The main objective of the centre is to increase knowledge within the field of fire science in order to support decisions and develop better solutions providing increased fire safety in buildings. FRIC shall strengthen cooperation and lead to a long-term increase of competence and dissemination of knowledge within the fire safety field.
The research is organized into four work packages:
- Evidence-based decision-making within fire safety
- Fire dynamics and modeling
- Building Technology and design
- Fire safety measures and new technology
Multidisciplinary cooperation is a prerequisite for development of good solutions in the centre. FRIC is led by RISE Fire Research in Trondheim, with NTNUand SINTEF as research partners. FRIC has partners from the public sector, consultancy engineers, manufacturers of building materials and building installations, as well as within real estate development and management. An important partner is Trøndelag Fire and Rescue Service (TBRT), representing a central target group for the research.
FRIC will develop knowledge for improved mathematical modelling of fire development, and study fire safe use of new technology in buildings (e.g. solar cells, batteries/energy storage, innovative building materials and construction solutions). Fire safe dwellings, fire safety for vulnerable groups and safety for the fire brigades are other topics to be studied, as well as new extinguishing systems and the efficiency of diverse fire safety measures.
Various research methods will be applied, e.g. investigation of fires, experimental activities and theoretical analyses. The results will provide the basis for further development of products, services and regulations that can increase fire safety in our society.
Communication and sharing of the results are important tasks for FRIC. This includes new knowledge and development from the research in FRIC, but also communication of existing knowledge on subjects relevant to FRIC.
The centre is funded by all the partners, in addition to funding from the Research Council of Norway (program BRANNSIKKERHET, project number 294649). The funding from the Research Council includes a substantial donation from the Gjensidige Foundation through their project Det store brannløftet.