COLUMBUS, OH -- Ohio Governor Mike DeWine announced the third round of Workforce Safety Innovation Grants awards to advance the safety of workers statewide.

The Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation (BWC) awarded $9.4 million in grants through its Workforce Safety Innovation Center® (WSIC). The Research Institute at Nationwide Children’s Hospital, The Ohio State University, Transportation Research Center Inc., and the University of Cincinnati are among the recipients. WSIC provides funding opportunities for not-for-profit higher education institutions and research organizations in Ohio, in collaboration with Ohio-based industrial partners.

“The recipients of these grants are standout leaders in their industry who are prioritizing workplace safety,” said Ohio Governor Mike DeWine. “Their innovative thinking will advance safety standards and practices that will have long-term benefits for Ohio’s workforce.”    
WSIC aims to accelerate innovations in personal protective equipment (PPE) and personal protective technology (PPT) from laboratories to the workforce marketplace, safeguarding the health and well-being of Ohio’s workforce through these efforts.

“The recipients are dedicated to developing leading-edge equipment and technology for employers,” said BWC Administrator/CEO John Logue. “Each innovative project has the potential to significantly enhance workplace safety with effective solutions.”

In fiscal year 2025, the grant initiative is funding four proof-of-concept projects and four prototype projects:

The Research Institute at Nationwide Children’s Hospital (Prototype): Project led by Principal Investigator Dr. Tensing Maa to develop a scalable virtual reality (VR) training platform to help health-care workers effectively manage and de-escalate potentially violent situations. As a returning recipient, this project will build on previous successes by finalizing a VR prototype, testing its feasibility and efficacy with health-care providers.

The Ohio State University (Proof-of Concept): Project led by Principal Investigator Dr. William Marras to integrate modern technologies into a cloud-based platform to assess and mitigate the risk of low back injuries among industrial and warehouse workers, with the goal of reducing their prevalence. The platform is intended to provide a more affordable, accessible, and accurate tool for evaluating low back injury risk in real-world occupational settings.

The Ohio State University (Proof-of-Concept): Project led by Principal Investigator Dr. Kyle VanKoevering to develop a power-assisted transfer roller board designed to assist health-care workers in safely moving patients. The goal is to reduce the risk of injury during patient transfers. The project will focus on engaging health-care workers to generate design requirements.

The Ohio State University (Prototype): Project led by Principal Investigator Dr. Jeremy Seidt to develop an advanced emergency breathing apparatus for use in hazardous environments such as mines and by firefighters, with the goal of improving survivability in dangerous situations. This returning project will further develop an Oxygen Concentrating Self Rescuer, combining open/closed-loop emergency breathing capabilities and the filtration of toxic gases.

The Ohio State University (Prototype): Led by Principal Investigator Dr. Sarah Anderson to develop an interactive web-based health and safety training program for home health-care workers, to improve engagement and learning transfer, enabling workers to detect and manage hazards in client homes effectively. The project includes assessing implementation barriers and focusing on enhancing safety knowledge and training outcomes in the field of home health care.

Transportation Research Center Inc. (Prototype): Project led by Principal Investigator Dr. Timothy Seitz to develop high-tech safety barrels equipped with Vehicle-to-Everything (V2X) technology to improve the safety of highway maintenance workers by providing real-time alerts to oncoming drivers. The project aims to enhance work zone safety by deploying alerts that notify drivers about upcoming changes in the travel path, thereby reducing the risk of inadvertent entry and mitigating factors contributing to accidents.

University of Cincinnati (Proof-of-Concept): Project led by Principal Investigator Dr. Manish Kumar, seeks to employ digital twin technology to monitor and predict worker movements in manufacturing settings with a framework integrating physiological and kinematic data from wearables like smartwatches and camera feeds to provide real-time feedback and alerts to enhance accuracy and reliability in injury prevention across various types of worker motion.

University of Cincinnati (Proof-of-Concept): Project led by Principal Investigator Dr. Jing Shi aims to improve head injury protection by developing smart safety helmets with advanced liner materials and integrated sensors for high-risk occupations. Key objectives include demonstrating improved energy absorption and sensing capabilities and developing a cost-effective, low-power smart sensing solution for reducing work-related traumatic brain injuries.

“These grants empower our partners to turn groundbreaking ideas into practical safety solutions,” said BWC’s Safety Services Superintendent, Sandi Golden-Vest. “We are excited to see how these projects will transform safety protocols and equipment, ultimately providing our workforce with the best possible protection.”

This effort is bolstered by close collaboration and technical support of the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health and the National Personal Protective Technology Laboratory.