SMART WEST Project

Innovative way of working, new digital compliance procedures and new digital organizational models for the territories of northwestern Italy.

NODES Spoke 4 ecosistema
This project provides analysis, best practices, lines of action, tools and devices to enable companies to effectively and orderly organize hybrid and remote work in mountain areas of the NODES ecosystem.
Sectors

Labour market and technological development.

 

Scientific Leader 
Christophe Feder, Università della Valle d’Aosta/Université de la Vallée d’Aoste
 

Themes

The acronym "SMART WEST" contains four elements on which the flagship project is based: I) "smartworking", which is the topic of study; II) "far west", which summarizes the situation in which many workers and companies have found themselves involved due to the pandemic; III) "North West", which is the geographical area of interest of the project; and IV) "Smart North West", which is the objective of the project.

This project provides analysis, best practices, lines of action, tools and devices to enable companies to effectively and orderly organize hybrid and remote work in mountain areas of the NODES ecosystem, and tofully exploit the potential of this work model to improve business performance and worker well-being. The SMART WEST project uses a multidisciplinary approach involving engineers, architects, computer scientists, economists, lawyers, sociologists, anthropologists and other social science experts.

Objectives

The project is developed around five interconnected modules: 1) new tools and devices for smart working;2) digital compliance and cybersecurity; 3) costs and performance; 4) organizational change; 5) workers' well-being and satisfaction.
Module 1 is oriented to innovative tools to develop a new digital environment for the improvement of smart working.
Module 2aims to provide guidance on the existing regulatory framework and to guide future legislative choices in this area.
Module 3 aims to improve awareness of the impacts of remote work on business performance, thanks to the use of a process and activity mapping tool.
Module 4 studies and promotes those organizational changes that support an evolution beneficial toworkers, companies and society.
Finally, module 5 focuses on monitoring human well-being in workspaces.

Expected Results
  • Design and development of innovative technologies to support and encourage remote working in the workplace and/ or in co-working areas (module 1);
  • Awareness of companies and workers regarding digital compliance and IT security, also creating protocols and procedures (module 2);
  • Awareness of companies of the impacts of remote work on business performance and on the use of managerial tools (module 3);
  • Awareness of companies on the tools for the transparency of the processes that help to track activities and on the best practices to organize smart working (module 4);-
  • Awareness of companies and workers on design tools to adapt unconventional spaces to smart working(module 5);
  • Development of a set of portable environmental sensors and assessment tools to monitor the quality of the remote work environment, biophilic design and the health and well-being of people in buildings(module 5);
  • Publication of research results in national and international journals.
The SMART WEST project will generate a significant industrial impact in the NODES ecosystem through innovative digital solutions for companies working remotely and for digital compliance.
Impact on the territory

The SMART WEST project will generate a significant industrial impact in the NODES ecosystem through innovative digital solutions for companies working remotely and for digital compliance, contributing to the digital transformation of the economic fabric of the territory.

The demand for new services from relocated work activities and the definition of new digital solutions for companies and citizens will stimulate the creation of new innovative and digitally oriented businesses, while the digital transition stimulated by incubators will provide fundamental support for the establishment of these new companies. In the long term, the entire territory will benefit from the digital and ecological transition driven by the proposed initiatives.

Participants:
 

Università della Valle d’Aosta:

  • Dipartimento di Scienze Economiche e Politiche
  • Dipartimento di Scienze Umane e Sociali


Università di Torino: 

 

Politecnico di Torino:

  • Dipartimento Energia “Galileo Ferraris”
  • Dipartimento di Architettura e Design
  • Dipartimento di Ingegneria Strutturale, Edile e Geotecnica

 

Fondazione LINKS:

  • AI, Data & Space
  • Future Cities & Communities

 

Università degli Studi della Basilicata