UMass Lowell received a $5 million, five-year grant under the National Institutes of Occupational Health’s (NIOSH’s) Centers for Excellence to Promote a Healthier Workforce initiative. UML’s was one of only two grants awarded nationwide out of more than 60 applications.

The grant is for the creation of the Center for the Promotion of Health in the New England Workplace (CPH-NEW). It will be implemented under the direction of Work Environment Prof. Laura Punnett with assistance from Lenore Azaroff of Work Environment, Lin Zhan of Nursing and Nicole Champagne of Community Health and Sustainability – all departments in the University’s School of Health and Environment (SHE).  UML researchers will collaborate with the University of Connecticut’s (UConn) health promotion researcher team. 

“It has always been easiest to achieve safer and healthier workplaces by implementing preventive measures, such as ergonomically designed work stations or patient lifting devices for nursing homes," says lead researcher Punnett.  "At the same time, the workplace has become a common location for health education and health promotion activities.  This center will combine the expertise of both types of health professionals, in order to learn whether we can be even more effective.  These grant funds will permit us to take a much broader and more inclusive approach to promoting health as well as preventing disease and injury.”

When announcing the grant, U.S. Rep. Marty Meehan said, "A healthy workforce is vital to maintaining our competitive edge in the global marketplace, and UMass Lowell will be leading the way in promoting workplace safety and health among New England's expansive workforce.  I am extremely pleased that UMass Lowell was able to secure this highly-competitive $5 million grant.  UMass Lowell is consistently on the cutting edge of research and development, and they are once again leading the way in an area that will help ensure that Massachusetts and all of New England continues to be amongst the most highly-productive workforce in the world."

The CPH-NEW is a cooperative initiative by UML and UConn, along with the private sector (St. Paul Travelers Insurance Company, Genesis HealthCare Corp., Liberty Mutual Research Institute for Safety), labor (Massachusetts Nurses Association and the Connecticut Council for Occupational Safety and Health), and state government (Massachusetts and Connecticut Departments of Public Health).