Research Planning

Research Planning Virtual Workshop August 20, 2020

Executive Summary - SFPE Foundation Research Planning Workshop

On August 20, 2020, the SFPE Foundation convened a unique virtual workshop in which twenty-five individuals, representing the leading corporations in the fire protection industry, met to discuss current research needed to advance fire protection engineering. The overall goal of this workshop expressed by Peter Senez, Chair of the SFPE Foundation Board of Governors, was to guide the Foundation’s research program to ensure that it addresses the key issues facing the profession.

Prior to the meeting, 14 suggested topics were submitted by participants, addressing different areas of SFPE’s Research Roadmap. Topics ranged in scope from major initiatives to advance the profession, to more focused needs for tools and information.

During the workshop, each submitter presented the goal and expected outcome of their suggested project and a few additional suggested topics resulted from the discussion. Participants then identified the top three priorities from their organization’s perspective and results were tabulated.

Two topics were identified as high priority by the majority of participants:

  1. Development of a methodology to determine the relative value of fire safety strategies in codes, and
  2. Study on reliability of water supply for fire protection systems. The SFPE Foundation will utilize this information to assist in prioritizing their research portfolio and seek the collaboration of participating organizations in its implementation.

You can see the full report from our workshop here.

The SFPE Board of Governors thanks all those who participated for the valuable input provided as part of this workshop.