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ICLR Quick Response Program

ICLR’s Quick Response Program was designed to allow social, behavourial and economic scientists to quickly deploy to a disaster-affected area in the aftermath of a flood, extreme weather event or earthquake to collect perishable data. In addition to expanding academic knowledge, funded researchers submit brief reports that make preliminary analyses of recent events available to ICLR’s multidisciplinary network of researchers, practitioners, and educators as well as other interested parties. The program promotes innovation in disaster research by favoring students, new researchers, and novel areas of study.

ICLR’s program was designed to be consistent with the quick response program in place at the Natural Hazards Center, University of Colorado at Boulder and offered to researchers based in the United States for more than 25 years. The ICLR version of this initiative will be open to all university-based Canadian social scientists. 


Guidelines

The quick response program does not represent an alternative to mainstream disaster research. It is designed to allow social, behavioural and ecomomic science researchers to collect and integrate valuable first-response data in time-sensitive environments. The program is open to all social scientists at all times, but calls for proposals may be issued by ICLR in the aftermath of significant loss events. Once a proposal is approved, a grant of up to $2,500 will be allocated to support the researchers’ pre-approved research expenses within Canada and the United States. A maximum of $5,000 is available for an exceptional proposal. Research expenses can include travel to the disaster-affected area(s), accomodation, research assistants etc. Program funding is not intended to be directed to University overhead.

Candidates who would like to apply for funding through the quick response program must submit a three-page research proposal (maximum) consisting of a title, research question(s), proposed methods as well as a description of how data will be collected and analyzed under potentially difficult local conditions. This submission must include a budget (limited to research expenses), a CV of the applicant(s) and an official letter from the applicant’s university ethics review board approving or waiving the need for approval of the proposed research. If ethics approval is not included with the proposal, please describe your plans to meet this requirement before deployment.


Evaluation criteria

Applications will be evaluated based on weighted criteria favouring:

  • Responses to a specific ICLR-issued calls for proposals;
  • Clearly articulated research questions with appropriate methods that have the potential to significantly contribute to knowledge about the social aspects of hazards and disasters;
  • Proposals that are likely to produce widely applicable findings and that are unlikely to be funded by other means;
  • Likelihood of completing research as proposed, resulting in submittal of a high-quality report;
  • Efficient and responsibly crafted budgets;
  • Perishability of the proposed research data.

Preferred topics

Although all proposals will be considered, ICLR has identified areas where it would like to see the literature developed. This list will be updated from time to time. Proposals that engage one or more of the following topics or classes of disasters will be given extra weight:

  • Adaptation/Mitigation behaviours;
  • Hazard risk communication - pre/post disaster;
  • Community recovery/household recovery capacity;
  • Resilience indicators;
  • Damage assessments (social/environmental/economic);
  • Interagency and intergovernmental coordination
  • Perceptions of natural hazards
  • Post disaster mitigation – build back better

Deliverables

Following return from the field, researchers must submit a short report (5-12 pages) within 90 days presenting their findings and preliminary analyses of the event. This report will be posted on ICLR’s website in order to make the information available to a wide audience. ICLR reserves the right to use all or parts of studies in other communication vehicles, such as the Institute’s newsletter.

The above documents should be submitted in Word or PDF format by email only to Sophie Guilbault, Manager, Partnership Development, ICLR sguilbault@iclr.org

Please note that ICLR’s Quick Response Program is intended for Canadian researchers only. U.S. researchers should apply to the Quick Response Grant Program, Natural Hazards Center, University of Colorado at Boulder.



Previous Quick Response reports

Wildfire Evacuation Perspectives – Wood Buffalo, Alberta 2016 (Tara K. McGee, University of Alberta) (PDF)
Post-Traumatic Stress Among Evacuees from the 2016 Fort McMurray Wildfires (Genevieve Belleville, Laval University) (PDF)
Rapid Impact Assessment of Fort McMurray Wildfire (Rafat Alam et al, MacEwan University)
Rebuilding Fort McMurray: A snapshot of the role planners can play in the rebuilding efforts (Leith Deacon, University of Alberta)







The Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction

Toronto Office
20 Richmond Street East, Suite 210, Toronto, Ontario M5C 2R9
Tel: (416) 364-8677
Fax: (416) 364-5889

London Office
Boundary Layer Wind Tunnel Laboratory
Western University
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Tel: (519) 661-3234
Fax: (519) 661-4273