Southampton engineer to investigate preparedness and resilience to urban explosions in Sri Lanka
A multidisciplinary team led by the University of Southampton will identify opportunities to address the continuing threat posed by urban explosive violence in Sri Lanka.
Blast engineer Dr Jack Denny has brought together a consortium of researchers, clinicians, charities and NGOs for the new project funded by the Royal Academy of Engineering (RAEng) Frontiers of Development programme.
Civilian blast injuries caused by conflict and terrorism are being recorded at an unprecedented level around the world. In 2018, Action on Armed Violence (AOAV) recorded 32,110 casualties caused by explosive weapons globally, of which 70% were civilians, increasing to 90% in urban areas.
Explosive violence places significant stress on fragile health systems and emergency services, particularly in low- to middle-income countries (LMICs).
Sri Lanka has endured years of explosive violence and the threat of terrorism remains very serious, as demonstrated by major terrorist attacks in April 2019 .
“This project aims to investigate the engineering and emergency response challenges of explosive violence in Sri Lanka to define multi-disciplinary research questions and opportunities for increasing urban resilience and health system preparedness,” Jack says. “We are seeking to gain better understanding of the country-specific needs, challenges and local context to propose feasible interventions.”
During the project, the team will take part in stakeholder engagement, literature reviews, research investment mapping followed by an international workshop to be held in Colombo, Sri Lanka .
The multidisciplinary team includes Dr Sara Waring (Critical & Major Incident Psychology) at the University of Liverpool; Professor James Batchelor (Digital Health), Associate Professor Alex Dickinson (Bioengineering) and Dr Rebecca Brown (Global Health) from the University of Southampton; Sri Lankan clinical research colleagues Professor Dissanayake, Dr Jayathilleke, and Mr Ratnayake; and Iain Overton, director of AOAV.
Frontiers of Development is funded through the Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF), a major UK investment into challenge-led research to address the needs of developing countries. It is run by the RAEng on behalf of the Royal Society, The Academy of Medical Sciences and the British Academy.
The new Southampton funding follows Jack’s involvement in the fourth Frontiers of Development symposium that took place in July 2019 at the Heriot-Watt Malaysia campus in Putrajaya, outside Kuala Lumpur.
Associate Professor Dr Alex Dickinson said: “Jack is an exceptional early career research talent and has worked tirelessly to establish this initiative, influencing very high-profile international stakeholders. I am delighted that his work will contribute to such an important issue to benefit people in LMICs.”
The project will build on work being undertaken by the International Blast Injury Research Network (IBRN), an initiative led by Jack and Dr Rebecca Brown to establish an evidence-base of the global blast injury research portfolio.
“Preliminary findings have shown that studies are predominantly driven and focused on defence needs despite a vast majority of casualties occurring in LMIC civilian populations,” Jack says. “In addition to running international workshops , the IBRN is raising awareness of these disparities by generating evidence through multidisciplinary applied research-on-research.”
If you are interested in being involved in these projects and the upcoming workshop, please get in contact with Jack at Jack.Denny@southampton.ac.uk .