Project description
Innovative methods to measure listening effort and value
Excessive workplace noise has detrimental effects like stress, fatigue and mental health issues, which then impact productivity, sick leave and early retirement. Those with hearing impairments or working in noisy environments often exert extra effort to maintain performance, which can lead to increased stress and fatigue. But there are also associated positive outcomes like improved work performance, enhanced enjoyment, increased safety and greater social involvement. The EU-funded EASYLI project aims to optimise the balance by developing a novel toolbox that assesses both effort expended in listening and value derived from it. EASYLI will train six research fellows to develop this toolbox, which will employ a variety of methods, including real-time acoustic scene analysis, virtual acoustics, and physiological and subjective measures.
Objective
Disturbing noise is the most frequent workplace complaint. Noise and high levels of listening difficulty and effort lead to stress and fatigue, which are further linked with mental health problems, productivity loss, increased sick leave and early retirement (annual burden 476-580 billion Euros in Europe).
In demanding or noisy work situations, or for people with impaired hearing, high effort may be needed to maintain performance. This can have adverse consequences such as stress and fatigue. However, applying effort to listening leads to positive consequences as well (good work performance, pleasure, safety, societal participation). In EASILY, our stance is to optimize the ratio between the costs and benefits of effortful listening (listening value) in order to understand and reduce its socioeconomic burden.
As we lack tools to measure listening value, EASYLI will train 6 research fellows to develop and apply an innovative, interdisciplinary toolbox of ambulatory and laboratory measures of listening effort and listening value. They will gain inter-sectoral knowledge, apply real-time acoustic scene analysis, virtual acoustics, and physiological and subjective measures in laboratory and real-life occupational conditions. With this approach, EASYLI aims to detect fatigue early, and examine how individualized interventions (e.g. machine learning-based speech enhancement algorithms, hearing aids) optimize listening value.
EASYLI consists of 5 academic partners and 4 non-academic partners representing hearing-aid and communication systems industries, audiology, and occupational sectors with challenging acoustic environments. The EASYLI doctorate programme will train a new generation of leading entrepreneurial scientists, and will stimulate employment by developing tools that allow early identification and prevention of listening related fatigue and stress.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
This project's classification has been validated by the project's team.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
This project's classification has been validated by the project's team.
- natural sciences biological sciences neurobiology cognitive neuroscience
- social sciences economics and business economics production economics productivity
- natural sciences physical sciences acoustics
- medical and health sciences clinical medicine otorhinolaryngology
- social sciences economics and business business and management employment
Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.2 - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)
MAIN PROGRAMME
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Topic(s)
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Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-DN-ID - HORIZON TMA MSCA Doctoral Networks - Industrial Doctorates
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Call for proposal
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Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) HORIZON-MSCA-2022-DN-01
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1081 HV Amsterdam
Netherlands
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