What factors impact the mental health of researchers and academics? Insights from the Researcher Mental Health COST Action

What factors impact the mental health of researchers and academics? Insights from the Researcher Mental Health COST Action Dr. Gábor Kismihók Chair, ReMO Head of Lab Learning and Skill Analytics, TIB @kismihok Gabor[email protected] LLLWeek 2025, Brussels, 10.12.2025 https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17865173 “...you gathered together in hordes, you built up societies, you created civilizations, you also became capable of the miracle of not dying out, ... then you separated them from your religious beliefs; referring to your own experience, you invented time, you constructed vehicles, and boats, you wandered across the Unknown on the Earth, plundering everything that could be plundered, you realized what it meant to concentrate your strength and your power, you mapped out planets thought to be unapproachable, and by now you no longer regarded the Sun as a God and the stars as the determiners of fate, … and finally you flew into space, forsaking the birds, then you flew up to the Moon, and you took your first steps there, you invented such weapons that could blow up the entire Earth many times over, and then you invented sciences in such a flexible manner thanks to which tomorrow takes precedence over and mortifies what can only be imagined today, .... began to believe in nothing at all anymore, and, thanks to the devices that you yourself invented, destroying imagination, you are left with only short-term memory now, and so you have abandoned the noble and common possession of knowledge and beauty and the moral good, .... but it was beautiful, your path through evolution was breathtaking, only, unfortunately: it cannot be repeated.” https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/literature/2025/k rasznahorkai/lecture/ 32% - 42% of academic employees are ‘at risk of having or developing a common psychiatric disorder Levecque, K., Anseel, F., De Beuckelaer, A., Van der Heyden, J., & Gisle, L. (2017). Work organization and mental health problems in PhD students. Research Policy, 46(4), 868–879. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.respol.2017.02.008 Gábor Kismihók. (2021). Mentális egészséghez köthető problémák a magyar kutatásban - ReMO workshop [Data set]. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5554726 “I feel guilty and anxious all the time because I feel like I'm not doing my work well enough” Gábor Kismihók. (2021). Mentális egészséghez köthető problémák a magyar kutatásban - ReMO workshop [Data set]. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5554726 “I feel that after the PhD I will have almost no knowledge of anything that is useful in the job market” Gábor Kismihók. (2021). Mentális egészséghez köthető problémák a magyar kutatásban - ReMO workshop [Data set]. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5554726 “Even my extended family or close circle of friends fail to recognise the value of research work” Gábor Kismihók. (2021). Mentális egészséghez köthető problémák a magyar kutatásban - ReMO workshop [Data set]. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5554726 “My working hours are not flexible. In the evening I put the children to bed, then I have time for my "intellectual" tasks, but either I fall asleep or I can manage them, but then after 2-3 hours of sleep the clock is already ringing, because at 8am I have to be ready in my work uniform at the Institute. It's very soul-crushing.” Gábor Kismihók. (2021). Mentális egészséghez köthető problémák a magyar kutatásban - ReMO workshop [Data set]. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5554726 “As a woman, I never feel ready to have children because of the constant inflow of new tasks, projects and responsibilities, and I'm getting older and afraid of running out of time = super frustration” Gábor Kismihók. (2021). Mentális egészséghez köthető problémák a magyar kutatásban - ReMO workshop [Data set]. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5554726 “The best colleagues and role models leave the field, and are often not replaced by the outstanding ones” https://www.youtube.com/@remocostaction https://projects.tib.eu/remo/activities/podcasts/ ● Great engagement from Inclusiveness Target Countries ● Published on Zenodo - Turkey, Finland, Romania, Montenegro 18 👀 https://zenodo.org/communities/remo/ 🍎📚✨ https://projects.tib.eu/staircase/about-us-1-1 https://osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/ghse5_v1 Do you want to be involved? e-mail: STAIRC[email protected] Text page Working with text levels The UvA template has a number of pre-programmed text levels. Go to 'Home' and then to 'Paragraph' to easily switch between different levels Level Down Level Up Text levels Body text (24 pt.) •Bullet (24 pt.) •Sub Bullet (16 pt.) Title (24 pt) Title (16 pt) 1 2 3 4 5 110 questions taking, 15 minutes to complete Mental health outcomes (depression, anxiety, burnout, well-being) Work context (e.g. org. climate, harassment, job demands & resources) Demographic characteristics & employment situation Additional data: social media handles & ORCID The STAIRCASE survey Text page Working with text levels The UvA template has a number of pre-programmed text levels. Go to 'Home' and then to 'Paragraph' to easily switch between different levels Level Down Level Up Text levels Body text (24 pt.) •Bullet (24 pt.) •Sub Bullet (16 pt.) Title (24 pt) Title (16 pt) 1 2 3 4 5 Participation by country Text page Working with text levels The UvA template has a number of pre-programmed text levels. Go to 'Home' and then to 'Paragraph' to easily switch between different levels Level Down Level Up Text levels Body text (24 pt.) •Bullet (24 pt.) •Sub Bullet (16 pt.) Title (24 pt) Title (16 pt) 1 2 3 4 5 63.7% female Demographics Text page Working with text levels The UvA template has a number of pre-programmed text levels. Go to 'Home' and then to 'Paragraph' to easily switch between different levels Level Down Level Up Text levels Body text (24 pt.) •Bullet (24 pt.) •Sub Bullet (16 pt.) Title (24 pt) Title (16 pt) 1 2 3 4 5 First stage researcher (PhD candidate, Postdoc) Senior researchers (e.g. Full Professor) Depression 20.4% 5.8% Anxiety 19.1% 8.4% Stress 15.7% 6.7% Burnout 25.0% 11.5% Well-being 55.0% 31.1% Sense of Community Illegitimate Tasks Predictability Job Control Step 2 - OSCAR Training Individual learning with eDoer Mentoring workshops (5 persons max. in each session) Results https://projects.tib.eu/oscar-ai/results/ http://edoer.org/ Power of Peer Communities for Researcher Development and Well-being https://www.tib.eu/de/forschung-entwicklung/proje ktuebersicht/projektsteckbrief/peerpower PeerPower will https://www.tib.eu/de/forschung-entwicklung/proje ktuebersicht/projektsteckbrief/peerpower Train 50+ Peer Ambassadors to facilitate peer-support communities Support 1,000+ early-career researchers Develop 10+ open-access courses and a Peer Community Handbook Introduce AI-supported personalised learning Embed mental-health awareness across all training activities Join us! https://www.tib.eu/de/forschung-entwicklung/proje ktuebersicht/projektsteckbrief/peerpower PeerPower Focus Group: 18 December 2025 (14:00–16:00 CET, online) An interactive session to explore how PeerPower can support institutional programmes and researcher well-being. Register here: PeerPower – Focus Group PeerPower Multiplier Event (save the date): 5 February 2026 (14:00–17:00 CET, online) The European launch event presenting PeerPower’s vision, tools, and first opportunities for involvement. Express your interest here: PeerPower – Multiplier Event Let’s take care and support each other! Thanks for the attention! “Original caption: This narrow-angle color image of the Earth, dubbed ‘Pale Blue Dot’, is a part of the first ever ‘portrait’ of the solar system taken by Voyager 1. The spacecraft acquired a total of 60 frames for a mosaic of the solar system from a distance of more than 4 billion miles from Earth and about 32 degrees above the ecliptic. From Voyager's great distance Earth is a mere point of light, less than the size of a picture element even in the narrow-angle camera. Earth was a crescent only 0.12 pixel in size. Coincidentally, Earth lies right in the center of one of the scattered light rays resulting from taking the image so close to the sun. This blown-up image of the Earth was taken through three color filters – violet, blue and green – and recombined to produce the color image. The background features in the image are artifacts resulting from the magnification. “ (Wikipedia : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pale_Blue_Dot#/media/File:Pale_Blue_Dot.png)