In addition to planning, managing and facilitating our own research, the Fire Protection Research Foundation (FPRF) provides its Research Advisory Services program, which works to actively support universities and other academic institutions conducting fire safety research consistent with NFPA’s mission (to make the world safer from fire and other hazards).
FPRF’s Research Advisory Services provides a wealth of guidance, input and resources on a broad range of fire safety issues, including fire loss, emergency response, the fire service, disaster resiliency, fire data, smart firefighting, sustainability, and electrical hazards, to name a few.
Our in-reach and out-reach services include (but are not limited to) the following efforts:
- Help identify and submit research proposals, with FPRF acting as a sub-partner/contractor and the organization submitting the proposal (i.e., a university) taking the lead.
- This arrangement is typically established before the proposal is submitted, although the Research Foundation can still become involved after a project is underway if additional funding is available.
- Create an advisory panel to help identify and/or clarify a research project’s scope, focus and audiences/constituencies.
- Other methods, such as workshops, are often developed to coordinate advisory guidance throughout the project and solidify stakeholder engagement.
- Identify appropriate channels for communicating research efforts, including audiences/constituencies that will ultimately benefit from its findings, and ensure awareness among those groups.
- FPRF assists in getting the final report and project deliverables to the target audience in a format and manner that will have the most impact, along with providing distribution among NFPA’s codes and standards writing committees and memberships of key organizations.
- Identify organizations that may be able to provide funding for a project.
- Bolster and enhance grant submittals, offering insight into what federal grant programs are specifically looking for.
The benefits of working together are two-fold:
- The FPRF can significantly strengthen a proposal in a competitive evaluation process by demonstrating that the deliverables will have impact.
- NFPA’s constituency and others are provided access to the latest state-of-the-art research, which supports and enriches their ultimate needs and objectives.
Research Advisory Services Fees
The FPRF offers its Research Advisory Services for a fee that the research submitter leading the project would write into their proposal. The fee typically represents a small fraction of the overall project budget.
Please complete our one-page Research Summary Form (PDF, 23 KB) to provide a brief overview of your upcoming research project. From there, we can begin to identify how our Advisory Services can work with you. All information provided to the Research Foundation will be held in the strictest confidence.
To find out more about how the Research Foundation can assist your research efforts, please contact:
Casey Grant
Executive Director
Fire Protection Research Foundation
+1 617 984-7284