The decade of years 90 was of especial importance concerning the emergencies and disasters that impact the health of the population. By one side, the evidence of an increasing impact of natural disasters caused that the United Nations Organization started up the International Decade for the Reduction of Natural Disasters (IDRND). On the other side, an important increase in the number and severity of the man made disasters and complex emergencias took place, especially in center of the African continent, with crisis like those of Zaire and Rwanda. As a result of it, numerous institutions started up initiatives oriented to the improvement of the capacity of prevention and response to the emergencias and disasters, from the technical scope of the international public health.

In the above mentioned context, the Emergency and Disaster Research Unit was promoted in 1995 by a group of health professionals from the University of Oviedo Department of Medicine, the Central University Hospital of Asturias, and the Emergency Medical Services of Asturias to promote, develop research, teaching and technical support activities in Emergency Medicine and Public Health in disaster situations as well as its related fields. The Unit is also in charge of the management of the Spanish National Disaster Database

The Unit is associated with the Emergency Relief Network (ReliefWeb) of the United Nations Department of Humanitarian Affairs and has a regular jointly program of teaching and research activities with the Institute of Health Carlos III (Spanish National School of Public Health and National Center for Tropical Medicine) in Madrid and with the Centers for Disease Prevention and Control (CDC-NCIPC) of the United States of America.