Coordinated Incident Management System role cards and profiles

The CIMS Role Cards and Role Profiles cover key CIMS roles/functions at incident, local, regional and national response levels. The cards have been developed for the emergency management sector by the National Security Workforce, in collaboration with the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) and sector representatives.

Role Cards

The CIMS Role Cards cover key CIMS roles/functions at incident, local, regional and national response levels. The cards have been developed for the emergency management sector by the National Security Workforce, in collaboration with the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) and sector representatives.

The purpose of the CIMS Role Cards is to:

  • promote consistency and understanding across the sector through providing functional clarity and a common language
  • reduce the workload within agencies and duplication across agencies
  • support staff development and response performance.

Audience and use

The Role Cards are available for national use in readiness and response. It is important to note that the cards are ‘tools’; they are designed to supplement training already received, not replace training.

We recommend that every coordination centre has the appropriate set laminated and on hand to use during responses.

Adaptation of cards

We encourage organisations to adhere to the CIMS Role Cards as much as possible to promote consistency across the sector and ensure ease of use of the cards during multi-agency responses.

The cards can be adapted by agencies who require a reduced version for use in the field or to suit their own internal environment in single agency responses.

All response levels CIMS Role Cards

Lead Controller all levels role card (.pdf 208kb)

Role Card Communications

Role Card Communications (.pdf 134kb)



CIMS functions role profiles

Controller role profile (.pdf 484kb)

Intelligence role profile (.pdf 616kb)

Logistics role profile (.pdf 616b)

Operations role profile (.pdf 609kb)

PIM role profile (.pdf 508kb)

Planning role profile (.pdf 620kb)

Response Manager role profile (.pdf 594kb)

Safety role profile (.pdf 764kb)

Welfare role profile (.pdf 606kb)