Maximum Information, working with a consortium of academic and industry collaborators and in partnership with Innovate UK, has secured funding to build global resilience to cyclone impacts. Cyclones, known regionally as hurricanes, typhoons and windstorms, are large weather systems associated with intense winds, precipitation and storm surge. These events can inflict devastating economic losses and cause significant loss of life in affected communities. Partnering with experts from the London School of Economics, University of Reading, and Aon, MaxInfo will spearhead the development of new risk-transfer frameworks which enable more effective anticipatory action and post-event response.

Increasingly accurate weather and climate prediction models available from inter-governmental research institutions enable us to anticipate cyclone impacts and take action before a cyclone strikes. By coherently combining anticipatory actions with post-event-focused interventions, this project has the potential to reduce the number of lives lost, to lower reconstruction costs and to pre-emptively mitigate societal impacts of cyclones. However, there are practical barriers to deploying tools with such expansive aspirations, such as discontinuities in data availability and coherence between sectors, and knowing when, where and under what conditions specific actions should be triggered to work most effectively.

The consortium of MaxInfo, LSE, University of Reading, and Aon - alongside representatives from humanitarian agencies such as the International Federation of Red Cross - proposes to overcome these challenges by developing the Hazard Impact Tracker (HIT): a software platform that empowers disaster risk managers from multiple sectors to effectively and collectively respond to cyclone impacts worldwide. Core aspects of the project include a new global cyclone dataset and a sector-agnostic decision-making framework, both of which will be made open-access to benefit scientific and humanitarian research communities.

Dr Tom Philp, Founder and CEO of Maximum Information, comments on the award: “With the support from Innovate UK, we are in a position to join forces with top-tier universities, private market institutions, and humanitarian aid agencies to pioneer new approaches to risk transfer for the benefit of for-profits and non-profits alike. This consortium can transform the way insurance as well as aid agencies manage cyclone risk across the world”.

Emma Karhan, Head of Public Private Partnerships Aon UK, says: “Building a model and framework that can allow anticipatory action to be insured will change the ability for the humanitarian sector to access contingent financing – particularly as climate change continues to negatively impact the affordability of traditional disaster risk financing products. Aon is excited to bring its expertise to this important cross-sector collaboration supported by Innovate UK, and build something truly beneficial for both climate finance and for our clients in the humanitarian sector. We have first-hand experience of how advanced risk modelling driven by robust data and analytics can unlock risk management opportunities for a range of organisations, ultimately helping to shape better decisions”.

Maximum Information is a growing technology company committed to increasing societal resilience to disasters through evolving risk modelling of natural hazards.

University of Reading: the Department of Meteorology at the University of Reading (UoR) is one of the largest of its kind in Europe and carries out internationally leading research on physical and dynamical processes in the climate systems; it also hosts National Centre for Atmospheric Science (NCAS) which is a world leader in atmospheric science.

London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) is a world-leading centre for research and education in the social sciences.

Aon plc (NYSE: AON) exists to shape decisions for the better — to protect and enrich the lives of people around the world.

Innovate UK, part of UK Research and Innovation, is the UK’s Innovation Agency. Innovate UK is creating a better future by inspiring, involving and investing in businesses developing life-changing innovations.