A new centre has been funded to study the effects of one of the world’s most dangerous professions.

A new workplace health and safety research centre will be set up in Newcastle, aimed at conducting research to improve the lives of the local miners.

The centre will look at the mining industry’s human costs; respiratory studies, psychology and psychiatry, as well as the environmental impact; ecological, societal and political.

The project has been set up through collaboration between the Newcastle Institute for Energy and Resources, the University of Newcastle and healthcare provider Aspen Medical.

“The research we're doing is not just limited to the conventional OH&S,” Institute director Alan Broadfoot has told the ABC.

“It's also looking at the health and wellbeing of the employees and the community.

“It's about the mechanics, the engineering of the solution, the psychology and also the physical aspects of working in these intensive environments.”

The studies will be focussed on what is currently the most important part of any mine site – the workers.

The wellbeing of the miners has often been neglected in favour of productivity or profit, with federal government data showing seven people in the mining industry were killed at work in 2012 alone.

Aspen Medical's Andrew Walker says the centre will look at issues not traditional in the scope of resources research.

“So we'll be looking a lot at the psychological impacts of being in this isolated, very harsh environments,” Mr Walker said.

“And the social impacts, not only on the worker but on their families.

“You've seen the growth of the fly in/fly out.

“But also environmental impacts - what are the long-term health issues for, not only mining whilst it’s extant, but when the mines have been shut down and the land is trying to be rehabilitated.”