Centre for the Study of Existential Risk (CSER) is an interdisciplinary research centre within the University of Cambridge that studies existential risks, develops collaborative strategies to reduce them, and fosters a global community of academics, technologists and policymakers working to safeguard humanity.

Support from the Future of Life Institute over the last year has, in particular, enabled CSER to fund a full five-year position for its next Director. Professor Matthew Connelly will serve as Director beginning July 2023. It wouldn't have been possible to recruit a Director, and of this caliber, without FLI's support.

The director's work will support research and impact across a range of activity. In 2022, this included:

• Publishing 24 publications, including in leading journals like Nature, Nature Sustainability and the Proceedings of the National Academies of Science. This includes widely-covered and agenda-setting papers on Climate Endgame: Exploring catastrophic climate change scenarios and Huge volcanic eruptions: time to prepare.
• Hosting a biannual Cambridge Conference on Catastrophic Risk, a fortnight programme of intensive engagement, a dozen academic visitors and several workshops. These grow and foster the academic community working on existential risks.
• Advising governments and international organisations on existential risks. This includes the UN Secretary-General, the UK, the EU, the US, WHO, BWC, OECD and more. This has covered general resilience and pandemic preparedness after the pandemic, nuclear risks of the Russian invasion, and AI/AGI finally arriving on the political agenda.
• Engaging the public in these crucial issues with extensive, worldwide media engagement.