About the Project

Circadian Activities to Revitalize Vocational Energy

The CARVE project (Circadian Activities to Revitalize Vocational Energy) is a collaboration between different partners in three countries

Thanks to the support of the European Social Fund, we have collected insights into the energy patterns of individual employees at work. We have developed several e-learnings, training materials, and an HR manual to help organizations and their employees with these topics.

Why CARVE?

Not all employees have the same chronotype. This means that the early birds will have their energy-peaks in the morning, while evening owls are still waking up at that time and will peak in the afternoon. Additionally, many suffer from the infamous afternoon dip. Previous research has shown us that some tasks give and take energy and are thus best done on these energy peaks or dips to make you more efficient and/or to keep more energy by the end of the workday. Also, your work-life balance, use of technology, bad job content, or sleep quality could make you feel drained of energy.

In this project we thus offer individuals and organizations some handles to aid them in their energy management and the new electronic tools that could help them with this.

Belgian team

  • Dr. Jana Deprez – postdoctoral researcher – KU Leuven
  • Dr. Wouter Robijn – postdoctoral researcher – KU Leuven
  • Dr. Ellen Delvaux – researcher – IDEWE

Bulgarian team

  • Zhechka Kalinova – analyst and trainer, founder and manager of Idein Ltd.
  • Desislava Puhleva-Calinescu – analyst and trainer, legal representative of Idein
  • Desislava Ivanova – designer and trainer, project manager at Idein

Finnish team working in Active Life Lab, Xamk, Mikkeli

  • Minna Männikkö – Project Manager
  • Marko Tanskanen – RDI Specialist
  • Susanne Kumpulainen – RDI Specialist

In Belgium, the project is carried out by KU Leuven and IDEWE.


KU Leuven
is a world-renowned university, that has a reputation for being very innovative (Reuters innovative universities list). It houses experts in e.g., sleep, work-psychology, and wellbeing and has successfully completed many international projects in the past.

IDEWE is an External Service for Prevention and Protection at work. IDEWE supports organizations in the construction and implementation of their well-being policy. Seven domains (occupational safety, health, psychosocial aspects, ergonomics, occupational hygiene, embellishment of the workplaces and environment) are central to this. As such, IDEWE aims to contribute to the physical and psychological integrity of citizens and prevent damage to their living and working environment.

In Bulgaria the project is implemented by Idein Ltd. a leading Bulgarian consultancy company with more than 15 years of experience in the field of project management and implementation. The project is related to one of the key areas of expertise of the company, namely – the application of innovative approaches to the labor market and the workforce in Bulgaria. For more information, visit www.idein.eu.

In Finland the project is implemented in Active Life Lab, a research and development unit of the South-Eastern Finland University of Applied Sciences (Xamk), which works in the premises of Saimaa Stadium, established in 2018 in Mikkeli. Active Life Lab carries out its mission by systematically gathering information on the effectiveness of wellbeing services, conducting cutting-edge research to develop services, and applying this knowledge in practice with the partners. For more information, visit https://www.xamk.fi/en/rdi/active-life-lab/

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