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HeBEC Meeting 4 (March 2026)

The HeBEC network held its fourth virtual meeting on 5 March 2026, bringing together members from psychology, engineering, data science, and health‑technology backgrounds to advance the group’s interdisciplinary collaboration. Discussions focused on refining key scientific directions and coordinating ongoing collective work. A major theme was the integration of climate‑related stressors with human well‑being through technological innovation. Members explored conceptual links between environmental change, financial and social stressors, and physiological responses, highlighting opportunities for multimodal sensing, AI‑supported analytics, and robotics‑assisted interventions. Contributions emphasised the need for evidence‑based, theoretically grounded approaches to mental‑health resilience, stressing the importance of behavioural activation, early supportive cues, and context‑sensitive micro‑interventions. Updates were shared on ongoing analyses.​​Planning continued for HeBEC’s in‑person Workshop 2, confirmed for 14–15 September 2026 in Aberdeen, with a 1.5‑day programme and participation from invited experts. The next virtual meeting will take place on 7 May 2026.

 

HeBEC Meeting 3 (January 2026)

During the third HeBEC meeting, members reviewed the progress of our ongoing collaborative work and outlined priorities for the coming months. The session began with a short welcome and a recap of the meeting objectives, followed by an overview of the main findings from our systematic review and meta‑analysis. Outstanding questions from the previous minutes were addressed to ensure clarity and continuity.

Members then discussed follow‑up points from earlier meetings, including the continued development of the HeBEC model for our concept paper and an update on datasets identified for upcoming secondary data analyses. As agreed during Workshop 1, several relevant datasets and related materials have been compiled and made accessible to the group.

A coordinated discussion on secondary analyses focused on available datasets, planned analytical approaches, and the allocation of responsibilities. The group identified one to two priority analysis tracks to pursue first, ensuring that efforts remain focused and efficient.

Looking ahead, the group summarised key decisions and next steps, including preparations for upcoming activities in 2026. Plans for Workshop 2, scheduled for 14–15 September 2026 in Aberdeen, were confirmed, and the next virtual meeting will take place on 5 March 2026. Members closed the meeting with an open exchange of ideas and additional topics for future discussion.

HeBEC Meeting 2 (November 2025)

Following our productive Workshop 1 in September, the next virtual meeting focused on refining the integrated theoretical framework for resilience in the context of climate change. Discussions highlighted the need to incorporate political, cultural, economic, and environmental dimensions, alongside social and ecological factors, for a comprehensive approach. Members stressed the importance of assistive technology acceptance and clarified distinctions between societal and ecological levels within the model. We also explored cognitive versus impulsive responses to stress and decision-making processes under climate-related challenges. Plans were confirmed for partial tests and secondary data analysis starting in January 2026. The meeting concluded with an open discussion on future collaboration and research priorities.

HeBEC Meeting 1 (July 2025)

The HeBEC network meeting began with a brief round of introductions, during which participants presented their areas of expertise, spanning mental health, psychological resilience, digital and sensor‑based technologies, and health inequalities. This exchange highlighted the interdisciplinary strengths of the network and set the foundation for collaborative work.

An overview of the network’s goals, roles, and responsibilities followed, including plans to establish a dedicated HeBEC website. The website will serve as a central platform for sharing meeting summaries, insights, and ongoing activities and will be set up and maintained by FHM.

A central focus of the meeting was the discussion of a planned meta‑analysis examining the links between mental health and climate‑related challenges. Participants debated the scope of the analysis, including whether earthquakes should be considered, given their potential indirect relationship to climate change. A draft preregistration has been made available for review, and interested members were invited to register with the Centre for Open Science.

The group also finalised the schedule for the first in‑person meeting on 4 September. The programme will include introductions to the network’s aims, short presentations by all members, roundtable discussions, and a keynote contribution from a health psychology expert. Practical matters, including accommodation and travel arrangements, were clarified. Members agreed on next steps, including preparing short biographies, institutional logos, and summaries of individual research interests for the website.


HeBEC Workshop 1: Summary

On 4 September 2025, the HeBEC Network held its first workshop in Hanover (Germany), bringing together an interdisciplinary group of researchers to explore the intersection of climate change, mental health, and technology acceptance. The workshop marked the official launch of the network’s collaborative activities funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG).

Highlights

  • Key Impulse 1: Self-efficacy, supportive technology, individual and planetary health: Extending the HAPA towards pro-environmental behaviors (Professor Dr. Ralf Schwarzer, Freie Universität Berlin)
  • Key Impulse 2: AI assistance for people with disabilities at work – results from AI.ASSIST and AI-Compass Inclusive (Rolf Feichtenbeiner, German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence - DFKI Labor Berlin)

During HeBEC Workshop 1, participants discussed and aligned on the network’s initial goals and collaborative direction. The group shared insights and research contributions, laying the foundation for the joint activities:

  • develop an integrated theoretical framework to understand climate-related psychological processes
  • conduct a meta-analysis of existing studies on mental health and climate-related events
  • perform secondary analyses using longitudinal datasets
  • Collaborative Inputs: Members presented abstracts and ongoing projects, including resilience modelling, AI-based early warning systems, physiological signal analysis, and human-robot interaction
  • Meta-Analysis Project: A large-scale database of studies on mental health and natural hazards was introduced, forming the basis for future European-focused analysis
  • Next Steps: A virtual meeting is planned for November 2025

The workshop fostered rich dialogue, cross-disciplinary exchange, and a shared commitment to addressing climate-related challenges through psychological insight and technological innovation.