OLS-6 application draft 2022

# OLS-6 application draft 2022 ***Title** Developing policy briefs on mental well-being of researchers in academia across different countries **TL;DR** This is a community-engaged project within ReMO (Researcher Mental Health Observatory) COST actions https://projects.tib.eu/remo/. I have developed a template to gather information on academic landscape, mental health and relevant policies within different countries to prepare respective policy briefs. I would like to create structures and guidelines to collect the evidence in the community, create a strategy for collective writing of the policy briefs and stakeholder engagement. <your answer> ***Authors** Mayya Sundukova <your answer> ***Country** Spain ***Affiliation** ReMO (Researcher Mental Health Observatory) COST Action on Researcher Mental Health **Pronouns** she/her <your answer> **Keywords** mental heath, wellbeing, evidence, policy briefs, academia, academic sector, researchers, career, community, policymakers, stakeholders, team-work, community-developed, science for policy, barriers, recommendations <your answer> ***Project** _Describe your project in a maximum of 200 words. You can use MarkDown formatting (see:[ https://commonmark.org/help/](https://commonmark.org/help/))._ The ReMO (Researcher Mental Health Observatory) COST Action is a network of 250+ researchers in 35+ countries. It focuses on well-being and mental health of researchers within academia. Low levels of well-being and mental health problems have a negative impact on individual, team and organisational performance, triggering significant costs. ReMO network activities are developed by three Working Groups, on the systemic (policy), institutional (research) and local (mental health advocates, ReMO ambassadors and practitioners) levels.Manifesto has been developed and is available here https://zenodo.org/record/5559806#.YswSIivP23C Individuals affiliated with ReMO are empowered and supported to launch initiatives in their own countires which are most relevant in their national context. One of the important documents that ReMO ambassadors need for communication with relevant stakeholders is the national background overviews of the mental health in academia in their country. Evidence-based, action-oriented, policy brief would serve them and policy-makers to communicate the recommended specific changes. Therefore, this project aims to develop prompts for preparing a national background overviews of the mental health in academia and to coordinate writing up policy briefs within ReMO network. It aims to write open reports and publications and facilitate community work and culture shift. ***Problem** I won a virtual mobility grant from the ReMO COST actions to develop the template for policy briefs on mental health to use in different COST countries during the period between June and November 2022. Upon preliminary examination of the evidence for different countries, it became clear that each country has a very specific situation dictated by the level of stigma of mental health in the public arena, structure of the academic system and researcher career, advancement of research on mental health in the national context, existence (or lack of) and implementation of policies. Therefore, one universal template would not work for all. Moreover, working with local national stakeholders and policy-makers would need to be done in the local language, and the evidence about policies, legislation and research is as well oftem available only in local languages. Overall, this project of national background briefs and specific policy briefs with the community aims to create a pivot for all three working groups of the network, mobilise participants from different countries and engage them in a **community project**. Participation in the project would strengthen the connection within the research community of ReMO, foster communication with local stakeholders in the countries, train-by-doing the authors and contributors of the briefs in knowledge search, teamwork and communication. ***Achievements** I have been involved in the OLS community as facilitator and mentor, so I am familiar with the structure and tools of the program. I have started working on this project, including some open work with github https://github.com/msundukova/remo-policy-briefs During the OLS cohort I am willing to achieve following milestones: - share with the ReMO network the refined template for the national background briefs - define and set the appropriate structure for collecting evidence (website or other tools) and invite to contribute - identify interested researchers and stakeholders in respective countries and empower them to work together to prepare policy briefs - to address the most urgent need in their country/community in relation to the mental health in academia - coordinate the process of writing up several policy briefs for some of the countries in the COST network Virtual mobility grant has a very limited amount and duration, and in general the ReMO COST actions mostly cover networking activities. The OLS-6 cohort goes beyond the duration of the grant, which seems to me apporpriate to ensure that the solution developed during the grant is well documented and ready to be reused afterwards. ***Status** * Working towards a first prototype ***Goal** * Maintaining work on an existing prototype ***Open** Being able to build upon previous work and hoping to add to the shared power bank of knowledge aka "standing on the shoulders of giants" is my main motivation, as the expertise and capacities of a single researcher and human are so limited, but together with others this can be overcome. In the ReMO network a shared library with resources on the mental health has already been set, now it is being maintained and expanded, being a knowldege hub for anyone in the network and beyond. https://www.zotero.org/groups/2521493/researcher_mental_health/library Opening the "moderated" spaces for discussions of results and opinions in science seems to be the key for scientific excellence, innovation, but also sustainability. On a personal note, when meeting the Open Life Science in 2020 I have learned about the importance of community building and experienced the feeling of belonging, and since then I am convinced that "working open" as a philosophy can contribute to building inclusive and healthy workplace environments - both virtual and offline. ***Challenges** Generally, I am finding that not everyone is still on the same page in relation to "open science", as many see it only in relation to open access journal publications. Difference in stances are especially evident when researchers and practitioners meet virtually, from different countries and different scientific disciplines. I find it necessary to emphasise that open science also involves open culture of collaboration, sharing, co-creation, efforts to include underrepresented groups (including the scientific disciplines and view points in relation to the dominant discourse). In my experience I have noticed the burden of emotional labour behind the efforts of building and listening to the voice of community, keeping track of meetings and work done by different participants, preparing detailed descriptions. In some contexts I observed insufficient recognition for "open work", improper citation and attribution. That is why I am very keen to learn more on opening and my work while ensuring contributors are properly given credit to. ***Learning** I am looking forward to learn and practice the skills related to community building and facilitation of collaboration to apply it to my work within ReMO network (which goes beyond this particular project). This would include persona and pathways building, with valuable feedback of the community. Most of the work on the project will be done virtually, I am already experienced in facilitating online calls via work in the OLS-5 cohort calls, and I am looking forward to apply the skills to my network. Another important learning goal is to get comfortable with technical tools, e.g. github for project management, collaboration and website building. I am new to the policy brief document creation, and I am aware it requires a communication style very different from usual academic (action-oriented, concise, non-expert). Trough participation in the OLS cohorts I hope to practice telling the story, taking into account diverse stakeholders. ***Mentor** I tend to prefer a mentor who has challenger and connector styles of mentoring, but I am really open to explore all styles and tastes of mentoring. *Other OLS applications This is the first time I am applying to OLS as a project lead. ***Accessibility** Nothing special ***Language** English ***Scheme** None