What is safety science?

•This paper addresses the issue of how to understand safety science as a concept.•Several definitions of safety are reviewed and discussed.•Links are established between the safety concept and risk.•Safety science covers knowledge about safety related issues.•Safety science also covers the development of conceptual tools.

This paper addresses the issue of how to understand safety science as a concept. Several definitions of safety are reviewed and discussed, including the interpretations that safety is the absence of undesirable events and accidents and that safety is the antonym of risk. Reflections are also made on what science means in relation to safety. It is argued that safety science can be viewed as knowledge about safety related issues, and the development of concepts, theories, principles and methods to understand, assess, communicate and manage (in a broad sense) safety. In addition we may speak about science safety as a discipline, covering the totality of relevant educational programmes, journals, papers, researchers, research groups and societies, etc.