Project Partners:
The Eastern Canada Research Consortium is funded by a 5-year Interdisciplinary Capacity Enhancement grant from CIHR. The Consortium is a partnership among three organizations: SafetyNet Community Alliance research team, based at Memorial University in St. John’s and linked to other Atlantic Canadian institutions; the Institut de recherche Robert-Sauvé en santé et en sécurité du travail (IRSST) in Montreal, and the Faculty of Business at the Université de Sherbrooke.

The Institut de recherche Robert-Sauvé en santé et en sécurité du travail (IRSST) was created in 1980 to contribute, through research, to the prevention of occupational injuries and diseases and the rehabilitation of affected workers. Its mandate is to ensure the development and dissemination of the scientific knowledge needed to achieve these goals. It is the largest independent workplace health and safety research institute in Canada

The Chaire d’étude en organisation du travail (CÉOT) is the Research Chair in Work Organization in the Faculty of Business Administration at the Université de Sherbrooke. The CÉOT’s mission is to stimulate the research, creation, diffusion, and concrete use of work organization knowledge. The CÉOT aims to expand and strengthen its expertise in work organization through the development of a large-scale research program on the emerging forms of work organization in Quebec workplaces.

Project Objectives:

Identify the best practices for knowledge transfer (KT) developed in Québec, and adapt these for Newfoundland and Labrador conditions;


Provide training for graduate and post-doctoral students and retraining opportunities in WHS for established researchers;


Transfer relevant WHS research results from Québec to Atlantic Canadian researchers, community partners, industries, and workplaces;


Develop new models to analyze and prevent workplace injuries, disabilities and diseases;


Fund pilot projects that will lead to grant applications for larger research ventures.

Description of pilot projects

The Consortium will enhance capacity by creating a number of new positions at each of the core institutions—knowledge brokerage capacity at IRSST, Sherbrooke and at SafetyNet, one tenured or tenure-track research chair at Memorial with visiting summer appointments at IRSST or at one of its affiliated universities, two mid-career retrainees (one at Memorial, one at Sherbrooke), and a post-doctoral fellow

Research Chair at Memorial

The Consortium will support the development of a Knowledge Translation Laboratory involving researchers, students, knowledge brokers and public service participants from across eastern Canada.

The Consortium will permit us to integrate current SafetyNet research and KT activities related to fisheries, oil and gas, and work in extreme climatic conditions with related work at IRSST and affiliated universities in Quebec. The core partners, by pooling their expertise, networks and approaches, will develop improved methods for analysing injury causes and prevention in resource-based and rural workplaces and new approaches to knowledge translation appropriate for rural and remote contexts.

Other funders: Memorial University, INCO

Community Partners: Workplace Health, Safety and Compensation Commission of Newfoundland and Labrador; Department of Government Services, Government of Newfoundland and Labrador; Newfoundland and Labrador Federation of Labour