THEME 01THEME 01
Seeing the Scene from a Distance
Map the whole incident before sending anyone in.
See the bigger picture come together.
It takes global collective action to solve the hardest challenges in lifesaving.
We build the platforms and set the conditions for mission operators, behaviour shapers, innovators and resource allocators to meet, see how their pieces fit, and build what none of them could alone.
It takes a global ecosystem to solve big challenges
Immediate and future challenge areas mission operators face that requires stakeholders from across the collective to ideate, build and scale-up new capabilities to solve.
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THEME 01THEME 01
Seeing the Scene from a Distance
Map the whole incident before sending anyone in.
CONCEPT NOTE
Commanders need to know the size, edges and insides of an incident before committing people. Most of that picture is still built by eye and by radio. Drones, satellites and bystander footage could show far more, but every feed lands on its own screen.
Regulators are moving towards routine beyond-line-of-sight drone flights, and 3D scene capture is fast enough to use during an incident. A collective could define a common scene model that every drone, camera and mapping team feeds into, settle airspace and privacy rules with regulators, and build digital twins for rehearsal mid-incident.
HORIZON SIGNALS
- One national aviation regulator proposed routine beyond-line-of-sight drone flights in 2025; the final rule was still pending in October 2026.
IN PRACTICE
- One civil defence force flies drones from its heavy fire vessels for a better picture at sea. Trade press, 2026 ↗
- Its marine command centre takes live feeds from vessels, drones and body cameras; its marine drones can drop lifebuoys and AEDs. News report, 2026 ↗
- Home affairs agencies in one country began drone patrols in 2026, with heat-spot monitoring at fires.
INNOVATION CHALLENGE STATEMENTS
- Autonomous dynamic multi-drone orchestrator (2025)
- Hands-free, immersive real-time multi-modal situational awareness (2025)
- Real-time heads-up display for firefighter operations (2025)
- Autonomous collision avoidance of static and dynamic obstacles for small multi-rotor drones (2026)
QUESTIONS TO CONVENE AROUND
- What common scene model could every drone, camera and mapping team feed into?
- How should emergency, media and crewed aircraft share the sky over a major incident?
AT THE TABLE
Frontline emergency responders
Emergency managers & planners
Vehicle & equipment producers
Communications & digital infrastructure
Policy makers and regulators
ALSO NEEDED
Science & research community
Start-ups, entrepreneurs and innovators
Standards developers
THEME 02THEME 02
Greener, Leaner Response
Cut the water, fuel, foam and emissions that response burns through, without slowing it down.
CONCEPT NOTE
Emergency services use a lot of fuel, water and chemicals. Some foams leave contamination that outlasts the fire. As climate change brings more wildfires and floods, agencies must do more while shrinking their own footprint, often with no agreed way to measure it.
Agencies are electrifying fleets, adopting compressed-air foam and replacing fluorinated foams. A collective could set a common way to account for the environmental cost and benefit of response, test low-impact equipment in realistic conditions, and show funders that sustainability and speed are compatible.
HORIZON SIGNALS
- One civil defence force is electrifying vehicles and using firefighting media more efficiently.
- Since 2016 one force’s light attack vehicles have used compressed-air foam: four times faster, 70% less water. News report, 2016 ↗
- Satellites recorded record carbon emissions from one country’s 2023 wildfires. News report ↗
IN PRACTICE
- An equipment supplier sells PFAS-free foams for lithium-ion and multi-class fires. Industry profile ↗
INNOVATION CHALLENGE STATEMENTS
- Measure and benchmark carbon emissions avoided through early firefighting response (2025)
QUESTIONS TO CONVENE AROUND
- What common measure could show the environmental cost and benefit of a response, alongside its speed?
- Which low-impact kit should be tested side by side with what crews use today?
AT THE TABLE
- Frontline emergency responders
- Vehicle & equipment producers
- Policy makers and regulators
- Standards developers
- Science & research community
ALSO NEEDED
Innovation, R&D and trade agencies
Banks, institutional & private capital- Start-ups, entrepreneurs and innovators
Public emergency response funding bodies
THEME 03THEME 03
Communications That Work Anywhere
Keep responders, agencies and the public talking when networks are down, jammed or missing.
CONCEPT NOTE
Responders still lose contact in basements, tunnels, ships and flooded towns, and crews from different places still can’t always talk to each other. Moving to broadband promises video and data, but ties emergency services to commercial networks that fail in the same disasters.
Satellite messaging is reaching ordinary phones and several countries are migrating national radio networks to broadband. A collective could set the resilience requirements that operators and vendors build to, test interworking across borders and agencies, and plan for the loss of a network rather than hope it will not happen.
HORIZON SIGNALS
- One country agreed in 2025 to move its national emergency radio network to 5G broadband. Industry source ↗
- Satellite features in ordinary phones have reached the market, mainly for emergency messaging. Industry article ↗
IN PRACTICE
- One city fire service’s breathing masks now carry hands-free team comms built to stay clear in loud places. News report, 2026 ↗
INNOVATION CHALLENGE STATEMENTS
- Maritime communications network for multi-node manned and unmanned assets operations (2025)
- Real-time adaptive audio enhancement in complex environments (2025)
- Enable real-time communication in signal-denied environment (2024)
QUESTIONS TO CONVENE AROUND
- What minimum resilience should a commercial network guarantee before emergency services depend on it?
- How can agencies from different countries test interoperability before a cross-border deployment?
AT THE TABLE
- Communications & digital infrastructure
- Frontline emergency responders
- Policy makers and regulators
- Vehicle & equipment producers
System integrators & solution developers
ALSO NEEDED
- Public emergency response funding bodies
THEME 04THEME 04
Locating Responders and Survivors
Know where every responder is indoors, and find people trapped behind walls or under rubble.
CONCEPT NOTE
Satellite positioning stops at the door. Inside a burning building or collapsed structure, a commander often can’t say where each firefighter is, and a rescue team can’t say whether anyone is alive under the rubble. Ports and ships now face jammed positioning too.
Positioning techniques are maturing in consumer devices, and building information models could anchor indoor positioning if they were shared with responders. A collective could agree how buildings expose their layouts, how positioning data reaches incident command, and how tracking is tested and certified so crews trust it under stress.
HORIZON SIGNALS
- A government research programme built wearable tracking that uses magnetic fields to locate firefighters indoors to within centimetres.
IN PRACTICE
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INNOVATION CHALLENGE STATEMENTS
- Real time locating and monitoring of personnel in indoor environment (2023)
- Life detection through wall or rubble (2023)
- Offline indoor positioning (2023)
- Through-wall sensing of people (2024)
- Resilient vessel localisation in GNSS denied and spoofed environments (2026)
QUESTIONS TO CONVENE AROUND
- How should building owners share floor plans and sensor data with responders at the moment of need?
- How accurate and reliable must indoor tracking be before a commander relies on it to pull a crew out?
AT THE TABLE
- Frontline emergency responders
- Vehicle & equipment producers
- Science & research community
- Communications & digital infrastructure
- Emergency managers & planners
ALSO NEEDED
Public & community responders- Start-ups, entrepreneurs and innovators
- Standards developers
THEME 05THEME 05
From Data to Decisions
Turn sensors, cameras, calls and social media into decisions a commander can trust.
CONCEPT NOTE
Incident command gets more data than anyone can read: sensor feeds, video, calls in several languages, social media, partner reports. Most of it never reaches a decision. AI can now summarise, transcribe and fuse it, so the question shifts to trust, governance and where the data is allowed to live.
Large language and vision models make much of this feasible; the questions are now trust, governance and where data may live, and some jurisdictions class emergency-call AI as high-risk. A collective could define what explainability means at an incident, build shared evaluation datasets, and settle how on-premise and edge deployment meet operational and legal requirements.
HORIZON SIGNALS
- AI laws in some jurisdictions treat emergency call classification and dispatch prioritisation as high-risk uses. Sector association ↗
IN PRACTICE
- One civil defence force plans to network every responder, machine and system around a central data engine.
- A fire and emergency services council names the explosion of data as a top research priority.
INNOVATION CHALLENGE STATEMENTS
- AI video analysis and summariser agent (2025)
- Enhancing decision-making through explainable AI to synthesize insights across diverse data sources (2025)
- Data curation tools for on-premise LLM/LMM training (2024)
- Sense-making and information sorting for rapid incident understanding (2023)
QUESTIONS TO CONVENE AROUND
- What does a commander need to see to trust an AI summary mid-incident?
- How can agencies share evaluation data for decision tools without exposing sensitive records?
AT THE TABLE
- Policy makers and regulators
- Frontline emergency responders
- Emergency managers & planners
- Communications & digital infrastructure
- System integrators & solution developers
- Science & research community
ALSO NEEDED
- Start-ups, entrepreneurs and innovators
THEME 06THEME 06
Autonomous and Remote Operations
Send robots, drones and supervised vehicles where no human should go.
CONCEPT NOTE
Some tasks shouldn’t be done by a person at all: entering a building that may collapse, approaching a burning vehicle with unknown cargo, surveying a flooded chemical plant. Robots and remotely supervised machines can take them, but most fleets are built for drivers and most robots for factories.
Legged robots, supervised-autonomy kits and unmanned firefighting vessels are in trials, but independent field evidence is thin and liability unclear. A collective could set the operational tests a robot must pass before it joins a crew, work with regulators and insurers on supervised autonomy, and share lessons between agencies.
HORIZON SIGNALS
- Researchers are training four-legged robots to climb stairs for indoor firefighting. Research paper ↗
IN PRACTICE
- One civil defence force keeps compact firefighting robots at every station and bigger machines for large fires; it is also building an autonomous casualty transporter.
- An unmanned firefighting vessel testbed launched in 2025 to trial hotspot detection, underwater search and remote lifebuoy drops.
- An equipment supplier sells an unmanned unit that sprays water under an EV’s battery pack so crews can stay back. Industry profile ↗
INNOVATION CHALLENGE STATEMENTS
- Retrofit existing response vehicles for safe and reliable supervised autonomous operations (2025)
- Multi-fleet autonomous vehicle management with teleoperation control (2025)
- Real-time high-speed perception for existing Unmanned Surface Vessels (2026)
- AI foundational models for multi-functional robots (2024)
QUESTIONS TO CONVENE AROUND
- What tests should a robot or autonomous vehicle pass before it works a live incident?
- Who is liable when a remotely supervised machine causes harm in an emergency?
AT THE TABLE
- Frontline emergency responders
- Vehicle & equipment producers
- Science & research community
- Policy makers and regulators
ALSO NEEDED
- Start-ups, entrepreneurs and innovators
- Communications & digital infrastructure
- Standards developers
THEME 07THEME 07
Reaching Remote and Cut-Off Communities
Get responders, supplies and care to people cut off by distance or disaster.
CONCEPT NOTE
When roads are gone and the nearest hospital is hours away, the emergency is a logistics problem as much as a medical one. Islands, mountains and conflict zones live with this; big disasters bring it to everyone else. Humanitarian and emergency teams still often work side by side rather than together.
New aerial platforms, medical drones, remote health monitoring and treatments that need no cold chain are changing what is possible, and anticipatory finance is growing. A collective could link that finance, these platforms and local responder networks into one plan for each isolated community.
HORIZON SIGNALS
- At a 2026 humanitarian research conference, researchers presented a snakebite antivenom that needs no fridge and a single-dose treatment for a deadly meningitis. Humanitarian organisation ↗
IN PRACTICE
- One civil defence force’s marine drones deliver lifebuoys and AEDs straight to people in the water. News report, 2026 ↗
INNOVATION CHALLENGE STATEMENTS
- Next-generation mobility platforms for rapid aerial emergency response to remote mission areas (2025)
- Remote real-time health monitoring (2023)
- Rapid vein localisation for intravenous cannulation (2023)
QUESTIONS TO CONVENE AROUND
- How can pre-arranged finance, aerial logistics and local volunteers be planned together for each isolated community?
- What should a remote clinician be able to see and do through a volunteer on the ground?
AT THE TABLE
- Frontline emergency responders
- Vehicle & equipment producers
- Policy makers and regulators
- Emergency managers & planners
ALSO NEEDED
- Public & community responders
- Communications & digital infrastructure
Philanthropy & impact- Innovation, R&D and trade agencies
- Standards developers
- Public emergency response funding bodies
THEME 08THEME 08
Responder Health, Protection and Wellbeing
Keep responders safe from heat, toxins, injury and the slow harm of stress.
CONCEPT NOTE
The people who respond carry the risk long after the incident. Firefighting was classed as carcinogenic in 2022, heat stress is rising, protective gear is being rebuilt without PFAS, and burnout and PTSD are widespread. Stigma still stops many from asking for help.
Wearable monitoring, cooling garments and early distress signals are now realistic, and jurisdictions are legislating on protective gear. The harder questions are about data: who sees a responder’s physiological or stress data, and what happens to it. A collective of unions, employers, psychologists, manufacturers and regulators could set those rules.
HORIZON SIGNALS
- The UN’s cancer agency classed firefighting as carcinogenic to humans in 2022.
- Several jurisdictions have legislated PFAS out of firefighter turnout gear. Union source ↗
- Reviews find PTSD among first responders varies widely by study and role. Research review ↗
IN PRACTICE
- One city fire service’s new breathing apparatus lets firefighters share air, swaps cylinders in under 10 seconds and uses straps that don’t soak up contaminants. News report, 2026 ↗
- One civil defence force puts holistic wellbeing, physical, mental, emotional and social, at the heart of its plans.
- An equipment supplier sells PFAS-free foams designed for lithium-ion fires. Industry profile ↗
- A fire and emergency services council lists responders’ changing exposure among its research priorities.
INNOVATION CHALLENGE STATEMENTS
- Active body cooling technologies for first responders (2025)
- Predict, detect and/or monitor burnout (2024)
- Early detection of emotional distress or stress signals (2023)
QUESTIONS TO CONVENE AROUND
- Who should own and see a responder’s health and stress data, and under what rules?
- How can PFAS-free gear be tested and adopted without lowering protection in the meantime?
AT THE TABLE
- Frontline emergency responders
- Standards developers
- Vehicle & equipment producers
ALSO NEEDED
- Policy makers and regulators
- Science & research community
- Start-ups, entrepreneurs and innovators
- Public emergency response funding bodies
THEME 09THEME 09
Immersive Training and Rehearsal
Practise the rare, dangerous, many-agency scenarios often, together, and without the risk.
CONCEPT NOTE
The incidents that matter most are rare, and no agency can practise them enough alone. Live exercises are costly, hard to schedule and limited in what can safely be staged. New skills like teleoperation and AI support have to be learned somewhere first.
Consumer headsets have cut the cost of immersive training, and digital twins and realistic avatars make multi-agency rehearsal possible remotely. A collective could build shared scenario libraries, agree how simulated hours count towards accreditation, and use training records to find skills gaps early.
HORIZON SIGNALS
- Training centres now combine ambulance simulators, mock emergency departments and mixed-reality rooms. News report, 2023 ↗
IN PRACTICE
- One civil defence force uses extended reality and driving simulators, with performance data used to target training. News report, 2022 ↗
- One city fire service reconfigures training spaces with movable partitions; more facilities are planned. News report, 2026 ↗
INNOVATION CHALLENGE STATEMENTS
- Creation of hyper realistic and dynamic interactions with avatars in VR (2024)
- Transmit sense of taste and/or smell through virtual environment (2024)
- Create interactive 3D digital twin to simulate decision making scenarios (2024)
- Remote, real time collaborative and realistic technology for tactical training and operations (2023)
QUESTIONS TO CONVENE AROUND
- How should simulated training hours be recognised by accreditation bodies across countries?
- What would a shared, open scenario library for multi-agency rehearsal need to contain?
AT THE TABLE
- Frontline emergency responders
- Standards developers
- Communications & digital infrastructure
- Science & research community
ALSO NEEDED
- Public & community responders
- Emergency managers & planners
- Start-ups, entrepreneurs and innovators
- Public emergency response funding bodies
Making all the connections happen
Shared challenges, shared tables
The biggest problems get the right mix of people working on them, together.
Ideas tested where it matters
Promising ideas become proven capabilities through small pilots, designed with the people who’ll use them.
What works, made to last
Proven capabilities are written into policy, budgets and partnerships, so money flows to readiness, not just response.
Platforms and programmes we’re building with the ecosystem. Pick a card to take a closer look.
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IN PLANNING
Fast Forward
Where tomorrow’s lifesaving tech takes the stage.
WHAT IT IS
A festival where start-ups, hackathon teams and researchers put new technology to work on real emergency-response challenges.
WHO IT’S FOR
- Start-ups, scale-ups and hackathon teams
- Mission operators who’ll use what gets built
- Agencies, buyers, funders and investors scouting what’s next
WHAT TO EXPECT
- Live demos and test-beds, judged by the frontline
- Hackathons and the FIRST Beacon finals
- The annual gathering of the FIRST Fellows
- Fresh findings from FIRST Horizon
HOW IT CONNECTS
The meeting point of every TLC platform.
IN PLANNING
FIRST Fellows
Frontline Innovation, Research, Science & Technology
A year-long journey for the frontline’s boldest innovators.
WHAT IT IS
A year-long programme for operators who champion innovation in their own organisations: the know-how and the network to bring new ideas into daily practice.
WHO IT’S FOR
- Firefighters, paramedics, rescuers and call-centre leads
- Emergency managers, planners and humanitarian practitioners
- Anyone on the operating side who drives change
WHAT TO EXPECT
- Regular sessions on emerging tech, with founders and researchers
- A cohort across agencies, disciplines and countries
- Study visits to science and innovation hubs
- An annual gathering at Fast Forward
HOW IT CONNECTS
Fellows bring frontline insight to FIRST Horizon and FIRST Beacon, and meet the ecosystem at Fast Forward.
IN PLANNING
FIRST Horizon
Frontline Innovation, Research, Science & Technology
See the future of the frontline before it arrives.
WHAT IT IS
A bespoke scouting service that maps what’s next for one corner of emergency response, say, the future of call centres.
WHO IT’S FOR
- Emergency services, authorities and agencies planning ahead
- Operators of mission-critical services
- Partners who want an independent view of what’s coming
WHAT TO EXPECT
- A report written for you on future trends, risks and threats
- The technologies most likely to matter, and when
- Proofs of concept scoped and ready to run
HOW IT CONNECTS
Findings feed into Fast Forward, and can become open challenges through FIRST Beacon.
IN PLANNING
FIRST Beacon
Frontline Innovation, Research, Science & Technology
Call the world’s solvers to the challenges that matter.
WHAT IT IS
The next step after FIRST Horizon: innovation challenges published to open the search for solutions, globally or in one market.
WHO IT’S FOR
- Partners with a problem to solve and a hypothesis to test
- Start-ups, researchers and teams with solutions
- Funders and investors looking for frontline-ready ideas
WHAT TO EXPECT
- A clearly framed challenge, sent to the right solvers
- A proof of concept to test your hypothesis
- A path from shortlist to pilot, with real users
- A start-up finals at Fast Forward
HOW IT CONNECTS
Builds on FIRST Horizon’s findings and brings its finalists to the stage at Fast Forward.
IN PLANNING
Portals
Step through to the futures of lifesaving.
WHAT IT IS
Future-scenario labs and thought experiments that help the sector imagine, stress-test and prepare for the futures it could face.
WHO IT’S FOR
- Leaders and strategists in emergency, disaster and humanitarian agencies
- Policy makers, planners and researchers who shape the long view
- Technologists, futurists, designers and curious minds
WHAT TO EXPECT
- Scenario labs set ten to thirty years out
- “What if…” provocations that challenge today’s assumptions
- Red-teaming of emerging threats, before they arrive
- Playbooks for future-ready teams and organisations
HOW IT CONNECTS
Portals opens the big questions; FIRST Horizon maps the specifics; the boldest ideas head to Fast Forward.
IN PLANNING
LISTED
Lifesaving Innovation, Science & Technology, and Entrepreneurship Development
Where lifesaving ideas are forged into ventures.
WHAT IT IS
An incubator that turns ideas from hackathons, research and prototypes into businesses that can serve the frontline.
WHO IT’S FOR
- Hackathon teams and FIRST Beacon finalists with a promising build
- Researchers with technology ready to leave the lab
- First-time founders, including responders with an idea from the field
WHAT TO EXPECT
- Incubation from problem validation to first product
- End-user advisors, test sites and pilot partners
- Help with company set-up, IP, regulation and certification
- Introductions to investors and first customers
HOW IT CONNECTS
Takes the best ideas from Fast Forward, FIRST Beacon and Portals and readies them for investment and first customers.
Making lifesaving everyone’s business.
Saving lives has never been the work of emergency services alone. We bring responders, enablers, innovators and funders together, so that more people and organisations see their part in lifesaving and act on it.
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Connections across the ecosystem nurtured
Counting soon
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Ideas and innovations seeded
Counting soon
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New capabilities deployed
Counting soon
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New financial value created
Counting soon
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Person-hours saved
Counting soon
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Lives impacted
Counting soon
The tallies start with our first programmes. We’ll update the board as the results come in.
Insights
Thinking at the intersections
Notes, briefings and field reflections on emergency response, disaster management, humanitarian action and the technologies changing them.
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Lifesaving is your business too.
Tell us where you fit in the ecosystem and what you want to change.
Contact us
Tell us who you are and what you’re after; we’ll point you to the right people and programmes.