Welcome to the Outdoors and Health Network Website

PLEASE NOTE - This website has been archived as of 11/2011 and will no longer be updated. Any queries get in touch via the Contact Us page.

The Outdoors and Health Network was a collaborative research and policy network that came together in 2009/10 to examine the relationship between human health and well-being and the outdoor environment.

The project was co-funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and the Medical Research Council (MRC), under the Understanding Individual Behaviour Exploratory Networks (UIBEN) Programme.

The network has been collaborating on a project called “Society’s relationship with the natural world and the role of the outdoors in health and well-being”.

Outdoors & Health Network from UHI Millennium Institute on Vimeo.

The network commissioned this short film to explain the research that has been undertaken and explain the focus for future research into the connections between health and the outdoors.

Although the ‘outdoors’ includes urban spaces such as the street and pedestrian precincts, this project focuses on the ‘natural’ in spaces where people can engage with nature (from private gardens to wilderness spaces).

Previous research has investigated the relationship between health and use of the outdoors but this network provided a new opportunity to connect social scientists with biological and medical researchers. The different disciplines have worked together to develop new, collaborative ways of working.

All the project outputs can be downloaded from this website or from the ESRC  Social Science Repository.