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RUSI to revisit Emergency Communications research
With the fifth anniversary of the 7/7 bombings approaching The Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) is to evaluate the uptake of recommendations made in its 2006 report and publish a new report on the current state of crisis communications.
In 2005, following the 7 July bombings on the London transport system and the report of the 7 July Review Committee, the Royal United Services Institute carried out extensive research into the cultural, political and economic drivers that may limit uptake of the available interoperable communications technology within and between Category 1 and 2 responders.
The research findings were published in RUSI Whitehall Report 5-06, Communications Interoperability in a Crisis, authored by Dr Sandra Bell (then Director of Homeland Security at RUSI) and Rebecca Cox in 2006. The report drew a number of conclusions and made a series of recommendations, including the need for a unified communications policy encompassing all responder communities and that platforms for multi-agency information flow should be designed for purpose rather than systems being designed for the platform on which they have to operate.
A number of issues will be investigated during the research, including the development of interoperable systems such as Airwave and the National Resilience Extranet, and their implementation within and between the blue light services and the wider responder community; the resilience of modern communications systems and the integration and redundancy of legacy systems; the psychology of communications between and within Gold, Silver and Bronze commands; data assurance during emergencies including identity assurance during multi-agency operations; and knowledge capture during and following major emergencies.
The research will focus on communications within the UK, but will look extensively at international systems such as NIMS (National Incident Management System) in the US and AIIMS (Australasian Inter-Service Incident Management System) and the ability of UK responder agencies to operate effectively in multinational operations.
The research programme will begin with a one-day workshop, entitled Emergency Response: Resilient Communications, that will take place at RUSI's main building on Whitehall on Monday, 7 December 2009; a workshop report will be published following the event and this will form the backbone of the research project.
Workshop
Project leader Jennifer Cole, Head of Emergency Management in the National Security and Resilience Department, is currently looking to engage stakeholder agencies and individuals who would like to have an input into the workshop and the wider research project, including individuals who would be interested in submitting a paper to the December workshop, and companies who would be interested in sponsoring the workshop, the workshop report or the research output.
If you would be interested in more information on the project, please contact Jennifer on 020 7747 4958 or email jenniferc@rusi.org
Copies of the original report Communications Inter-Operability in a Crisis can be obtained in exchange for £2.95 postage and packing. Please make cheques payable to RUSI Trading Ltd.
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