OP3

OP3

EVIDENCE FOR WORK: THE GLOBAL NETWORK FOR EVIDENCE SYNTHESIS IN OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY AND HEALTH, WORK PARTICIPATION AND WELL-BEING AT WORK

D. M. McElvenny¹, D. Gagliardi², C. Tikka³, S. Curti⁴, S. Mattioli⁵, R. Sauni⁶, J. L. Hoving⁷

¹IOM, Edinburgh, UK

²INAIL, Rome, Italy

³University of Eastern Finland, Kuopio, Finland

⁴University of Bologna, Italy

⁵University of Ferrara, Italy

⁶Tampere University, Finland

⁷Amsterdam UMC, The Netherlands

At last year’s conference, we reported, following a survey of international institutions and academic leaders in the evidence synthesis in occupational safety and health field, that it was feasible to establish an international network in this area.  The results of the survey have been published online in Occupational Medicine (1), along with an accompanying editorial (2).

The launch meeting for the Network (https://www.evidenceforwork.org/) was held in Rome, hosted by INAIL (Italian Worker Compensation Authority) in November 2023, with more than 20 public research institutions and university departments committing to work together. The Network’s vision is:

“We are a global network that facilitates the production of high quality syntheses, methodological developments, and knowledge transfer for evidence relating to occupational safety and health, work participation and well-being at work.  This work provides evidence to inform stakeholders, policymakers, practitioners and researchers so that workers have healthier and safer workplaces.  All work is done on a not-for-profit basis.”

The Secretariat of the Network is being provided by INAIL.  The first meeting of the Network’s Steering Committee was held in January of this year and was attended by institutions from across the globe.

The presentation will provide further details on the developments of the Network, including details of how organisations and individual researchers can get involved.

References:

1. McElvenny DM, Verbeek J, Gagliardi D, Tikka C, Hoving JL. Survey to assess the feasibility of establishing an international network for evidence synthesis in occupational safety and health. Occup Med (Lond). 2024.
2. Curti S, Mattioli S. The time is right to establish a Global Network for Evidence for Work. Occupational Medicine. 2024:kqad097.