Stress in Action is a ten-year research project involving collaboration between seven Dutch universities and university medical centres. “We focus mainly on stress in daily life,” explains PhD candidate Malin Meyer. “We want to better understand how everyday experiences of stress are linked to both physical and mental health. That is why we look, for example, at depression, anxiety, and cardiovascular diseases.”
The project studies stress from a range of disciplines. “We collaborate with researchers from a wide range of fields, including psychologists, biomedical scientists, sociologists, epidemiologists, and data scientists,” says Meyer. One thing that quickly stood out to them was just how differently the term 'stress' is used. “Everyone uses the word, but in science it can have many different meanings,” Meyer explains. Therefore, the multidisciplinary approach is crucial. Stress responses occur on emotional, physiological, cognitive, and behavioural levels, while stressors arise in contexts ranging from work and family life to broader societal issues. Combining these perspectives enables the team to build a more complete picture of stress.
The research consists of three main components, the so-called ‘Research Themes’. UMCG researchers are currently focussing on the theory of stress in daily life. “For example, we aim to identify the kinds of stressors people experience in their everyday lives,” Meyer explains. “We examine when someone perceives something as stressful. Is it seen as a threat? A demand? And how do stressors differ between people from different socio-economic groups?”
The aim is not only to map the individual response, but also the environmental factors at play. “What’s unique about Stress in Action is that we want to understand stress where it usually occurs: outside the laboratory, in real life,” says Meyer. In the long run, this approach should lead to context specific interventions: solutions that work in the ‘real world’.
Stress in Action began in 2022, when Ute Bültmann and her colleagues secured a grant from NWO and the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science. The ten-year project is still in its initial phase. “We have now built different databases based on systematic literature reviews,” Meyer says. In 2026, the consortium aims to expand existing Dutch cohorts through large-scale data collection. The researchers will follow participants over an extended period and intend to collect passive sensor data, as well as conduct physiological measurements and administer psychological questionnaires.
