TNO - Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research
Netherlands
TNO HUMAN FACTORS is one of the 15 institutes that constitute the Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research TNO, a knowledge organisation for companies, government bodies and public organisations.
TNO Human Factors Transport Medicine Group consists of the Aerospace Medicine Group and the Traffic Behaviour Group. The Transport Medicine Group has over 30 of years experience in the field of traffic and transport, medical aspects of transport safety, and optimization of operator (driver, pilot) status. The Transport Medicine Group consists of about 18 staff members: engineers, psychologists, and physicians (M.Sc. and Ph.D.).The annual turnover is about 2.8 Million Euro, with overall 50 smaller and larger projects per year.
The group Traffic Behaviour of TNO Human Factors is specialised in conducting research in the field of traffic safety, driver behaviour, road design, vehicle characteristics, driver support, driver impairment and driver perception. They advise national and international ministries (mostly ministry of traffic, water management and public works, are currently involved in 10 European projects and also work for the (automobile) industry, national and international companies and municipalities. The group uses many innovative research tools such as instrumented cars, a driving simulator (moving base), and a video-lab, but also uses in-home developed innovative measures such as the PDT (sensitive workload measure), visual occlusion technique, eye scanning equipment.
The Aerospace Medicine Group of TNO Human Factors (before 2002 known as Netherlands Aeromedical Institute) has extensively used objective and subjective methods in large studies on the effects of medication, alcohol, sleep, and circadian disruption on alertness, cognitive functioning, and flying abilities of commercial and military aircrew. The Group has collected a large database on the effects of various medical drugs and alcohol on sustained attention and complex task performance. This enables comparison of the effects of drugs with the effects of various BAC’s. The group is active in European fora (for example Medical Subcommittee of the Joint Aviation Authorities) and research groups (for example European Committee on Aircrew Scheduling and Safety). Research projects of the group are commissioned by national and international public authorities (Ministries of Transport, Joint Aviation Authorities), Ministry of Defence, and airlines.