This proposal continues the PERI fellowship (PERIship) program for PhD students, developed by the Public Entity Risk Institute and the Natural Hazards Center at the University of Colorado. This program will fund up to ten merit based fellowship grants to PhD candidates performing dissertation research in any academic field relevant to natural, technological and human-made hazards, risks and disasters. Relevant academic fields include, but are not limited to, the natural, physical, social or behavioral sciences, engineering specialty programs, and interdisciplinary programs such as environmental studies. By fostering the development of scholars who have a career-long commitment to research in the hazard, disaster and risk management fields, these fellowship grants will increase the nation's future research capacity and infrastructure and contribute to knowledge and practice in these fields. This project is a partnership of the Public Entity Risk Institute-a nonprofit grant-making organization that seeks to improve the practice of risk management in public entities, small nonprofits and small businesses-and the Natural Hazards Research and Applications Center-a national and international clearinghouse for information on natural hazards and the human adjustment to them.
