CESKA ASOCIACE HASICSKYCH DUSTOJNIKU SDRUZENI

Their core work

CAFO is a professional association of fire officers in the Czech Republic, representing the operational end-user community in fire and rescue services. Their core value in EU research is bringing practitioner credibility — real firefighters and civil protection officers who can validate research assumptions, participate in test and demonstration activities, and ensure new tools and training methods reflect field realities. They act as a bridge between academic research outputs and the professional fire and rescue community that must ultimately adopt them. In EU projects they typically contribute practitioner knowledge, facilitate access to operational networks, and co-design solutions with researchers.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

In their first project (FIRE-IN, from 2017), CAFO's focus was entirely operational: fire and rescue procedures, first responder capability building, practitioner networks, and training and demonstration activities — the language of people who run fire stations. By their second project (RiskPACC, from 2021), the focus shifted outward toward resilience, risk perception, and structured interaction between civil protection services and ordinary citizens. The evolution suggests CAFO is broadening from a purely professional association role (representing firefighters) toward a more public-facing position at the intersection of emergency services and community resilience.

CAFO is moving from representing the professional fire officer community toward becoming an intermediary between emergency services and the public, making them a relevant partner for projects addressing community resilience, public preparedness, and participatory civil protection.

How they like to work

CAFO has participated exclusively as a consortium partner, never as coordinator, across both projects — consistent with the profile of a practitioner association that contributes specific end-user knowledge rather than leading research programs. Their reach across 30 partners in 11 countries is unusually wide for a small NGO with only two projects, suggesting they are sought out as a practitioner node within larger, well-connected European security research consortia. Working with them means gaining access to operational fire and rescue networks in the Czech Republic and Central Europe, but should not be expected in a project management or scientific leadership role.

Despite having only two H2020 projects, CAFO has built connections with 30 unique consortium partners across 11 countries — a notably broad network relative to their project count. Their partners span the European security and civil protection research community, indicating they are embedded in the established circles of first responder and emergency management research.

What sets them apart

CAFO is not a research institute or consultancy — it is the actual professional body of Czech fire officers, which gives them a form of legitimacy that academic partners cannot replicate when validating operational research. For projects that need a credible end-user to test tools, run demonstrations, or co-design training materials with real practitioners, CAFO provides direct access to the fire and rescue professional community in the Czech Republic. Their combination of a practitioner base, EU research experience, and an evolving focus on public risk communication makes them a differentiated partner in Central European civil protection consortia.

Highlights from their portfolio

• FIRE-IN
  Their largest-funded project (EUR 120,445) and the one that established their role in the EU fire and rescue innovation network, covering the full range of their operational expertise including training, capability development, and test and demonstration.
• RiskPACC
  Marks a clear strategic pivot — CAFO joined a project about risk perception and citizen-practitioner co-creation, signalling an expansion beyond purely professional fire officer topics into community resilience and public preparedness.