From Summer Internship to Impactful Industry Collaboration: A Case Study on Moving Safety Research to Practice

Details

• Personal Author:
  Zhang Z
• Description:
  This study explores a productive four-and-a-half-year research-to-practice (r2p) partnership between university researchers and a construction contractor. This collaboration led to significant advancements in ergonomic injury prevention and safety culture at the company. A notable aspect of this partnership is its transition from a student internship to an embedded "researcher-in-residence" model for r2p translation. This case study examines team formation and the establishment of trust and reciprocity as group norms, and the benefits and implementation of the "researcher-in-residence" model in fostering an impactful r2p partnership. Our research methods included in-depth interviews and focus group discussions with 25 stakeholders, from frontline employees to company executives. The findings highlight 32 actions that strengthen relationships and clarify how these actions contributed to team success and our r2p collaboration. This study offers two main contributions: (1) a guide for cultivating team excellence in researcher-industry partnerships, and (2) evidence of the impact of mutually beneficial actions and trust-building on the effectiveness of r2p initiatives. Description provided by NIOSH
• Subjects:
  • Construction Industry
  • Ergonomics
  • Occupational Health
  • Safety
• Keywords:
  • Construction industry
  • Safety culture
  • Ergonomics
  • Injury prevention
  • r2p
  • Research to Practice initiative
  • Partnership
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Cooperative Agreement
• Genre:
  Case Studies
• Place as Subject:
  Dallas Region OSHA ; Maryland ; Philadelphia Region OSHA ; Texas
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  1-23
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20070314
• Citation:
  Silver Spring, MD: CPWR-The Center for Construction Research and Training, 2024 Oct; :1-23
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2025
• NORA Priority Area:
  Construction
• Performing Organization:
  CPWR - The Center for Construction Research and Training, Silver Spring, Maryland
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• Start Date:
  20090901
• Source Full Name:
  From summer internship to impactful industry collaboration: a case study on moving safety research to practice
• End Date:
  20240831
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/208550/cdc_208550_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 1.10 MB]
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:bc7ca8dea151c5ac0b8bfd029a4e05bb3289cf6594e35da3aa9aa126d74837ea13fc0f875394958f8c8810c602d8df7961f65e108141d1f7d40dbe7a5d9333c4