EXPOSURE ASSESSMENT

Input: Partnerships and Stakeholders

Partnerships

Partnerships are integral to the NIOSH Exposure Assessment Program. Input from customers and stakeholder groups that have inherent knowledge and concern about the health and safety of workers in all sectors and cross-sector areas helps in setting research priorities. Collaborative research with our partners may include in-kind contributions which help to leverage NIOSH research dollars. Partners also add expertise or specialized experience to the research team, which benefits the research, analysis, interpretation, and communication of the results.

Stakeholders and Customers

The NIOSH the Exposure Assessment Cross-Sector program collaborates and works closely with a broad spectrum of stakeholders and customers in the academic, industrial, professional, and labor community. The stakeholder and customer list is extensive, including industry, labor, academia, government agencies, nongovernmental organizations, and professional organizations, both domestic and international. These organizations may be research partners, as described in the previous section. They may also be users of our technology and scientific findings, peer reviewers, recipients of research grants and contracts, or sources of equipment, technology, or knowledge for advancing research in exposure assessment.

A snapshot of NIOSH partnerships during the first decade of the National Occupational Research Agenda (NORA) is available in A Compendium of NORA Research Projects and Impacts, 1996-2005, which describes both intramural and extramural NORA research.

Examples of the broad range of our partnerships include:

Academia

• The NIOSH Office of Extramural Programs supports extramural awards (including research projects, training grants, education and research centers, conferences, and small business innovation research). NIOSH has collaborating academic partners in many of our projects. The Office of Extramural Programs Web page provides information about the NIOSH extramural portfolio, the award process, historical awards, and grantee highlights and success stories.

Government

• NIOSH collaborates on a broad range of exposure assessment issues with other government agencies including the U.S. Department of Energy, Department of Defense, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, and the Environmental Protection Agency.

Industry

• Altairnano, in Reno, Nevada, is an example of an industrial partner where detailed exposure assessment studies are being conducted during actual industrial operations in the emerging area of nanotechnology.

International

• The U. K. Health and Safety Executive is an example of one of our key partners from other countries. A focus of this collaboration is the potential development and use of control banding for applying performance-based occupational exposure limits and controls to materials for which occupational exposure limits are lacking.

Labor

• The International Labour Organization (ILO) is one of the many labor partners with which NIOSH collaborates.

Nongovernmental Organizations

• NIOSH collaborates with many nongovernmental organizations, including those involves in the development of national and international consensus standards;
  • The American National Standards Institute (ANSI)
  • ASTM International
  • The International Organization for Standardization (ISO)
  • The International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC)

Professional and Trade Associations

• NIOSH has memoranda of understanding for partnering and collaboration with nearly 100 professional and other organizations such as:
  • The American Industrial Hygiene Association
  • The National Safety Council

For information about partnering with the NIOSH Exposure Assessment Program, contact the Exposure Assessment Program Coordinator. For general information about partnerships with NIOSH, contact the NIOSH Office of Research and Technology Transfer.