SoCRISP

Crises preparedness is more urgent than ever as crises grow more frequent and intense amid accelerating climate change, and the increasing interconnectedness of modern societies. Yet crises preparedness often overlooks the social complexity of human behaviour, both in how people respond during crises and how they prepare for them. Human behaviour is heterogeneous, context-dependent, uncertain, and shaped by individual- and group perceptions, decisions, resources, emotions, and cultural norms. When preparedness plans fail to account for this diversity or the lived experiences of practitioners and citizens, critical gaps emerge. Information may not reach all citizens due to digital, linguistic, or cultural barriers, or may be incomplete, leaving people unaware of essential actions like evacuation routes. Understanding and integrating this complexity is therefore essential for preparedness efforts to be realistic, equitable, and effective. SoCRISP addresses these challenges by combining social and behavioural insights, stakeholder engagement through Agent-Based Social Simulation (ABSS) and complementary methods to enhance crisis preparedness. The needed competence is built by training 15 doctoral candidates in inter- and transdisciplinary skills, emphasising the integration of social, behavioural and experiental knoweldge through ABSS to capture social complexity. SoCRISP’s innovative training program, grounded in real-world stakeholder networks, equips scholars to navigate the social complexities of crises prepardness and link theory with practice. Across 15 interdisciplinary studies in Europe, covering diverse stakeholders and crises, SoCRISP fosters a holistic understanding of crisis preparedness. Ultimately, SoCRISP advances crisis preparedness by training a new generation of interdisciplinary scholars to embed the nuanced realities of human behaviour into crisis preparedness – an urgent need in a world where crises are becoming more frequent and interconnected.