Bridging the gap: fostering innovation in natural hazard response

The Natural Hazards Technology Program (NHTP) is a new $1.89 million initiative from the NSW Government that calls on NSW businesses to provide technology solutions to government agencies facing pressing natural hazards challenges. It does so by connecting key stakeholders to overcome traditional impediments, such as government bureaucracies and risk aversion, to effect significant change.

Bridging this gap is critical to overcome these challenges and encourage collaboration. The Office of the Chief Scientist & Engineer (OCSE) in the NSW Government has taken an active match-maker role to foster connections between government agencies and technology companies in NSW to increase awareness of the technology available and help build trust and collaboration. 

The OCSE runs several successful programs that have helped government to trial and use innovative, fit-for-purpose products and services. A key element of these programs is understanding the needs of government agencies and clearly communicating their requirements to the market, supported by competitive grants that enable businesses to design, develop and test their solutions with the government agencies. 

The Small Business Innovation & Research (SBIR) program is a competitive phased grants program that involves NSW Government agencies posing challenges that are not able to be adequately addressed with existing approaches or commercially available technologies. 

NSW businesses can apply to the SBIR program with their proposed solution, with successful businesses receiving grants to work with the agency to solve the challenge. At the end of the SBIR program, agencies are encouraged to pilot the technology at scale and consider procurement. 

This program is based on the United States SBIR Program and the Australian Government’s Business Research Innovation Initiative, both of which have successfully demonstrated the benefits of posing challenges to the market and working with businesses to design and develop innovative solutions.

The OCSE also provides competitive grants to NSW businesses to test and refine their technologies with government agencies to address substantial risks facing NSW communities. The Bushfire Technology Pilots Program (BTPP) supported existing commercial and new bushfire technologies to be trialled and evaluated by government agencies. This raised awareness of the technologies available through exposure to trials, while providing businesses with the opportunity to test and refine their products in the field.

Building on the success of the BTPP and the SBIR program, the new NHTP takes the key elements of both programs, posing challenges faced by NSW Government in relation to natural hazards and funding the trialling of technology solutions with government agencies. 

Importantly this program enables businesses to field-test their technologies with government agencies, refining and improving their products for market, and fostering relationships that can help open doors for future collaborations.

The NHTP lists 25 challenges to address current gaps in natural hazards management, with NSW Government agencies willing to explore solutions for each over the next 12 months. There is also a Big Ideas Challenge to help identify future technology capabilities, recognising the important role technology advancements play in shaping future resilience.

‘We want to envision the future and explore how technology can revolutionise our approach to combating natural hazards,’ said Professor Hugh Durrant-Whyte, the NSW Chief Scientist & Engineer. ‘Through funding trials of innovative technology solutions, OCSE aims to provide tangible assistance in overcoming challenges at all stages of natural hazards management.’

How the Natural Hazards Technology Program works

The NHTP provides up to $250,000 in funding for companies to field-test their technology solutions over a 12-month period with partnering government agencies. Agencies nominate challenges they are willing to support and trial.

Applicants address assessment criteria to ensure their solution is suitable, ready for field testing, innovative, commercially viable and has the appropriate project team. An assessment panel, consisting of representatives from government agencies, business experts and an independent assessor, evaluates each application. This streamlined process minimises the workload on agencies while ensuring a transparent and rigorous evaluation.

NSW Government Agency challenges

The NHTP addresses 25 challenges set by government agencies, spanning areas such as modelling, mapping, visualisation, fuel moisture and intelligence processing. These challenges, outlined in Table 1, represent tangible, real-world problems that technology solutions have the potential to solve, improving the efficiency and effectiveness of natural hazard response efforts. They broadly cover improvements to decision-making capabilities, new or improved equipment capabilities, and solutions to enhance communications. 

For example, to improve communication with communities during natural hazard events, government agencies are looking for solutions that can automatically generate hazard warnings in the top seven non-English languages spoken in Australia (Challenge 21: Multilingual emergency warnings). 

This challenge aims to ensure that all community members can access critical information relating to hazard warnings in their preferred language as quickly as possible. Currently written in English, these warnings use a mix of templates, dynamic inputs and free text, adhering to the Australian Warning System’s carefully selected terminology for better community understanding.

In response to future water scarcity concerns, government agencies are actively seeking innovative alternatives to supplement compressed air foam systems (CAFS) (Challenge 11: Water alternatives for firefighting operations). While firefighting foams have proven beneficial, their limitations are recognised. Agencies are keen to explore alternatives that can effectively suppress fires with minimal water use and fewer restrictions than traditional foam operations. The goal is to develop solutions suitable for regional or isolated areas impacted by water scarcity, thereby protecting communities and conserving water resources.

Many of the end-user challenges also focus on the safety of personnel in challenging and dangerous conditions during a natural disaster. Challenge 14 seeks a technological solution to rapidly and accurately identify hazardous trees from safer distances and alert personnel to potential dangers, reducing the overall risk during fire response operations. These trees, especially those which are hollow or burning internally, are difficult to identify visually without entering the high-risk fall zone.

Challenge 16 seeks a scalable solution to deliver emergency supplies to isolated communities after a major disaster and ensure the safety of emergency service workers. Traditionally, personnel face challenges such as swimming or rafting items across rapidly moving water, driving through dangerous conditions or relying on costly helicopter deliveries. This challenge looks for a scalable technology solution to autonomously deliver emergency supplies to isolated locations with the capacity to transport heavier equipment, resources and possibly injured persons across dangerous landscapes, while withstanding poor weather conditions and environmental hazards.

Driving innovation

The NHTP represents a pioneering effort to bridge the gap between government agencies and technology companies. By actively facilitating connections, fostering partnerships and providing crucial funding for innovative technology solutions, the program aims not only to drive commercial development in NSW but also to establish enduring relationships that contribute to ongoing collaboration and innovation.

As natural hazards continue to pose challenges, the NHTP model could be adopted by other state and federal government departments, to leverage technology innovation to enhance response capabilities and build a more resilient future. With its strategic matchmaking, focused funding and commitment to addressing real-world challenges, the NHTP approach has the potential to revolutionise how we approach and mitigate the impact of natural hazards. 

For challenges that are not able to be addressed adequately by existing approaches or commercially available technology, the SBIR program provides an alternative model that enables agencies to work with businesses to develop a proof-of-concept and solutions to be tried and tested, before considering procurement of the successful solution.   

For more information, go to www.chiefscientist.nsw.gov.au/rd-action-plan/natural-hazards-technology-program

Table 1: NSW Government Challenges

About the Author

Dr Jaclyn Aldenhoven

Director Strategy and Programs (Future Industries) | + postsBio

Dr Jaclyn Aldenhoven, Director Strategy and Programs (Future Industries), is from the Office of the NSW Chief Scientist & Engineer which consults with academia, industry and government to ensure that knowledge and research can be adapted and used to benefit NSW. They lead the NSW Government’s Bushfire Response R&D Mission to help establish NSW as a centre for bushfire technology commercialisation.

Caroline Residovic

Senior Manager | + postsBio

Caroline Residovic, Senior Manager is from the Office of the NSW Chief Scientist & Engineer which consults with academia, industry and government to ensure that knowledge and research can be adapted and used to benefit NSW. They lead the NSW Government’s Bushfire Response R&D Mission to help establish NSW as a centre for bushfire technology commercialisation.