Dr Graham Spinardi has recently been awarded an ESRC grant to look into more depth the social and technological issues within informal settlements with respect to fires.
The ESRC grant, titled "Tackling Fire in Informal Urban Settlements: An Interdisciplinary Approach", is to work alongside many aspects of the IRIS-Fire project. With this being the case, the grants will work together in terms of outputs and deliverables, to maximise the use of resources to the fullest possible extent.
Specifics on each of the two grants for the work being undertaken can be found at the the respective research council websites.
Essentially the ESRC grant will allow us to survey more settlements in greater detail and also allow us to understand the socio-technical environment to help improve the resilience in informal settlements. This will be done through semi-structured interviews across a range of stakeholders including government departments, NGOs and suppliers of materials to and for informal settlements.
by David Rush