Research Project: Justice-oriented STEM Education Interventions for Youth-centred Disaster Resilience: Horizon Europe bid development

Climate- and health-related disasters, such as floods, extreme heat and pandemics, disrupt young people’s safety, learning and futures, and they do not affect everyone equally. Yet disaster education is often technical and generic, and pays little attention to who is most exposed.

This project brings together researchers in education, health and geography at Southampton with partners in Germany, Estonia and South Korea and the Association for Science Education. Together we will develop a framework for disaster education that helps young people use science, maths and technology to understand hazards, risks and data, while asking whose knowledge counts in preparing for and recovering from disasters. We will review existing research and policy, run partner workshops, and consult educators, community organisations and young people themselves.

The framework will form the basis of a major international funding bid to the European Union’s Horizon Europe programme.

Project Duration: September 1, 2026–July 31, 2027

Funded by: Sustainability and Resilience Institute, University of Southampton

Project Structure

The collaborative project is led by Dr. Wonyong Park at the University of Southampton. The following project partners are involved: 

University of Münster, Germany
Serious games and technology-enhanced risk education; geography and biology; pre-service teachers
Prof. Dr. Benedikt Heuckmann

University of Tartu, Estonia
Scenario-based approaches to education; a strong national school network
Prof. Regina Soobard

Ewha Womans University, South Korea
Hazard literacy, justice-oriented pedagogies, socioscientific issues; science centres
Prof. Hyunju Lee

The Association for Science Education, UK
Largest UK subject association; international practitioner networks
Marianne Cutler

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us at benedikt.heuckmann@uni-muenster.de.