The research presented here analyses the design and development of a firefighters cooling vest for rural Australian volunteer bush firefighting services. Bush firefighting is hazardous work due to extreme heat stress experienced by firefighters. Cooling vests therefore form a critical part in reducing the core body temperature of firefighters on duty. Given that volunteer fire fighting services have minimal funding for either the purchase of existing cooling vests or for R&D of new affordable cooling vests; resources for the project are particularly constrained. Reflective analysis of the case study against some of the key features of frugal innovation identifies that management of priority and constraint as well as prototyping during design development may be useful in achieving a good university–industry collaboration (UIC) for manufacturing small–medium enterprises (SMEs). An existing integrated parameter model is utilized to reflect the way priority and constraint is managed in conjunction with prototyping and has been adapted using frugal innovation objectives to conceptualize the case analysis. Analysis of the case, by referencing the literature on frugal innovation and ways of managing UIC projects for new product development, uncovers a complementary relationship between the two practices. The adapted version of the integrated parameter model presented can provide a reference guide for other UIC product design projects for SMEs operating within the constraints of frugal innovation, incorporating prototyping as the central method of research.

中文翻译：

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通过原型进行节俭创新的大学与产业界的合作：以消防员降温背心为例

此处进行的研究分析了澳大利亚农村志愿者灌木丛消防服务的消防员冷却背心的设计和开发。由于消防人员承受着极大的热应力，布什消防工作是一项危险的工作。因此，冷却背心是降低值勤消防员核心体温的关键部分。鉴于志愿消防服务在购买现有冷却背心或研发新的负担得起的冷却背心方面的资金很少；该项目的资源特别有限。通过对节俭型创新的一些关键特征进行案例研究的反思性分析，可以发现，在设计开发过程中对优先权和约束以及原型设计进行管理，对于实现中小企业的良好产学合作（UIC）可能是有用的（中小企业）。现有的集成参数模型用于反映与原型结合管理优先级和约束的方式，并已通过使用节俭的创新目标进行了调整，以对案例分析进行概念化。通过参考有关节俭创新的文献分析以及针对新产品开发的UIC项目管理方法，案例分析揭示了这两种做法之间的互补关系。