A new article published in Risk Sciences proposes "risk sciences" as an emerging interdisciplinary field dedicated to understanding and managing uncertainty across natural, social, economic, and technological domains. The study introduces a three-dimensional framework to organize diverse risk research, aiming to strengthen societal resilience in an increasingly complex world where uncertainty has become a defining feature.
The framework's first dimension focuses on identification and assessment, which involves recognizing risks, evaluating their likelihood and impact, and modeling potential losses or consequences. This dimension incorporates methods ranging from causal risk-factor models used in disaster research to statistical trend analysis common in finance and insurance. The second dimension examines mechanism and strategy, looking at how risks are addressed through concrete tools like risk avoidance, mitigation, and transfer, as well as broader coordinated plans such as national catastrophe risk management systems or international risk governance frameworks.
The third dimension highlights behavior and decision, exploring how individuals, organizations, and institutions perceive risk and make decisions under uncertainty. Drawing on insights from economics, psychology, and behavioral science, this dimension explains why real-world decisions often deviate from purely rational models and how cognitive biases, information asymmetry, and institutional structures shape risk-related behavior. According to Runhuan Feng from Tsinghua University, whose article published (DOI: 10.1016/j.risk.2025.100029) outlines this conceptual framework, "Risk sciences is not a single discipline, but an ecosystem of interconnected research."
This framework matters because it provides a structured approach to addressing interconnected global challenges that traditional disciplinary boundaries often fail to capture. Climate change, pandemics, financial instability, cybersecurity threats, and disruptive technologies like artificial intelligence create risks that span multiple domains and require integrated responses. By bringing together perspectives from natural sciences, social sciences, engineering, economics, and beyond, the risk sciences approach enables more comprehensive understanding of complex risks and more effective response strategies.
The article reviews major research areas shaping the field using this framework, including climate and catastrophe risks, digitalization and cybersecurity, disruptive technologies, and global societal challenges. It identifies emerging trends such as the growing use of network analysis, agent-based modeling, and closer links between academic research, industry applications, and public policy. These developments reflect the practical importance of bridging theoretical understanding with real-world implementation to enhance societal resilience.
The framework's significance extends to how organizations, governments, and individuals approach risk management in daily operations and long-term planning. For industries ranging from finance to technology to healthcare, the integrated perspective offered by risk sciences could lead to more robust risk assessment methodologies and more effective mitigation strategies. The approach acknowledges that risks in modern systems are often interconnected, where a cybersecurity breach in one sector can trigger financial instability in another, or where climate change impacts both agricultural production and economic systems simultaneously.
The article concludes by introducing Risk Sciences, a new open-access journal designed to foster interdisciplinary integration and innovation in this emerging field. The journal's central hypothesis is that synthesizing diverse approaches to risk can help build a shared knowledge base that supports better decision-making in an era of escalating uncertainty. This development signals the institutional recognition of risk sciences as a distinct area of study with practical implications for addressing some of humanity's most pressing challenges.
