An industry partner is any organization, company, or other body within the maritime industry who is willing to share injury and/or near miss (close call) data with the MSRI. The MSRI is a collaborative effort between American Bureau of Shipping and Lamar University in Beaumont, Texas. The incident records are sent directly to Lamar University, where the data is sanitized to protect privacy and hosted on a secure server. ABS does not have access to any original records which could potentially reveal any identifying characteristics of an incident (i.e. vessel name, seafarer name/position on board, location of incident, etc.).
Before any data sharing is initiated, confidentiality agreements are generated between ABS, Lamar University, and the respective industry partner. . Industry Partners who share data have access to these records, which are updated frequently. Any maritime company can become an industry partner if they are willing to share information with other MSRI partners. Once information is shared, they will have access to the databases and document portal through a unique username and password.
There are many benefits of becoming an industry partner with the MSRI, starting with the fact that it places your organization at the forefront of maritime safety research. Becoming an MSRI Industry Partner allows your organization to have access to the sanitized incident reports (injury and/or near miss) within the MSRI databases. This enhanced access allows you to have the ability to perform your own inquiries into any safety issue that you may find interesting. This includes, but is not limited to; searching for specific keywords, generating pie charts and excel spreadsheets, and understanding the significant safety concerns that affect the maritime industry as a whole based on the entire dataset.
Industry partners use MSRI data to direct safety efforts through identifying hazardous activities, tasks, locations on board, as well as potentially new hazards related to crew activities. The data is also used to support corporate safety management systems, develop job hazard analyses/ job safety analyses, and to update and revise operating procedures. MSRI tools and documents developed from the data are based on the research efforts and activities of ABS and Lamar involving MSRI, safety culture and potential leading indicators.
Keep in mind, anyone can become an industry partner with the MSRI. If you are interested in becoming an industry partner of the MSRI, please contact Dr. Kevin McSweeney or Dr. Brian Craig for complete details.
To become an industry partner of the MSRI, please contact Dr. Kevin McSweeney or Dr. Brian Craig for complete details.