NOHFC supports new LU research chair

The Northern Ontario Heritage Fund Corporation (NOHFC) announced Dec. 19 it will be providing $1 million for the establishment of a Research Chair in Occupational Health and Safety at Laurentian University.

The university is starting an international search for a person to fill the position, with the goal of having someone in place for January 2014.

The new research chair in the existing Centre for Research in Occupational Safety and Health (CROSH) will lead research relevant to a broad range of workplaces.

The research chair will work to make the centre a national and international leader in occupational health and safety research, development, education, training, and global best practices. The CROSH research chair will be supported by a team of research assistants and other personnel.

“Our government continues to partner with universities to support important research initiatives,” said Minister of Northern Development and Mines Rick Bartolucci in a press release.

“I am very pleased that the NOHFC could invest in this research chair that will further help establish Laurentian University and Northern Ontario as a leading centre in occupational health and safety.”

Laurentian University president Dominic Giroux thanked the NOHFC for supporting the project.

The research chair “will help Laurentian University build on a strong foundation of occupational health and safety research, and contribute to many industries in our local community," he said.

“This investment will help us realize our goal of becoming a world-class, benchmark centre of excellence in OHS,” said Tammy Eger, associate professor at the School of Human Kinetics and CROSH director.

“We hope, and we believe, that workers and workplaces will ultimately become safer as a result of CROSH research.”

Officially approved by Laurentian University’s senate in 2008, CROSH is a multidisciplinary group of researchers, guided by an advisory board comprised of representatives from labour, industry and local health and safety organizations.

CROSH leads and engages in studies aimed at identifying health and safety concerns and eliminating hazards, occupational injury and disease from workplaces around the north.