About the Centre

DARM is both a Research Centre within the School of Health and Social Sciences and an umbrella organisation bringing together university groups with an interest in risk, risk assessment and risk management. Within the research centre our research is currently focused, mostly, on the development and application of decision-making and risk management strategies in public health, occupational safety and the environment (natural and built). However, the Centre takes a multidisciplinary approach, which encompasses the natural scientific, socio-economic, psychological, legal, philosophical, ethical, and communication dimensions of risk management.

All aspects of life involve decision and risk. Many of these decisions and risks are simply part of life, and are therefore not consciously made or understood. However, professional decisions and risks are often controversial. Decisions about the environment and health care are frequently examined by scientists, clinicians, patients, pressure groups, the courts, the news-media, and academics. Yet they are rarely explored from multiple perspectives simultaneously. Similarly, the impacts of commercial and business risk decisions are seldom taken using holistic methodologies. Each group starts from its own values and preconceptions and uses specific, favoured methods of analysis - which is one of the reasons why risk issues tend to be controversial. Factors that are important from other perspectives are either frequently omitted from consideration or are inadequately expressed.

Few centres conduct extensive, multi-disciplinary research into decision-making and risk management - yet this is precisely what is needed to bring about balanced decisions about how best to manage risk in today's increasingly complex and diverse societies. Consequently, the DARM rationale is to seek to determine and understand the common features of decision making, to examine critically the diverse models and methodologies employed for the technical assessment of risk and to develop a common approach to managing their outputs. This is possible since, while the risk assessment methodologies that are emerging from professional studies are diverse and specialised, risk management strategies may be similar and generalised.

DARM Directors

The backgrounds of the DARM management team members are very different (encompassing both science and philosophy). Nevertheless, their interests and concerns are surprisingly coincident. All have developed strong lines of inquiry into decision-making processes and have lengthy records of publication and international reputations in this area.

David Ball was formerly Director of the Centre for Environmental and Risk Management at UEA and has published 150 or so papers and reports on risk assessment and risk management. These address technical aspects of risk, as well as social, economic, legal, psychological and communication aspects. He has worked on a wide range of topics including transport safety, nuclear safety, radiological protection, occupational safety, consumer safety, food safety, the built environment and environmental protection.

John Watt is the Senior Lecturer in Risk Management and Decision Analysis and co-ordinator of the Centre. He was previously a research fellow at Imperial College (in Urban Geochemistry) and at Middlesex University (in Air Pollution). He has published more than 80 papers, conference contributions and reports in a number of fields including risk management, building damage, cost/benefit analysis applied to air pollution impacts, applied geochemistry and computer controlled electron microscopy. His recent research looks at effects of air pollution on heritage in modern, multi-pollutant atmospheres and the implications for policy on air quality and heritage protection. Other research interests include communicating risk and risk education.

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