Resilience, the ability of a system to bounce back from a "surprise" is a concept fundamental to a variety of disciplines and fields. Scholars from five of these disciplines - ecology, human immunology, human development, computer science, and law/policy - who are interested and experienced in the study of resilience will participate in a collaboration to identify common themes. A senior and junior researcher within each field will participate in a conference where current work is shared and a research project is designed that can test a jointly developed hypothesis. From this multi-disciplinary collaboration, new insights in our understanding of resilience will be obtained. In addition, the project will test some ideas about how multidisciplinary groups work together to tackle complex problems.
Long-term outcomes of this effort will be applicable to critical national goals such as preparing our nation and local communities for surprises such as terrorist attacks and natural disasters. This project is envisioned to be the beginning of a long-term collaborative effort in resilience with a goal of developing multidisciplinary education on how systems can be managed to improve their ability to bounce back.
