The Joint Research Centre

The Joint Research Centre (JRC) is the European Commission’s science and knowledge service which carries out research in order to provide independent scientific advice and support to EU policy making. Its scientific work supports a whole range of EU policies in a variety of areas from agriculture and food security, to environment and climate change, as well as nuclear safety and security and innovation and growth. As the European Commission’s knowledge and science service, the JRC plays a central role in creating, managing and making sense of collective scientific knowledge for better EU policies. It hosts special laboratories and other research facilities that directly contribute to policy making with their research, expertise, and findings. With respect to droughts, JRC works on diverse aspects of monitoring, assessing and forecasting droughts at spatial scales ranging from regional to global. This includes the assessment of drought exposure and vulnerability for different economic sectors in the frame of a pro-active risk management. On the operational side, the Joint Research Center developed and manages the European Drought Observatory (EDO), thereby providing fundamental information and data on droughts across the entire European continent. JRC also develops a Global Drought Observatory (GDO) in order to provide tools for the monitoring and forecasting of droughts and their likely impacts in different parts of the world.

  • Provides information on droughts to relevant bodies
  • Develops methodologies for vulnerability and impact assessment
  • Runs drought monitoring and early warning systems
  • Develops methods for risk assessment
  • Provides scientific evidence base for risk assessment, drought preparedness and drought response
  • Provides information to support evidence based response to natural and man-made disasters
  • Advocates for pro-active risk management
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