National Safety Council Commits $300,000 in Grants to Solve Most Common Workplace Injury
Photo credit: PK Safety
The National Safety Council announces the return of its Research to Solutions (R2S) and MSD Solutions Pilot Grant programs for the third year. As part of the Council’s MSD Solutions Lab , a groundbreaking strategic program established in 2021 with funding from Amazon, these programs aim to advance innovation in musculoskeletal disorder, or MSD, prevention – the leading workplace injury and a major cost driver for businesses across industries.
Unveiled during the MSD Solutions Lab’s virtual townhall, Pilot Programs in Action: Leveraging Technology for MSD Prevention, which showcased the impact of previous grant recipients, this year’s grant programs will award up to $300,000, bringing the total investment up to $835,000 since the initiative's inception. This funding is intended to help identify and implement scalable solutions to mitigate MSDs through research and pilot programs.
“Bringing together visionary researchers and organizations to tackle MSDs is instrumental in pushing the boundaries of workplace safety,” said Katherine Mendoza, Senior Director of Workplace Programs at NSC. “We are thrilled to see these programs continuing to grow, providing critical resources to innovative leaders committed to keeping employees safe and MSD-free.”
“The MSD Solutions Lab plays a vital role in driving innovation and fostering meaningful progress in workplace safety. The groundbreaking ideas developed by the Research to Solutions and MSD Solutions Pilot Grant recipients are quite remarkable,” said Sarah Rhoads, Vice President of Global Workplace Health and Safety at Amazon. “Their work not only addresses the critical issue of MSD prevention but also sets new standards for safeguarding employees across all industries.”
MSDs include tendinitis, back strains and sprains, as well as carpal tunnel syndrome, and are often caused by exposures to repetitive, forceful exertions like heavy lifting. They affect people in every industry and sector, and cost U.S. businesses in the private sector nearly $18 billion a year, according to the 2024 Liberty Mutual Workplace Safety Index. Recognizing the scope of these injuries, each grant is designed to further MSD prevention:
- Research to Solutions, which will award up to $50,000 per approved research project, for a total of $200,000 in grants, invites academic institutions, businesses and industries to innovate new solutions for MSDs, focusing on occupational injury risk reduction that can be seamlessly integrated across a range of sectors and workplaces. R2S proposals should support one or more key research areas, including emerging technologies, solutions to jobs or tasks known to have high MSD risk, MSD management systems, and total worker wellbeing.
- MSD Solutions Pilot Grant, which will award up to $20,000 per approved project, for a total of $100,000 in grants, aims to reduce MSDs caused by repetitive motion, awkward or static postures and forceful exertions by matching organizations with innovative technology providers to trial emerging technologies in real-life applications. This grant is available to members of the MSD Pledge community willing to partner with the nine leading technology providers featured at the 2024 NSC Safety Congress & Expo.
NSC will announce the list of this year’s grant recipients in June 2025 and the winners will have an opportunity to present their safety findings at the 2026 NSC Safety Congress & Expo or another event. For the current 2024-2025 grant cycle, the recipients will share their key learnings and research at next year’s NSC Safety Congress & Expo in Denver, Colorado from September 15-17.
The R2S and MSDs Pilot Grant are two of several initiatives supported by the MSD Solutions Lab to achieve its goal of preventing MSDs. To learn more about these efforts, visit nsc.org/msd. To learn more about the grant programs and application requirements, click here and here.
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