GSS EU Science Funding Gateway

Research actions under this topic should include several of the following activities:

• Provide adequate and robust data on the impact (positive and negative) that the ongoing changes in the workplace are having on the mental and physical health of different categories of workers and working sectors (e.g. teleworkers, cross-border commuters, gig economy workers, and vulnerable groups such as women, migrants and young and older workers with increased demonstrated risk for MSDs), including gender and intersectional analyses, where appropriate;
• Generate evidence (including data) not only on mental health, but also on mental well-being at the workplace and how changing work organisation due to the twin transitions and the pandemic affects workers’ work-life balance and work ability;
• Generate evidence (including data) on the importance of risk factors (such as stress caused by new working environments, static postures and physical inactivity, physically strenuous and highly repetitive work arising from the workplace design) in the development of chronic and acute diseases;
• Increase the understanding of the links between different health-promoting factors in the working-built environment and physical and mental health outcomes, and how these may be mutually reinforcing;
• Explore the health impacts of changing working times, including excessive and atypical working hours and work in different time zones that blur work from leisure time, limiting recovery. Effects should consider a wide range of diseases;
• Provide recommendations for effective interventions to prevent occupational risks and support the mental and physical health and well-being at individual (worker), organisation (employer) and policy (government) levels for different sectors/types of work, including an analysis on their cost-effectiveness, sustainability and barriers to implementation at national and/or EU level;
• Advance the development of a scientific framework addressing Occupational safety and health (OSH) across policies and sectors and support new and sustainable (future-proof) tools, guidelines and policies concerning the evaluation and design of physical and psychosocial work environment;
• Provide tools and approaches to anticipate new OSH risks, also taking account of lessons learnt from the COVID-19 pandemic, for instance in relation to digital technologies and associated new ways of working.