A broad look at moving research to practice.

2. Fire Service and
Academic Research Collaboration
Hosted by
Gregory Vigneaux & Vince Anderson

3. Capabilities Apply
Presentation Road Map
How have the fire
service and academic
communities
historically
collaborated?
Are universities and
public and private
institutions capable of
progressing fire and
public safety at large?
How can we
collaborate and apply
our strengths for
community benefit?
History

4. Vince Anderson
• Fire Marshal, Redlands Fire Department
• B.A. History & Public Affairs and MPA in Disaster Management
• Passion of bridge-building between public safety & our allied professions
City of Redlands
• 75,000 Population over 35 square miles
• 1/3 of the city in Wildland Urban Interface
• ESRI GIS Mapping Company HQ, University of Redlands
• “Preserving the Past while Protecting the Future”
• Major expansion and revitalization to historic downtown district

5. Questions for audience
• Federal & DoD
• Volunteer
• Municipal Managers
• Elected Officials
• Local & Tribal
Here Together

6. Here Together Questions for audience
• I'm interested in where I can
start collaborating with
researchers
• I currently collaborate with
researchers on occasion
• I currently collaborate often
with researchers

7. Key Takeaways
1. Recognize the history of fire service and academic
research collaboration
2. Identify the research and application process
3. Recognize present-day opportunities for fire
service and academic collaborations

8. Historical Examples
• America Burning Report
• RAND & FDNY Studies
• Urban Fire Protection: Deployments and Coverage
• Wildfire Research: United States Forest Service, Rocky
Mountain Research Center, Development and Tech
Centers, University of California, Berkley, Colorado
State University
8

9. Campuses in the Community
• Strength of community
• Economic influence
• Risk Assessment
• All emergency agency involvement
• Direct contributions to Agency
• Academic programs: Planning/Land use,
Engineering & Architecture, Sciences &
GIS, traditional public safety
Standards of Cover & Community Risk Assessment

10. Current programs
• NYU - Fire Research Group
• NSF - Wildfire Interdisciplinary Research
Center (WIRC)
• National Institute of Standards and
Technology - Fire Research Division
• International Association for Fire Safety
Science
• National Center for Atmospheric Research
– Wildfire Research
Potential Collaboration Opportunities

11. Gregory Vigneaux holds a B.S. in Wildland Fire Management and a M.S. in Emergency
Services Administration. He is currently the principal at Operational
Coherence, researching how design and complexity can be integrated into emergency
management. Gregory has also served as a research consultant and contributed to
the Next Generation Core Competencies for Emergency Management project.
Gregory has fought forest fires around the country with Hotshot Crews and is the
original developer of the Center for Homeland Defense and Security's Systems
Thinking Course. He is also the author of "A Design Philosophy for Emergency
Management" in the textbook Design for Emergency Management.
Gregory Vigneaux, M.S.

12. Research
Work Cycles
Outcomes
Inflows
Outflows
(e.g., research papers, lectures,
teaching, texts, consulting,
tangible/intangible value)
(e.g., personnel, data, information,
funding, technologies, research)
The Continuation of the University
Pushed Vs. Pulled
Outflows
Time

13. • Academic research papers may offer innovative solutions to problems in the fire service and beyond.
• Innovation is introducing something new into a field across contexts or organizations. This includes the
implementation of research.
• Introducing too many innovations at once can produce a debt in operational understanding and increase
vulnerability to the accumulation of disorder.
• Introducing the right amount of innovation creates a temporary but easily metabolizable debt in operational
understanding. "Right-sizing" research implementation also supports more accurate evaluation, safety, and
maintaining coherence.
Informed Research-Driven Innovation

14. Informed Research-Driven Innovation
“This is where the notion of ecology of action comes in. As soon
as a person begins any action whatsoever, the action starts to
escape from his intentions. It enters into a sphere of interactions
and is finally grasped by the environment in a way that may be
contrary to the initial intention. So we have to follow the action
and try to correct it if it is not too late, or sometimes shoot it
down, like NASA exploding a rocket that has veered off course.”
-Edgar Morin

15. Informed Research-Driven Innovation
“Through an analysis of the temporal nature of complex systems, it will
be shown that the cult of speed, and especially the understanding that
speed is related to efficiency, is a destructive one. A slower approach is
necessary, not only for the survival of certain important values or
because of romantic ideals, but also because it allows us to cope with the
demands of a complex world in a better way.”
–Paul Cilliers

16. Componentize
Research
Findings
Research to
Practice
Rich Feedback Loops
for Sensing
Research to Practice Process
Time

17. Closing Thoughts

18. References
Cilliers, P. (2006). On the importance of a certain slowness. Emergence: Complexity and Organization, 8(3), 105-112.
Morin, E. (1999). Seven complex lessons in education for the future. (N. Poller, Trans.) Paris, France: United Nations,
Scientific and cultural organization.