Wikipedia:VIA Institute on Character

The VIA Institute on Character, founded in 1999 by Neal Mayerson and Martin Seligman, was one of the first institutes created to study character strengths within positive psychology. The VIA Institute on Character, which is based in Cincinnati, OH, is a non-profit organization that provides survey measurement of character strengths. The "VIA" in the institute's name is a historical acronym for "Values in Action," although the current official name has dropped the full phrase and is shortened to VIA (pronounced "vee-uh") Institute.

Work and influence
The organization produces a Values in Action Inventory of Strengths, more simply referred to as the "VIA Survey." The VIA Survey helps to identify and understand survey takers' character strengths. There are modified surveys for both adult individuals (VIA Survey) and youth populations (VIA Youth Survey). The work and research conducted by the VIA Institute preceded and provided the foundation to the 2004 book written by Christopher Peterson and Martin Seligman, Character Strengths and Virtues: A Handbook and Classification (CSV).

Since 1999, the VIA Institute's VIA Survey has had over 13 million survey takers, has been taken in 195 countries in the world, is available in 41 language translations, and has been included in 500 academic research studies to date. It is a widespread survey methodology and tool that positive psychologists, researchers, managers, teachers, and other professionals use to assess survey takers' character strengths. Published research findings that leveraged the VIA surveys span topics from understanding "signature" strengths, the connection between well-being/happiness and character strengths, the tie between mindfulness and character strengths, and how character strengths affect positive relationships. Academic journal publications that used VIA surveys have also provided research findings on how to apply character strengths in the workplace, at school, in parenting, and in film representation.