Special Projects

Since its inception in 1996, the Terrorism Research Center has assisted clients with specific challenges they face in  areas involving terrorism, homeland security, critical infrastructure protection, research and analysis, training, policy recommendations into these types of issues. Our Special Projects Office has provided training and ongoing assistance to numerous clients in both the private and public sectors.

The Terrorism Research Center since it first opened its doors has strongly believed that we not only must take a role in identifying those areas of concern but to take the lead in helping solve some of the complex challenges that come with these issues. While the TRC has been involved in numerous significant projects these are a few examples of specialized projects that the TRC has undertaken.


The TRC conceived, designed, developed, maintained, and operated the Responder Knowledge Base until September 16, 2008.

Sponsored by the Department of Homeland Security's Office of State and Local Government Coordination and Preparedness and the National Memorial Institute for the Prevention of Terrorism, the Responder Knowledge Base (RKB) has been designed to provide emergency responders with a single source for integrated information on current equipment, including organizing lists such as the Interagency Board's Standardized Equipment List (SEL), and the Authorized Equipment List (AEL) from the Office of State and Local Government Coordination and Preparedness. The RKB also adds value through knowledge links, user opinions, and hints authored by subject matter experts. By integrating this information into one location, the RKB has become a "go-to" site for the responder community to begin answering questions such as: 

  • What equipment is out there? (including searches using the SEL and AEL)
  • Has it been certified?
  • To what standard?
  • What training is needed to use it?
  • How do I pay for it?
  • Whom can I talk to that has used it?
Vendors, testing agencies, standards organizations and trainers are supporting the RKB by populating it with current data. There is no charge to them for posting their data, and no charge to the community for accessing it. The RKB is provided as a public service.
 

Terrorism Early Warning Group Expansion

In early 2001, TRC approached the Memorial Institute for the Prevention of Terrorism (MIPT) with a concept for expanding the Los Angeles Terrorism Early Warning (TEW) group concept to other cities within the United States. Having worked with the TEW since 1997, we saw first-hand how the concept helped to improve terrorism prevention and response using a multi-discipline approach to intelligence fusion and analysis, information sharing and incident pre-planning.

In the fall of 2001, TRC initiated the TEW Expansion Project under the sponsorship of MIPT. After successfully demonstrating the concept worked in other cities, the program was expanded under the sponsorship of DHS. Today, TRC is working with DHS and MIPT to expand the TEW concept to the 57 cities within the United States and Guam. For more information please read the TEW brochure. Our TEW Expansion team is lead by Ed Reed, who established the Pierce County TEW in Washington state. You can read about their experiences in the TEW Case Study

Project Pediatric Preparedness

The TRC, in cooperation with the Tulsa Metropolitan Medical Response System (MMRS), and with support from the Georgetown University Bio-Security Institute is conducting a project sponsored by a Department of Homeland Security MMRS Special Projects Grant, to examine technical and operational challenges and solutions for pediatric emergency preparedness and responses to terrorism. Responders need the proper knowledge, capabilities, training, and authorities to deal with the unique requirements of children in crisis. Children have unique characteristics that may require different treatment and handling protocols than adult victims in a major terrorist incident. The project will bring together traditional emergency responders personnel, EMTs, pediatricians and other pediatric medical specialists to include psychologists and nurses, as well as lawyers and homeland security planners. The product of this effort will be a statement of needs and gaps in pediatric emergency response, across a number of domains - medical, technological, doctrinal, psychological, legal, etc and will be coupled with recommendations for near or long-term strategies and plans to mitigate or close these gaps.

Project Responder

Under a subcontract to Hicks and Associates, the Terrorism Research Center conducted extensive research and coordinated a series of expert workshops and exercises pulling together lessons learned and identifying best practices to create a series of National Terrorism Response Objectives. This program covers topics such as Personal protection equipment; Detection, identification and assessment; Unified incident command decision support and interoperable communications; Response and recovery; Emergency management preparation and planning; Crisis evaluation and management; Medical response; Logistics support; Criminal investigation and attribution; All-source situational understanding; Public health readiness for biological agent events; and mitigation and restoration of plant and animal resources.

Joint Staff Red Teaming

The Joint Staff and Combatant Commands are developing new Joint Operating Concepts (JOCs), Joint Integrating Concepts (JICs) and Joint Functional Concepts (JFCs), all of which will be tested, revised and validated through joint experimentation and capabilities-based assessments. The development of new concepts and the clear definition of required supporting capabilities are central to the Defense DepartmentÕs strategy to transform its forces to meet 21st century security challenges.

In FY05, TRC will lead an independent red team to review and ensure that new concepts are robust and are developed in sufficient detail to support the achievement of the desired capabilities.

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