PART three OF OUR 10TH ANNIVERSARY INTERVIEW SERIES
Research and science sit at the very heart of the JBA culture - says lead scientist Professor Rob Lamb. It’s a commitment and philosophy that is underlined by JBA’s support of the ongoing work and output of the JBA Trust – an independent charity, where Rob is Managing Director.
The mathematics around extreme wave formation, sensitivity analysis around flood catastrophe models, and modelling the impact of climate risk to business on the value chain are just some of the really exciting ongoing PhD research projects that the JBA Trust currently sponsors.
This external investment in the scientific community driven by the JBA Trust aligns with JBA Risk Management’s ethos, which focuses on the importance of being at the forefront of leading science.
A not-for-profit foundation and registered charity established ten years ago, the Trust has its own legal identity and board of directors and was purposely created as a charity, reflecting its mission to deliver public benefit.
It is funded by a mixture of financial investment from the JBA Group and the donation of staff time and resources – with almost 50 employees across JBA having already contributed their time to the Trust so far this year.
Our support for ground-breaking research has two key drivers – it supports the mission of the JBA Trust as a charity to deliver public benefit, and it provides JBA with the opportunity to be ahead of the curve on our understanding of new developments which feed into our own Research and Development.
We have developed real long-term partnerships with the majority of the academic research groups in our field and the major universities – including Lancaster, Oxford, Leeds, Bristol, Newcastle and many more.
The fruits of these labours are already significant and include work led by Oxford University which demonstrates that man-made climate change is already influencing flood risk.
This project, which also included research by my old employer, the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology in Wallingford, showed that the fingerprints of climate change were all over the 2013 UK floods and, significantly for the insurance market, that it is already contributing to some of the risk and losses we are experiencing now.
Science is and will remain core to JBA.
That is partly why, as a hydrologist and numerical modeller by training, I joined the group back in 2002, as I was confident that its commitment to my profession was genuine.
We also have built a strong track record in working with research institutes and universities across the UK – and internationally - with many of my colleagues also hailing from this same research community.
And it is the scientific rigour behind our work, combined with a real thirst for technical innovation, which ensures that the models, code, software, and algorithms that underpin our work at JBA are solid, robust, and cutting edge.
We are not a company that will rest on its laurels, and our ongoing involvement in, and support for, major research projects continues with the latest research on global infrastructure due to be published in the near future – so watch this space…
This is part three of a series of interviews with the JBA team over the coming weeks. Read the rest of the series here.
For more information on JBA's work, get in touch with the team using the form below.
JBA Trust is an independent charity that that aims to improve the understanding and management of risks in the water environment by enabling research, education and training. Its supported by the JBA Group of companies and facilitates collaboration between academia and industry to deliver high quality scientific research. JBA Trust publishes and disseminates research outputs, enables knowledge exchange and shares good practice. For more information, visit www.jbatrust.org
