The Student Research and Innovation Grant program (SRIG) provided me with a wonderful opportunity to develop my project to its full potential within the allotted time. It boosted my research and innovation process by providing me with financial support, alleviating the burden of access to costly fire protective materials. necessary to the development of my project: “Female specific PPC for Structural Firefighters”. Such support empowered me to fully dedicate myself to my research and product development. It also facilitated commuting to and from the fire halls who kindly agreed to collaborate and share their facilities with me for user testing. Having this incredible help and recognition of my project allowed me to push further in my research, project development and testing, and to reach out and exchange with industry with more ease and credibility.

I personally particularly appreciate the SRIG program’s initiative to support innovative projects dedicated to solving real-life issues faced by a too small number of users to be considered lucrative and as such, often end up being forgotten by the design industry. I am immensely grateful for the opportunities this SRIG program has presented me. It clearly enhanced my academic endeavours, and as a result will significantly impact my professional opportunities.