Montreal, March 19, 2003 - The Institut de recherche Robert-Sauvé en santé et en sécurité du travail (IRSST), the Business Faculty of the Université de Sherbrooke and the SafetyNet research group of Newfoundland have created an interdisciplinary research consortium on knowledge transfer and on occupational accidents and their context. To the partners’ satisfaction, this project has just obtained a total grant of $1 million from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR).
Great potential
The creation of the consortium will allow the transfer-related knowledge developed by its three constituents to be integrated, in order to ensure that scientific research results benefit workplaces. “In a bustling world, the development of knowledge through scientific research remains a vital aspect, but it is equally clear that significant effort must be invested in order to facilitate the transmission and appropriation of results by workplaces,” stated the IRSST’s president and CEO, Diane Gaudet, who is pleased with the CIHR’s decision to contribute to the funding of this project. The idea for this project has been simmering since the summer of 2002, when the IRSST welcomed the members of SafetyNet, an occupational health and safety research program covering all of the Maritime provinces. Following this meeting, researchers Danièle Champoux and Esther Cloutier of the IRSST, Mario Roy of the Université de Sherbrooke, and Barbara Neis of Memorial University of Newfoundland applied for a collaborative grant from the CIHR, which has been accepted.
A new laboratoryBy combining their expertise and by sharing resources, the members of the consortium intend to significantly increase their research and transfer capacity. As well, the organization of several scientific transfer and animation activities should result in the development of new collaborative research projects. The grant also enables the Université de Sherbrooke to set up a new knowledge transfer laboratory, which will mainly help in identifying the best organizational practices and in developing tools that will facilitate the use of knowledge. Over the next 5 years, the consortium expects to invest $2 million, including the grant from the CIHR.
