Fostering OSH research coordination in the EU

The European Risk Observatory aims to foster stronger coordination of occupational safety and health (OSH) research across the EU. Many organisations carry out, or fund, OSH research across all the Member States, but ­–as in other areas– research is often too fragmented, which means that scarce resources may not be best used.

The Observatory’s work on research coordination started when the Community strategy on health and safety at work 2002-2006 asked the Agency to 'act as a driving force in matters concerning awareness-building and risk anticipation' and emphasised the importance of coordination and practical relevance of OSH research, particularly on new and emerging risks: 'Anticipating new and emerging risks, whether they be linked to technical innovation or caused by social change, is vital if the risks are to be brought under control (…). It requires researchers to adopt a consistent approach: research organisations should coordinate their respective programmes, target them to address practical problems arising at the workplace, and make preparations for the research findings to be transferred to firms, and especially to SMEs.'

As a first step, and at the Commission’s request, the Agency prepared a report on OSH research priorities in thr EU. The report was prepared in-house and circulated for consultation to the Agency’s network of focal points, EU expert networks, and international OSH organisations. In December 2005, the Observatory hosted a seminar to consolidate the report’s conclusions and bring together the main OSH research institutes from across the EU. This was the first of a series of seminars organised by the Observatory in several Member States to look for ways to increase their cooperation at the level of research programmes.

The report also served as input into the second Community strategy on health and safety at work (2007-2012), and achieved significant impact in terms of setting priority areas, as can be seen in the sections dealing with new and emerging risks, to the extent that this Strategy specifically asked the Agency to 'encourage national health and safety research institutes to set joint priorities, exchange results and include occupational health and safety requirements in research programmes'.

During 2005, the Observatory also played a key role in developing a proposal for a consortium of key research institutions that would promote research cooperation on new and emerging risks. The New OSH ERA consortium, led by the Finnish Institute for Occupational Health, was successful in obtaining funding from the 6th Framework Research Programme, and over the four years of the project (2006-2010) the Agency played a significant role to achieve its ambitious objectives.

Over the next few years, the Agency will continue to foster OSH research coordination, both by seeking a consensus on shared priority topics among the key players –including a review of the 2005 report on OSH research priorities in the EU– and through close cooperation with the Member States and key international networks and organisations such as PEROSH, ILO, WHO or NIOSH.