Challenges for Health and Safety in Higher Education and Research Organisations

This book provides a summary of the main obstacles for creating and maintaining high standards of health and safety in higher education and research organisations. The obstacles include high staff turnover and an uncertain and constantly evolving research environment, small groups lacking unified management structure, deadline time pressures, restricted funding models and existing "old school" culture. Often the Health and Safety specialists and personnel managers in these organisations find themselves reiterating the same information, which gets lost as soon as the new cohort of workers arrives.

Providing insight into methods of managing health and safety, training, and supervision, which help to build a strong and reliable health and safety system, this book is a collection of "best practices" from experienced safety professionals and researchers in Europe and the United States. These experiences demonstrate how health and safety professionals have overcome these issues and provide readers with ideas and models they can use in their own organisations. The information contained within is aimed at health and safety professionals and managers in universities and research organisations conducting scientific and engineering research with transient workers and students worldwide.

Dr Olga Kuzmina is a qualified Health and Safety specialist, with more than 10 years experience of working in manufacturing, research and academic environments. She routinely advises on handling, storage and disposal of hazardous chemicals, including corrosives, oxidisers, carcinogens, toxic substances, pyrophoric and otherwise hazardous materials. She created organisational policies on waste routes, safe solvent purification, safe chemical storage and disposal. She developed and delivered health and safety training. Dr Kuzmina is highly skilled in chemistry and engineering and fluent in English, Russian and Polish. She holds project management, teaching and professional qualifications including: PRINCE2, FHEA, CChem, CSci and CEnv. She was a winner of the 40under40 outstanding Health and Safety professionals award in 2018. Dr Kuzmina has 15 scientific publications and is a Committee Member of the IOSH Environment and Waste Management Group. She has also contributed to a book for the RSC on Polymerized Ionic Liquids.

Stefan Hoyle (MSc, CMIOSH) is the Head of Health and Safety with over 15 years of experience as a health and safety practitioner in a research environment. Stef started his career as a Medical Microbiology researcher then moved to a safety role to support frontline research. Stef is a Member of Expert Biosafety Group at Polo dInnovazione di Genomica Genetica e Biologia (Polo GGB) and a committee member of the UK University Chemical Safety Forum. Stefs experience covers biological, chemical and laser safety, offsite working, computer health, outreach and events safety. Last year Stefs team received the Imperial College Provost Excellence award.

Introduction to Challenges for Health and Safety in Research; Managing Legal Risks in an Uncertain Environment; The EU and Safety Management in Higher Education; Stress and Workplace Wellbeing in a Higher Education and Research Organisation; Educate Don't Indoctrinate: Planning and Delivering Training and Support for Workplaces with High Staff Turnover; Laboratory Safety for Undergraduate Chemistry Students; The Medical School: Managing Safety in Medical Education; Safety Outside of the Classroom; How to Do Health and Safety Right from the Beginning; The Role of Technical Staff in Maintaining Good Health and Safety; Liaising with the Emergency Services; When the Walls Come Down: Secrets of Open Space Safety; Health and Safety Considerations in Design of Teaching and Research Laboratories; Innovation Spaces: The New Campus Risk Paradigm; Translation of Safety from University Research to Spin-out; Please Throw it Away: Dealing with Legacy Chemicals, Equipment and Infrastructure Safely; Green and Sustainable Whilst Avoiding Risks; Organise Not Agonise - Getting the Best from Audits and Inspections