Field Research Safety

Before You Go

1. Book an appointment with Student Health for a Travel Consult at least 4 weeks before your trip, and learn about recommended vaccines and prescription medicines based on your destination and activities. Group consultations for field trips are available. Choose Schedule an Appointment, Travel Services, Travel Consult and follow the booking steps.
   https://studenthealth.sa.ucsb.edu/medical-services/primary-care-services/travel-health
2. The best practice is to develop a Field Safety Plan; a completed Field Safety Plan is required to borrow equipment from EH&S. 
3. Complete training:
   • Complete the Heat Illness Prevention Training available on the UCSB Learning Center.
   • The best practice is to get trained in Field First Aid or Wilderness Medicine.
4. If your field site is within the US, your US health insurance will be your primary medical insurance for any emergency treatment. If the field site is outside the US, your primary medical coverage will be the UC Travel Insurance. For travel outside of California, register your travel in the UC AWAY system to receive travel alerts from UC’s security partner Crisis24.  
5. Students and volunteers must sign a Waiver of Liability.

2026 UC Field Research Safety Leadership Training Series

Sessions and registration here

Next up: Emergency Response Panel Talk

This session will bring together professionals with expertise in emergency response to share lessons learned, protocols, and highlight practical tips valuable for a broad range of travelers and field researchers. Each speaker will present on their unique role and experience, and participate in a panel Q&A session.

Panel:

• Eric Hessell, UCSB Boating & Diving Safety Officer

• Jeff Holmquist, UCLA researcher/Mono County SAR

• Hannah Keith, National Cave Rescue Commission

• Julie Pollard, Director of International Health, Safety, and Crisis Management, UC Education Abroad Program

Format: Zoom

• Wednesday, February 25 | 2:00 PM–3:30 PM PT

• Friday, February 27 | 11:00 AM–12:30 PM PT

Content from past events is compiled in the UC Field Safety Leadership Training Library. 

Safe and Inclusive Fieldwork

The National Science Foundation (NSF) requires plans for safe & inclusive off-campus and off-site research. A written plan is required per the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Proposal & Award Policies & Procedures Guide (PAPPG) 23-1 for NSF-funded research; see NSF PAPPG (2023)

The plan must describe how the following types of behavior will be addressed:

• Abuse of any person, including, but not limited to, harassment, stalking, bullying, or hazing of any kind, whether the behavior is carried out verbally, physically, electronically, in written form; or
• Conduct that is unwelcome, offensive, indecent, obscene, or disorderly.

Additional resources 
Preprint of "The Queer & Trans Field Safety Assessment: a tool for protecting minoritized field scientists" 

The UC Fieldwork Toolkit Leadership Training Series features topics on preventing harassment in the field, creating safe learning environments, promoting safe fieldwork culture for diverse researchers, and more. 

ADVANCEing Field Safety: Preparation & Leadership in the Field
Registration here

In this presentation, the ADVANCEing FieldSafety team will introduce the program and all of its components and will share content from the first two parts of the online course: Module 1: Preparing for and Evaluating Hazards and Module 2: Communication and Leadership.

Speaker: University of Colorado Boulder PIs/Team

Format: Zoom

• Wednesday, March 11 | 2:00 PM–3:30 PM PT

• Friday, March 13 | 11:00 AM–12:30 PM PT