UK drone operators funded to investigate international drone procedures

UK drone operators funded to investigate international drone procedures: Enhancing Emergency Response through Global Partnerships and Knowledge Exchange.

aims to to develop basic principles and procedures for using drones for fire and search and rescue operations. This information will be open access to all pilots and will support multiple agencies.

The importance of drones for emergency response has been recognised by the UK charity, The Churchill Fellowship. Founded by public donation in 1965 as a living legacy for Sir Winston Churchill, the Fellowship supports individual UK citizens to follow their passion for change, through learning from the world and bringing that knowledge back to the UK. The topics that are explored are wide ranging and include themes such as science and technology, emergency response and the environment.

Darryl Ashford-Smith and Toby Meredith, previous contributors to Emergency Drone Responder Magazine, were both successful in their bids for funding to investigate how organisations in North America use drones for emergency response operations. With the funding they are able to visit global practitioners and learn from these international partners. The ultimate goal is to use this unique opportunity to provide information to inform best practices of drone use for emergency response in the UK.

Darryl is a mountain rescue drone pilot in the Search & Rescue Aerial Association Scotland and has been at the forefront of developing search procedures for the team. By working with partners in the USA Darryl

"Although drones have been used for search and rescue for a number of years, their use is still in its infancy. Limited procedures are available with many teams working in isolation. To gather information globally would immediately enhance drone pilots' response in the UK to a range of disciplines such as fire, urban search and rescue, missing persons, hazardous materials and a range of other incidents."

Toby is a lead drone pilot and safety officer at the University of Portsmouth. He is a researcher into the use of drones for disaster management and has taken part in deployments to Dominica, Mozambique and Senegal. He is also taking a lead role in the development of drone operations for the international search and rescue team, ServeOn. Since 2022 he has been working with the UN agency, the World Food Programme, and the Institute of Search and Technical Rescue, on an experiment assessing the effectiveness and efficiency of drones for Wide area SAR under different flight parameters. For the Churchill Fellowship funding Toby wanted to investigate how drones are used for the management of wildfires.

"My project aims to identify the role drone technology can play in the management of wildfires to help reduce their lethal effects. Many fire services are already using drones when tackling wildfires, but what are the most effective ways of using them? Canada, where wildfires are a massive problem, has integrated drone technology into its strategic plans for managing fires. By observing how drones are used in Canada, I aim to provide information that will benefit the UK Forestry Commission and fire services in their approach to managing wildfires, looking at prevention and recovery, as well as response."

The Churchill Fellowship offers the opportunity to develop global partnerships and exchange ideas that will have a positive impact on emergency response operations in the UK. The funding is available to anyone so if you have an idea that would benefit from working with international partners the 2023

Churchill Fellowship applications open on 7th September 2023 (https://www. churchillfellowship.org/)