KL: Horizon Europe Project „ASP-belong“ started
Together with partners from seven different European countries, private lecture Dr Beate Schrank, MSc PhD and Professor Dr Giovanni Rubeis are developing an app to promote the mental health of young people in the Horizon Europe Framework Programme. After the ErasmusPlus project Teaching To Be, ASP-belong is the next successfully acquired EU project for Karl Landsteiner University. In addition to the funding of scientific staff, KL will benefit from intensified networking in the European research community.
Real-world contacts through virtual networking
Augmented Social Play (ASP) describes a smartphone-based group intervention designed to increase young people's sense of belonging and thus promote their mental health. In the game, supportive real-world contacts are established within a virtual meeting space. The application will be available free of charge in schools in different European countries. The project idea is based on the app "LINA", also an augmented social play to promote mental health among young people. The D.O.T. research group, forerunner of the Research Centre Transitional Psychiatry and both headed by Beate Schrank, was significantly involved in the development of LINA. In the current project, Beate Schrank takes responsibility for the sub-area "change practice", whereas the project coordinator is Kate Anne Woodcock from the University of Birmingham, England.
Ethical responsibility throughout the entire development process
The psychotherapeutic intervention used in the game must not have any undesirable cognitive or emotional effects on the players. A multi-perspective approach to ethics, considered from the very beginning of the game development process, is essential for this and is the responsibility of Giovanni Rubeis, Head of the Division of Biomedical and Public Health Ethics at KL. The values, goals, risks, and risk avoidance strategies developed in stakeholder workshops form the ethical framework and must be firmly anchored in the game plan. This open science co-development approach guarantees a user-centred game design on the one hand and represents a mandatory criterion for serious technology developments in the health sector on the other.
Stay healthy in a rapidly changing society ...
...was the overriding goal of the competitively tendered funding. It goes hand in hand with the visions of Karl Landsteiner University to inspire future generations with new ideas and to break new ground in medicine and health promotion with an open-minded view of health in research and teaching. ASP-belong is funded 100% as a Horizon Europe Research and Innovation Action to support excellent scientists in creating new knowledge and developing advanced technologies and processes. ASP-belong is based on established knowledge that addresses the challenges of our time through the responsible use of new technologies.