Closing the gap between research and practice

One of the challenges facing the emergency management sector is the gap between research and practice. Despite the considerable investment in publicly funded and commissioned research, the application of research findings to operational practice often lags due to difficulty and complexity.

Hazard Note 84 identifies which organisational activities are required for effective research utilisation, in order to support agencies in gaining maximum benefit from their investment in research.

Researchers from the University of Tasmania, AFAC and the Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC explored the factors that enable effective research utilisation, and present the Research Utilisation Maturity Matrix to support emergency services agencies in the self-assessment of their research utilisation capability.