Digital Navigator

Mental health care in Europe faces a dual challenge: rising demand for services, and a fast-growing supply of digital tools (including AI-enabled features) that could expand access and continuity of care. However, psychologists often lack training - in higher education as well as continuing education - that equips them to select appropriate tools, support safe uptake, and troubleshoot common barriers in real-world workflows. NAVIGATOR aims to address this gap.

The Digital Navigator Specialist Course will serve as continuing VET for in-service psychologists. In the project, a Digital Navigator is a recognised psychologist with additional, practice-based competences to provide first-line guidance to colleagues - and patients - on the safe and effective use of digital tools in routine care. From this supporting role, the Digital Navigator helps reduce friction in the adoption of digital tools and strengthens consistent use across teams and services.

NAVIGATOR brings together partners from seven European countries to develop and pilot a specialised training course for Digital Navigators. The project will train at least 175 psychologists, deliver a validated competency framework, and develop a scalable training programme that can be widely adopted across mental health care.

NAVIGATOR will also collaborate with professional associations to establish accreditation pathways, ensuring these new competencies are recognised in the long term. Through stakeholder workshops, policy recommendations, and European-wide dissemination, the project aims to accelerate the digital transformation of mental health care and contribute to better access to high-quality care for patients across Europe.

1. To equip psychologists with job-relevant digital implementation competences
2. To strengthen the safe, ethical and inclusive use of digital tools in routine practice
3. To enable scalable uptake through consistent standards and recognition pathways

NAVIGATOR is executed by an international consortium led by Thomas More University of Applied Sciences. As project coordinator, Thomas More steers the collaboration between the European partners and actively contributes to the development of the training course.

The University of Maia and the University of Cyprus are in charge of WP2, translating identified skill gaps into a Digital Navigator competence profile with clear learning outcomes. University Medical Center Ljubljana and Thomas More will then operationalise this profile into modular training units suitable for working psychologists.
Vilnius University and Université Paris Cité will be in charge of piloting and evaluating the training modules. The European Federation of Psychologists’ Associations (EFPA) and Digital Human Assets will implement a targeted dissemination and exploitation strategy, so that NAVIGATOR’s results can be widely applied within European mental health care even after the project ends.