Coimbra, Portugal, May 15, 2025 (Lusa) - TThe University of Coimbra (UC) has obtained over €2 million in funding to lead a European project to study violence at work in healthcare organisations in four countries.
The research will take place over the next two and a half years in hospitals, nursing homes and primary care centres in Slovenia, Spain, Italy and Portugal, as part of the European Commission's "Citizens, Equality, Rights and Values" programme, UC announced on Thursday in a statement sent to the Lusa news agency.
"Identifying and understanding the causes of gender-based violence and violence at work and, consequently, promoting solutions and tools to prevent violent and discriminatory behaviour are the central objectives of the project "Building Respectful and Violence-free Gender-inclusive Environments in the World of Work (BRAVE-WOW)".
The decision to study this topic is linked to the fact that "it is one of the professional areas most exposed to gender-based violence at work," explained the project coordinator, Leonor Pais, a lecturer at the Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences.
Until the end of October 2027, the research team will collect and analyse information on the European context, considering the various areas related to violence in the workplace, such as race, class, sexual orientation, disability and gender, among others.
Based on this analysis, the consortium will adopt a participatory and inclusive approach, conducting focus groups, interviews, and round tables with various stakeholders involved in the issue, including workers, managers, and human resources professionals.
It will also develop sentiment analysis on social media, aiming to gather information posted on these platforms by workers and employers.
Based on this fieldwork, the research team will create tools such as the Gender-Based Violence in the Workplace Questionnaire, which will be applied in health organisations in Slovenia, Spain, Italy and Portugal to test its effectiveness among health professionals, managers and labour inspectors.
"This tool aims to improve understanding and prevention of violence and harassment in the workplace and will be complemented by the Decent Work Questionnaire," said Leonor Pais.
The lecturer explained that “gender-based violence at work is not properly identified and therefore underreported,” which is why "new approaches to this phenomenon are needed to understand its causes."
The BRAVE-WOW project will also create a European community of practices to prevent harassment and discrimination in the workplace at the European level, enhancing the sharing of knowledge and good practices.
The project brings together 19 organisations from the four partner countries. In Portugal, in addition to the UC, it involves the University of Évora, SHINE2Europe, the Commission for Equality in Work and Employment, the Commission for Citizenship and Gender Equality, the Authority for Working Conditions and the Local Health Unit of Central Alentejo.
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