NEWS
Researchers pave the way for construction health and safety
Researchers from RMIT’s Centre for Construction Work Health and Safety Research (CCWHSR) have released a Research to Practice report in collaboration with Virginia Tech University.
The report is the culmination of a five-year benchmarking study funded by the United States through the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH).
It examines the socio-technical complexity of construction projects and the ways in which multiple stakeholders and fragmented supply chains can impact construction workers’ health and safety.
The report was completed as part of a collaborative research project funded by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)/NIOSH, under which RMIT was a subcontractor to Virginia Tech.
The research underpinning the report suggests useful strategies for construction project teams to identify and engage with key stakeholders who can subsequently influence health and safety of construction workers.
Professor Helen Lingard, Research to Practice report Chief Investigator and Professor in the School of Property Construction and Project Management, said the report enhances RMIT’s reputation as a leader in the field of construction health and safety research.
“The research positions RMIT as an international leader; the content of the report will shape health and safety policy and practice in the construction industries of Australia and the US,” she said.
“Our ambition is to undertake robust research in order to produce an evidence base that can be applied in practical ways to improve the health and safety of construction workers.”
The RMIT researchers that contributed to the report also included Dr James Harley, Professor Nick Blismas, Professor Ron Wakefield, Dr Rita Peihua Zhang and Payam Pirzadeh, as well as industry health and safety expert Kevin Jones.
The research underpinning the report received international recognition for best research paper at the International Council for Building Achieving Sustainable Construction Health and Safety Conference in Lund, Sweden in 2014.
CCWHSR is increasingly recognised for producing research-to-practice outputs that are used by industry, alongside producing high quality academic outputs that are published in peer-reviewed journals.