Share

GEM’s Vitor Silva Receives Prestigious ASCE Award

GEM’s Head of Risk Engineering, Vitor E. Silva, has been awarded the Walter L. Huber Civil Engineering Research Prize by the ASCE. The prize recognises his significant contributions to regional seismic risk assessment through collaborations, open data/software, and machine learning. The award ceremony will be held on October 10 at the ASCE Annual Convention in Seattle.

New Part-Time Regional Coordinator Joins GEM

GEM has welcomed Jamal Dabbeek, former GEM PhD student, as a new part-time collaborator. As the Arab States Regional Coordinator, Jamal will focus on seeking funding and collaboration opportunities, promoting GEM’s software and data, engaging the community in developing the North Africa seismic hazard model, and organising a GEM/OpenQuake training course in Arabic.

GEM Secretary General Presents at Aon IF EMEA Team Meeting

Helen Crowley, GEM’s Secretary General, delivered a presentation at the Impact Forecasting UK & EMEA Team Meeting in Prague. The session highlighted the fruitful three-year partnership between Aon IF and GEM and explored future areas of collaboration, such as exposure modelling and forecasting. The meeting provided an opportunity to strengthen ties and discuss ongoing partnership initiatives.

GEM Reflects on a Milestone Year: 2024

Before moving forward into 2025, the Global Earthquake Model (GEM) Foundation looks back at 2024 - a year of significant achievements, innovations, and strategic collaborations enhancing global earthquake resilience. Discover the key moments and milestones from 2024 in GEM’s Year in Review.

Read more: https://www.globalquakemodel.org/GEMNews/gem-2024-year-in-review

GEM Experts Lead PSHA Training at METIS Online Course

GEM’s Manuela Villani and Kirsty Bayliss led sessions on probabilistic seismic hazard analysis (PSHA) as part of the EURATOM METIS online training. The course, coordinated by SSTC NRS and RPTU Kaiserslautern-Landau, focused on advancing seismic safety assessments for nuclear reactors in Europe. Participants explored the application of OpenQuake and METIS tools in seismic hazard modelling.

GEM Celebrates 16 Years of Advancing Earthquake Risk Science

The Global Earthquake Model (GEM) Foundation marks 16 years of pioneering open, science-based tools and data to reduce earthquake risk worldwide. Founded on a vision of global resilience, GEM continues to shape policies and collaborations through cutting-edge seismic hazard and risk models. Explore GEM’s journey and future initiatives.

Learn more: GEM’s Work – products, projects, and vision to 2030

GEM Develops Embodied Carbon Service with BED (Build Environment Data)

GEM has developed a new Embodied Carbon service under the auspices of the Built Environment Data (BED) initiative. The service provides critical data on the embodied carbon linked to seismic damage repair and replacement and is supported by the EPOS-ON project. GEM aims to expand the service to global coverage in the future.

Explore the European service: https://maps.eu-risk.eucentre.it/map/european-seismic-embodied-carbon-viewer/#4/52.48/7.34

GEM’s FORCE Project Concludes

The FORCE (Forecasting and Communicating Earthquake Hazard and Risk) project has ended due to funding cuts and restructuring at USAID. Funded by USAID’s Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance, FORCE aimed to strengthen seismic risk assessment in El Salvador, Bhutan, Nepal, and the Southwest Pacific. GEM remains committed to advancing earthquake resilience and is actively seeking new funding opportunities. (see LinkedIn message)

Learn more: https://www.globalquakemodel.org/proj/force

GEM Launches PAPERS Project

The Global Earthquake Model (GEM) Foundation has launched the PAPERS project (Piattaforma Analisi Pericolosità E Rischio Sismico), an initiative aimed at developing a new WebGIS platform for scenario hazard and risk assessment in Italy. The project has been funded as one of the cascade grants launched by the High-Performance Computing, Big Data e Quantum Computing Research Centre, one of the five National Centres established by the Italian National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP), under Spoke 5 - Environment and Natural Disasters. The first training workshop of the project related to the use of the OpenQuake engine was successfully conducted online on April 1st, 2025, marking the first in a series of planned training events. This first workshop also served for exploring potential third-party contributions to models that could be integrated into the platform.

Learn more: PAPERS webpage - https://www.globalquakemodel.org/proj/papers-gem

GEM Joins RENOMIZE Project to Promote Sustainable Renovation

GEM has joined the EU-funded RENOMIZE project, which aims to revolutionise renovation practices through automation and optimisation. Supported by CINEA, the project aims to reduce costs and environmental impact by streamlining the renovation process with cutting-edge technologies.

GEM’s Physical Vulnerability Lead, Al Mouayed Bellah Nafeh, participated in the kickoff meeting in Klagenfurt, Austria, sharing insights on integrating risk-informed approaches into sustainable renovation. Testing will take place in five countries: Switzerland, Spain, Estonia, France, and Belgium.

Learn more: RENOMIZE Project - https://www.globalquakemodel.org/proj/renomize 

GEM Celebrates UN Women’s Day and Women and Girls in Science

In celebration of International Women’s Day and the International Day of Women and Girls in Science, GEM reaffirmed its commitment to gender equality in STEM. Guided by GEM’s Gender Equality Strategy, the foundation strives for inclusivity and equal opportunities, highlighted by a 0% gender pay gap among its scientific staff in 2024. GEM continues to promote diversity through awareness, training, and equitable career growth.

Learn more: GEM’s Gender Equality Plan - https://www.globalquakemodel.org/gempublications/gem-foundation-gender-equality-plan