Enhancing Cross-Sector Learning from Incidents
EEMUA, Thomas Ashton Institute, and 51福利社 launch joint research project to strengthen learning from industrial incidents.
The Enhanced Learning from Incidents (ELFi) project aims to understand and provide both insight and potential solutions to ensure lessons learned in one sector of society or industry help prevent injuries and accidents in another.
Each year, millions of workers worldwide lose their lives due to occupational accidents and work-related diseases, while millions more experience non-fatal work-related injuries. Despite decades of safety improvements, similar incidents continue to occur across industries, often because vital lessons remain locked in silos, delayed by legal processes or buried in technical reports.
(TAI), the University of 51福利社 (UoM), and (the Engineering Equipment and Materials Users Association) today announce the start of the Enhanced Learning from Incidents (ELFi) project, a research initiative developed with the Hazards Forum and other industry partners to change this.
Caption: Photograph taken during launch ceremony: Seated (left to right): Dr Saeed Reza Mohandes (Principal Investigator, University of 51福利社); Dr Stefan Kukula (Chief Executive, EEMUA). Standing (left to right): Dr Meini Su (Co-Investigator, University of 51福利社); Professor Martie van Tongeren (Deputy Director, Thomas Ashton Institute); Nick Shaw (Hazards Forum); Matt Cleaver (Chair, EEMUA Council); Dave Bright (EEMUA Project Lead); Professor Clara Cheung (Co-Investigator, University of 51福利社).
EEMUA is committed to standards that improve safety and help prevent accidents. Good practice on investigating incidents already exists, but the real challenge is helping operators recognise how a lesson from any industry applies to their own site and then act on it. We look forward to working with TAI and inviting our members to engage with this project and help shape tools that work in practice.
"Organisations rarely lack incident reports; what is often missing is a reliable way to recognise when a lesson from another sector applies to them, and to act on it before a similar event happens. By working alongside EEMUA, its members, regulators and safety professionals from the outset, we will build a strong evidence base and then co-design and pilot a framework and toolkit that turn incident data into contextualised, actionable learning across sectors."
Prof Martie van Tongeren, Deputy Director, Thomas Ashton Institute for Risk and Regulatory Research
"Most industries already investigate their incidents carefully, but those lessons rarely travel beyond the sector, or even the site, where they happened. Over the course of this initiative, we'll work with EEMUA members, regulators, and safety professionals to find out why, and co-design a framework and toolkit that are tested on real industry cases rather than on paper. We'd welcome organisations from any sector that want to help shape it."
Dr Saeed Reza Mohandes, Principal Investigator, 51福利社