A GW4 initiator proposal involving researchers from Cardiff, Bath, Bristol and Exeter has been submitted for consideration for funding. A summary is shown below:

Wellbeing at work has become a significant issue in Britain and most Western industrialised countries, with stress and poor mental health becoming major occupational health problems. There is a need for large scale, interdisciplinary research that increases our understanding of the area and has implications for policy and practice. The topic falls within the “GW4 Building Communities Grand Challenges” addressing a critical topic within the “Health, demographic change and wellbeing” theme.

The Black Review (Black, 2008) of the relationship between work and wellbeing has suggested an ambitious policy agenda which the UK Government is pursuing. Similar approaches are being adopted in Europe, with Horizon 2020 being an appropriate vehicle for potential funding. In the UK it is likely that government agencies (e.g. DWP), research councils (e.g. ESRC) and charities (e.g. IOSH) will be keen to support such research to achieve their agenda. It is also a good area for developing collaboration with industry through knowledge transfer and exchange. Young researchers can also make major contributions and targeted PhD studentships, supported by industry, research councils and universities, can bring new investigators into the field.

The starting point for the proposed community is WellBeing Connect: Integrating Research and Policy for Health, Work and WellBeing ( http://sites.cardiff.ac.uk/wellbeingconnect/ ). This research group has developed an innovative and far-reaching approach to the study of wellbeing at work. The members of WellBeing Connect aim to increase and deepen the production of knowledge, transfer it more effectively both to other researchers and those involved in the development and delivery of policy, and to evaluate more precisely the impacts of the resultant interventions, in turn informing both knowledge generation and delivery in a positive feedback loop.