ESRC-funded Outdoors and Health Network launched

Researchers from the Sustainable Development Research Centre (SDRC), will lead a new collaborative research network co-funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and the Medical Research Council (MRC). The Outdoors and Health Network (OHN) will be launched on the 1st of April and brings together academic and public sector researchers from around the UK to investigate the relationship between individuals' health and their use of the outdoors. In a highly competitive bid for funding, the ESRC and MRC have awarded a grant to the Outdoors and Health Network for this £200,000 project. Professor Stephen Tinsley, Chief Executive of SDRC is the lead investigator for the network and SDRC researcher, Dr Sarah-Anne Munoz, is one of the co-investigators.

The aim of the project is to create a greater understanding of the ways in which different people have access to the outdoors and what can be done to encourage more equitable access. The OHN will help us to understand what kinds of spaces, facilities and policies could promote use of the outdoors for positive health outcomes and increase access for those that have felt traditionally "excluded". The project focuses on 'natural spaces’ where people can engage with nature; from private gardens to urban greenspaces, parks, forests, farmland and wildspaces.

Previous research suggests that natural environments support human health and well-being and, therefore, promoting and facilitating their use could be important in the fight to improve public health and reduced health inequalities. Research on “therapeutic landscape” has also highlighted the potential role of the outdoors in generating psychological, physical, behavioural and social benefits. Psychologists have explored the mental health benefits of contact with nature such as restoring negative mood and helping recovery from stress.

The project will bring together researchers from different research backgrounds in a series of networking activities designed to help them better understand each others work and to exchange ideas. Two pilot projects will group the researchers together to work collaboratively to establish ways of studying and measuring the impact of outdoor activity on people’s health. Medical and biology researchers will help psychologists, geographers and landscape architects to look at this issue from different viewpoints.  The network aims to use this research as a basis for larger projects in the future.

The network will meet in person for the first time on April 21st at Edinburgh Zoo. Network members will be regularly contributing updates, blog entries and news to the project website www.outdoorshealthnetwork.co.uk.