Our research:
Our research focuses especially on transferable skills and competencies that emerge through gaming and esports. We examine how structured play and competitive environments can develop capabilities such as collaboration, communication, leadership, problem-solving, adaptability, digital literacy, critical thinking, and ethical reflection. Rather than treating esports as a niche activity, we approach it as a cross-sectional phenomenon that connects education, health, business, media, governance, and innovation. In this way, FLARE studies how competencies developed in gaming can become visible, valuable, and actionable in schools, universities, workplaces, and society more broadly.
- Transferable skills and competencies: How gaming and esports foster collaboration, communication, leadership, resilience, strategic thinking, adaptability, and critical reflection.
- Gaming and esports as learning environments: How structured play and competition can support education, skill development, motivation, and pathways into work and society.
- Esports as a social phenomenon: How communities, identities, belonging, and inclusion are shaped through gaming and esports.
- Esports as an industry: How esports connects to business models, digital platforms, marketing, talent development, and the future of work.
- Human experiences in games: How players, teams, and communities experience participation, performance, interaction, and meaning-making in digital environments.
- The gaming industry and society: How games and gaming industries influence education, culture, innovation, digital citizenship, and broader societal development.
- Psychology, ethics, and responsibility: How wellbeing, fairness, motivation, trust, and ethical questions shape gaming and esports environments.
FLARE’s vision is to establish esports as a future lab for digital society: a human-centered space for understanding how people work, learn, collaborate, and thrive in mediated environments. By focusing on transferable skills, inclusion, responsibility, and innovation, FLARE aims to generate knowledge that is academically rigorous, socially relevant, and practically actionable. Our ambition is to make esports a bridge between research, education, industry, and society and to help shape a more inclusive, sustainable, and human-centered digital future.