KANBrief 1/25
Since 1 November 2024, the Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (IFA) of the German Social Accident Insurance in Sankt Augustin has been headed by Professor Dr Rolf Ellegast. In this interview, he provides insights into current core topics for the institute, recent developments and the impact of the Institute’s research work.
The IFA and its employees – numbering around 270 – possess proven expertise in the scientific and technical aspects of occupational safety and health and in applied human factors and ergonomics. Our work yields tangible improvements in workplaces and work equipment, and supports the German Social Accident Insurance Institutions and their member companies in their day-to-day occupational safety and health activity.
Changes in the world of work constantly give rise to new challenges. One topical issue is the continuing digital transformation, in particular the integration of artificial intelligence into work systems. The IFA, and in particular its cross-departmental AI Competence Centre, is involved in several projects concerning this topic. It goes without saying that we’re interested in how work systems are designed and implemented without impacting negatively upon employees’ safety and health. At the same time, however, we’re interested in how the OSH community can use AI to assure or improve safety and health.
Climate change also places new demands upon occupational safety and health. For example, we’re conducting a prevention project to analyse the working conditions of bicycle couriers. In this project, we’re examining stress factors such as whole-body and hand-arm vibration – but also UV radiation and heat stress, and the practical benefits of cooling vests on particularly hot days.
Many of our research topics are born out of inquiries from accident insurance institutions and companies in the field. In addition, many members of our staff are active on government and scientific committees in which current occupational safety and health developments are discussed.
We also identify relevant future topics ourselves through our risk observatory. One example is the field of industrial security, in which we’ve built up extensive expertise within a short space of time. This is crucial, since the growth of networked production systems also increases their vulnerability. Industrial control systems are increasingly the target of cyber attacks, which can endanger the safety of workers. Through our work at the IFA, for example by setting out test specifications for industrial security, we’re enhancing the protection against such attacks.
We can state that overall, our work has changed considerably in recent years. The IFA now has a stronger international presence and is more closely networked with experts in the rest of the world, both in scientific institutions and in standards bodies.
Our aim is to make the results of research available for use, both for practical application and in the scientific community. The broad positive response to our publications and lectures is indicative of how well we achieve that.
We’re particularly proud of projects that make a lasting contribution to reducing occupational diseases and workplace accidents. One example is the reduction of formaldehyde exposure in pathology departments and anatomical institutes. Another is the safe design of treatment tables and the resulting avoidance of fatal accidents. We conducted a project for this purpose jointly with KAN.
We also actively submit our findings during standards development processes. In 2024, around 50 IFA experts were members of a total of 109 national and international standards committees, through which they further promoted the interests of occupational safety and health.