The Nordic Wellbeing Academy is a research-active organisation. We generate, synthesise, and translate evidence at the intersection of health literacy, institutional trust, mental health, and citizen empowerment — and we do this in close connection with the real-world programmes and partnerships through which we work.

Our research is not produced in isolation from practice. We investigate questions that emerge from implementation; we publish findings that practitioners and policymakers can use; and we bring academic rigour to the lived complexity of European public health.

Our Key Researchers
NWA’s research is led by Lars Münter (International Director) and Nina Sønderberg (National Director).
Lars Münter holds a Master of Arts in Rhetoric with over 40 peer-reviewed publications in health literacy, empowerment, trust, and digital health (H-index 15+). He is an active conference presenter, peer reviewer, and is both the external ethics advisor for the TRACE Project and Chair of the WHO Europe Public Health Innovation Platform Working Group on Public Health Communication and Trust (2026–2028).

Nina Sønderberg has more than 15 years of expertise in psychotherapy, mentalisation, and emotion-focused approaches to wellbeing. She is a member of the ISEFT Subcommittee for Research and Education and leads the EHFF Working Group for Women’s Health. As a new researcher, her research interests works connect psychotherapeutic knowledge with public health, organisational wellbeing, and women’s health equity.

As research advisors among our Fellows and Board, we also collaborate with and integrate insights from Dr. David Somekh (phd in experimental psychology), Professor Kristine Sørensen (Aalborg University health literacy), Dr. Eva Turk (Senior Researcher, Center for Digital Health and Social Innovation, STPUAS), Dr. Yvonne Prinzellner (media psychology, gender, equity, and inclusion researcher), Carina Dantas (phd student – AI ethics) – et al.

What We Research

• Trust, Communication, and Health Literacy – including the trust literacy, Aristotelian diagnostics for communication failure, and health literacy as a governance standard – aligning with eg WHO Public Health Innovation Platform and Danish Life Science Cluster KPI Model
  
• Mental Health and Wellbeing in Professional Settings – with a particular focus on burnout among health professionals and resilience for first responders, connecting eg with our WHO SPI-DDH, MentaStress and Viaticum 2 work.

• Participatory Design and Health Innovation – including the 40-20-40 co-design model and its application across EU digital health projects – aligning eg with myHealth@myHands and CARING-AI.
  
• Women’s Health and Gender Equity — Investigating evidence gaps affecting women across the life course, combining clinical psychotherapy expertise with European policy engagement and a global menopause survey – through eg both Women’s Health 2040 and European Health Futures Forum initiatives.

Selected Publications

• Strong citations: Søvold, M.U., Naslund, J.A., Kousoulis, A.A., Münter, L. et al. (2021). Prioritizing the Mental Health and Well-Being of Healthcare Workers: An Urgent Global Public Health Priority. Frontiers in Public Health. 1000+ citations
• Long history: Multiple publications on health literacy, self-care, empowerment, and digital health governance in indexed international journals and conference proceedings (2010–present)
• Lighthouse Collaboration: A Pathway for Trust Generation for Future Wellbeing. Book chapter, Bristol University Press (Gille, Zavaterro, (forthcoming, Lars Münter with multiple authors – )
• Best Student Abstract Award – “Implementation by Inclusivity in European Health System-Level Digital Solutions.” Co-authored by Lars Münter, Nina Sønderberg, Carina Dantas, Paloma Moraga Alapont, and Miriam Cabrita. Digital Public Health Conference, Funchal, 2025.
• Recent topics: AI and Retrieval-Augmented Generation in Cancer Patient Information: A Framework for Equitable Deployment. IEEE-format short paper for CBME 2026 (with University of Lincoln and Kapa3, in preparation 2026)

For an indicative publication list, see Google Scholar:
Lars Münter, Nordic Wellbeing Academy

Research Partnerships
NWA collaborates with partners and networks in ISEFT, the European Health Futures Forum, WHO Europe and partner organisations across more than 20 countries through our EU project portfolio.

Work with Us
NWA welcomes research collaboration proposals, joint publication initiatives, and practitioner research contributions — particularly from professionals working in our project themes. We are especially interested in extending our research community through NWA Training (Trivselsakademiet), our professional learning network in Denmark.