Integrating ergonomic aspects into research and development projects as a preventive strategy in the food industries

As part of a national research and development programme for food technology it was formulated as a demand to applicants to describe the potential ergonomics impact of the research and development (R&D) projects. As the primary purpose of the research programme was to strengthen the Danish food industry s position on the international markets most of the R&D projects has been formed as joint ventures involving companies in the food industry and/or related industries, technological institutes and departments at two universities. The research question for the study presented in this paper was: What are the potentials and limitations for integrating ergonomics into joint R&D projects involving companies within the food industry and the university research? The objectives were (i) to identify the R&D peoples viewpoints on potentials and limitations for integrating ergonomics into R&D projects and (ii) to study the R&D processes in such networks in order to obtain a better understanding of the conditions for integrating ergonomics.