About the Centre for Human Factors and Sociotechnical Systems
At the Centre for Human Factors and Sociotechnical Systems, we aim to tackle some of society’s biggest challenges through innovative research that enhances safety, health and wellbeing and optimises overall system performance. We work closely with partners across industry and governments to provide expert insights and analysis, and to support individuals, businesses and communities to improve practice, performance and safety.
The Centre is led by Director Professor Gemma Read. Our research covers a range of application areas, including:
- Transport and Infrastructure
- Defence, Security and Resilience
- Sport and Outdoor Recreation
- Organisational Safety
- Land Use Planning and Urban Design
- Societal Health and Wellbeing
2025: Partnering for impact
2025 was an important year for the Centre’s research profile and strategic direction. It included rebranding as the Centre for Human Factors and Systems Science, which reflects the growing integration in our research programs of systems science methods (such as network analysis and computational modelling) with human factors approaches to address complex societal challenges.
The Centre secured funding for a diverse portfolio of projects, including three significant Australian Research Council awards: a Linkage Project focused on led outdoor activity safety, a Discovery Project examining safety migration in road transport, and a Discovery Early Career Researcher Award for Dr Jolene Cox to investigate helpseeking behaviours among young people who self-harm. In collaboration with the University of Sydney and Macquarie University, the Centre also helped secure a National Health and Medical Research Council Centre of Research Excellence to advance the integration of human factors principles into AI-enabled clinical decision support systems.
Partner-funded research remained a key strength, with ongoing collaborations with the Office of Naval Research to prevent harmful behaviours in military personnel, and projects with Transport and Main Roads Queensland to model road safety outcomes and support evidencebased decision-making. We continued to collaborate with a diverse range of industry and government partners, including the Victorian Departments of Transport and Planning and Jobs, Precincts and Regions, Metro Trains Melbourne, the ACT Government, the Australian Automobile Association, Austroads, Queensland Health, and Sunshine Coast Council.
Highlights
- The Centre strengthened international connections through visits from overseas scholars, including Professor Nancy Cooke of Arizona State University and Professor Chris Baber from Birmingham University.
- Our researchers shared their work and expertise through national and international keynote presentations and lectures, including to Denmark’s National Research Center for the Working Environment, the Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency’s Licence Holder Forum and the Defence Artificial Intelligence Research Network.
- Centre members were also invited to present to various industry bodies and forums, including Safework NSW’s Action Against Violence in NSW Hospitals Working Group Showcase, a national webinar for the Australasian College of Road Safety, and the Land Transport Safety and Regulation research seminar series hosted by Transport and Main Roads.
- Our researchers contributed their expertise to national research funding and advisory bodies, supporting research excellence and evidence-based decisionmaking, and held leadership roles across leading international journals.
- Our members continued to strengthen the Centre’s reputation as a leader in its field through scholarly publishing, including the book Systems Thinking Methods in Sport: Practical Guidance and Case Study Applications, and contributions to leading international journals.
Celebrating our staff
- Professor Paul Salmon and Adjunct Professors Neville Stanton and Guy Walker were recognised internationally for their research excellence through inclusion in the Stanford Top 2% Scientists list.
- Professor Salmon also received the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society of Australia (HFESA) Margaret Bullock award, which recognises a major systematic program of human factors and ergonomics research that has led to demonstrable improvements in safety, efficiency and/or usability.
- PhD student Nicole Liddell received the prestigious Clare Burton Memorial Scholarship, which is administered by QUT and is open to students at all Australian universities undertaking master and doctoral research degrees with a focus on gender equity.
Making a difference: Our research in action
Embedding systems thinking in road safety policy and practice
Road transport systems worldwide continue to create unacceptable levels of trauma. Historically, road safety interventions have been used to prevent unsafe behaviours, based on the view that driver errors are the primary cause of road crashes. While this approach saw success, over the past 15 years reductions in road trauma levels have plateaued, and in some places crash fatalities are increasing again.
Since 2012, a research team from the Centre has been engaged in a major program of road safety research focused on the application of novel systems thinking approaches to understand the causes of road trauma, and to support the development of more effective interventions. Led by Professor Paul Salmon, this research has included world-first analyses in the area of road safety, including new tools to support the collection and analysis of crash data, the development of the first control structure model of road safety, and the development of Causal Loop Diagrams for the ‘fatal five’ driver behaviours.
The team also developed a set of highly novel road safety interventions, which have been applied to longstanding safety issues such as driver distraction, recidivism and drug driving, as well as emerging issues like gig economy delivery rider safety. The research has directly shaped road safety policy and practice in Queensland through sustained engagement with government and industry. For example, the work informed the development of the Queensland Road Safety Strategy 2022–2031, with Professor Salmon providing input during the strategy development phase.
The research has been further embedded in national policy discourse through adoption by Australasian College of Road Safety, including co-authorship of a position statement advocating new systems thinking approaches to road trauma in Australia. Most recently, Professor Salmon and his team have been funded by the Queensland Department of Transport and Main Roads to help develop systems-based models to support policy decision making around key road safety issues.
The Centre’s road safety program has advanced the knowledge base on the role of system-wide contributory factors in road crashes and has initiated a paradigm shift in road safety, transforming how road crashes are viewed, analysed, and ultimately prevented. The work has also provided new knowledge on a range of methodologies that can be used to understand road systems and their behaviour.
Improving safety at railway level crossings through human factors research
Collisions between road users and trains at railway level crossings are a key safety concern in Australia, posing serious risks of injury and death. Despite existing safety measures, these incidents continue to occur, highlighting persistent risk management challenges.
Tackling the complex problem of preventing collisions at level crossings is the focus of a major research program led by Centre Director Professor Gemma Read. Since 2015, this work has sought to understand the factors contributing to crashes at level crossings, and how to improve crossing design to support user decision-making and safety.
In collaboration with the Victorian Railway Crossing Safety Steering Committee (VRCSSC), a key achievement has been the development of the Behavioural Assessment Tool for Rail Level Crossings (BAT-RLX), a data collection tool that has been used to evaluate road user behaviour at more than 20 level crossings in Victoria. Recommendations from subsequent analysis have been used to inform design changes at multiple sites, including supporting the implementation of gate latches across Victoria’s rail network. Internationally, the findings have also informed changes to processes and decisions about infrastructure upgrades to better manage risk, improve safety and save lives.
This research has contributed to a shift in focus for road and rail stakeholders and policymakers to use human factors approaches to improve safety. For example, it has informed strategic initiatives incorporated in the Victorian Government’s current Railway Crossing Safety Strategy, including the need to continue behavioural assessments to capture data about road user performance at level crossings.
Professor Read serves as an academic advisor on the VRCSSC’s Human Factors Working Group, providing expert human factors input to infrastructure upgrades and evaluations of new safety technologies, and has contributed expertise to a range of key initiatives, including the VRCSSC’s Level Crossing Upgrade Toolkit, a pedestrian risk model, and the Victorian Level Crossing Safety Technology Roadmap.
More recently, the research team has received funding via the Federal Government to develop an online toolkit to support human factors integration into the design lifecycle for new technologies at level crossings.
Looking ahead: 2026 and beyond
Looking ahead, the Centre is focused on expanding its research opportunities and impact in emerging priority areas such as defence and AI safety, and continuing to strengthen partnerships across the industries with whom we work. Supporting research training remains a key priority, with anticipated growth in the higher degree by research (HDR) cohort driven by recently funded projects. New leadership and industry engagement initiatives will help ensure HDR candidates receive strong support and valuable real-world research experience.