Meet Johnny Dyreborg, one of the course leaders for our upcoming course “From Research to Practice in Occupational Health and Safety.” In this course leader interview, Dyreborg shares insights into his research journey, career highlights, and the critical need to bridge the gap between research and practical applications in Occupational Health and Safety.

Background and journey into research

My background is rooted in organizational sociology, with a primary focus on improving safety and preventing workplace accidents. However, evidence-based interventions often fail to reach relevant decision-makers in practice. In recent years, I have increasingly focused on how to better mobilize evidence-based OSH knowledge to reach workplaces and bring about effective changes in practice.

As with many things in life, my interest in research came as a bit of a coincidence. After working for many years with accident analyses, I was invited to work in a research institution and became very excited to investigate how occupational accidents could be better prevented.

Career highlights and challenges

Research is largely a collective endeavour. Nevertheless, one highlight is that I have contributed to the understanding of the most effective approaches in accident prevention. What comes to challenges, research as such is almost defined as solving challenges, because you often go down paths that no one has trodden before. Thus, the list of challenges is long, but so is the list of interesting insights and motivations you get.

I hope my research can contribute to decreasing the burden of injury at work. In addition, I think that research to practice will be one important element in reaching this impact.

Research´s impact on occupational health and safety

Research to practice is important simply because the demand for better use of research knowledge is increasing in society in general, and in the field of occupational health and safety (OHS) as well. And what is knowledge? And what are the different types of knowledge – and can they be transferred to practice in the same way? There are some rules for how best to make research knowledge relevant to practice, and some relevant principles and tools that can assist this process of going from research to practice, and from practice to research.

Message to the participants

Whether you are working with OSH in practice, as knowledge brokers, in public administrations, or you work as a researcher, this course is about the exchange of knowledge between research and practice. How can we in the coming years develop a common language and better reach out to each other? Both research and practice need to be involved in closing the gap between evidence-based knowledge and OHS practices at work or in policy making. This course will provide you with a common framework and tools that can assist you and your organization in closing this gap.

---

Course: 16th – 18th of April 2024 Midgardur by Center Hotels, Reykjavik, Iceland

More information: Course web page | Course registration | Last registration date: 14.3.2024.