Safe Work Australia releases new research and evaluation strategy
11 June 2025•BlueSafe Team•Source: Safe Work Australia
Safe Work Australia has released a Research and Evaluation Strategy to guide its national research priorities in work health and safety and workers’ compensation.
The strategy marks a renewed focus on research and evaluation for the agency, with an emphasis on coordinated, collaborative national research to improve work health and safety outcomes and workers’ compensation arrangements.
It comes as workers, businesses, regulators and policymakers face complex challenges from changing industries and demographics, advancing technologies and evolving work health and safety risks.
The strategy builds on data collection and research coordination actions in the Australian Work Health and Safety (WHS) Strategy and National Return to Work Strategy. It identifies goals, priority workstreams and focus areas for the agency’s collaboration with the WHS and workers’ compensation research community.
Safe Work Australia wants to strengthen connections across academia, government, unions, industry and employer groups, and health and safety professionals. Its aims include strengthening the evidence base, reaching agreement on emerging challenges and jointly developing a research agenda to address them.
The agency described the Research Summit as an opportunity to discuss current WHS and workers’ compensation research and identify emerging trends and gaps in evidence. Those discussions will inform work towards the strategy’s goals of driving thought leadership and building an evidence base with national value.
Safe Work Australia identified a strong evidence base as critical to delivering practical policy outcomes, responding to future challenges and continuing to improve WHS and workers’ compensation arrangements nationally.