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Making the industry more aware is a vital part of our growth SPRAT are providing Research Grants for companies to shed light on issues that continue to be grey areas for us. Please read the article below .

Annual Research Grant Program

The mission of The Society of Professional Rope Access Technicians is to advance the safe use of rope access through education, developing standards and administering certifications. SPRAT furthers its cause by annually awarding $6,000 in research grants to individuals or companies conducting research related to industrial rope access.

 

Research grants now $3,000 per annual grant!

The next application deadline is 11:59pm EST on October 31, 2018

 

The Research Grant Committee extends its congratulations to the 2018 Research Grant Recipients; RopeCraft with their proposed research: “The Effects of Different Anchor Types and Radii on the Integrity of Anchor Materials (aka “Sharp Anchor Testing”)” and 5th Point with their proposed research “Testing the effects of UV Exposure to Nylon Products; Specifically Nylon Slings”.

 

Two $3,000 grants are awarded to separate individuals or companies each year.  Grant applications will be judged based on the relevance of the proposed research to the rope access industry, with an attempt to fund various areas of study.  For more information on the scoring criteria, click here.  Grant recipients must report research findings either during a presentation at the SPRAT Conference following the year of the initial award or in a 1,200-word paper to be published on SPRAT’s website. For more information on submitting a proposal, please view the Research Grant Information Sheet.  All proposals must be submitted along with a SPRAT approved Research Grant Application, to download the application, please click here.

 

Applicants are strongly encouraged to review the following two sample research grant applications to understand the detail sought by the Research Grant Committee. Sample Application #1 is related to laboratory testing of industrial rope access equipment.  Sample Application #2 is related to rope access research that is not equipment based.  Please note that these applications are fictitious in nature and are for example only.

 

If you would like to proposed research topics, you can email the SPRAT Office at info@sprat.org for submission to the Research Grant Committee Chair.  The Research Grant Committee does not conduct research, but administers SPRAT’s Research Grant program.  Other areas of proposed research requested by SPRAT members include:

 

               -A literature review of previous research on hanging harness syndrome

               -An analysis of historical rope access accident data

               -A study of vital signs during rope access work

               -A comparison of SPRAT Safe Practices to ISO 22846-1 and ISO 22846-2