ORC RESEARCH CONSORTIUM CHARTER
OBJECTIVE: The ORC Research Consortium will provide value to ORC members and the safety and health community at large by serving as a venue for discussing planned, ongoing and completed S&H research. The Consortium will also facilitate ORC member companies, government agencies, research organizations, and other interested parties coming together to discuss research topics and methods; reaching consensus on research priorities; and identifying potential opportunities for collaboration.
DESCRIPTION: The ORC Research Consortium is a network of sorts, designed to bring ORC members and other interested parties together to further needed safety and health research. The Consortium will facilitate dialogue and the sharing of information between Consortium participants, and serve as a focal point for member company research efforts. Research Consortium meetings will be a combination of face-to-face and virtual meetings held on a periodic basis. The Consortium will be linked to resources that can assist companies in identifying, conducting, summarizing, and publishing safety and health research.
The Research Consortium will have two main areas of focus.
The first will be identifying and cataloging ongoing occupational safety and health research that is being supported by ORC members, as well as relevant research that is being supported by professional associations, governmental agencies, and others. ORC will survey the membership on an annual basis to ascertain S&H research projects that are planned or underway, and will maintain contacts with key federal Agencies to stay abreast of important related research that they are funding.
Second, ORC will facilitate discussions among members, government Agencies, research institutions and other interested parties to identify common interests, research priorities, and opportunities for leveraging research resources. ORC-facilitated discussions might address the scope of projects, proposal development, identifying opportunities for co-funding among ORC members, identification of researchers, issues pertaining to contact administration and distribution of project results.
The Consortium will be administered by ORC staff, and guided by an Advisory Board comprised of ORC member companies and others.
RELATIONSHIP TO ORC CENTER OF EXCELLENCE: ORC is launching a virtual Center of Excellence that will be a dynamic and generally accessible repository of critical safety and health research findings and best practices. Research issues that surface in the Center will be evaluated by Consortium members for further consideration. Research findings from the Consortium will be posted in the Center of Excellence. The Consortium and the Center will have the same Advisory Board.
