WP2 – Integrated model for well-being at work
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CONTRIBUTION BY PARTNERS ORGANIZATIONS
The Partnership followed the planned distribution of tasks.
The main goal of the document to be delivered on 15th December is to develop an integrated model for well-being for researchers, focusing on Entrepreneurial Skills, Digital Skills, and Life Skills.
The final model defines a training approach for academic and research staff (from PhD students to full professors) aimed at strengthening well-being and achieving a balanced work/personal life. It specifies: the objectives of the GEMMA training approach, the competences to be developed, researchers’ needs, and the pedagogical strategies to be applied.
The model reviews:
(1) key definitions of well-being;
(2) workplace well-being models;
(3) competences related to well-being (digital, life, and entrepreneurial);
(4) existing workplace intervention programs;
(5) researchers’ needs from focus groups held in partner universities.
The document also explores future directions for promoting competences and well-being at work.
Final version: LONG VERSION — https://drive.google.com/file/d/12h4-2ZL1bjMnYpdeDsMlYQ0kI5SDBZUz/view?usp=drive_link
SHORT VERSION — https://drive.google.com/file/d/10nQtNoFFagzu-sDUPuBKEFPYa4aEQE3E/view?usp=drive_link
The WPs were published on the website, and translations of the short version were provided in all partner languages.
Focus groups involved 41 participants: Poland (8), Spain (9), Greece (9), Italy (9), Finland (6).
According to the project documentation, there were no major differences between the planned and the implemented activities within Work Package 2.
PLANNED RESULTS
WP2 released a document called “INTEGRATED FRAMEWORK OF GEMMA PROJECT:
INCREASING WELL-BEING IN RESEARCHERS THROUGH DIGITAL, LIFE AND ENTREPRENEURIAL COMPETENCES”.
The main goal of this document was to develop an integrated model for well-being for researchers including three main competences: Entrepreneurial skills; Digital Skills; and Life Skills. The final model defines a training approach targeted for academic teaching (from PhD Students to Full Professors) and research staff with the aim of strengthening well-being and an informed balance of work/personal life by specifying: the specific objectives of the GEMMA training approach, the skills to be taught, the needs of the researchers about the balance between work and personal life, and the pedagogical approaches and strategies to be employed.
WP2 is the framework and the training model that impacts directly on the possibility to create a joined structure, validated with a rigorous scientific approach, from different countries and supported by the user feedback and collaboration performing a co-creation approach. The WP2 represents the theoretical basis for the GEMMA project and the following WPs, mainly the MOOC (WP3) and the GEMMA project (WP4), benefited from the results of the current workpackage.
The training model is the core of the project and is the foundation of the ICT pillars GEMMA delivered later on in the following WPs as mentioned.
The goal, completely reached, was to design an integrated competence model, taking into account the different frameworks but aiming at establishing a design of an integrated model of skills to improve motivation and well-being at work with a teaching impact in
higher education and educate people in its use.
GEMMA project faces this challenge aiming to increase the motivation and satisfaction in daily work. The main project objective is to derive, identify and develop an integrated, holistic,transversal instructional model starting from EU-validated frameworks (DigiComp, EntreComp, LifeComp) and the WP2 represents the first result achieved in the project progress.
To do so, the following sections was reviewed:
(1) the definition of the most relevant models of well-being;
(2) the models of well-being that have been applied to the workplace context;
(3) the competences involved in well-being in the workplace, considering digital competences, life skills, and entrepreneurship skills;
(4) the different intervention programs for well-being that have been developed in the workplace;
(5) the needs of researchers in the workplace, considering the results of focus groups
conducted at different universities.
Finally, we analyzed potential future directions, considering the promotion of different competences and well-being in the workplace.
TARGET GROUPS
The targets involved in the project were, as planned in the proposal:
- researchers and academic teaching staff (professors, teaching fellows, assistants, etc.);
- PhD and specialisation courses’ students;
- part-time academic staff (educational tutors for students, peer career advisors, support tutors for students with disabilities, etc.).
The training model brings benefits for a wide range of users. First of all the HEIs’ researchers that could apply this model on their training practices. Besides this group, also the researchers could apply the results discussing them in the scientific community. However the model will be drafted for being easily readable from all the kind of users (including those low skilled), on the example of EU framework (i.e. DigiComp).
As mentioned in the previous sections, the main goal of GEMMA consists of providing the academic staff with innovative tools to develop digital and soft skills that could be very useful if applied to teaching and tutoring processes. In addition, the project aims to find efficient ways to make scholars and students more accustomed to entrepreneurial thinking, which could have a significant impact on research activity.
The WP2 will be a guide for the Partnership and will drive the implementation of the MOOC and the Serious game that will be overlapping and will run in parallel.
The WP2 could be a scientific guide also for researchers in the field of psychology and well-being with a deep study of the impact of well-being at work for the academic staff. The Partnership will deliver a graphical flyer that will explain for all the users (even lecturers, professors and researchers that work in other fields) the results gathered in the development of the Integrated model for well-being at work.
PROGRESS, QUALITY AND ACHIEVEMENTS
Following the indicators defined in the proposal, we achieved the following results:
Quantitative indicators
- Number of scientific papers in indexed journals (SCOPUS, DBLP, Scimago, etc.) related to the holistic and conceptual model (target: minimum 2 – related to A2.1).
We produced three publications:
- Fornasari, A., Scarinci, A., Conte, M., & Peconio, G. (2023). GEMMA project for university teacher education: a scoping review to investigate digital, entrepreneurial and soft skills. Living and Leading in the Next Era: Connecting Teaching, Research, Citizenship and Equity, 144.
- Fornasari, A., Scarinci, A., & Di Fuccio, R. (2023). Game Based Learning for Enhancement of New Skills Using Micro-MOOCS for Academic Staff. CEUR Workshop Proceedings, Vol. 3696, pp. 91–100.
- Scarinci, A., Raffaele, D. F., Fornasari, A., Amati, I. A., & Giusi Antonio, T. (2023). Impact of the overwork and renewed work-life balance for higher education professionals after COVID-19 crisis. Higher Education Learning Methodologies and Technologies Online, pp. 86–87. STUDIUM SRL.
- Number of researchers involved in co-design events (target: minimum 40 – related to A2.2).
A total of 41 researchers participated: Poland (8), Spain (9), Greece (9), Italy (9), Finland (6). - Number of downloads or distributed copies of WP2 (target: 200 – related to A2.3).
We reached 300 copies distributed during:
100 at the GEMMA Final Event in Bari,
100 at HELMeTO 2024 in Rome,
100 at HELMeTO 2025 in Naples.
Qualitative indicators
Researchers conceptualised well-being according to Fisher’s (2014) three dimensions:
- Subjective well-being (satisfaction, happiness)
- Eudaimonic well-being (value-aligned tasks, growth),
- Social well-being (positive atmosphere, appreciation).
Findings revealed variability in satisfaction levels and common difficulties in balancing professional and personal life. Main challenges included lack of boundaries when working from home, unexpected tasks, mental overload, and job instability.
Protective factors: teamwork (sense of belonging, new relationships), individual aspects (academic freedom, meaningful tasks), leadership (clear rules), proactive behavior (intrinsic motivation, skill development), and maintaining boundaries between work and life.
Risk factors: poor team climate, excessive administrative load, multitasking, leadership pressure, family obligations, and difficulties in emotional regulation (e.g., frustration from delayed outcomes).
CONCLUSION
The implementation of Work Package 2 was highly satisfactory. The partnership effectively followed the planned distribution of tasks, developed the integrated model for researchers’ well-being, and successfully conducted focus groups across all partner countries. The quality of collaboration among partners and the scientific value of the produced outputs were excellent, resulting in the publication of several indexed papers and wide dissemination of results.
The only reason for not giving a perfect score is the complexity of coordinating data collection and harmonising feedback from different national contexts, which required extra time and effort. Nevertheless, the outcomes fully met expectations, and the WP2 activities strongly contributed to achieving the project’s objectives