The University of Georgia and Duke University are partnering with leaders from the insurance and climate data industries to launch the Center for Innovation in Risk, Catastrophes, and Decisions (CIRCAD), a new initiative focused on insurance innovation and large-scale climate risk mitigation research.
Funded by a five-year, $1.5 million grant from the National Science Foundation, CIRCAD will convene researchers, insurers, policymakers and community stakeholders to rethink how risk is assessed, mitigated and insured in a changing climate, translating research into real-world financial and policy solutions. Using an industry-university collaborative research model, the center will include eight founding industry members that will collectively contribute over $500,000 annually to the effort.
“Our partnership with industry through CIRCAD ensures that the research we do is not only academically rigorous but immediately relevant to the insurance sector,” said Marc Ragin, associate professor in the C. Herman Terry Risk Management and Insurance Program at the University of Georgia Terry College of Business and site director for CIRCAD at UGA. “By aligning our research with industry priorities from the outset, we can accelerate the development of practical tools and models that help communities and insurers manage climate risk together.”
“Insurance companies need new ideas and strategies that account for the challenges of climate change and that can be modeled or tested at some capacity before being implemented at larger scales,” said Mark Borsuk, the James L. and Elizabeth M. Vincent Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Duke and director of the new center. “CIRCAD allows us to be an impartial party that can think through and pilot these studies with communities in a way that private insurers often cannot.”
Finding new ways to protect property and build resilience
One pressing challenge for the industry is property insurance for homes in high-risk areas. Increased rebuilding costs and more frequent large-scale disasters have made insurance providers wary of taking on too much climate-related risk. This has led to significant price increases and fewer options for consumers, with some insurers pulling out of the most at-risk communities entirely.
What if, instead, communities came together to self-insure some of their disaster risk? With careful planning and the right partnerships, residents could reduce the exposure that has been driving insurers away. This setup would also help residents understand the best way to protect their homes and provide clear incentives to do so, since reduced risk directly benefits them and their communities.
“This isn’t yet a widespread approach, but we want to explore its potential for a broader set of hazards and locations,” Borsuk said. “It would also provide an opportunity to rethink the finance mechanisms and distribution of reimbursements, which can have important equity implications.”
CIRCAD will also work on improving the climate risk models that drive insurance prices by better accounting for local-scale risk mitigation measures. This approach will incentivize communities to design and implement effective risk-reduction plans. CIRCAD faculty, including Duke’s Lydia Olander and UGA’s Todd Bridges and Matt Bilskie, have unique expertise in “nature-based” solutions, which include the use of restored coastal reefs, marshes, islands and dunes to protect communities from storm surge and waves.
At the same time, the center will help close the gap between the abundance of climate research and data currently available and what insurers need for both short- and long-term decision-making. Currently, data reporting formats, standards and platforms lack consistency. CIRCAD will improve the quality and accessibility of data for insurers, policymakers and at-risk communities.
In parallel to its research mission, CIRCAD will serve as a hub for professional training and workforce development, engaging students, postdoctoral researchers and practitioners in applied, interdisciplinary learning. These efforts will strengthen the sector’s technical capacity and position the insurance, reinsurance and financial services industries as central actors in advancing national resilience.
“This center will train the next generation of leaders who understand both the science of climate risk and the economics of managing it,” said Ragin. “Through joint courses, internships and co-op programs, students at both Duke and UGA will gain hands-on experience working with insurers, engineers and policymakers to put resilience research into practice.”
CIRCAD builds on the foundations established by RESILE at Duke and the Institute for Resilient Infrastructure Systems (IRIS) at the University of Georgia—two university-wide resilience initiatives that helped lay the groundwork for industry partnerships and data-driven risk research. Early support from Duke’s Pratt School of Engineering and Office of Climate and Sustainability, together with UGA’s Terry College of Business, was instrumental in fostering the interdisciplinary collaboration that made CIRCAD possible. The center’s first projects will be announced in early 2026 following consultation with its founding industry members.
Solving complex problems requires interdisciplinary collaboration
Addressing the risks of climate disasters demands expertise that spans engineering, policy, economics, and the natural and social sciences. CIRCAD’s leadership reflects this breadth, bringing together researchers from across Duke and the University of Georgia to link cutting-edge science with practical solutions for insurers, policymakers and communities.
At UGA, Marc Ragin and Matt Bilskie serve as site directors, with Todd Bridges as head of public–private partnerships. Bilskie and Bridges are both affiliated with UGA’s Institute for Resilient Infrastructure Systems (IRIS), whose mission of advancing community resilience aligns closely with CIRCAD’s goals and provides additional expertise and resources. James Marshall Shepherd of UGA’s Atmospheric Sciences Program serves as head of weather and disaster science for CIRCAD.
At Duke, Mark Borsuk shares site leadership of CIRCAD with Lydia Olander, program director at the Nicholas Institute for Energy, Environment & Sustainability. Mercy Berman DeMenno, executive in residence in Duke Engineering, serves as head of strategy, and Sara Oliver, also an executive in residence in Duke Engineering, leads CIRCAD’s education and training initiatives. CIRCAD also benefits from the participation of Francis Bouchard, Duke’s inaugural climate leader in residence and a longtime executive in the insurance and reinsurance industry, who serves as head of industry engagement, ensuring that the center’s research aligns with emerging industry priorities and opportunities for innovation.
With interdisciplinary leadership and strong partnerships across academia and industry, CIRCAD will translate research into real-world tools for managing climate risk. By helping communities and insurers move from reacting to disasters toward anticipating and reducing risk, the center fosters a more adaptive, innovative, and resilient approach to risk management.
(Written by Ken KIngery at Duke University)