The Health and Safety Executive has published its annual Mainstream Research Market Document (MRMD), which gives details of its current health and safety research activities and its anticipated £20.5million research requirements for 2001/2002. The document also invites both private and public sector organisations to enter the Competition of Ideas for health and safety research projects.
The HSE hopes thus to stimulate collaborative projects. The Competition of Ideas during 1998/1999 and 1999/2000 has so far resulted in over £5.75million of contracted research being taken forward. Last year, 61 organisations took part in the 2000/2001 competition, submitting a total of 164 proposals against 22 broad issue areas. 32 of these are currently under contract negotiation, while four have already been awarded contracts, including BAE Systems Defence Consultancy's investigation of human factors affecting health and safety in the onshore and offshore hazardous industries.
"The Competition of Ideas makes an important contribution to advancing the frontiers of health and safety research and technology," says Dr Paul Davies, chief scientist at the HSE. "It enables the HSE to harness the outstanding potential of Britain's scientific and research community, so that promising proposals can be developed into the reality of cutting accidents, injuries and ill health in the workplace."