NOIRS

For almost 25 years, the National Occupational Injury Research Symposium (NOIRS) has been the only forum focused on work-related acute traumatic injury research. NOIRS provides an invaluable platform for researchers, academicians, labor union representatives, safety professionals, industry leaders, and students from a variety of disciplines and fields to showcase innovative and state-of-the-art approaches to occupational injury research and prevention.

Held approximately every three to five years, NOIRS offers attendees, both from the U.S. and internationally, the opportunity to network with colleagues to expand their knowledge of current research and best practices to understand and reduce work-related injury. The significant interaction among conference participants has resulted in numerous collaborative partnerships between NIOSH and external researchers, which has led to new research to help advance the NIOSH mission to reduce occupational traumatic injuries and fatalities.

The upcoming NOIRS will be the eighth such symposium hosted by NIOSH since 1997 and has strong support from partners and stakeholders in the occupational safety and health community. The National Safety Council and American Society of Safety Professionals (formerly American Society of Safety Engineers) are long-standing partners who are again serving as NOIRS co-sponsors.  For the last few NOIRS, the Board of Certified Safety Professionals (BCSP) and BSCP Foundation and West Virginia University (School of Public Health, Benjamin C. Statler College of Engineering and Mineral Resources, and Safety and Health Extension) have co-sponsored the meeting. The Liberty Mutual Research Institute for Safety and Society for Advancement of Violence and Injury Research were also co-sponsors for several past NOIRS.  Co-sponsors are integral to developing a dynamic symposium that meets the needs of attendees and provides opportunities for networking.

To make the research presented at NOIRS available to a wider audience NIOSH has partnered with scientific journals to publish selected papers in special issues.  Most recently, a special issue of the Journal of Safety Research  featured papers from NOIRS 2018.

In an effort to hold an in-person meeting, the 2021 symposium was rescheduled from October 2021 to May 10-12, 2022 in Morgantown, West Virginia. Check the website for updates. Conference registration will open in mid-January 2022. There is no fee to attend NOIRS.

We look forward to another successful NOIRS! As NIOSH celebrates its 50^th anniversary, we are committed to the future of NOIRS and protecting workers from occupational injury.

This blog is part of a series for the NIOSH 50th Anniversary. Stay up to date on how we’re celebrating NIOSH’s 50^th Anniversary on our website.

Christine R. Schuler, PhD, is the Associate Director of Science in the NIOSH Division of Safety Research.

Jim Collins, PhD, MSME, is the Chief of the Analysis and Field Evaluations Branch in the NIOSH Division of Safety Research.

Dawn Castillo, MPH, is the Director of the NIOSH Division of Safety Research.

Tim Pizatella, MSIE, is the Deputy Director of the NIOSH Division of Safety Research.

Christina Socias-Morales, DrPH, is a Research Epidemiologist in the NIOSH Division of Safety Research.