Research Safety

elevating the university’s reputation as a global leader in research and scholarship. Thanks to the efforts of researchers and administrators, the university has made tremendous strides toward improving research safety since the launch of the safety initiative.

• Annual Safety Summit Meetings that bring together unit safety accountability leads and other unit safety leadership to discuss how their units continue to improve their safety practices
• MiSafetyPortal, a centralized resource to interface with EHS and simplify oversight of safety in labs and research spaces.
• Unit level safety committees representing schools, colleges and units across the U-M campus have independently expanded their scope and regularly meet.
• Several cross-disciplinary working groups to address shared resources and best practices (e.g., Field research, museums/libraries collections, PPE barrier program, no-working alone group)

What does Safety First, Safety Every Day look like for U-M Researchers:

• Collaborate with EHS safety consultants to evaluate safety risks and use inspection findings as opportunities to incorporate preventative measures into everyday procedures
• Ensure everyone in the lab feels encouraged to raise safety concerns without retaliation
  Reinforce that cultivating safe research practices is the responsibility of both mentors and trainees
• Make time to discuss current safety issues as a permanent agenda item in lab and faculty meetings
• Committing to working continuously to improve the culture of research safety at U-M

The Research and Academic Safety Committee invites the U-M Research Community to participate in a safety initiative survey. The U-M community’s feedback helps us continue to strengthen U-M’s culture of research and laboratory safety, ensuring all faculty, staff and trainees work and thrive in a safe environment.

OVERVIEW

Through their research and creative work in science, engineering, health, social science, humanities, public policy and the arts, universities seek a better understanding of ourselves and the world around us.

As a public university, the University of Michigan has a special obligation to ensure that society benefits from the knowledge, insights and other products that arise. The translation of intellectual work to public benefit can take many paths, including undergraduate and graduate education, papers and books, clinical practice, technology licensing and works of art.

Through these processes, universities serve as the foundation of our nation’s economic vitality and quality of life. U-M is committed to enhancing and accelerating the transfer of the results of its work to the public good.