1. Describe your current work position and research.
Saamah is Programme Lead for People & Wellbeing at the Hot or Cool Institute, a Berlin-based think tank that works towards a world where living well no longer costs the Earth. He has worked on wellbeing and indicators of quality of life since 2006 and was one of the co-developers of the world-renowned Happy Planet Index. Having been involved in developing and advising many initiatives aimed at redefining how we measure prosperity, his current work emphasises the roll of citizens in this agenda. For example, he is currently leading a project in a town in Finland, where a representative Residents’ Panel will propose a set of five headline indicators to measure the Good Life for the town.
Saamah also works to promote an economy which better values care work, and has recently been working on engaging citizens in redefining a social contract fit for the 21stcentury. As for the Happy Planet Index, that continues to be updated, with the next update due in June 2026.
2. How has being a part of ISQOLS benefited your work or research?
I’ve been part of the ISQOLS community since 2008, when I attended the ISQOLS annual conference in Florence, Italy. This was a milestone event, which introduced the academic world of wellbeing to policy-makers and statisticians for one of the first times. Being involved in this event was instrumental to getting engaged in the Beyond GDP agenda. More recently, I chaired two special sessions at the ISQOLS conference (July 2025), including one that addressed intersections between sustainability and wellbeing, and one that brought together experiences where citizens have been involved in Beyond GDP processes.
