Hybrid Presence and Collaboration in European Collaborative Networks for Agile Working Methods (PRAESCO) / PRAESCO

The project and its objective

The overall objective of PRAESCO is to perform work science research on asymmetries in hybrid collaboration within intra- and inter-organizational networks and to optimize them. By developing and designing a portable, interactive support technology, empirical findings in structured and unstructured contexts of hybrid collaboration will be gathered through two use cases to enhance the interaction between humans, organizations, and technology.

The PRAESCO project is based on insights that hybrid meetings require balanced cooperation among all participants to avoid the risk of decreased active participation due to physical distance. However, it has been found that hybrid configurations lead to asymmetries in group awareness, which can also impede trust-building and spontaneous encounters. The PRAESCO project aims to address these challenges and translate the project results into concepts for designing trust-based hybrid collaboration.

The project consortium comprises four partners: the Technical University of Dortmund is the consortium leader and technical partner. The partner for organizational development and coaching is Colenet GmbH. The scientific partners are the University of Siegen and the Institute for Work and Technology/ Research Department: Health economics and quality of life (G&L).

The methodology

A participatory mixed-methods approach will be used to develop a digital support technology. Additionally, the different hybrid socio-technical work systems and the effects of the support technology will be researched in two use cases (structured vs. unstructured hybrid collaboration). The research department G&L focuses on two key aspects: 1) the health impacts of hybrid collaboration and 2) ELSI research (ethical, legal, and social implications), where an evaluation matrix is continuously adjusted and specified through iterative analysis cycles to derive important implications for the project at an early stage.

The „PRAESCO“ project is funded as part of the “Future of Work“ program by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and the European Union through the European Social Fund Plus (ESF Plus) and managed by the Project Management Agency Karlsruhe (PTKA).