For over four years, Discovering Safety has shared knowledge from research undertaken by the Health and Safety Executive. This knowledge is useful to organisations who use it to help them manage their health and safety challenges.
Within the programme, we trial new mechanisms to share this knowledge more effectively. For example, in September this year, the industrial safetytech regulatory sandbox project concluded that an effective way to share expert knowledge is within a collaborative and innovative sandbox environment.
Another mechanism currently being trialled is the use of digital tools, such as Discovering Safety’s Construction Risk Library project which has developed a library of standardised data and processes. These can be incorporated into visualisation and modelling tools, for example within Building Information Modelling (BIM) software to mitigate safety risks in construction.
Digital tools translate expert knowledge into an easily accessible and understandable format. This month, Discovering Safety has won funding from the Knowledge Asset Grant Fund (KAGF), run by the Government Office for Technology Transfer (GOTT) and funded by the Department for Science Innovation and Technology (DSIT), to further develop a proof-of-concept for the ‘Safety Data Diagnostic Framework (SDDF)’ into a prototype tool which can then be digitised.
The aim of the SDDF is to establish a consistent and repeatable framework that enables Discovering Safety to engage with industry and identify and deliver appropriate solutions that improve health and safety through the use of data and new technologies, including Artificial Intelligence (AI).
Helen Balmforth, Discovering Safety lead is “delighted that the proof-of-concept for has been recognised in this way. We strongly believe this framework has the potential to be a collaborative service that will enable users to use their health and safety data more effectively in preventing accidents.”
Commenting on how it will work, Helen explains “The project will start in January next year and run for the first six months of 2024. In that time, we will look to develop a semi-structured interview framework and work up an approach for developing the health and safety data descriptors that will define the tool. We will then trial and analyse feedback from industry participants. To ensure the solution is applicable and relevant, we are calling out for six organisations, across different industries, to get involved in the development. Please get in touch with us for more information.
At the end of the six months development time, a report will detail the knowledge gained from the development exercise and provide evidence for further refinement. We hope to then gain the funding to fully digitise the tool and conduct a full market evaluation exercise. The developed tool could then be accessed by organisations, enabling them to understand better how they can effectively manage their health and safety data to achieve better health and safety outcomes.
We’ll be sharing the project outcomes on LinkedIn and here, on our website, so watch these spaces for regular updates.”
To get involved in this, or any of the projects within the programme, please email discoveringsafety@hse.gov.uk
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