Risk Analysis, Vol. 34, No. 7, 2014 DOI: 10.1111/risa.12132 Perspective Foundational Issues in Risk Assessment and Risk Management Terje Aven 1, * and Enrico Zio 2,3 This is a perspective article on foundational issues in risk assessment and management. The aim is to discuss the needs, obstacles, and challenges for the establishment of a renewed, strong scientific foundation for risk assessment and risk management suited for the current and future technological challenges. The focus is on (i) reviewing and discussing the present situation and (ii) identifying how to best proceed in the future, to develop the risk disci- pline in the directions needed. The article provides some reflections on the interpretation and understanding of the concept of “foundations of risk assessment and risk management” and the challenges therein. One main recommendation is that different arenas and moments for discussion are needed to specifically address foundational issues in a way that embraces the many disciplinary communities involved (from social scientists to engineers, from behav- ioral scientists to statisticians, from health physicists to lawyers, etc.). One such opportunity is sought in the constitution of a novel specialty group of the Society of Risk Analysis. KEY WORDS: Foundations; risk assessment; risk management 1. INTRODUCTION Risk assessment and risk management are widely used today. A number of approaches and methods for how to assess and manage risk are well estab- lished, and supported by approved standards and guidelines. However, the risk assessment and risk management fields still suffer from a lack of clarity on many key scientific pillars. Lack of consensus on even basic terminology and principles, lack of proper sci- entific support, and justification of many definitions and perspectives adopted lead to an unacceptable sit- uation for operatively managing risk with confidence and success. Previous attempts to discuss risk assessment and risk management foundational issues, and reach a 1 University of Stavanger, Stavanger, Norway. 2 Ecole Centrale Paris and Supelec, Ch ˆ atenay-Malabry Cedex, France. 3 Politecnico di Milano, Milan, Italy. ∗ Address correspondence to Terje Aven, University of Stavanger, 4036 Stavanger, Norway; terje.aven@uis.no. consensus on them, date back to the 1980s and 1990s, with particular efforts from the nuclear risk community. Nowadays the techniques of risk assessment and risk management have matured through research and application, and new insights have also been gained on definitions, perspectives, and challenges. New technologies have been (and are continuously being) deployed, new conceptual frameworks have arisen, and even a new generation of risk researchers has entered the scene, possibly with different educa- tional backgrounds and cultivated skills. In this changed panorama, foundational issues are rarely looked back to in the scientific commu- nity nor are they discussed in journal publications and presentations at scientific conferences. The typi- cal research work that is put forward in the commu- nity regards new methods for solving specific prob- lems or for providing insights into specific problems. These are valuable contributions from the points of view of both advancing knowledge and solving prac- tical problems, but we also need to make reflections 1164 0272-4332/14/0100-1164$22.00/1 C  2013 Society for Risk Analysis