BEIJING—A Letter of Cooperation to establish the International Programme Office of the Integrated Research on Disaster Risk (IRDR) Programme has been signed by the programme’s sponsors and Chinese counterparts. The IRDR co-sponsors—the International Council for Science (ICSU), the International Social Science Council (ISSC) and the United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UNISDR)—signed the agreement in Beijing in February. The China Association for Science and Technology (CAST) will provide annual financial support to the office for 10 years. The office will be located in the new headquarters of the Center for Earth Observation and Digital Earth (CEODE) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), situated on the edge of Beijing.