During the first reporting period, significant progress was made in both the technical and scientific aspects of EU-CoWork. Key technical achievements to guide the co-creation of Compassionate Workplace Programs include the recruitment of a heterogeneous group of intervention sites (i.e. workplaces differing in workplace population (mostly male, mostly female or mixed), transition type (green, digital or both), and company size (medium or large)), the development of practical tools (such as the inspirational resource and facilitator manual), the recruitment and training of facilitators, and the establishment of a Community of Practice for facilitators and researchers. In parallel, detailed research protocols were finalized to guide the developmental evaluation and co-creative process, and the meta-process evaluation and cost-effectiveness study, ethics approvals were obtained, the international baseline survey questions were finalized, and interview grids were drafted. The baseline quantitative data collection was launched across some sites in May 2025, qualitative data was gathered, including the contextual assessment of the workplaces, and workplace policy documents were collected. The main activities carried out are summarized below:
Main technical and scientific activities carried out during this period:
- A digital inspiration resource, a facilitator manual and a facilitation and co-creation toolbox were developed to support the development of Compassionate Workplace Programs (CWPs) [WP2]
- A protocol for the development and developmental evaluation of the compassionate workplace programs was written by the consortium [WP2]
- 12 diverse workplaces were recruited for the CWP development
- 5 dedicated facilitators and 4 facilitator/evaluators were recruited and trained in a 3-day training [WP2]
- A Community of Practice (CoP) for the facilitators and facilitators-evaluators across the different countries was established and meets on average every six weeks.
- Facilitated co-creation of the CWPs was initiated in 10 workplaces [WP2]
- A research protocol was completed to provide concrete guidance for the different data collection methods, and specific study protocols with data-collection methods and instruments were developed for: 1) Policy document review with instruments, 2) Questionnaire Survey, 3) Implementation process study, 4) qualitative data collections and instruments, 5) Data collections about workplace expenses, 6) Meta-process data collection [WP3]
- All teams obtained ethics approval for the study [WP3]
- A general evaluation plan for the different intervention workplaces was developed [WP4]
- A protocol for the meta-process evaluation and monitoring was developed [WP4]
- A Data Analysis Plan for Observational Data was developed [WP5]
- Baseline data collection has started (currently in 5 workplaces, underway or planned in the rest [WP5]
- A longitudinal data analysis plan was developed for each of the data sources, including qualitative, quantitative and mixed- methods analyses [WP6]
- A data analysis plan for the cost-effectiveness analysis was developed [WP7]
- A Dissemination Exploitation and Communication plan for the project was developed [WP8]
- More than 45 dissemination and communication activities [WP8]
- First ethics report [WP9]-
Milestone progress
All planned milestones for reporting period 1 (Milestones 1-6 and 15) have been achieved by their anticipated due date.
