A changing world of work: Are there significant implications for worker health and safety and for building safety of widespread adoption across this diverse sector of: Modern Methods of Construction (MMC); AI, Autonomy and the Internet of Things;
Robotics; Advanced materials and additive manufacturing?

Background

To enable strategic and transformative advances in health and safety across the diverse construction sector through technology and innovation and the new opportunities and risks arising from it. To underpin construction and building safety regulatory regimes with evidence-based approaches and enable effective oversight across the whole built environment. To inform standards and guidance development to improve the safety and standard of buildings and develop effective strategies to measure and build competence across the construction and building safety sectors. To ensure that our approach to regulating chemicals and microbial control agents: is effective, efficient and agile, reflecting current and developing scientific understanding and technical knowledge; reinforces our position as an internationally influential regulator; and enables society to derive the benefits of access to safe and sustainable use of chemicals; and ensure there is no harm to workers, bystanders and consumers or unacceptable effects on the environment.

Next steps

Get in touch with hsecsa@hse.gov.uk

Source

This question was published as part of the set of ARIs in this document:

HS Es Areas of Research Interest ARI 2023

Related UKRI funded projects

  • IMPROVING DESIGN FOR SAFETY: A WEB-BASED DESIGN FOR SAFETY CAPABILITY MATURITY INDICATOR (DFS-CMI) TOOL FOR THE CONSTRUCTION SECTOR

    The global construction sector is estimated to account for 100,000 fatalities annually and about 30-40% of all fatal occupational injuries. In the UK, although the construction sector accounts for only approximately 5% o...

    Funded by: EPSRC

    Lead research organisation: University of Manchester

    Why might this be relevant?

    The project focuses on improving health and safety in the construction sector, which is directly related to the question.

  • Connected Worker Disease Prevention for Construction Sector

    This project will develop an Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) software tool for construction workers that will for the first-time prevent disease by accurately calculating individual workers exposure to three key con...

    Funded by: Innovate UK

    Lead research organisation: EARTEX LTD

    Why might this be relevant?

    The project is relevant as it addresses worker health and safety in the construction sector through the development of an Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) software tool, which uses predictive analytics and AI, but it does not cover all aspects of the question such as Modern Methods of Construction (MMC), Robotics, Advanced materials and additive manufacturing.

  • Network for Regulatory Innovation in Safetytech (NRIS)

    Industrial Safetytech (IS) is an evolving field aiming to enhance workplace safety through innovative technologies. Despite advancements, workplace injuries have plateaued, evident in 38,211 serious accidents reported to...

    Funded by: Innovate UK

    Lead research organisation: SAFETYTECH ACCELERATOR LIMITED

    Why might this be relevant?

    Partially addresses the question by focusing on workplace safety in the construction sector through innovative technologies.

  • Computer Vision and IoT for Personalised Site Monitoring Analytics in Real-Time (CV-SMART) towards Behaviour-Based Safety

    The "One Death is too Many" (Donaghy, 2009) catchphrase for the UK zero-harm agenda shows that no fatal accident is admissible on construction sites. Modern H&S problems can only be solved from a combinatio...

    Funded by: Innovate UK

    Lead research organisation: WINVIC CONSTRUCTION LIMITED

    Why might this be relevant?

    The project uses computer vision and IoT to monitor and enforce health and safety practices on construction sites, addressing the question's focus on technology and innovation.

  • Resilience funding for enabling safer and more efficient construction through video analytics and machine learning

    **Introduction** The COVID-19 contingency has highlighted the urgent need for site monitoring systems that enable measuring relative distances, effectively and accurately, among workers and plant equipment to ensure saf...

    Funded by: Innovate UK

    Lead research organisation: ZEST CONSULT LTD

  • AI Enabled Sensor Systems to Transform Construction Safety in the Philippines

    Construction is the deadliest sector in the world for workers. Lack of regulation and safety procedures increases this tool even more at developing countries. In the Philippines, the fatal injury rate in construction has...

    Funded by: Innovate UK

    Lead research organisation: UTTERBERRY LTD

  • Wearable Technology for Noise, Dust, Vibration Monitoring to Reduce Health Costs in Construction

    Construction is considered a dangerous industry but whilst the death rate from falls and machinery has been reducing, workers are still 100 times more likely to die from ill health than an accident in the construction se...

    Funded by: Innovate UK

    Lead research organisation: IDEAL INDUSTRIES LIMITED

    Why might this be relevant?

    The project focuses on monitoring health hazards in construction, aligning with the question's emphasis on worker health and safety.

  • AI-Enabled Bio-Safety Assessment Tool for Sustainable Building Design in Pandemic Conditions.

    At this time not only is there a global pandemic for the novel coronavirus COVID-19, at time of writing this application there is the 11th outbreak of Ebola being fought in Africa, Europe is recovering from a 3-year outb...

    Funded by: Innovate UK

    Lead research organisation: DATA INNOVATION.AI LTD

    Why might this be relevant?

    The project addresses bio-safety in building design during pandemic conditions, which is relevant to the question's focus on building safety and health.

  • Development of a machine-learning-powered digital HSE system that enables the monitoring of the health and safety of worksites and workers digitally and remotely and in line with ISO 45001 certification

    Teknobuilt, led by Abhishek Srivastava, Jon Baker, Harish Iyer and Naomi Mhatre, is a rapidly growing UK SME specialising in construction technology, hospitality and AI and digital services. Its founders have extensive e...

    Funded by: Innovate UK

    Lead research organisation: TEKNOBUILT LIMITED

  • The Learning Camera

    "The construction industry has poor productivity compared to other sectors in part as a result of the diverse and changing project environments. Often it is constrained by the reluctance to explore and adopt technol...

    Funded by: ISCF

    Lead research organisation: BAM NUTTALL LIMITED

Similar ARIs from other organisations

Technological change and data What are the potential impacts of the latest emerging technologies on building safety? Which technologies present the biggest opportunities and what are the biggest risks? Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, 2022
See details
The regulatory regime What more can be done to quantify and/or monetise the costs and benefits of building safety regulatory reform? Are there existing systems which are relevant here? Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, 2022
See details