Delete search term

Header

Quick navigation

Main navigation

Societal integration: important contributions and successes

A total of thirty-one projects have been funded within the “societal integration” research area. To mark the end of this funding, an interdisciplinary conference was held to shed light on the research results.

After four years and thirty-one projects from two calls, funding from the societal integration research area expired at the end of 2021. Under the stewardship of Monika Götzö (Social Work), Christiane Hohenstein (Applied Linguistics) and Agnes von Wyl (Applied Psychology), funding has been provided to projects carried out by all ZHAW Schools that contribute to the greater integration of everyone in society and drive corresponding social, organisational and technological innovations. The projects were based in the development areas of work, diversity, living environment and social protection and ranged thematically from the promotion of older employees and architecture that provides noise protection to the provision of non-discriminatory access to healthcare systems.

Expanding strengths and deepening knowledge

The management team points to various successes achieved by the research area: It has been possible to expand the strengths of researchers and teams, while research results from previous work have been built upon and existing knowledge from earlier projects has been consolidated. A planned edited volume containing all of the projects will make these strengths visible in a bundled form. The projects from the research area are also being incorporated in national and international follow-up projects, for which third-party funding has already been or is in the process of being obtained. The researchers are continuing to network, including as part of inter-School collaborations within the ZHAW, and publish results. Societal integration will remain a key interdisciplinary research topic at the ZHAW.

Prompting discourse and creating contexts

In order to inform a broader section of the public about the research area of societal integration and further advance the discourses, an interdisciplinary conference was held on 9 September to mark the end of the research area funding. In addition to input from ZHAW President Jean-Marc Piveteau and the management team, Klaske Veth from the Hanze University of Applied Sciences gave an insight into the topic of “Well-being@Work” during her keynote speech. Presentations and panel discussions with external experts also provided the opportunity to find out more about the funded projects and their results.