In 2015, the University Board of Governors approved the creation of the McMaster Institute for Multi-hazard Systemic Risk Studies (INTERFACE). The INTERFACE institute is envisioned as a multi-disciplinary platform focused on systemic risk assessment, analysis, and management under multiple and interacting hazards within the built and natural environment systems across the globe. The institute works at the interfaces between natural sciences, engineering, social sciences, and health sciences in partnership with key private and public sectors and academic institutes worldwide. The INTERFACE institute is structured as a world-class Level VI Knowledge Mobilizer that aims at enhancing the resilience of complex systems by developing systemic risk-based tools through truly interdisciplinary teamwork.

Mission / Vision

With our societies across the glob being made up of a large network of interconnected and interdependent systems, global disasters have demonstrated the need for a disruptive Vision to create innovative holistic interdisciplinary solutions that require experts from different fields to work together, outside their own silos, to address societal grand challenges. Through the above vision, our team members’ Mission is to ensure the network-level resilience of the built and natural environment interdependent systems across the globe.