Both climate research community and disaster management community have significantly advanced the understanding of past and future changes, causes and consequences. Yet a barrier hinders the flow of knowledge/ information between the two communities in reducing exposure and vulnerability and increasing resilience, which requires the integration of knowledge from both communities. The Institute of Advanced Studies in Climate Extremes and Risk Management (https://www.wcrpclimate.org/extremes-risk-summer-school-overview) aims to bridge this gap by providing an environment in which world-lead experts from the two communities are brought together to learn from each other on a mutual topic of extremes and risk management. Through the form of a summer school, future leaders in the two disciplines will benefit from the training supervised by experts to be familiar with aspects of the other disciplines. This activity, to be undertaken in Nanjing from 21 October to 1 November 2019, is organized by the World Climate Research Program (WCRP), in collaboration with Future Earth, International Research on Disaster Risk (IRDR), SysTem for Analysis, Research and Training (START) and Nanjing University of Science and Technology (NUIST). The initiative was endorsed by the International Panel for Climate Change (IPCC) and the International Science Council (ISC).