The paper presents needs and requirements for information systems support for collaborative emergency management, developed in collaboration with emergency management stakeholders in Norway. The requirements focus on three basic elements for shared situation awareness (SA) in inter-agency emergency response: terminology harmonization, map-based common operational picture (COP), and support for evaluation and learning from incidents. Building on core design principles for emergency management information systems, prototypes have been developed for these three areas and validated with potential users. The paper contributes with a user-centric approach in identifying and designing information systems support for collaborative emergency management together with stakeholders, moving from needs to requirements to design proposals and covering core elements of COPs needed for shared SA. The collected requirements and prototypes developed may serve as a basis for further development of standardized solutions for inter-agency emergency operations.