HSE scientists get knowledge system

The Health and Safety Laboratory (HSL) has taken on a knowledge management system to deal more efficiently with its large research portfolio.

Part of the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), HSL handles a £35m budget for carrying out science projects and sanctions over 1,500 pieces of work per year.

Bob Simpson, chief scientist unit says the HSL needed the knowledge management system to create a single view of the work it is funding.

'We have quite a large research portfolio and we had several systems that monitored projects as they moved through different stages,' he said.

'But what we needed was a single system that would track work at the front-end, as ideas for research are being pitched and moved through the pre-contract stage.'
HSL handles research projects ranging in budget from hundreds to hundreds of thousands of pounds, over a wide-range of scientific disciplines.

The system, supplied by SCI ICT, also helps research applicants to get through the pre-contract process as quickly as possible, Simpson says.

'One the contract has been issued, it is tracked by our financial control systems to monitor spend and the progress of the research moving forward,' he said.

'However, once the research is complete, the knowledge management system takes over again allowing us to look at information about how well the work went and how it was used.'

Further on, the system prompts research initiators to contact HSL to let them know of any new developments that have arisen from the original research.

'Essentially, it stores the timeline of the research for us and tracks the information that goes around that,' Simpson said.

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