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As GEM’s first Working Programme (2009-2013) draws to a close, the GEM Foundation presents to partners, collaborators and stakeholders worldwide, ”Celebrating achievements & looking forward”, GEM vision document for global earthquake risk assessment and a sustainable future for GEM.

”The document celebrates GEM’s journey from the idea of a handful of determined individuals, to what has now become a global community, a solid reality and an authoritative voice in earthquake risk assessment globally” said Rui Pinho, GEM Secretary-General.

Right from its inception, GEM chose the less travelled road to increase earthquake resilience, building its work and community around the principles of openness, transparency, inclusiveness, equitable access, solid science and collaborative work across sectors, geographies, and disciplines. At the end of GEM’s first Working Programme, GEM’s unique approach has proven to be the right one; the breadth and wealth of tools and resources developed and being developed, through the involvement of global scientists and stakeholders, is advancing the science and technology needed for global state-of-the-art seismic hazard and risk modelling, data collection, and risk assessment at scales from global, to regional and national.

This strategic document shares the successes but also the challenges and the issues that GEM needs to address as it moves towards its second Working Programme (2014-2018). Long-term impact and sustainability are crucial for the achievement of GEM’s mission. From 2014 onwards, GEM’s focus will shift towards practical implementation, public communication and development of datasets and tools at a local scale, to increase the applicability of the products in the OpenQuake platform for reliable risk mitigation.

GEM will look at different collaboration opportunities in order to permeate different levels of risk management, and transfer and translate GEM products into accessible resources at different levels of governance from global to regional, to local. With the support of current and future partners, collaborators and stakeholders worldwide, GEM will continue to engage in a wide range of partnerships to advance the science required to assess the risk of the complex interconnected systems within which we live, and increase resilience to earthquakes globally.