Health Research-Based Innovative Open Educational Resources and Tools for Lighting Design Students and Professionals (LIGHT4HEALTH) project will establish and deepen a strategic partnership for teaching health research methods and findings to lighting designers at graduate level. The key application of health research knowledge in the lighting design profession is for developing Human Centric Lighting (HCL), which can be seen as an element of preventive healthcare. It balances visual, emotional and biological benefits of lighting for humans; promotes good vision and simultaneously satisfies human emotional and biological needs; and takes into account that light also stimulates non-visual effects on our psychology and physiology. Given that every human is constantly exposed to lighting, massive introduction of HCL could have a significant social and economic impact for the EU. With this potential in mind, the European Strategic Roadmap 2025 of the EU lighting industry association demonstrates the paradigm shift from ‘energy efficiency’ to ‘light for wellbeing’. The industry aims, together with EU legislators, for the growth of the European lighting market through more intelligent and Human Centric Lighting. This will result in an increased number of jobs in Europe. At the same time, educational programmes for this topic in Europe are falling behind, failing to produce the graduates (and numbers) required. There are significant growth and employment opportunities that are not being tackled. To respond to this challenge, the LIGHT4HEALTH partnership brings together six internationally renowned institutions from the UK, Denmark, Germany, Sweden, Russia, and the US, to bring together their advanced research and teaching expertise on the intersection of lighting design and health research in a validated cross-disciplinary course offer of excellence, extended with rich and professionally produced open educational materials, and an online Virtual Lab platform aimed at accessibility and fostering implementation across Europe. To establish a strong link between health research and lighting design, the project partners will select the most relevant health research methods, tools, and findings in Neurology, Photobiology, Neuroendocrinology, Neurobehavioral Studies, Psychophysiology of Perception, as well as Behavioral, Cognitive and Environmental Psychology, and will introduce them into lighting design curricula by producing a dedicated cross-disciplinary course LIGHT4HEALTH. Regular consultations with lighting industry stakeholders will guide the consortium's selection of learning methods, learning objectives, assessment criteria, research methodologies, and required knowledge, skills, and competences, filling the gap between research, education and the workplace. Three innovative teaching modules comprising the course will be validated through test-runs in the format of transnational Summer Schools at partner organizations, resulting in first-hand experience and feedback data. Various participants are considered for the pilots and beyond. Students from participating universities, enrolled in on-campus Lighting Design programmes including the released course, are direct end-users of the project outputs. Other participants who enroll on the online version of the course through the Virtual Lab or in replications across Europe will include all types of learners, educators, industry workers, and design practitioners. Four public events at national, EU, and international level will be the main activities of dissemination and communication for relevant stakeholders who are essential not only as the target audience, but also as users of the Virtual Lab, multipliers of the knowledge generated, and a source of valuable feedback. LIGHT4HEALTH's impact will be strongest at EU level, while also providing benefits to society and the economy at local, regional and national level, along with other Erasmus+ and EU activities. Through intensive cross-border and cross-disciplinary cooperation, the project will trigger processes and produce results that are likely to become self-sustaining and develop further, such as the LIGHT4HEALTH teaching community and the Virtual Lab. The project will help to prepare graduates for the lighting industry and other employers in Europe and around the world, thus contributing to making European economies more research-driven, knowledge-based, and competitive.
The Health Research-Based Innovative Open Educational Resources and Tools for Lighting Design Students and Professionals (Light4Health) project has established and deepened a strategic partnership for teaching health research methods and findings to lighting designers at graduate level. Light4Health was a three year Erasmus+ co-funded project, which investigated the impact of light on health, wellbeing and the environments we live in. It developed a novel cross-disciplinary course on the intersection of lighting design and health research by selecting the most relevant health research methods, tools and findings in Neurology, Photobiology, Neuroendocrinology, Neurobehavioral Studies, Psychophysiology of Perception, as well as Behavioural, Cognitive and Environmental Psychology, and introduced these into lighting design curricula which higher education institutions can adopt. The project involves experts from Neurology, Light and Health Research, Lighting Design, Architecture, and the Build Environment from six internationally renowned institutions from the UK, Denmark, Germany, Sweden, Russia, and the USA. The project, which was underpinned by scientific research, supports richer understanding of informed lighting designs associated with domestic, educational, healthcare and other types of premises. The educational course, health research methods and other outcomes of the project are suitable for lighting designers at graduate level. The course’s drive of lighting efficiency, design maximisation associated with building performance and educational tools are useful to architects, designers, lighting practitioners and lighting manufacturers. The project’s findings have also articulated the benefits of increased natural and appropriately selected artificial lighting in various settings. The project participants and consortium members have managed to close the gap between research and practice/application and translate research from complex to ‘easy to digest’ for the end users. The higher education course contents created and piloted during three annual summer schools have been consolidated into a Light4Health Online Course of Health Research for Interior Lighting Design. This has been extensively reviewed by lighting manufacturers, design practitioners such as architects and lighting designers, academics in the fields of lighting and health research and students. The course was launched in August 2021 to a very positive response. The course contents are open access, free to use by either lighting students or practitioners through self-study; provide a syllabus and materials for HE providers to use in whole or in part within their curricula or teaching. The online course consists of five educational modules: 1. Introduction to health-related research for lighting design 2. Review on lighting basics and health and wellbeing research 3. Software, measuring devices and evaluation tools 4. Standards and best practice 5. Application and examples from research and practice Each module, which has been reviewed by professional bodies, academics and industry practitioners, contains video lectures, supporting presentation slides, a reading reference list and a self-assessment quiz. Teachers are provided with a syllabus and other material such as sample task assignments such as how to do a light plan, measuring illuminance and physiological metrics. This education offer will better inform lighting practitioners and develop stronger client understanding of the impact of specifying appropriate lighting solutions. Light4Health’s impact is at many levels – both international and EU whilst also providing benefits to society and the economy at local, regional and national level. Through intensive cross-border and cross-disciplinary cooperation, the project has triggered collaborations and produced results that are already in use at university level and likely to become self-sustaining and develop further. The project will help to prepare graduates for the lighting industry and other employers in Europe and around the world, thus contributing to making European and other economies more research-driven, knowledge-based, and competitive.