Institut de recherche Robert-Sauvé en santé et en sécurité du travail (IRSST)

The Institut de recherche Robert-Sauvé en santé et en sécurité du travail (IRSST), established in Québec since 1980, is a scientific research organization well known for the expertise of its personnel and the quality of its work.

• The IRSST is a private, non-profit organization.
• With a Board of Directors made up of an equal number of employer and worker representatives, it is also a parity organization.
• The Commission des normes, de l'équité, de la santé et de la sécurité du travail (CNESST) provides most of the Institute’s funding directly from the assessments paid by employers.

Mission

In the spirit of Québec’s Act respecting occupational health and safety, whose goal is the identification and “elimination, at the source, of dangers to the health, safety and physical well-being of workers,” the IRSST’s mission is:

• to contribute, through research, to the prevention of industrial accidents and occupational diseases and to the rehabilitation of affected workers;
• to disseminate knowledge and serve as a scientific reference centre and expert;
• to provide the laboratory services and expertise required to support the public occupational health and safety network: Commission de la santé et de la sécurité du travail (CNESST), Ministère de la Santé et des Services sociaux (MSSS) and its network, joint sector-based associations (JSAs).

To fulfill this mission, the IRSST:

• carries out and funds research in its priority research fields;
• supports the development of research and new knowledge in occupational health and safety, in collaboration with the scientific community;
• disseminates and promotes knowledge generated through research, in both the workplace and scientific communities;
• plays a leadership role and anticipates emerging needs, raising awareness, and creating synergy in the area of occupational health and safety research;
• contributes to researcher training in occupational health and safety;
• provides laboratory services to the CNESST and its network;
• contributes to the development of standards and regulations governing occupational health and safety;
• responds to ad hoc requests for specific expertise originating from various occupational health and safety stakeholders.

Vision

Through its leadership in occupational health and safety research, the IRSST seeks:

• to fulfill its role as a reference centre vital to the operations and strategies of the CNESST and its network;
• to be used by its social partners in a spirit of joint collaboration;
• to win recognition at the national and international levels;
• to derive maximum benefit from a well-established network of research and development collaborators.

Organization

The IRSST team is composed of some 150 individuals, including a scientific corps of more than 80 researchers, professionals and technicians from various disciplines:

• ergonomics
• industrial hygiene
• chemistry
• physics
• engineering

• sociology
• anthropology
• demography
• psychology

Addressing Research Needs

Given the highly diverse and complex challenges associated with occupational health and safety in Québec, the IRSST cannot conduct scientific activities with equal intensity in all research fields. To ensure that its efforts are channelled toward the most promising niches, the Institute continually identifies and updates priority needs.

The IRSST ascertains its partners’ main concerns and expectations through formal and periodic exchange mechanisms, involving primarily the senior management of the CNESST, the joint sector-based associations, the MSSS and its network, and both employer and union associations. These needs play the key role in determining the Institute’s priorities.

Outreach

• Occupational Health and Safety Activities
• Research Activities

The Institute supports the activities of its occupational health and safety partners by providing them with access to knowledge, expertise and tools that have been developed and validated using rigorous scientific methods. The reliability and relevance of this information assures them of solid foundations on which to base their various activities in the areas of information, training, inspection, advisory services and technical assistance.

Aided by the IRSST, partners with daily involvement in OHS, are given the opportunity:

• to influence research orientations and participate actively in projects;
• to gain access to scientific knowledge and applications that meet their needs;
• to use research findings in their capacity as information intermediaries;
• to perform environmental and biological monitoring in the workplace with the support of technical and laboratory services as part of an industrial hygiene approach;
• to benefit from the linking of the IRSST’s scientific and technical activities to the operations of the CNESST and its network.