Computational models for enhanced crisis preparedness

When and Where:
27 - 31 January at the Lorentz Center @Oort in Leiden, The Netherlands

Scientific Organizers:
Francesca Giardini, University of Groningen
Loïs Vanhee, Umeå University
Jason Thompson, University of Melbourne 

Short Description:
This Lorentz workshop brings together a collection of agent-based modelers, social scientists, disaster experts, and policy-makers in an attempt to create better modeling processes and better crisis models. The unique contribution of this workshop consists in bolstering scientific advancements in inter- and trans disciplinary methods, but also in establishing a new research tradition centered on computational models for enhanced crisis preparedness and response.

   The workshop will be conducted along 4 scientific themes exemplified by some open questions
        that the participants will collaboratively address:
1) Trade-off between urgency and accuracy: How can agent-based modeling and simulation contribute to preventing public health crises?
2) Psychological and behavioural realism: How should agents and agent interactions be modeled in ways that generate transparent, explanatory, and predictive behaviour with regard to crisis preparedness and management?
3) Data, evidence and tools: What kind of data is already available to validate and calibrate   models of humans in crises and what does the advancement of modeling platforms and computational power have in store for social simulation?
4) Meaningful interactions with policy makers: How can greater trust between modelers, domain experts, policy-makers, and decision-makers be created that overcomes existing communication barriers and enhances the status of computational social science in crisis planning and management?