As a research affiliate of NFPA, the Fire Protection Research Foundation is an independent nonprofit whose mission is to plan, manage and communicate research in support of the association. The Research Foundation was established in 1982 in response to a growing need for research that better informed NFPA’s expanding body of codes and standards. To ensure the research remained independent, the Foundation was formed as a separate 501(c) (3) organization.
Since then, the Foundation has facilitated major research programs (both domestic and international in scope) that address industry challenges in multiple areas, including detection and signaling, hazardous materials, electrical safety, fire suppression, storage of commodities, and firefighter protective clothing and equipment, among other issues.
Each project is guided by a technical panel that provides its expertise and with input from sponsors, the research community, the fire service, NFPA technical committees and other stakeholders. Findings from the Foundation’s critically applied research have been used by NFPA’s technical committee members and others to support the association’s fire and life safety codes and standards.
The Foundation is currently focusing significant effort on two emerging concepts in fire protection that will significantly impact NFPA codes and standards over the next five years: smart firefighting and resiliency.
Save the date!
The 2017 Suppression, Detection, and Signaling Research and Applications Conference (SUPDET 2017) will be a joint conference with the 16th International Conference on Automatic Fire Detection (AUBE ’17). The joint conference will be held September 12-14, 2017 at the College Park Marriott Hotel & Conference Center, Hyattsville, MD. See AUBE '17 Call for Papers. (PDF) Further information about the program and registration will be coming soon.
Request for proposals
A Request for Proposals for Project Contractor has been issued for the Foam Application Rates for High Hazard Flammable Train (HHFT) Fires research project. Proposals should be submitted to Sreenivasan Ranganathan by November 11, 2016, 5:00 pm ET.
The Foundation periodically issues requests for proposals for the conduct of research. To automatically receive notification of these requests, please e-mail Eric Peterson.