The IfADo as an interface
The IfADo field of research deals with the working human. Its major goals are the promotion of health and performance at the work place and the improvement of the working environment and of individual working tasks and processes. In the broadest sense, this is the common target of the IfADo and other national and international ergonomic research centres.
The relevant processes and functions are investigated on different levels from a biochemic-cellular to a behavioural level. This level of research interrelates the IfADo to other research centres for behavioural and life sciences.
The interdisciplinary connection between practical problems of the working
environment on the one hand and scientific theories and methods on the other
hand is a distinct feature of IfADo research.
In order to help meeting the requirements of a modern working environment core
competences in the disciplines ergonomics, occupational medicine, toxicology,
and psychology are at hand and combined. Contrary to other institutes for occupational
research the IfADo does not only find solutions
for practical problems by observing the coherences of working environment, working
task and their optimization, but also by evaluating causal coherences on the
basis of fundamental scientific research. Such a scientific approach in particular
allows the extrapolation on working environments that have not yet been studied
or that do not even exist yet.
