The 6th APRU-IRIDeS Multi-Hazards Summer School was held on 24-27 July at Tohoku University. The summer school was attended by more than 30 students and faculty members from 18 universities and organizations mainly in the Asia Pacific Rim (China, Indonesia, Afghanistan, Malaysia, Mexico, Philippines, Singapore, Turkey and U.S.A ). It also welcomed nearly 40 participants from the Northeast Asia Economic Forum’s Young Leaders Program. In total more than 70 people participated in this event to learn the lesson-learnt and experience from the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami, the recovery effort in the affected area and discuss the contribution of academia in the implementation of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (SFDRR).

At the opening ceremony, Prof. Hideo Ohno (President of Tohoku University), Ms. Christina Schönleber (Director for Policy and Program, APRU Secretariat), and Prof. Fumihiko Imamura (Director of IRIDeS) gave the opening remarks. The speakers included the faculty members of IRIDeS, Univerisity of California, Davis, University of Hawaii, Manoa, the local government officials of Tagajo City. Moreover, the speakers were invited from NGO (Church World Service (CWS) Japan) and an elementary School in Watari town affected by the 2011 disaster.

At the first Group Work, the participants shared their research findings using their posters. Furthermore , at the second Group Work, each group developed a DRR project proposal that applied and used their research results/findings. During the field trip on the Day 2, the participants visited the affected areas such as Arahama Elementary School in Sendai, Okawa Elementary School in Ishinomaki and Onagawa town.