uncertainty and risk across the NH community.

Goal 1 will be addressed by a PURE Research Programme, to be established in early 2012, in response the NERC Announcement of Opportunity (closing date 11 Oct 2011:  http://www.nerc.ac.uk/research/programmes/pure/events/ao.asp ).  The PURE Knowledge Exchange Network will support the work of the Research Programme and also address Goal 2.

The event on 14th September will be held in the Old Library at Lloyd's of London and consists of two sessions. The first session is a Brokerage Session for researchers, users and policy-makers who are interested in the PURE Research Programme ( http://www.nerc.ac.uk/research/programmes/pure/ ). The second session will launch the PURE Knowledge Exchange Network ( https://ktn.innovateuk.org/web/pure ). You may register for one or both sessions, which will run as follows:

12.30: Arrivals for Brokerage Session and Lunch 
13:30: Start of the Brokerage Session 
15:30: Arrivals for the PURE Network Launch and Tea 
16:00: Start of the PURE Network Launch and Drinks Reception 
18:00: Close

Registration is required prior to attending.  To register for this event, please complete the online form:

http://www.industrialmath.net/registration/pure_event_request.html

by Tuesday 6th September.  Please do forward this invitation to others, if you believe they may be interested in attending the event.

Yours sincerely

Robert Leese

Director, PURE Knowledge Exchange Network, KTN for Industrial Mathematics, Surrey Technology Centre, Guildford, GU2 7YG