Proceedings Lunch Workshop 'Future OSH Priorities and the role of research'
On the 20th of June, PEROSH held a lunch Workshop entitled 'Future OSH Priorities and the role of research' within the context of OH&S Forum 2011 in the Hanasaari Cultural Center in Espoo (Finland).
The lunch workshop was chaired by PEROSH Chairman Didier Baptiste and opened by Palle Ørbæk, Vice-chairman of PEROSH and Director of the NRCWE with the an overview of the output of the Seminar on Working Environment challenges of the future. The seminar was held in 2009 in Copenhagen together with international and European experts. Dr. Ørbæk presented the main challenges for the working environment and the research priorities for OSH for the longer term that came out of the Seminar.
Dr. Sergio Iavicoli, INAIL
Sergio Iavicoli, Director of the INAIL Occupational Medicine department looked into how to identify and set research priorities in Occupational Safety and Health. He stressed the importance of a participative model to involve stakeholders in the process of priority setting and the need for an integrated multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary approach in order to identify current and future priorities and to implement already available knowledge.
Eusebio Rial-González, Head of the Head of the Prevention and Research Unit of the European Agency for Safety and Health at work (EU-OSHA) presented the activities of the EU-OSHA in terms of OSH research and research coordination and emphasised the continuous need and efforts to integrate OSH priorities into the other policy areas. In 2012, the Agency will work towards a review of the 2005 Research priorities report in order to provide input to the new EU strategies until 2020.
Raili Perimäki of the Central Organisation of Finnish Trade Unions (SAK) called for a greater interaction between research and the stakeholders at the workplace level in order to be able to grasp better the challenges at the workplace. Also a translation of research into comprehensible conclusions and recommendations is needed. Research should be very sensitive to signs of change in the working life. She also claimed that more valid data are needed to integrate in negotiations and regulations on national and EU level.
Kris De Meester, chair of BusinessEurope’s Health and Safety Working Group made an appeal for an integrated approach of OSH taking into account all target groups and a focus on a holistic lifestyle concept including private as well as working life. In order to get the message across, a better understanding of the needs of companies, especially SMEs, is crucial.
Intervention studies and an enhanced evaluation of policies on OSH, improved methods for impact assessments of OSH interventions and valid key performance indicators are needed to assess what works in the field. The research community and companies should work more closely together in order to transfer existing state-of-the-art knowledge to the work floor and to pass on the needs of the companies to the research community. Finally, also policymakers should communicate more often their ideas and priorities for future prevention and research.
Programme and presentations
Programme
Working environment challenges of the future: Output of the Copenhagen Seminar
Palle Ørbaek, Director General of NRCWE and Former Chairman of the Partnership for European Research in Occupational Safety and Health (PEROSH)
How to identify research priorities in OSH?
Sergio Iavicoli, Director of INAIL Occupational Medicine Department and Secretary General of International Commission of Occupational Health (ICOH)
Fostering OSH research co-ordination: Contribution to a 2013-2020 strategy?
Eusebio Rial González, Head of the Prevention and Research Unit - European Agency for Safety and Health at Work
Who is getting benefit of OSH research?
Raili Perimäki, Central Organisation of Finnish Trade Unions (SAK)
Future OSH priorities and the role of research. View of BusinessEurope
Kris De Meester, Chairman of BusinessEurope's Health and Safety Working Group