The Korea Institute of Machinery and Materials (President Park Sang-jin), under the Ministry of Science and ICT, has been recognized for its efforts in laboratory safety management.

The Korea Institute of Machinery and Materials announced on the 28th that it received the Occupational Safety and Health Management System (ISO 45001) certification from KIWA Korea, an international ISO management system certification body.

ISO 45001 is the highest level international standard in the field of occupational safety and health. This is a certification granted to organizations that establish an 'autonomous safety and health system' and prevent accidents by consistently identifying and eliminating safety risk factors through the 'Plan-Do-Check-Action' stages.

This certification evaluates whether the system for safety and health management is properly structured and operating validly, whether goals to achieve this are established and being achieved, and whether safety and health threats are identified through internal reviews and effectively addressed.

The Korea Institute of Machinery and Materials (KIMM) was recognized for its active efforts, particularly for the head of the organization demonstrating commitment to establishing safety standards within the institute and encouraging campaigns to spread a safety culture.

In addition, autonomous efforts to strengthen the safety management system, such as organizing safety management working groups in each research department to ensure that ISO 45001 is properly applied at every research site and reflecting the voices of the research site necessary for safety management, were also highly evaluated.

Prior to this, on October 27, it was selected as a '2021 Excellent Institution for Laboratory Safety Management' by the Ministry of Science and ICT and received an award.

To ensure laboratory safety management, the Korea Institute of Machinery and Materials (KIMM) conducts on-site safety inspections with direct participation from the head of the organization and other executives, and regularly conducts training at a safety education experience center. In addition, multifaceted efforts are being made to create a safe research environment, such as reflecting safety management performance in evaluations.

Director Park Sang-jin stated, “Everyone participated in the effort to foster the mindset that creating a safe research environment must begin with oneself,” adding, “We will continue to do our utmost to ensure laboratory safety management to create an environment where researchers can fully dedicate themselves to research and development.”