Mission of the Collaboratory

The primary mission of the Wildland Fire Research and Development Collaboratory is to:

1. create a highly interactive and informative international forum for exchanging information relative to R&D activities associated with wildland fire,
2. serve as a forum for assessing priorities for R&D requirements associated with wildland fire and to build an advocacy for these priorities, and
3. serve as a catalyst for accelerating the transfer of technology from the research community to the operational community.

Guiding Principles for the Collaboratory

Focus - Initially the primary areas of scientific interest within the overall R&D domain will be related to the influence of weather and climate on fire, models of fire physics/dynamics, smoke dispersion and air quality impacts, fuels assessment and societal impacts. As the collaboratory matures other R&D sub-domains could be added if it is the desire of the membership. R&D activities will be strongly focused on the five key points of the U.S. National Fire Plan.

End-to-End R&D - Each area of R&D will be addressed from an end-to-end perspective; i.e., the scope of the R&D will bridge the wide gap from basic science to applications development to benefit an operational decision maker within the fire community or a local, state or federal government manager involved with a planning decision.

Maximum Collaboration - Members will strive to collaborate their R&D activities to the level that results in maximum efficiency for all the participants and achieves the best balance and effective use of available funds.

Membership Dues - The collaboratory will include R&D, operational, policy-making/advocacy and private for-profit organizations.. There are no required membership dues other than the full cooperation of the representatives of the member organizations to carry out the mission of the collaboratory.

R&D/Operational Community Cooperation - Major emphasis will be put on collaboration between the R&D and operational communities to ensure that the mission of the collaboratory is effectively addressed.

Leadership - The collaboratory will not be run by any member. Leadership will be provided by participation of each member and a Governing Board selected from the membership that will work in harmony with the National Fire Sciences Program and the Fire Research Coordination Council.