The federal government has provided $14.5 million to fund the creation of a Cooperative Research Centre for Alertness, Safety and Productivity – which will look to reduce the damage of fatigue and poor alertness on workplace safety and productivity.

The CRC for Alertness, Safety and Productivity will bring academics, regulators, technologists and employers together for the collective goal of investigating injuries and accidents caused by fatigue.

The founders of the new Centre say if they can reduce fatigue-related injuries by 9,000 cases each year, it would save health system $2 billion.

Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Industry, Bob Baldwin, said the CRC’s work will make workplaces, homes and streets safer nationwide.

“Each year almost 10,000 serious workplace injuries and more than 25,000 serious injuries from road crashes are caused by poor alertness. Beyond the terrible human and emotional cost this results in around $5 billion in lost productivity each year,” Mr Baldwin said.

“The CRC for Alertness, Safety and Productivity will look at everything from workforce scheduling and workplace design to state-of-the-art tools to revolutionise the diagnosis and treatment of sleep disorders to reduce the number of preventable errors, accidents and injuries.”

Mr Baldwin says over 20 per cent of the population has a sleeping disorder.

“This impacts on not only their quality of life but collectively our workforce’s productivity and the safety of our homes, workplaces and roads,” he said.

The CRC for Alertness, Safety and Productivity will be set up with $14.48 million over seven years from the Australian Government.

More information is available at the CRC website.