Strategy for research and development in the working environment 2009- 2010

• ensures continued production of new knowledge about the working environment and work on the working environment; and
• contributes to describing current and future working environment problems in such a way that legislators, authorities, the social partners, enterprises, consultants, and suppliers have a better basis for making decisions about changes in working environment initiatives.

• Better quality research
• More relevant research
• Better priority setting for resources
• Better coordination and cooperation
• Better communication
• More qualified researchers

Vision:

The Fund will strengthen the quality of research and development in the working environment field.

The Fund offers broad themes to a wide range of applicants in order to achieve more competition and high-quality projects. The Fund lays down a number of scientific quality criteria in order to assess incoming projects. The Fund only supports projects with a proven specialist research base.
 
Vision:

The Fund will enhance the relevance of research and development in the working environment field.

The Fund grants resources to prioritised themes on the basis of a strategic assessment of where there is a lack of knowledge, and where there is a particular need to support research and development in the working environment.  The Fund lays down a number of relevance criteria in assessing incoming projects. For example, the Fund assesses the anticipated significance of the project for the working environment, and whether the results of the project are transferable and can be included as part of the basis for working environment work.
 
The Fund will place additional emphasis on supporting development projects.
 
Vision:

The Fund will enhance prioritisation and utilisation of research funds for the working environment field.

The Fund ensures better utilisation of the limited research funding by gathering resources in one place, and by allocating resources in accordance with strategic considerations.
 
Vision:

The Fund will enhance coordination of research and development activities and promote cross-disciplinary cooperation.

The Fund has carried out an analysis of Danish working environment research, and updates the research on an ongoing basis.

When assessing incoming projects, the Fund places importance on cross-disciplinary cooperation between different applicants when this is relevant in relation to the individual problem for study.
 
Vision:

The Fund will enhance communication and utilisation of the results of research and development.

When assessing incoming projects, the Fund places great importance on projects containing a comprehensive communication and reporting plan that clearly indicates how the project could be communicated and made available to possible interested parties and users of the project results.

When granting funding, the Fund requires that results of research and development are made public in order to allow use of the results as part of the basis for working environment work. The final report must include an assessment of how the project results may contribute to improving the working environment in the short and long-term. The Fund publishes project descriptions and final reports on the website of the Danish National Working Environment Authority.
 
Vision:

The Fund will enhance education and training of researchers in the working environment field.

The Fund is preparing a plan for recruitment and training of researchers in the working environment field and it grants funding for Ph.D. students.

Themes - strategic priorities  

The Fund will strengthen research and development in the working environment, including the following types of research and development: 

• The significance of working environment factors for safety, health, well-being, and welfare;
• Working environment initiatives at enterprise, sector, and society levels;
• The significance of social development for the working environment;
• The significance of the working environment development at enterprise, sector, and society levels.

• The report of the Danish Government on the Future Working Environment 2010;
• The discussion paper of the Danish Working Environment Council for a new national action plan, and priorities for overall working environment work in Denmark until the end of 2010;
• The report of the Danish Working Environment Authority on the Future Working Environment;
• Results from the monitoring report 2004 and 2005;
• The report "Mapping and analysis of Danish working environment research";
• Report on "noise from human activity";
• "Pilot project on the significance of the working environment in relation to immigrants" by the Ministry of Employment;
• Expert contributions from the Scientific Working Environment Research Committee and the Committee on Development and Reports;
• Views of the Fund's conference on future strategy.

• Instruments at enterprises such as workplace assessments (APV), safety organisations (SiO), education and training, advice etc.
• Influence on views and behaviour: types of information and guidance, including campaigns etc., enterprise culture and norms;
• Communication: effective methods for communicating experience and knowledge from one project to others and to enterprises both within and outside the sector;
• Legal instruments: this may for instance be regulation, such as prohibition notices/improvement notices or agreements;
• "Soft laws", including various types of party agreements;
• Working environment economy, benchmarking, incentives such as financial rewards and penalties, and the use of working environment certification as competitive parameters;
• Methods for effect evaluation of different efforts;
• New methods, theories and prevention strategies.

• In certain sectors, there is a lack of knowledge about the occurrence of noise harmful to hearing for different job groups, for instance in the building and construction sector. There is a need for more knowledge about the occurrence of noise disturbance in some sectors and professions in relation to the working environment;
• Identification of working environment factors as well as individual factors of importance to the auditory sensation, including the interaction between these conditions and the physical nature of sound in situations where the noise is disturbing;
• The effects of noise levels below 80 dB (A) and stress on hearing ability, including development of disturbing tinnitus, intolerance to noise and reduced sense of hearing;
• Describing the connection between noise disturbances in the working environment and stress, job dissatisfaction and reduced productivity, including whether noise in non-industrial environments might cause stress;
• Social consequences of disturbing tinnitus and intolerance to noise, such as increased absenteeism, job shifts and termination of employment, including examination of the significance of noise for sickness absence and termination of employment among elder persons;
• Sector-targeted research in the area of schools and daycare institutions as well as offices (open-plan offices). These include, in particular, intervention research that might indicate relevant assessment criteria and reveal which instrument might be particularly effective;
• Increased knowledge about the effects of hearing disorders arising from impulsive noise;
• New methods, prevention strategies and solution methods.

The theme will be advertised with 1 March 2007 and 2008 as the date for applications.
 
Theme: Psychological working environment

The psychological working environment is important to the individual's health, job satisfaction, creative skills and identity formation. The psychological working environment affects an enterprise's absenteeism, staff recruitment and turnover, motivation, productivity and transitional ability; and in relation to society, it is important for welfare, competitiveness and labour market inclusion.
 
The psychological working environment comprises a wide range of workplace conditions. The organisational and technological conditions of work, the content of work as well as work organisation. This also applies to the interaction between colleagues, management and employees, and interaction with the outside would.
 
Rapid changes in technology, organisation and management as well as globalisation, affect the psychological working environment and are causing new problems, challenges and opportunities.
 
There is a need for research based on different psychological, etnographical, sociological, organisational and medical theories and methods. There is a need for various types of research, including qualitative studies, epidemiological studies, case studies, intervention studies and applied research.
 
It may be relevant to examine problems related to gender, ethnic origin, age and exposed and weaker groups.
 
Research may for instance be carried out into the following problems:

• Assessment of different enterprise strategies on a good psychological working environment;
• How do various forms of management, organisation and employment influence the psychological working environment?
• Is there a connection between stress and various physical, psychological and behavioural reactions?
• Stress relative to working forms, volume and time, e.g. home working, night work, working alone and monotonous surveillance work;
• The relationship between borderless work and job satisfaction, health and family-work conflicts;
• Connections between management and the psychological working environment, including stress;
• Violence and bullying, reasons and prevention;
• Conflicting demands, including differences between demands and expectations of work and organisational/individual resources;
• Which factors at work positively contribute to the employee being able to cope with psychosocial strains at work?
• The importance of the increased rate of change for employees and enterprises;
• Connections between the psychosocial working environment and productivity/quality;
• New methods, theories and prevention strategies.

The theme will be advertised with 1 March 2009 and 2010 as the date for applications.
 
Theme: Pain and diseases of the locomotive apparatus

Pain and diseases of the locomotive apparatus is a significant consequence of workplace influences, and there is a continued lack of knowledge of the causes and how efficient restitution can be attained.
 
Pain and diseases of the locomotive apparatus are a common reason for labour market exclusion. In the course of such processes, a complex interaction takes place between the workplace strains, the person's experience of pain and reaction to the pain, as well as the procedures and routines used in the administrative handling of these processes. There is a need to better understand this interaction; to obtain deeper insight into the causal mechanisms in order to improve the success rate in retention and rehabilitation processes.
 
In the future, computer work will be increasingly widespread, and there is a need to attain more knowledge about health impacts and how to prevent these from happening. 
 
Heavy lifting, pulling and pushing, e.g. in relation to moving patients, may be associated with a high risk of low back strain even though tools and moving techniques are increasingly being used.
 
Physical inactivity is a risk factor with a number of health consequences, including obesity and cardiovascular diseases. Physical inactivity can become a new concept in working environment contexts, and more and more employees are being offered exercise possibilities, healthy food etc. at their workplace.
 
It may be relevant to examine problems related to gender, ethnic origin, age and exposed and weaker groups.
 
Research may for instance be carried out into the following problems:

• How pain and diseases of the locomotive apparatus occur and how strain can develop into a chronic disorder;
• The interaction between the workplace, the individual, and administration systems determines whether persons with pain and symptoms can be retained on the labour market or have to leave it;
• Development and assessment of methods for prevention of pain and strain, including in connection with computer work and work in the care sector;
• Reasons and consequences of burnout and burnout diseases for older workers;
• Evaluation of models on how persons with musculo-skeletal disorders can best be rehabilitated and retained in their job;
• The significance of various strategies to counteract physically inactive work at the workplace and their effect, including how employees can be motivated to be more physically active;
• New methods, theories and prevention strategies.

• New management, work and organisation forms, including mergers, networks and outsourcing;
• New pay systems, results measurement and employment relationships, including irregular working hours;
• Globalisation, changes in market conditions and framework conditions;
• Effects on family and working life as well as individual requirements for working life;
• The significance of sickness absence, exclusion and retirement from the labour market;
• Ergonomic conditions and indoor climate, including lighting conditions and combination effects between physical and psychological strains;
• Working environment and work on the working environment at unconventional small enterprises;
• New methods, theories and prevention strategies.

The theme will be advertised with 1 September 2009 and 2010 as the date for applications.
 
Theme: Industrial accidents

More and more people are becoming victims of serious accidents. It is important to test the different explanations and causes through research and development.
 
There is a need for more knowledge about the differences between sectors in relation to the causes of accidents and prevention strategies, including the importance of differences in organisation and management.
 
There is a need for more knowledge about the complex connections and interactions between rewards, motivation, standards and knowledge about accidents.
 
In addition, there is a need to assess how several activities to combat accidents supplement each other.
 
It is important to test initiatives that prepare and develop processes and structures in relation to a safety culture based on forward-looking planning that is able to identify and prevent risk situations.
 
It may be relevant to examine problems related to gender, ethnic origin, age and exposed and weaker groups.
 
Research may for instance be carried out into the following problems:

• Motivation and awareness of the need to prevent risks of accidents;
• Safety objectives, demands, and expectations;
• Behavioural changes obtained through activities developing a safety culture;
• How and with which effect the risks of accidents are handled in small and medium-sized enterprises and in informal systems;
• Accident prevention and understanding in informal systems;
• Organisational learning in accident preventive contexts;
• Risks of accidents for young persons under the age of 18;
• New methods, theories and prevention strategies.

The theme will be advertised with 1 September 2009 and 2010 as the date for applications.

Theme: Substances and materials

There is a lack of knowledge about the exposure levels at Danish workplaces to chemical substances and the working environment risks of substances. Moreover, there is a need for more knowledge about the correlation between chemical impacts at workplaces, and the development of the most prevalent diseases (cancer and allergic diseases), and knowledge about strategies to prevent skin diseases in connection with wet work. Also, more knowledge is needed about the correlation between the risk factors at workplaces and reproductive injuries for women and men.
 
Nanotechnology is a new area, and knowledge about the working environment risks is limited. Exposure and the risk of being exposed to ultra-fine particles is assumed to have increasing significance in production of new products. When particles are so small that they belong to the nano area, particles can change their nature and attain other properties than large particles of the same chemical substance. The health-hazardous properties of particles may also change, and this will be important to the safety and health of production and use of new products. In general, there is a lack of good methods that can help assess the properties of ultra-fine particles harmful to health.

It may be relevant to examine problems related to gender, ethnic origin, age and exposed and weaker groups.
 
Research may for instance be carried out into the following problems:

• Exposure assessments of chemical substances, including development of methods;
• Methods for implementing and evaluating preventive programmes, e.g. for skin diseases in connection with wet work;
• Validation and use of tools for monitoring work-related irritation and allergies, including skin diseases;
• Exposure to combinations of chemical factors and the development of irritation and work-related allergies;
• Multi low-dosage exposure and interaction/synergy with other factors, e.g. physical and psychosocial strains;
• The impact of the working environment on the development of cancer, including identification of vulnerable risk groups;
• Identification and quantification of risk factors at work that might explain reproduction injuries;
• Identification of nano particles in the field or in work tasks in laboratory listings;
• Knowledge about toxicologically relevant physical-chemical properties, including dust properties (dust formation, reactivation, lifetime) for different nano particles;
• Prevention strategies and methods, including protective equipment, and their efficiency against nano particles;
• Air quality in indoor climate and the importance in relation to health and productivity;
• New methods, theories and prevention strategies.

• The Fund will ensure recruitment and training of new researchers to maintain and expand research capacity in the area of the working environment in the public sector as well as the private sector.