2026 Request for Proposals: Grand Challenges in Resilience & Sustainability
"In-Depth Analysis of Fire Events"
Up to $40,000 USD available
Deadline: 11:59 pm ET on Monday, March 16, 2026
Background & Motivation
As part of our commitment to addressing the research priorities identified in the SFPE Research Roadmap and the SFPE Foundation’s Grand Challenges Initiative (GCI), we invite proposals that address key topics related to Resilience & Sustainability (R&S).
In 2023, SFPE published a white paper on “Grand Challenges in Resilience & Sustainability: A 10-Year Plan for Strategic Cooperation in Research and Education to Advance Fire Engineering.” The paper identified five major focus areas for fire engineering in relation to global challenges in Resilience & Sustainability:
1. Quantification of the costs and/or benefits of resilience/sustainability
2. Building materials
3. Fire risk reduction and protection measures
4. Community risk reduction
5. Inspection, testing, and maintenance (ITM) of fire protection systems
Since then, GCI Partner organizations have made progress within the topic of building materials (see Fire Testing of Resilient & Sustainable Building Materials). Now, the R&S Working Group seeks to address some of the urgent needs within the subtopic area of “quantification of the costs and/or benefits of resilience/sustainability.” Ultimately, we envision a future where fire protection methods and approaches are included in globally recognized sustainability rating schemes (such as, for example, LEED). This is desirable since inclusion in these indices is often a prerequisite for serious engagement with building and property managers, architects, and others who face strong incentives to meet performance goals that determine their rankings within these rating systems. By learning to recast fire protection systems through the lens of sustainability, we can help to ensure that fire safety remains a top consideration in the design, implementation, and performance of more resilient and sustainable buildings throughout the entire building lifecycle, thereby enabling more fire-safe communities for all. To get there, we need an established method and approach for demonstrating a more expansive set of relative costs and benefits for different fire protection systems through the lens of resilience and sustainability metrics.
To achieve this goal, the R&S Working Group envisions a multi-year arc of projects that will build upon one another:
· Project 1: In-Depth Analysis of Fire Events
Study specific fire events in depth, including detailed information about the structure (such as green attributes, occupants, and community characteristics) from before the fire event to how the fire started and developed to the impact of fire protection systems, the role of the fire service, and how the fire ultimately impacted the occupants and the local community. Measures of impact should include direct economic impacts as well as indirect impacts, such as environmental, social, and health outcomes.
· Project 2: Impact Factors
Identify impact/cost factors of fires in different types of occupancies that can be applied globally (with the necessary regional adjustments) to describe fires across countries and jurisdictions. These must factor in what the cost is to the community, to the environment, and to the owner of the building. When looking at the community, the analysis must consider impact/cost factors of fire as well as socio-economic factors that influence community risk, and how each impacts the others.
· Project 3: Fire Protection Systems LCA
Develop a Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) for Fire Protection Systems that focuses on the resiliency and sustainability of these systems within a changing climate. Fire protection systems must be resilient and sustainable through installation, inspection, testing, maintenance, and (if needed) deployment (should the system be activated by a fire event). Here, we are interested especially in the trade-offs between different approaches in terms of costs and benefits. For instance, even though sprinkler systems can save significant amounts of water in the event of a fire, the use of water for ITM purposes can have an ongoing environmental impact. It is also something that can be impacted by a changing climate, as water is becoming a scarce resource in some areas.
The R&S Working Group believes that these projects should be performed sequentially in the order shown to be most successful. Hence, this Request for Proposals is for Project 1: In-Depth Analysis of Fire Events.
This RFP: In-Depth Analysis of Fire Events
When measuring the impact/costs of fire events, we traditionally focus on casualties and direct property damage. These are the data captured in national statistics where available. While this is indeed critical information to obtain for each fire event, it provides limited context to the role fire safety and resilience play in sustainable design.
By contrast, sustainability is based on three pillars:
1. Environmental impact.
2. Social or societal impact.
3. Economic impact.
When choices are made for building design through the lens of sustainability, they are based on how materials and systems score related to the three pillars across the lifetime of the building. Each material is evaluated from cradle to cradle, which includes the potential for reuse. Nowhere is the impact of fire or fire safety systems included in these discussions. Fire safety is kept outside the sustainability discussion as a topic handled by the codes, despite sustainable design often going far beyond the codes on all other features.
To become more relevant in sustainability discussions, we need a broader understanding of the impact of fire, especially in terms of environmental and social impacts, and a more expanded definition of economic impact. The first step to get this understanding is through an in-depth analysis of fire events through the lens of the three pillars of sustainability.
We invite proposals from researchers that seek to address the following required elements:
- Specify a methodology for studying the full impact of fires: This should include an initial list of impact factors to consider for each fire (see below for an initial list provided by the R&S Working Group); respondents are encouraged to consider methodologies used for other hazards (e.g., earthquakes).
- Number of specific fire events to be studied: At least three fire events taking place in at least three different building types; these will be the case studies used for this project and should be selected with attention to the future projects we expect to build on the outcomes of this analysis.
- Geography: All study fires cannot be from the same continent; hence, multinational project teams are encouraged for this project.
- Time Scale: Respondents should aim to study impacts from before the fire to 5 – 10 years after the fire event, depending on the type and date of the event.
- Building types: At a minimum, the cases should include the following types of buildings
- Residential.
- Municipal, which could include schools, firehouses, police stations, or government buildings.
- A building with a high density of hazardous materials, which could include big-box stores, warehouses with chemicals, or industrial sites.
Download the complete RFP, with additional information regarding the call and specific required elements below.
Up to $40,000 (USD) may be awarded.
ALL proposals must be submitted via the Foundation's Blackbaud Grants Management System, linked in the button below.
Complete proposals are due by 11:59 pm ET on Monday, March 16, 2026.