During the past decade, the European Union has funded many research projects in the fields of crisis management and resilience. The research results of these projects have contributed to the evolution of the respective theoretical frameworks and shaping of requirements for practical applications. The purpose of this paper is to review the results and outcome of these projects aiming at identifying and shaping the evolution through EU funded research of the knowledge background regarding the resilience discourse. Based on the review of the research outputs from 15 examined research projects a relevant term map is created that identifies the main concepts involved, namely resilience, vulnerability, adaptive capacity, adaptation, and interdependency. These terms are then subjected to content analysis and various contextual and conceptual perspectives are analyzed and presented. The findings suggest that variations in contextual and conceptual assumptions and considerations still prevent from establishing a common reference framework of definitions for the specific research fields. While there is a clear course of evolution regarding the conceptualization of systemic notions, followed by an equally evolving trend to adopt more holistic, multidisciplinary research and operational approaches, there are still theoretical inconsistencies and issues that require further elaboration and clarifications. The results of this research provide useful insight that can support a unified framework and future research directions for resilience management.