Deadline: 30-Nov-22
Applications are now open for the Wildfire Futures Hallmark Research Initiative (WF HRI), a future-focused research program that takes an interdisciplinary approach to link new ways of predicting changes in fire, climate, and ecosystems with the preferences and knowledge of communities.
In bringing a diverse range of knowledge and disciplines together, it will explore new ways to conceptualise and imagine the nature and roles of fire in Australia towards more positive and future-focused fire science.
The Wildfire Futures initiative will bring together ecologists, social scientists, environmental psychologists, fire behaviour and risk analysts, public health specialists, legal scholars, engineers, architects, geographers and economists to explore new approaches to fire and adaptive management – seeking to learn from diverse forms of community knowledge, including Indigenous knowledge, to develop a shared vision for living with future wildfires. This wide-ranging and ambitious initiative will contemplate how WF HRI transforms everything from governance of planning, health, law and disaster response to ecosystem conservation to adapt to future fire regimes.
The Wildfire Futures initiative will support high-quality research that pushes the boundaries of fire research, and the communication of that research to diverse audiences. It will produce information and seminars for the public that aim to help Australians understand the likely futures of wildfire, and how these futures might interact with the things they value. Some of the broad project areas that the Wildfire Futures initiative will seek to examine include:
- Looking forward to predict and anticipate the key threats posed by future fire patterns
- Addressing the dynamic interdependencies between fire, climate, society, and the environment
- Providing a forum to explore the desirable (or undesirable) fire futures, and the paths that lead to them
- Exploring how institutions can strategically manage change and the novel challenges from future fires.
Funding Information
The WF HRI is making available funding to support three to four projects that address and explore interdisciplinary topics relevant to wildfire futures. The winning proposals will each receive once-off seed funds from the WF HRI of up to $20,000.
WF HRI allows flexibility in how the funds are used. This includes costs associated with:
- Hosting workshops or forums or events (including facilitation and catering);
- Employing research staff to undertake the project or casual staff to provide support;
- Field research;
- Travel costs (for collaboration); and
- Equipment (with specific justification).
Research areas of interest
In this funding round, EF HRI aims to support innovative interdisciplinary research relevant to how EF HRI understands and live with future wildfires including potential impacts on a broad range of values. Research topics could include, but not be limited to:
- Future fire behaviour including interactions with changing climate.
- Future fire impacts (immediate and beyond) on a broad range of values (e.g., cultural, health, built environment, natural environment, institutions, economy) including combined impacts with changing climate.
- Human relationships with fire including how WF HRI might live with future fires.
- Responses to future fire events and fire regimes including future-orientated solutions (e.g., society, management, technology, governance) to fire challenges.
Eligibility Criteria
- Projects will be selected on individual merit and to enable a complementary mix of projects overall.
- Your team must have two or more members, and the inclusion of diverse backgrounds and career stages will be highly regarded.
- Your team must appoint a Coordinating Investigator holding an academic position (ongoing, fixed term, or casual) at the University of Melbourne for the duration of the project. If the Coordinating Investigator leaves the University, this responsibility must be transferred to another member of the team.
- Teams are strongly encouraged to have an Early Career or Mid-Career Researcher lead for the project.
- Teams must be interdisciplinary – preference will be given to teams with representation from different academic fields.
- There are no restrictions on other members of the proposed project team (including international team members) and it is encouraged to include external organisations (e.g., industry, government, non-government, community groups, Indigenous communities).
- Your project must represent new research or a new collaboration rather than supporting existing research.
- Successful projects will provide brief reporting on the progress and completion of their project, and contribute to the Wildfire Futures HRI 2023 seminar series.
For more information, visit https://research.unimelb.edu.au/research-at-melbourne/multidisciplinary-research/hallmark-research-initiatives/wildfire-futures#Seed%20funding