Safety and Health Innovation Network (SHINe)

Tax deductible industry donations to SHINe are used to fund research that directly improves the health, safety and wellbeing of construction workers.

All of our research is made freely available to anyone who wants to access and use it.

Government partners can also be part of the network and contribute to the research program.

Members can participate in research and test new ideas and solutions in their workplaces.

Members democratically select the research projects that we do.

Established as a giving circle, the SHINe fund is generously funded by our industry member donations. A giving circle brings a group of people with shared values together to collectively discuss and decide where to make a pooled gift. A giving circle supports through donations, but also help build awareness, volunteer, and more. We established SHINe under this model so we can multiply our impact and accelerate the change we want to see in the construction industry.

Given the significance of the cause to the Australian construction industry, we welcome engagement with and financial contributions from government bodies.

* RMIT University is a registered charity with the ACNC and endorsed by the Australian Tax Office as Deductible Gift Recipient. RMIT University can accept income tax deductible donations from individuals, corporations, trusts and foundations. All philanthropic gifts received are held in the RMIT Philanthropic Fund which is managed by the RMIT Philanthropic Fund Committee in accordance with the University's legislative and policy requirements.

Construction is a high-risk industry in which workers’ safety, health and wellbeing must be carefully and effectively managed.

Research can provide a critical evidence-based to help construction organisations and other stakeholders to ensure that the strategies they implement are likely to produce the best possible outcomes. However, it is vital that research efforts target issues that are the most important to industry.

In SHINe, we work with construction organisations to identify, develop and deliver research projects that are deemed by our members to address the industry’s most urgent and challenging work safety, health and wellbeing issues.

SHINe members help to decide which projects will be funded and are actively engaged in the delivery of selected projects. This model of collaboration ensures that SHINe members have the earliest access to new knowledge that is created, and can put this into practice to produce measurable change in their organisations.

SHINe is built on 20+ years of RMIT’s excellence in the field of construction work safety, health and wellbeing research. SHINe represents a new way of partnering with organisations in order to deliver more impactful research outcomes on a larger scale. SHINe members contribute to a program of rigorous scientific research with the potential to benefit the whole construction sector.

This whole-of-industry benefit will be realised through a collaborative delivery model founded on the principle that all knowledge created will be shared at no cost to industry end-users.

In SHINe, we are also working collaboratively with the University of Colorado’s Construction Safety Research Alliance (CSRA), who are a Foundation Research Partner of SHINe. This collaboration supports joint-research activities, knowledge sharing and the exchange of staff, students and industry collaborators between Australia and the USA.