Two programs, Pre-Doctoral Research Training which includes Collaborative Research Training (CRT) and Interdisciplinary Research Training (IRT), and Research to Practice (R2P), are proposed to foster development of interdisciplinary research skills needed to effectively address national occupational research agenda (NORA) priority areas, and to promote the translation of research findings into interventions that prevent illness and injury in the workplace. These programs were chosen and designed to be mutually reinforcing, and build upon the successful experiences, specific strengths, and faculty expertise residing across the Center programs. Under the CRT program, qualified doctoral students in Chemistry, Chemical Engineering (Process Safety), and Civil and Environmental Engineering Department (Construction Safety), will be encouraged to pursue careers in occupational health science on graduation through a combination of didactic courses, engagement in cutting-edge research under ERC faculty, and interdisciplinary interactions with participants across core ERC programs. Under the IRT program, highly qualified candidates will be attracted to pursue doctoral degrees in the field of occupational and environmental health, and offered highly interdisciplinary programs of study addressing NORA priority areas. The R2P consists of several mutually supporting projects: the Visiting Partners Program (VPP) enables busy mid-career professionals to collaborate with experienced UM faculty on projects addressing occupational and environmental health and safety (OEHS) issues relevant to their work;the Hazards of Skilled Trades is a joint University-labor-management project to identify and ameliorate risk factors for acute trauma among skilled trades workers in the automotive industry;Technical Training for UAW Peer Trainers is designed to provide state-of-the-art technical information on health and safety to worker trainers so that they may more effectively educate their fellow union members;and the Symposia at the Michigan Safety Conference are designed to provide highly topical NORA-related research findings to a large audience of practitioners likely to apply these findings to effect change and prevent worker illness and injury.
Training of researchers and practitioners in occupational health and safety (OHS) is required to generate and apply new knowledge to reduce work-related illnesses and injuries. The proposed program will attract talented doctoral students to become researchers in the field of OHS, and increase the likelihood that new information learned will be applied directly to improve worker health.
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