University of Tasmania, Australia

Research into Enhancing Bush Fire Preparedness.

The RCS is part of a collaborative communications project with the University of Western Australia (UWA) that is funded by the Bush Fire Co-operative Research Centre (CRC).  The goal of the communications project is to employ psychological constructs and theories on decision making, cognitive and community behaviours to examine the behaviour of residents in bushfire prone communities with a view to develop strategies to reduce the risk posed by bushfires. 

The communications project is looking at the impact of communications, such as leaflets about preparedness and warnings during an actual fire, on individual levels of preparedness and behavior during actual bushfire emergencies. In addition to a possible Elite Scholarship, there is scope for additional scholarships, funded through the CRC, to work on this project across Tasmania and Western Australia.