FIRE-IN has been designed to raise the security level of EU citizens by improving the national and European Fire & Rescue (F&R) capability development process. FIRE-IN addresses the concern that capability-driven research and innovation in this area needs much stronger guidance from practitioners and better exploitation of the technology potentially available for the discipline. We argue that this is to be achieved by practitioners more effectively coordinating on operational needs, on available research and innovation, on standardisation, and on test & demonstration and training. Further, we claim the need for the development of a common research culture that is to be achieved by better cooperation between practitioner and research/industry organisations. FIRE-IN addresses these objectives through four main areas of activity: (i) the identification and harmonisation of operational capability gaps based on the contribution provided by a significant and heterogeneous practitioner network, (ii) the identification of promising solutions to address those gaps through monitoring and screening of research outcomes and the continuous involvement of research and industry representatives, (iii) the definition of a F&R Strategic Research and Standardisation Agenda (SRSA) based on the previous elements as well as (iv) the development of a concept for more efficient use of test & demonstration and training facilities to support innovation and joint skill development. The overarching result of the project will be a proven process for organising F&R capability-driven research based on a wide practitioner and research and innovation network. The network will be linked at cross-domain and cross-border level and will feed harmonised operational requirements (or challenges) into national and EU capability development, i.e. research, innovation, procurement and standardisation programmes.

"Context: The project was concerned with improving safety in fireground operations though the development of an interactive software tool for assessing and training fireground Situation Awareness (understanding of the immediate situation) and decision-making patterns. Past work by the team has shown that under pressure, professional training and competence per se does not fully protect Fire and Rescue Service (FRS) personnel from the risk of losing Situation Awareness and so making errors. These errors are due to decision-making tendencies or ""biases"" due to either of two patterns: either ""tunnelling down"" on aspects of the situation and overlooking others, or alternately attempting to deal with too much information at once. The former pattern will cause ""miss"" errors whereby key information may not be taken on board, and the latter pattern will cause ""false alarms"" where irrelevant or even incorrect information may be used to make decisions. Even with the highest levels of training and skill, individuals can still make such errors. These are due to natural limitations of the human brain under pressure. Such tendencies are addressed in training for many other situations where human decision-making is under pressure (e.g, aircraft , military, medical contexts) but have yet to be noticeably incorporated in VET for Fire services.Objectives: The main objective of the project was to develop an online interactive software tool to enable Fire Service personnel to engage in realistic simulations of fire service operations and receive immediate feedback about their Situation Awareness and type of decision bias (whether they ""tunnel down"" or ""broaden out"") followed by guidance for improvement and self-monitoring of Situation Awareness and bias. This will provide the personnel with immediate insights into their own decision-making patterns and tendencies and provide means by which to self-monitor these tendencies under pressure on the actual fireground. The broad objective was to add value to their training by increasing their awareness of possible decision-making tendencies that could produce errors and cause risk during their fireground operations. Participants: Participants were Fire and Rescue Service personnel from the EU partner FRS centres, both firefighters and commanders (managers). Between ten and twenty per EU partner centre were be involved in the project.Activities: The project involved the following sequence of activities: (1.) an initial visit by UK partners to all EU Fire Service partner sites to demonstrate and explain the basic approach and collect information on local requirements for further development (2) subsequent development of the tool for each of the EU sites by researchers and then by the UK partners with a technician to enhance the user-interface; (3.) a second visit by UK team to support the initial trials of the tool in each EU partner site ; (4.) the EU partners then sent feedback and outputs to the UK teams for coordination and final revision; (5.) the tool was refined by the U.K. team; (6.) the EU partners sent representatives to a workshop in the UK to review the final version; (7.) the final version of the tool to be implemented as a web portal - activity led by PLOT (8.) dissemination activities ongoing.Methodology: The method involved trials at each of the EU partner sites of interactive computer-based fireground exercises optimised for local users. A range of exercises were trialled, each presenting a series of images and video material representing the exercise interspersed with ""probe"" questions to be answered ""true/false"" (eg., ""there was a gas cylinder at the building entrance""). A quantitative method in the analysis software produced a Situation Awareness score and a Bias tendency score (tunnel bias vs. broaden bias). This was followed by qualitative feedback and further training activities can be implemented in the software specific to the individual's results. Participants in the trials to were invited to reflect on the results and provide feedback on the perceived value of the method and suggest ways to develop it . This feedback has been used by the UK teams for further refinement of the tool.Impact/results: The impact is that the EU Fire Services community have a valuable, accessible and innovative tool that provides improved understanding of an individual's Situation Awareness and Decision-making bias tendencies and provides guidance on ways to self-check and improve on these critical aspects of foreground operations.Long-term potential benefits: For the individual FRS personnel who employ this tool, this will ultimately enable them to perform at a higher level under pressure on the actual fireground and hence reduce decision-making error, thereby improving safety for Fire and Rescue services and for the wider community that they serve."

SYNERGISE will design, develop, integrate, deploy, test, validate and demonstrate a Novel Integrated Toolkit for Collaborative Response and Enhanced Situational Awareness (NIT-CRES), at the service of response agencies which ensures an upgrade to managing of complex incidents. This will comprise a multitude of tools and services required for: 1) boosting situational awareness and sense-making by offering them the means to autonomously and synergistically perform indoor and outdoor exploration of incident sites towards victim identification whilst receiving at all times information about responders’ position and vitals as well as analyses of passive and active threats and hazards at the area of operations and 2) upgrading collaborative response and incident as well resources management by continuously sharing and updating the common operational picture across deployed teams, among the chain of command and between participating agencies. The NIT-CRES armors the FRs at all fronts by delivering novel, affordable, accepted, and customized response tools and services as part of their operational assets. Notably, the toolkit abides to privacy, ethical, security and legal constraints by design, considers an increased degree of inclusiveness for its operators and its set-up facilitates collaborative response addressing standard operating procedures. The NIT-CRES will be provided at the service of the search and rescue personnel, fire brigades, emergency medical, police and civil protection agencies for extensive testing, training and validation (at component and Toolkit levels) in the framework of a rich Integration, Testing and Validation Activities Programme – of Round Tables (RTs), Collaborative Lab Tests (CLTs), Technical Integration Workshop (TIWS), Component Field Tests (CFTs) and System Field Tests (SFTs) – towards empowering collaborative response and handling of complex incidents to its fullest.

The main purpose of ASSISTANCE project is twofold: On the one hand to help and protect different kind of first responders’ (FR) organizations that work together taking into account the type of disaster/crisis they are mitigating in each moment and on the other hand, to enhance their capabilities for facing complex situations providing them advanced training based on Virtual Reality (VR), Mixed Reality (MR) and Augmented Reality (AR), tailored to their real needs depending on the type of incident. ASSISTANCE project will use novel technologies such as; UAV, Robots, drones’ swarms and advanced training based on VR, MR and AR for increasing the FR’s situation awareness (SA) taking into account their need in terms of data (e.g. real time video, persons and objects location, evacuation routes status, ad-hoc network coverage and so on). Different types of adapted SA modules will be developed inside a common SA framework capable of offering the sensor outcome needed by each FR organization (e.g. real time video and resources location for firemen, evacuation routes status for emergency health services and so on). Regarding training, an advanced training network based on VR, MR, AR and other novel technologies and methodologies (e.g. tailored curricula, immersive interfaces, adapted training methodology definition, etc.) will be established in order to share different VR platforms and scenarios for enhancing the current training capabilities and skills of different FRs organization. All the ASSISTANCE results will be tested under controlled conditions in three different demostration pilots. Solutions will be developed in compliance with EU societal values, fundamental rights and applicable legislation, including in the area of privacy and personal data protection. Societal aspects (e.g. perception of security, possible effects of technological solutions on societal resilience, gender diversity) have to be taken into account in a comprehensive and thorough manner.