10 Years of Research at the German Red Cross

The German Red Cross (GRC) started its first research project together with partners from the civil security research in March 2009. This marked the beginning of the successfully ongoing research and development work. For ten years now, GRC national headquarters actively participates in all academically relevant discourses and conducts application-oriented research, either in cooperation with partners or independently. The main research interest is on observing and analysing societal development and technical innovations informed by knowledge gained from GRC operations on the ground.  The GRC Research department has developed a viable method of applying research findings in practice already during research implementation.

Between 2009 to 2019, 10 research projects have been successfully implemented while 3 others are currently in progress. Through its research engagement, GRC has been cooperating with 118 different project partners from academia, industry, health and welfare as well as administrative and public authorities and organizations responsible for public safety. Since 2014 the findings are being published in a research publication series. As of December 2018, around 65.000 copies have been ordered by entities of the GRC federal structure. Additionally, copies were requested from public authorities and organizations responsible for safety in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. To meet the growing interest in GRC’s research engagement from non-German-speaking regions two research publication series have been translated into English as well. Since the middle of 2018 the website www.grc-research.de is online. Here, all information, applications and videos of the current and completed projects as well as the research publication series and further publications can be found (free download).