Working Together4Health – an obvious goal for stakeholders in the health ecosystem, but sometimes still a strategic challenge. It was therefore also the title of the Danish EU Presidency conference September 16-18 in Aalborg, Denmark. Read more about it here

During the conference NWA and the European Health Futures Forum co-hosted a workshop session with Natasha Azzopardi Muscat (WHO Europe), Charlotte Marchandise (EUPHA), and Stella Goeschl (JA PreventNCD Youth Advisory Group) on pathways for action for the Future Health Workforce and its wellbeing.

Find the full report about the workshop below with forewords by the speakers and the conclusion of top 5 key points as co-created by the speakers and audience:

1. KPI for workforce well-being
   – measure and hold leaders accountable
2. Technology validation
   – ensure an evaluation of AI/innovation (safety, impact, cost-effectiveness)
3. Stand up for people with science
   – evidence-based policies, not quick fixes
4. Inclusion of young people
   – systematically in panels, education, and policy
5. Stand up for communities
   – ensure public health and local engagement

Press Release, December 2025
As part of the EU Social Innovation+ Initiative project ISRICM, the first webinar about leadership in HR has been launched. Coming January 7th, this webinar will bring together Liza Collins, Kateryna Ostrovska, and Nina Sønderberg in a debate about future workplaces and the power of empathy in leadership as a transformative power for wellbeing and progress.

The webinar builds upon the Guidelines for integrating refugees into workplaces that was published in October 2025 and will be followed by a webinars on social inclusion and a training session in Denmark for HR professionals.

“We are really excited about finally being able to share new perspectives from both workplace wellbeing, insights from the Ukrainian diaspora, and key results of our work in the ISRICM project so far.” says Lars Münter, International Director of Nordic Wellbeing Academy. “The challenge of workplaces to use empathy and psychological safety in both operations and recruitment increases in times of change – thus solving the challenge for the Ukrainian refugees could really benefit everyone and certainly also the company itself”.

The ISRICM project continues exploring innovative pathways that bridge social action and Ukrainian refugee integration. This webinar represents another step towards dialogue for progress in Europe. The project connects 9 partners across Europe lead by the International Centre for Sustainable Development from Greece.

Contact NWA for further information.

Since 1973, World Hello Day has been an annual opportunity to bring people together in local events with global impact. Recently we got a challenge, however. The great entrepreneur for social action, Christian Altenius, invited us to also take part in the Hela Sverige säger HEJ! Swedish edition of the global action.

So rising to the challenge, this year we are building a local event in Sweden with an amazing local artist and therapist to enable an additional 10 people – strangers – (that’s the concept) to say hello to us.

Combining the insights and skills of Nina Sønderberg as psychotherapist with the equally great skills of yoga therapist (focusing on stress and trauma) Emma Pålsson, we aim to both greet 10 new people and be able to do our part in a global mission of connectedness.

Read more about World Hello Day here – or about the many additional activities in Sweden here. Want to join – well, hello there – consider registering via nina@wellbeingacademy.dk

As part of the ISRICM project, NWA is happy to present a full report on Guidelines for Integrating Refugees into Workplaces. This report is the result of extensive dialogue with HR professionals to build a next generation structure for empathy and social progress via workplaces.

The report will be followed with webinars and a training session for HR professionals – do contact us if you’re interesting in joining this unique learning experience.

As part of Lars Münters work in the WHO Europe Strategic Partners Initiative for Data and Digital Health, he was invited by The Society of Occupational Medicine October 9th to present at a webinar.

Hosted by Professor Niel Greenberg, Chair of The SOM, Lars there presented the process and thinking behind the tool for prevention of burnout that was previously also presented and discussed in an earlier stage at the WHO Symposium for the Future Health Workforce in April 2025.

With an extra six months of development, it was a pleasure to share these insights again and to discuss with a very dedicated group of researchers and stakeholders for good working environments.

See the full presentation above – or read a summary of the presentation below

Going from Aalborg and the EU Presidency to Tallinn and the WHO – Future Health Workforce is key to the discussion. NWA participated with Nina Sønderberg and Lars Münter, where Lars Münter was invited to the session to address different policy-level aspects crucial for building sustainable health workforces in a digital age.

This included:

• Enablers of high quality, safe and inclusive digital health environments
• Service design that enables integrated care delivery across heterogenous care environment
• Roles and responsibilities in a future health workforce and pathways to achieving them
• Applying ethics and accountability in AI-driven healthcare environments
• Effective regulatory frameworks

Presenting alongside Kjersti GAUDEN, Department of Specialist Health Care Services, Ministry of Health Norway, Heidi Egede NOASEN, Greenlandic Health Service Greenland, and Deborah Cohen, Chief Operating Officer, Health Workforce Canada, Lars Münter presented on skills, burnout, AI, and trust – as four pillars for collaborative strategies.

Such a pleasure to revisit Tallinn for NWA – and to advance the discussion on these core topics.

In collaboration with the One Health One Road Alliance, Cambridge Medical Academy, European University Cyprus, European Health Futures Forum, and IE Open, the Nordic Wellbeing Academy is organising the Danish-Cypriot EU Policy Sessions – a series of health policy side sessions at the IMBMC 2025 in Nicosia, Cyprus – November 6-8.

The sessions will gather speakers and participants from a global network to discuss and develop new ideas. Meet:

• Adam Skali – Board Member, Institute for Human Centered Health Innovation, ES
• Anna Kudiyarova – Director of the Psychoanalytic Institute for Central Asia, KZ
• Belinda Lin – Hong Kong-Shenzhen Innovation and Technology Park China
• Bogi Eliasen – Executive Director, Movement Health Foundation, DK
• Carina Dantas – IHI ReADI, SHAFE Foundation, and SHINE 2Europe, PL
• Cris Scotter – Special Advisor, WHO Europe, UK
• Diana Arsovic – CEO, Danish Life Science Cluster, DK
• Dr Eva Turk – IHI IMPROVE, HTAi, and University of Applied Science St. Pölten, A
• Dr Ioannis Patrikios – Vice-dean European University Cyprus Medical School CY
• Dr Nina Fuller-Shavel – Director of the National Centre for Integrative Oncology, UK
• Dr Sotiris Themistokleous – Director of Strategic Development Center for Social Innovation CY
• Emma Rawson-Te Patu – President of the World Federation of Public Health Associations, NZ
• Jun (Helena) Li – CEO One Road One Health Medicine, China
• Lars Münter – International Director, Nordic Wellbeing Academy, DK
• MEP Michalis Hadjipantelas, CY
• Nina Sønderberg – National Director, Nordic Wellbeing Academy, DK
• Professor Karsten Kristiansen – Copenhagen University, DK
• Takis Kotis – CEO, Cambridge Medical Academy, GR
• Terry Pirovolakis – CEO, Elpida Technology, CA
• And about 50 other scientists, researchers, professor, experts, and changemakers in the bio-medical conference main tracks

Read more and register (free)

Collaborative creativity at its finest in Aalborg September 18th. NWA collaborated with EHFF to build a co-creative workshop with Natasha Azzopardi Muscat – Director of the Division of Country Health Polices and Systems WHO Europe, Charlotte Marchandise – Executive Director EUPHA, and Stella Goeschl – Young Action Group JA PreventNCD as the superpanelist powering the audience.

In 60 minutes, the audience got to find future strength, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats that should be taken into account for a future strategy, and then our panelist used these to suggest four action items that they hoped the participants – and the Danish EU Presidency – would take up tomorrow to build a new pathway for change. These were voted on by the audience to create a shortlist of five action items for change.

Common Themes Across Speakers

• Burnout & well-being: urgent and systemic.
• Technology: potential but overhyped; must serve both patients and staff.
• Data: better workforce data is essential.
• Inclusion: young people, patients, and vulnerable groups must be part of decision-making.
• Public health: prevention and community-level work relieve pressure on hospitals.

Top 5 Action Points for EU Presidency Action

• Build KPIs for workforce well-being – measure and hold leaders accountable.
• Ensure technology validation – evaluate AI/innovation like medicines (safety, impact, cost-effectiveness).
• Stand up for people with science – evidence-based policies, not quick fixes.
• Inclusion of young people – systematically in panels, education, and policy.
• Stand up for communities – ensure public health and local engagement.

WHO Europe will discuss this further at conferences and events in 2025 and on. The themes will be a strong element of debate at European Public Health Conference 2025 in Helsinki (November), and JA PreventNCD will continue it’s work to tackle determinants, including at a conference in Denmark October 2025.

As part of the One Health One Road Alliance, NWA and EHFF will bring the issue into the Danish-Cypriot Policy Debates in Nicosia November 6-8 as the opportunity of bringing this issue from one EU Presidency to the next is vital. We hope to see many from Aalborg in Nicosia too.

Working in partnerships is one of the most rewarding, most needed, and most difficult endavours humans can do. Building a good relational strategy is a first step, but figuring out if the strategy works can be tricky. Or it used to be! Two new report created by the NWA and a consortium of experts for the Danish Life Science Cluster gives partnership builders, managers, and transformation agents a new tools to navigate this difficult task.

The two reports follows a first report issued earlier this year about the impact of the Danish Lighthouse Life Science. The “Foundation of the Danish Lighthouse Life Science” report describes the architecture behind this collaborative PPP with 400+ members. And in “A New KPI Model for Collaboration and Change“, we introduce a change model with KPIs that can help guide new partnerships along the tricky art of building, expanding, and running a multistakeholder platform towards a common goal.

The key point above all;
You can design collaborative platforms to also generate trust – and here’s a manual.

In a time where trust in institutions and future is eroding, this mechanism of using trust literacy to build new collaborative platforms with strong relational strategies is needed more than ever. We look forward to promote, test, and expand the model much more in coming months and years.

As part of the ISRICM-EU project, NWA conducted a webinar September 10th to explore the use of EFT in HR and expand on the learning of the HR workshop at the ISEFT conference in Bucharest.

NWA and the participants explored the integration of emotion-focused therapy principles into human resource management practices, with participants sharing experiences and discussing applications in workplace settings.

The group explored how emotional intelligence and empathy could enhance HR practices, including creating safe spaces for emotional expression and addressing challenges during organizational transformations.

Discussions covered the role of AI in HR, employee well-being during difficult times, and the importance of maintaining positive workplace culture through transparent communication and support mechanisms.

Find a summary report about the webinar here – and stay tuned for future webinars!