Periodic Reporting for period 2 - SafeHabitus (STRENGTHENING FARM HEALTH AND SAFETY KNOWLEDGE AND INNOVATION SYSTEMS)
Reporting period: 2024-07-01 to 2025-12-31
Farming is one of Europe’s most dangerous occupations, with a fatality rate 233% higher and an accident rate 18% higher than other industries. These figures likely underestimate the issue due to underreporting and lack of investigation. Improving health and safety in farming requires empowering farmers and workers to adopt safer practices. SafeHabitus, a multi-actor project, aims to strengthen Farm Health and Safety Knowledge Innovation Systems (FHS KIS) and promote social sustainability in farming. It uses innovative methods such as digital storytelling, multi-actor approaches to co-design risk management tools, foresight analysis, and policy benchmarking. The project connects stakeholders, researchers, and end-users across eleven national Communities of Practice, representing diverse EU countries and sectors. SafeHabitus also collaborates with European bodies to bridge EU and regional actors, influencing policies and advancing safer farm practices throughout the EU.
Objectives
1. Establish a multi-actor network of EU farmers and farm workers, farming organisations, farm advisors, policy stakeholders, researchers, and other relevant actors, driven by 11 national/regional Communities of Practice (COPs) representing a variety of countries and sectors and focused on co-creating knowledge and solutions that improve farmers’ and farm workers’ health, safety and quality of life.
2. Improve the understanding and awareness by policy makers, farmers organisations, trade unions and health authorities of farmers’ and farm workers’ health and safety at work.
3. Identify the implications of farmers’ and farm workers’ perceptions of their work on the future of the sector and hence on long-term food security.
4. Explore the potential of corporate social responsibility initiatives and bottom up innovations that enhance farmer and farm worker health and safety.
5. Develop recommendations for better performing European and national policy, and governance frameworks favouring safer and more inclusive working environments for farmers and farm workers.
SafeHabitus adopts a place-based, multi-actor approach to tackle farm health and safety (FHS) challenges at local, regional, and EU levels. Recognizing the influence of social, cultural, and environmental factors on daily farming practices, SafeHabitus develops tailored solutions co-designed with farmers, farm families, and farm workers. Central to its mission is strengthening Farm Health and Safety Knowledge Innovation Systems (FHS KIS) by improving knowledge flows between actors, supporting co-creation and validation of solutions through Communities of Practice, and linking research outputs with policy and advisory systems to enable uptake across Europe.
Objectives
1. Establish a multi-actor network of EU farmers and farm workers, farming organisations, farm advisors, policy stakeholders, researchers, and other relevant actors, driven by 11 national/regional Communities of Practice (COPs) representing a variety of countries and sectors and focused on co-creating knowledge and solutions that improve farmers’ and farm workers’ health, safety and quality of life.
2. Improve the understanding and awareness by policy makers, farmers organisations, trade unions and health authorities of farmers’ and farm workers’ health and safety at work.
3. Identify the implications of farmers’ and farm workers’ perceptions of their work on the future of the sector and hence on long-term food security.
4. Explore the potential of corporate social responsibility initiatives and bottom up innovations that enhance farmer and farm worker health and safety.
5. Develop recommendations for better performing European and national policy, and governance frameworks favouring safer and more inclusive working environments for farmers and farm workers.
SafeHabitus adopts a place-based, multi-actor approach to tackle farm health and safety (FHS) challenges at local, regional, and EU levels. Recognizing the influence of social, cultural, and environmental factors on daily farming practices, SafeHabitus develops tailored solutions co-designed with farmers, farm families, and farm workers. Central to its mission is strengthening Farm Health and Safety Knowledge Innovation Systems (FHS KIS) by improving knowledge flows between actors, supporting co-creation and validation of solutions through Communities of Practice, and linking research outputs with policy and advisory systems to enable uptake across Europe.
By RP2, SafeHabitus established 11 Communities of Practice (>1,300 participants) and participated in or delivered 80+ events, enabling EU-wide multi-actor engagement. Over 100 Technical Notes and Practice Abstracts support implementation of safer farming practices. RP2 marked a shift from implementation to validation and application, including: Completion of a Priority Needs Register and national actor mapping; Delivery of major research outputs on injury under-reporting, mental health and migrant workers; A large participant farmer survey identifying distinct engagement profiles; Development of a risk management tools database (57 tools); Establishment and operation of the European Policy Forum and National Policy Dialogues. Activities are now aligned towards uptake and policy integration, linking research outputs with stakeholder engagement and implementation pathways.
SafeHabitus advances the state of the art by moving from fragmented analysis of farm safety towards a systemic, multi-actor EU-wide approach linking working conditions, wellbeing and behaviour. It goes beyond existing approaches by combining large-scale empirical research, behavioural segmentation, and a comparative database of risk management tools (57 tools) with structured evaluation frameworks (e.g. RE-AIM). This enables a shift from awareness-raising to validated, implementation-oriented interventions. The project further innovates by operationalising Communities of Practice as real-world validation environments across 11 EU countries, and by embedding results into structured policy dialogue mechanisms (European Policy Forum and National Policy Dialogues). Overall, SafeHabitus delivers a replicable and scalable model linking research, stakeholder engagement and policy, supporting effective uptake of farm health and safety solutions.