In addition to helping identify organizations that may be absent from official documents, the interviews will also investigate the perceived characteristics of inter-organizational relationships. Mandated relationships, for example, tend to be characterized by lower levels of perceived cooperation among organizations [8] . While such characteristics will be investigated using quantitative methods in phase 2, the qualitative research will reveal the points of conflict and cooperation that emerge in the course of public health and emergency responses and thus provide a basis for the questions that will be used in the organizational questionnaire. The final focus of the phase one interviews will centre on the development of measures of the institutional environment, network effectiveness, and public health preparedness. What are the resources that key agency representatives themselves identify as critical and important to their organization and the network? What processes do the respondents use to evaluate if their organization or the system was prepared?