There is a need for geotechnical design, construction, and other aspects of practice to keep pace with the globalization pressure to harmonize across national boundaries, the regulatory pressure to harmonize with structural engineering, rising public expectations in health & environment, and increasing complexities of big projects with their associated financial and insurance risks. There are significant practical, educational, and research challenges. These challenges are quite unique to geotechnical engineering because of the complex uncertainties and variabilities in the geo-environment and our relatively slower pace of embracing risks more explicitly and more systematically in practice and education in contrast to other disciplines. In response to these challenges, there is a groundswell of related activities taking place in national code committees and international professional societies, within and without geotechnical engineering.? A series of thematic symposiums/workshops related to limit state design has been organized since the early nineties. The time is ripe to form a network to promote coordination between related groups, to broaden participation beyond geotechnical engineering, to garner support from stakeholders from the industry and government agencies, and to support a more regular series of activities. The idea for a geotechnical safety network grew out of a series of discussions. A call for the establishment of a network was made by KK Phoon on behalf of all concerned parties during the discussion forum (chaired by CT Chin) at Taipei 2006. The Geotechnical Safety Network (GEOSNet) was formed after the first meeting held on 3 Nov. 2006. The First International Symposium on Geotechnical Safety and Risk (ISGSR2007) is the first major event jointly organized between Tongji University and the Geotechnical Safety Network (GEOSNet), under the initiative of HW Huang. Shanghai is the ideal venue for this inaugural event given the volume and complexity of underground projects and the pressing need for risk assessment and management techniques. One key purpose of ISGSR2007 is to grow GEOSNet into a common platform where all concerned parties in research, industry, and government can participate in a constructive way to debate and advance topics relating to geotechnical safety and risk.