The SPIRIT Project: Building Europe’s Simulation Educators

The SPIRIT Project is an Erasmus+ funded, pan-European collaboration focused on strengthening faculty development in interprofessional simulation-based education. Led by RCSI with partners from Italy, Austria, and Poland, the initiative aims to create a scalable, evidence-based framework to train educators in designing, delivering, and evaluating high-quality IPE simulation. Through shared expertise, hybrid training models, and open-access resources, SPIRIT seeks to enhance teamwork, communication, and psychological safety in healthcare education, building a sustainable European network of skilled simulation educators.

The SPIRIT project is a pan-European initiative designed to strengthen capacity to deliver high-quality, interprofessional simulation-based education (IPE SIM).  Funded through the Erasmus+ Key Action 2 (KA220) Cooperation Partnerships scheme. SPIRIT responds to an urgent need for structured faculty development pathways that equip educators to design and facilitate impactful interprofessional simulation experiences.

Institutional Strengths & Enablers

The SPIRIT consortium brings together four European institutions with complementary strengths in simulation-based education and interprofessional learning. Royal College of Surgeons in Irland (RCSI, Ireland) serves as project lead, drawing on its extensive simulation infrastructure and established faculty development programmes. RCSI has pioneered IPE SIM across multiple health professions, providing a strong foundation for curriculum design, implementation, and evaluation. Humanitas University (Italy) contributes innovative approaches to health education, with a well-established tradition of integrating clinical practice and academic training to create authentic learning environments. The Medical University of Vienna (Austria) brings expertise in virtual and augmented reality alongside interprofessional curricula, adding a valuable technological and pedagogical dimension. Wrocław Medical University (Poland) offers a rapidly developing simulation capacity within a distinctive regional healthcare context, providing critical insights into adapting faculty development frameworks for emerging simulation centres.

Together, the consortium spans diverse healthcare systems, regulatory environments, and educational traditions, creating a rich collaborative ecosystem that blends established leadership with innovation and regional diversity. This breadth makes the SPIRIT faculty development model both adaptable and transferable across Europe.

By focusing on educator development SPIRIT aims to transform simulation from profession-specific exercises into truly interprofessional, collaborative learning environments, ultimately improving teamworking and patient care.

Context & Drivers

Healthcare delivery is interprofessional; doctors, nurses, pharmacists, physiotherapists, and other professionals must coordinate seamlessly to deliver safe, effective care. Yet, educational programmes remain largely siloed, training professions separately and missing opportunities to develop collaborative skills early.

Simulation offers a powerful means to bring learners together in realistic scenarios, where teamwork, communication, and shared decision-making can be practiced and debriefed in a safe environment.

However, effective IPE Sim relies on skilled educators. Designing, facilitating, and assessing IPE scenarios demands pedagogical expertise, sensitivity to language and hierarchy, and the ability to build psychological safety. Many universities have robust simulation centres but lack structured, scalable faculty development programmes that address these additional interprofessional education needs.

SPIRIT sits within the ecosystem of the European University Alliance for Global Health (EUGLOH), aligning with partner universities’ ambitions to collaborate for a healthier, more resilient world. All four partner institutions are EUGLOH aspirants and share a strategic imperative to advance IPE education through simulation.

The SPIRIT Approach

The SPIRIT initiative represents a significant step towards building a European standardised faculty training pathway for health professional educators in simulation, with a strong emphasis on interprofessional collaboration. Its overarching goal is to develop a scalable, evidence-informed framework that equips simulation educators to facilitate psychologically safe, inclusive, and authentic interprofessional learning experiences across diverse contexts.

The project is structured around five collaborative work packages covering management, needs analysis, curriculum design, piloting, and dissemination. Each partner leads one work package, ensuring shared ownership and drawing on their institutional strengths.  Work package 1 is the administration and management of the collaboration headed by RCSI which aims to ensure that the project is carried out according to the planned time schedule and that the objectives are efficiently achieved.  The project is coordinated through monthly steering meetings, ensuring partners stay aligned, share progress, and solve problems collaboratively.

What We Are Learning

Work package 2 is a detailed Europe-wide needs analysis, led by the Italian partners. The aim is to identify the enablers, barriers and challenges to the implementation of IPE SIM in European health professions education.  The team designed and piloted a 20-item survey with Likert scale descriptors and free text options to allow educators self-assess confidence in their own skills to support and develop IPE SIM.  This survey yielded 80 complete responses from simulation centres across Europe, reflecting a diverse mix of institutions and professionals.  Faculty rated their confidence in communication and relational competencies (supporting psychological safety, collaboration and debriefing) notably higher than scholarship-oriented competencies (evaluation data use, best practice integration, intentional design), indicating where the focus of future training is required. Participants who felt more confident in their ability to lead debriefings were significantly more likely to report that they consistently applied a structured debriefing model. This supports the idea that confidence and best-practice behaviour move forward together: boosting faculty confidence (through training, mentoring, etc.) and increasing their adoption of recommended debriefing frameworks.  

Open-text responses revealed recurring systemic barriers, shown in fig. 2.

These challenges highlight that faculty development must address both individual competencies and organisational needs.

The findings point to a dual strategy for faculty development:

1. Reinforce strengths in communication and relational skills, which form the foundation for effective IPE SIM.
2. Target gaps in scholarship and leadership by developing programmes focused on:

Data literacy and outcome evaluation – enabling systematic measurement and quality improvement.

Leadership and resource management – empowering faculty to advocate for support and coordinate complex programmes.

Competency-based assessment – ensuring reliable evaluation of interprofessional skills.

Framework integration – promoting consistent, evidence-informed design.

By pairing relational and technical training, faculty development can produce well-rounded educators capable of both delivering high-quality IPE SIM and advancing the field through rigorous evaluation.

Work package 3 will design the curriculum.  The Irish team is leading on this work using consensus research to create a skills framework and learning outcomes. A Delphi study is underway to collect views from international subject matter experts.

Work package 4 details a pilot study with 20 + participants which will take place in Vienna in March 2026. This training will be delivered by the Austrian team, who plan to iteratively design the training offerings.  

At its core, SPIRIT will deliver a structured curriculum comprising core modules on psychological safety, simulation design, debriefing, and feedback; complemented by elective modules tailored to participants’ professional backgrounds and institutional priorities. 

An educator manual is planned to support development of these modules; offering practical guidance, recommended formats, and assessment tools to enable consistent, high-quality delivery.

The programme will be delivered through a hybrid model of in-person and online components aligned to the European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System (ECTS) framework.  As an organising principle, the Simulation Educator Programme will be aligned using the 5 key domains outlined by the UK Academy of Medical Educators (AOME). 

The programme will be piloted across all partner universities, with built-in feedback loops to support iterative improvement and refinement, before wider dissemination to external institutions across Europe.

SPIRIT aims to engage deeply with team dynamics, professional hierarchies, and cultural differences, fostering authentic collaboration and critical reflection. Through this approach, it aims to establish a sustainable European faculty development pathway that advances IPE SIM education and strengthens educational capacity at scale

Challenges, Risks & Mitigations

Like all transformative initiatives, SPIRIT faces a number of complex and interrelated challenges.

Differences in (a) professional language and terminology, (b) priorities, and (c) professional cultures 

All can create barriers to shared understanding and curriculum design. Securing the necessary resources and institutional buy-in, particularly when moving from pilot phases to wider implementation, will require sustained advocacy and alignment with local strategic priorities. 

The hybrid and online components of the programme must be designed carefully to ensure they remain both effective and inclusive across diverse contexts. Integrating robust assessment tools that meaningfully capture interprofessional learning outcomes presents an additional layer of complexity. These challenges are further compounded by cultural and systemic variations across partner institutions, each of which operates within distinct healthcare, regulatory, and educational frameworks.

SPIRIT’s design directly addresses these issues through embedded evaluation mechanisms, continuous feedback loops, and a strong emphasis on local adaptation. By working collaboratively, drawing on each partner’s strengths and the wider European community of practice in simulation and health professions education, the consortium is able to share solutions, build capacity, and overcome these challenges collectively. Through this iterative and collaborative approach, SPIRIT aims to build a faculty development model that is both rigorous and responsive to real-world complexity.

Expected Outputs, Impacts & Sustainability

By the end of the project, SPIRIT aims to deliver a standardised yet adaptable faculty development framework for simulation educators across Europe. This will be supported by a suite of open-access educational resources—including manuals, modules, and practical tools—designed to enable widespread adoption and local adaptation. The project will generate evidence-based models for IPE SIM pedagogy, informed by rigorous evaluation of both educator competence and learner outcomes across diverse institutional contexts. A key legacy of SPIRIT will be the establishment of a pan-European community of practice, linking simulation educators through shared standards, resources, and professional networks to sustain innovation beyond the lifetime of the project.

SPIRIT is closely aligned with Erasmus+ KA220 priorities: it promotes digital transformation through its hybrid delivery model, supports inclusion by broadening access to high-quality educator training, and ensures sustainability by embedding its outputs within institutional structures and curricula well beyond the grant period. Together, these outcomes will position SPIRIT as a catalyst for advancing simulation-based faculty development and interprofessional education across Europe.

Path to Scale & Dissemination

The dissemination strategy is being led by the Polish team in work package 5 which is designed to ensure wide uptake, long-term sustainability, and meaningful sectoral impact across Europe.  The project will begin with pilot rollouts across partner universities, accompanied by structured evaluation to refine materials and approaches in real educational settings. Knowledge and resources will then be shared through multiplier events, webinars, and workshops targeting external institutions, creating opportunities for cross-institutional dialogue and capacity building. All educational resources, including modules, manuals, and tools, will be published as open-access materials on our website enabling educators across Europe to adapt and implement the framework in their own contexts. To secure lasting change, SPIRIT will be integrated into existing curricula within partner institutions, embedding the programme beyond the lifespan of the grant. Finally, the project will engage actively with EUGLOH and wider European networks, broadening its reach and fostering a pan-European community of simulation educators committed to advancing interprofessional faculty development.

Call to Action

We invite simulation centres, faculty developers, and health education institutions to engage with SPIRIT, whether through piloting activities, adopting educational resources, or joining collaborative initiatives. Together, we can shape a new generation of educators equipped to train collaborative, interprofessional healthcare teams.
Visit https://spirit-sbe.eu to learn more, and join the network.

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