The international, interdisciplinary research group, Maritime Risk and System Safety (MaRiSa) was established by Jens-Uwe Schröder-Hinrichs, Kevin Thomas Girxi, Michael Manuel and Michael Baldauf at the World Maritime University in 2009. The main aims of the foundation of the group were (and still are) to form a powerful international interdisciplinary team of researchers to bring together competencies and expertise from diverse fields of knowledge, to concentrate research activities in the global field of maritime safety and security, to better coordinate formerly separated individual activities, to realize benefits by ensuring synergies between interdisciplinary researchers and to build and strengthen the profile of research at WMU.