£500,000 scholarship scheme to help save lives

THE Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) and British Nuclear Fuels (BNFL) have this week announced a major new long-term scholarship scheme for students to undertake research aimed at saving lives and reducing injuries both within and outside the workplace.

BNFL has pledged £500,000 to establish a fund to finance students capable of carrying out work that will have a significant impact on improving safety in the UK and around the world.

Under what is believed to be one of the biggest accident-prevention scholarships ever funded, up to three PhD students will be awarded grants annually. The researcher who produces the best work each year will be awarded a further cash prize as an added incentive for excellence.

RoSPA and BNFL will be seeking to engage the country’s leading researchers to focus on priority topics, not just in occupational safety and health, but also accident prevention on the road, in the home, in water and in leisure activities, as well as in the area of safety education. An invitation to bid for the scholarships, together with key themes for research, will be announced later this year.

BNFL has won many top awards from RoSPA for its commitment to health and safety and, now that nuclear power management is being moved into the private sector, the scholarship will ensure its name lives on as a safety champion. BNFL will close down over the coming year once it has completed the sales and transfers of its remaining businesses.

It is envisaged the scholarship scheme will run for 10–12 years, starting in 2009.

RoSPA’s chief executive, Tom Mullarkey, said: ‘This wonderful legacy from BNFL will play a major part in helping us to achieve our mission, which is to save lives and reduce injuries.

‘BNFL is blazing the trail to prove what can be done to prevent accidents, which have such a devastating impact throughout society. We hope other businesses and organizations will follow its lead and help us to resource initiatives which demonstrate that the vast majority of accidents are far from inevitable and that something can and must be done to stop them.’

Judith Hackitt, chair of the Health and Safety Executive, added: ‘I commend this valuable and imaginative initiative. Together RoSPA and BNFL will stimulate innovative research work by PhD-level students, which will make a real difference to accident and ill-health prevention.’