Changes due to globalisation, the technological revolution and digitalisation are encouraging organisations to develop new forms of collaborative work through virtual teams and communities. These collaborative tools are relevant business strategies as they allow for improved learning and knowledge management and, therefore, contribute to making organisations more innovative, more visible and more competitive.

The characteristics of collaborative work have recently changed as users of geographically dispersed virtual teams or communities have the possibility of combining different technological applications to respond to the demands of the project or task they are carrying out (e.g. wiki, forum, social/corporate network, etc.). In this sense, important changes occur in the nature of the relationships between users, in the processes related to the resolution of the task and its performance (e.g. identification, sense of community, trust, leadership, conflict, productivity, quality of knowledge...) that need to be addressed.

The aim of our research group is to create ‘frontier knowledge’ about the effects that collaborative technologies have on individual and collective well-being from a basic perspective, which is then transferred to the applied context of businesses. This way, we analyse the functioning of virtual teams and communities that work in dynamic environments with complex tasks with a double purpose: a) to develop training strategies and improve their effectiveness, and b) to offer guidelines for the efficient design of these collaborative tools.

Virtual teams (VTs). During the last decade, the study of VTs has consolidated as an extensive area of research with important results and relevant heuristic models have been developed to explain the key aspects of the successful functioning of these groups. The research carried out in recent years by different research teams, including ours, has focused on the differential study of these teams with respect to those that communicate in a conventional way, i.e. "face to face". However, it is now known that these virtual teams have their own idiosyncrasies and, therefore, from a psychosocial and positive perspective, it is advocated to analyse the aspects that influence their well-being and performance. The specific way in which the virtual team is structured (emergence of subgroups according to the processes of social categorisation) as well as having emotional skills to optimise its resources (training in emotion management) are shaped as areas of interest when developing our research.

Furthermore, the cooperation of teams in today's organisations extends to the exchange of knowledge in virtual communities, interest groups in professional social networks or in internal company networks, which extends our research towards the analysis of the process of sharing knowledge in virtual communities. In this research context, the efficient design of virtual communities of practice with a view to improving their sustainability is of particular interest. These can be defined as groups created by the organisation, with visibility of its members, with common purposes and oriented towards sharing knowledge on web platforms. In this sense, our research group aims to investigate the factors that favour their effective and appropriate use for social innovation and knowledge management.

The research is focused on the comparative analysis of democratisation and democratic quality processes in culturally, socially, economically and politically different countries and of the main threats to democratic stability in terms of both international security and the emergence of extremist groups within said democracies.

There is a collaboration with institutions such as the South African University of Stellenbosch's Centre for International and Comparative Politics and Military institutions of various countries.

Labpsitec Valencia's research focuses mainly on the field of psychopathology, evaluation and treatment of psychological disorders, as well as on the promotion of well-being and quality of life in different populations. In the last 25 years, this group has focused on the possibilities that Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) can offer to Clinical and Health Psychology, and it is currently an international leader in the development and validation of ICT-based applications in this field. In this context, Labpsitec Valencia is a pioneer in the development of virtual reality (VR) applications for the treatment of emotional disorders and body image issues present in eating disorders.

Regarding the use of the Internet, Labpsitec Valencia has been working in the field of Telepsychology for 20 years, being a pioneer in integrating VR solutions in applications aimed at the treatment of various problems. The group's work within the European project "Online Predictive Tools for Intervention in Mental Illness" (OPTIMI), in which online systems for the prevention of depression are being developed, should be highlighted. This application is currently being tested within another European project (E-COMPARED). Similarly, new interventions for the promotion of resilience and the treatment of adaptive problems are being developed in another H2020-funded project (I-CARE).

Work has also been carried out on an application aimed at offering the elderly a technological solution to improve their emotional state (MAYODOMO). This solution is currently part of the European project EHCOBUTLER and forms part of the European Innovation Partnership on Active and Healthy Ageing (EPI- AHA). Another aspect to highlight are the developments that have been made in the field of obesity and healthy lifestyles, such as the ETIOBE platform, for the treatment of childhood obesity, or the ‘Vivir mejor’ programme, for people with hypertension and overweight problems.

The group is currently participating in the CIBER action in the area of Biomedicine and Health Sciences (www.ciberobn.es), leading one of the Ciber-OBN research groups. Labpsitec Valencia has participated in more than 50 research projects financed by regional, national and European funds. We have been the PI of the PROMOSAM Network of Excellence (PSI2014-56303-REDT) funded by the MINECO (Ministry of Economy), which has just concluded, and we are carrying out several projects funded by both the Valencian Community, the national R&D&I plan and the European Commission, as well as other projects funded by private entities. The results of all this research have been presented at national and international conferences, and have given rise to more than 200 articles published in journals with an impact index. Books and book chapters have also been published.

In general, and in summary, Labpsitec Valencia's main interest has always been in the field of Mental Health, trying to go deeply into the description and understanding of mental disorders, and in the development of effective treatments.

Researchers involved in this research group have been working for several years on the study of youth in its different sides, in the central aspects of its development and of transition to adult life.

Education, participation and work are the three fundamental dimensions on which the analysis is focused, bearing in mind all the processes related to the transition to adult life and their life trajectory's design. Labour insertion in a world of work in deep transformation, the decision to become independent and the participation in public life are the central aspects of this group's research.

The intense stage of social change that Western societies have been experiencing for several decades now requires a thorough study of its consequences on a group that will be involved in future development stages. Work transformation, globalisation, new technologies, the crisis of national representative systems and, in recent years, the economic crisis are profoundly transforming Western societies and changing the processes of socialization.

Young people represent a group of great interest in the study of society in a double sense: on the one hand, because of their current condition and because of all the processes related to socialization and preparation for adult life, such as education, training for responsible participation in political life or transition to adult life in a phase of profound change and pluralization of family structures; on the other hand, because they are the foundation of the future society. The transition from Fordist society to post-Fordist society is entailing a deep crisis in the social structures of Western societies and a progressive decline in Institutions, as Dubet teaches us. This is linked to an intensive process of individualisation, in which the individuals themselves will have to build a new social reality, new social structures capable of organising collective life in a way more suited to the new challenges. This is the main challenge that new generations have to face, and the study of these processes must therefore be focused on the study of young people, their condition and the main processes of transformation in which they are immersed.

Globalisation, on the one hand, and the process of European unification on the other hand, also impose a comparative reflection that tries to separate the specificities of concrete contexts, of common patterns, that can help to read phenomena of global transformation, such as those caused by the digital revolution or by the intensification of international mobility. None of these processes can be properly read without resorting to the use of the gender perspective to provide the analytical gaze with the appropriate richness and depth. New phenomena such as precarious work and its consequences, new life paths, new family structures, territorial mobility and new forms of communication and participation are the phenomena at the centre of the group's research activity. For an adequate development of the research activity, the group has decided to formalize the richness of its studies in 3 lines of research.

The first one is focused on the study of work and its transformation in the digital and global society. The second one is directed towards the analysis of young people's different reactions to the crisis, and not only do we refer to the recent economic recession, but also to the structural crisis that is transforming our society at a very fast pace. Finally, the third line of research aims to analyse all the processes related to the socialization of young people, from the level of primary and informal socialization to education, understood as an institutionalized process of young people's insertion into society.