Practices in risk assessment and management for industrial systems are characterized by methodical diversity and fragmented approaches. In retrospect these risk and safety paradigms resulted from diverse industries driven and limited by available knowledge and technologies. A change based on industry driven R&D work was needed.

The European Industry recognised their obligation to reconsider their risk and safety policies, having a more competitive industry and more risk informed and innovation accepting society in vision. Therefore, the large collaborative project IRIS was proposed to identify, quantify and mitigate existing and emerging risks to create societal cost-benefits, to increase industrial safety and to reduce impact on human health and environment.

The project was led and driven by the industry to consolidate and generate knowledge and technologies which enable the integration of new safety concepts related to technical, human, organizational and cultural aspects. The partnership represented over 1 million workers. The project related to strategic research topics defined by ETPIS and ECTP and was underpinning relevant EU policies on industrial safety.