Dear Action Participants,
Midway through our second grant period (GP2), we have many exciting developments to share:
Network Growth
As of this writing, COST Action LeverAge counts 211 participants from 54 countries! This participant count is about 30% higher than at the last quarter of GP1.
The 1st Training School
The 1st COST Action LeverAge Training School took place on March 20th and 21st at the School of Arts and Humanities, University of Lisbon. It was locally organized by Cláudia Teixeira Gomes, in collaboration with Susanne Scheibe and Inês Sousa. Four trainers and 18 trainees from 13 unique countries participated in the Training School. The feedback was extremely positive, highlighting the importance of conducting impactful research and fostering collaborations. You can see more here.
Call for Papers
The Journal of Business and Psychology is issuing a call for papers for a special issue entitled “The inclusion of age-diverse workers in the modern workplace” (initial manuscript proposals due June 15, 2025). For more information: To submit a manuscript for consideration, please see here for details.
The journal Psychology and Aging is issuing a call for papers for a special issue on Aging and Motivation (initial manuscripts proposals due May 1, 2025). For more information: https://www.apa.org/pubs/journals/pag/aging-motivation
Short Term Scientific Mission (STSM) Grants Awarded
We awarded 13 STSM grants in GP1, facilitating research and scholarly exchanges between 24 unique Action participants from 14 countries including Ireland, Sweden, The Netherlands, Ukraine, Turkey, Kosovo, the US, Czechia, Israel, Italy, Germany, the UK, Lithuania, and Estonia! More details are available here.
We awarded 5 upcoming STSM grants in GP2, facilitating research and scholarly exchanges between Action participants from 6 countries including Bulgaria, The Netherlands, Ukraine, Germany, Hong Kong, and Israel. Congratulations to all recipients and we hope these grants help you achieve scientific excellence and societal impact in work and aging!
Conference Grants Awarded
We awarded 6 conference grants in GP1, facilitating the science dissemination goals of COST Action LeverAge at five different international conferences. Awardees included Action participants from Turkey, Germany, Lithuania, Slovenia, Iceland, and Sweden. More details are available here.
We awarded 12 conference grants for upcoming conferences in GP2, facilitating the science dissemination goals of COST Action LeverAge at several international conferences, most notably the 22nd Congress of the European Association of Work and Organizational Psychology and the 85th Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management. Awardees included Action participants from 7 countries including Italy, Germany, Portugal, Lithuania, Czechia, the UK, and Israel. Congratulations to all recipients and we hope these grants help you achieve scientific excellence and societal impact in work and aging!
Working Group (WG) Meetings
As most of you know by now, we organized one meeting for each of the five WGs in GP1. The meetings drew plenty of interest, attracting 88 unique Action participants for an overall participation rate of 55%. More details on the GP1 meetings that were held are available here.
Due to popular demand, we have consolidated these smaller meetings into one large meeting and plenary session for GP2. The GP2 WG Meetings and WG Interplenary will be held in Olomouc, Czechia from 19-20 May 2025. More details are available here.
New Action-supported Collaborative Publications
Aksaray, G. & Marcus, J. (2025). Bridge employment in middle vs. late life for men and women: gendered social roles or life structures? Work, Aging and Retirement. https://doi.org/10.1093/workar/waae019
Goštautaitė, B., Kim, N., Steindórsdóttir, B. D., Parry, E., Dello Russo, S., Andresen, M., … & Zikic, J. (2025). Age and career resilience through the lens of life course theory: Examining individual mechanisms and macro‐level context across 28 countries. Human Resource Management Journal. https://doi.org/10.1111/1748-8583.12596
Scheibe, S., & Kooij, T. A. M. (2024). Workplace aging: The reciprocal relationship between adult development and work. Annual Review of Developmental Psychology, 6, 479-504. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-devpsych-010923-093135
Stoyanova, S., Giannouli, V., Miteva, S., & Ivantchev, N. (2024). How different forms of knowledge transfer at workplace are related to self-rated work performance? African Journal of Biomedical Research, 27, 2434-2453. https://doi.org/10.53555/AJBR.v27i4S.3312
Selected new scientific publications in work and aging by Action participants:
Chong, J. X., Andrei, D. M., Tian, A., & Parker, S. K. (2025). Include, Individualize, and Integrate HRM practices for successful aging at work: Scale development and test of a model. Human Resource Management. https://doi.org/10.1002/hrm.22301
del Carmen Triana, M., Ahmed, R., & García, M. F. (2025). The effect of age discrimination on employee silence: The role of age similarity with familiar individuals. Acta Psychologica, 252, 104664. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actpsy.2024.104664
Eurofound. (2025). Keeping older workers in the labour force. Publications Office of the European Union. https://doi.org/10.2806/4361116
Fousiani, K., Scheibe, S., & Walter, F. (2025). Unpacking the relationship between leaders’ age and active conflict management: The moderating role of generativity. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 98(1), e12567. https://doi.org/10.1111/joop.12567
Fousiani, K., Scheibe, S., & Michelakis, G. (in press). Understanding leader-employee conflict involvement: How leader perceived competence and age shape employee reactions. International Journal of Conflict Management.
Kuijpers, M., Draaisma, A., Semeijn, J., & Van der Heijden, B. (2025). Towards a career perspective on lifelong development: applying a multiple-stakeholder approach to explore the concept. Employee Relations, 47(9), 45-62. https://doi.org/10.1108/ER-04-2024-0253
Acknowledgement of Action support
If a research project you are working on is eventually published and was presented at an ITC or Dissemination conference that you attended with Action funding OR was worked on during the course of a Short Term Scientific Mission that the Action funded OR was workshopped at an Action-funded workshop or Training School OR was presented, worked on, or otherwise discussed at length at an Action-funded Working Group meeting, please insert the following:
“This publication is based upon work from COST Action CA22120, LeverAge, supported by COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology).”
If you acknowledge Action funding, please do your best to make the publication (or a preprint of the publication) available via open access, and to the extent that your publishing contract allows.
COST Action LeverAge social media presence
Please take a moment to follow, like, and share our pages among your networks:
By following our social media accounts, you will stay updated on the latest news, events, and content. Your support in spreading the word about our new online presence is greatly appreciated.
We encourage you to explore the new website and connect with us on social media. If you have any feedback or suggestions, please do not hesitate to share them with us.
Publicize your recent research
Do you have a newly accepted scientific publication related to work and aging?
Did you recently receive grant funding for a project related to work and aging?
Have you formed a new research collaboration with other COST Action LeverAge participants?
Please do not hesitate to email us with your recently accepted scientific publications, research funding, or new research collaborations formed with fellow Action participants so that we may share your success stories and/or scholarly endeavors with the Action network in future editions of this Action newsletter. This will help stimulate interest in your research and raise the profile of our COST Action.
You may direct all information related to success stories and new collaborations to communications@leverage-workforce.eu
Action participants needed:
We are currently looking for qualified students/scientists/practitioners to join our Action network from the following 11 localities:
Armenia, Egypt, the Faroe Islands, Georgia, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Luxembourg, Malta, Morocco, and Syria. Interested participants from any of these localities should have demonstrable pedagogical/scholarly/practical experience in one of the following fields: I/O psychology, HRM/OB, social psychology, cognitive/neuropsychology, developmental psychology, occupational health, human factors, sociology, or economics. If you know of any such person, please do not hesitate to email me.
We look forward to updating you on our continued developments toward the end of this year!
Warm Regards,
The COST Action LeverAge Leadership Team