The new ERA-NET entitled Coordination of European Research on Industrial Safety towards Smart and Sustainable Growth (SAF€RA) responds to the fact that industrial safety is an enabling and important success-factor in the pursuit of beneficial business activities. Industrial safety is a vital and important prerequisite for sustainable growth and competitiveness of the EU. Therefore, there is an urgent need to refocus the resources of national research programmes in EU Member States on industrial safety. The problems related to industrial safety are common to all and cannot be tackled adequately at the national level. SAF€RA will bring dynamism into European research on industrial safety by fostering collaboration of national research programmes, by encouraging lateral thinking and by promoting innovations related to implementation of industrial safety. SAF€RA started its topical work with the workshop on national approaches of research programmes on industrial safety, in Toulouse on July 5 and 6, 2012.
The 19 members of the SAF€RA consortium, European organizations which fund or manage research in industrial safety, started identifying the thematic research landscape and funding mechanisms within their national funding programmes. This work will allow them to develop joint strategies prior to the launch of joint calls for proposals in the field of industrial safety research.
Details on strategy and management structure
Upon a survey presented by the workshop hosts at FonCSI (Foundation for an Industrial Safety Culture) each organization provided information on their activity profiles and competencies. They further detailed their strategy and administrative procedures to implement national/regional research programmes
Safety is a complex issue, which can be approached from a technological angle (investigating new solutions which can contain specific hazards), from a methodological angle (improving risk assessment techniques, to allow more effective risk management) or from a societal angle (attempting better to understand factors impacting stakeholder acceptability of hazardous activities and the various compromises needed for sustainable development). The current national programmes focus on nearly 90 major topics of industrial safety research. It is necessary to assess and structure these topics for the design of a joint strategy and future joint calls.
Contact:
Dr. Juergen Lexow
BAM Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing
PST Research Coordination, Marketing
Unter den Eichen 87
12205 Berlin
Germany
Phone: +49 30 81 04-10 04
Fax: +49 30 81 04-30 27
E-Mail: juergen.lexow(at)bam.de
www.bam.de/en
