The Competence Center for Crisis Management (C³M), founded at the end of the year 2013, integrates the research efforts of the ERCIS network in the domain of crisis management and humanitarian logistics. The main objective is to identify relevant challenges and gaps in current practices of humanitarian organizations and to find adequate solutions in the area of information systems and supply chain management research. C³M integrates a collaborating network of humanitarian logistics organizations, innovative information systems and renowned research groups on crisis management and humanitarian logistics.

C³M investigates the role of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) for logistics and supply chain management in crisis situations. Logistics is the main driver in order to deliver the right relief items and services as fast and appropriate as possible in order to meet the needs of the disaster-affected population. The disaster relief environment sets specific requirements for the use of ICT as an enabler of disaster management. Within the context of supporting the effectiveness of logistics to humanitarian operations, the activities of C³M primarily aim at improving the modeling, analysis, simulation and decision support of humanitarian logistics processes as well as the evaluation and design of of appropriate information systems.