Maria Papadakaki
Chair of Executing Board Associate Professor, Department of Social Work, School of Health Sciences, Head of Health and Road Safety Lab (LaHeRS), Hellenic Mediterranean University
Errol Taylor
Member of Executing Board
Past Chief Executive of the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA)
United Kingdom
Past Chief Executive of the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA)
United Kingdom
Eva Jakobson Vaagland
Member of Executing Board
Managing Director, Norwegian Safety Forum,
Norway
Managing Director, Norwegian Safety Forum,
Norway
Susanne Nijman
Member of Executing Board
Consumer Safety Institute (CSI),
The Netherlands
Consumer Safety Institute (CSI),
The Netherlands
Tabea Fian
Member of Executive Board
Austrian Road Safety Board (KFV)
Austrian Road Safety Board (KFV)
LaHeRS
Laboratory of Health and Road Safety
The Laboratory of Health and Road Safety (LaHeRS) is part of the Department of Social Work at the Hellenic Mediterranean University (HMU). Our mission is to prevent injuries and promote the overall health and safety of communities. A core focus at LaHeRS is injury prevention—specifically, reducing unintentional injuries such as motor vehicle crashes, falls, pedestrian-related incidents, and those caused by natural disasters, as well as addressing violence in its various forms, including child maltreatment, intimate partner violence, sexual violence, suicide, and youth violence.
As a unique academic laboratory that integrates health and social sciences, LaHeRS develops comprehensive strategies for health and safety promotion while also playing a pivotal role in delivering psychosocial services to economically disadvantaged individuals in rural and remote areas with limited access to healthcare and social services.
Our work spans both laboratory and field research, policy formulation, and direct community engagement to inform, educate, and empower people on health, mental health, and social issues, especially among underserved and at-risk populations. We are dedicated to testing innovative solutions for individuals, couples, families, and communities facing adverse bio-psychosocial circumstances and rigorously evaluating the effectiveness, accessibility, and quality of health, mental health, and social welfare services.
Additionally, LaHeRS supports the development of scientific tools and materials for use by academic, research, and civil organizations, and is actively involved in creating training materials and lifelong training programs for frontline professionals.
EuroSafe
European Association for Injury Prevention and Safety Promotion
The European Association for Injury Prevention and Safety Promotion (EuroSafe) was founded on May 25, 1990, under the Dutch law and is registered in the Amsterdam Chamber of Commerce under registration number 40536942. Its membership includes health and safety agencies, research institutions, private sector organizations, and civil society groups. As a non-governmental organization, EuroSafe unites organizations and individuals committed to preventing injuries and promoting safety.
The EU-IDB (European Injury Database) is managed by EuroSafe and contains cross-national data on the external causes and circumstances of injuries treated in the Emergency Departments of hospitals. Its primary purpose is to facilitate the development and evaluation of injury prevention policies and programmes, which aim to control external risks. The information is complementary to death and hospital discharge statistics and specific surveillance systems on road and workplace accidents. Unique is the wealth of information about external circumstances of injuries as needed for evidence-based prevention actions. The IDB data are collected by dedicated national agencies and provided to the Istituto Superiore di Sanità (the National Institute of Health in Italy) which hosts the databank. At the European level, the system is legally based on the Council Recommendation C164 on the prevention of injury and the promotion of safety and the Regulation (EC) 1338/2008 on community statistics on public health and health and safety at work.
