We are regularly told that spending time in nature is good for us. The extent of the link between nature and wellbeing is apparently so strong that the Wildlife Trusts are currently campaigning for 'a Nature and Wellbeing Act for England'. Capaldi et al. argue (2015) that 'evidence suggests that connecting with nature is one path to flourishing in life' and that spending time in nature is therefore a 'potential wellbeing intervention'. Other studies have similarly explored themes such as 'the health benefits of contact with nature in a park context' or the value of 'green exercise' as a wellbeing tool. Many of these studies provide evidence to support a general idea that nature is 'good for us'. Yet, their construction of 'nature' is often broad and definitions of wellbeing typically loose. What exactly is it about 'nature' that improves our 'wellbeing'? What do these two terms actually mean to people? Many of the links between wellbeing and nature relate to walking and activity, but many others are based on an idea that merely 'being in nature' can be good for body and soul. This perceived connection between 'being in nature' and wellbeing has a long social and cultural history, yet is rarely critically examined. In wellbeing literature, the value of nature is often understood in terms of 'green spaces' or attractive landscapes. In hospitals, nature is often introduced through pictures of landscapes or artificial plants. Such frameworks implicitly assume that the value of nature for wellbeing is inextricably linked to the ability to see it, and they often treat 'nature' as homogeneous. What if we remove the visual, and focus on the smells, tastes or sounds of nature? What if we immerse people in unfamiliar or 'wild' natural sensescapes? Does everybody associate the same sensory aspects of nature with wellbeing, or are the relationships more diverse and complex? We will use emerging immersive 360-degree sound and smell technologies to explore some of these questions.

This project brings together social enterprises that use creative practice as a way of promoting sustainable soicial development, together with art, design and community researchers. Working in partnership, we shall design and execute a collaborative research project around a shared set of concerns. Recognising that creative practitioners are often more comfortable communicating through and around their work than they are using abstract language to discuss research design, we shall be using creative practices as a way of opening up our discussions of the domain, exploring the priorities of the different stakeholders, and developing our detailed research plan.

Meanwhile and Pop-Up spaces and events have become a familiar part of the regeneration scene, turning the many empty buildings, shops and building sites that have been created by the current economic climate into temporary galleries, shops, studio spaces and gardens. Further, economic, political and environmental changes are creating a situation where short term interventions are needed to supplement or replace permanent support mechanisms which may be no longer viable in a future of austerity. This project explores how to make these briefer interventions successful with the aim of understanding how the concept of 'meanwhile' can be more broadly used by community organisations to release social value from vacant spaces. In so doing, it works to promote a culture of resilience and interdependence. The research team starts from the premise that short-term interventions are sometimes perceived by third sector and grass-roots bodies as being of less value because they are not sustained over a long period. We argue that significant benefits can be gained from these interventions in terms of building social capital, enhancing self-efficacy and contributing to community cohesion. A series of short-term interventions puts change at the heart of the community rather than focused in the space being used. Through design research, the project will use these insights and draw on performance theory to generate ideas for and experiment with a model of a 'meanwhile' community intervention as a site-specific, temporary, performance. It will re-focus community ideas to consider space as a resource, not a base, and it will look at how new social media tools can help reach and engage a mobile and flexible population in responsive and robust community organising. The project will learn from existing 'pop-up' projects and facilities, the practices of successful meanwhile entrepreneurs and the needs of a variety of community groups. It will create an exemplar meanwhile activity as part of reporting on its findings. And in this way it uses performance theory to understand meanwhile uses as performative events, examining how to attract clients/users for short-term and ephemeral interventions as a hub for community networking and organising.

This research will examine how museums can transform the way that they think about and create digital audio interpretation for their collections, to enhance inclusion and access for all audiences. For people who are blind or partially blind (BPB), audio description (AD) is traditionally described as a verbal narrative for information available through vision. In both the UK and US, museums are legally obliged to ensure equitable access to their collections. AD is a key tool for achieving this for BPB audiences but museums need to dramatically improve AD provision. Incredibly, the charity VocalEyes found that only 5% of museums in the UK mentioned AD provision on their websites. Museums could transform accessibility through apps, such as Smartify. Smartify currently gives over 3 million users worldwide online access to more than 2 million works of art at home or through a QR code in the museum building. Of these 2 million works, only a handful are offered with AD, and all come from only two institutions - the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery (US) and Royal Holloway Picture Gallery (UK). The need goes beyond inclusive digital access for BPB people - this project it is about enhancing the museum experience for everyone. The pandemic has spotlighted both the scope and desire for digital participation and the massive opportunity for museums to grow audiences. Our previous research has shown that AD benefits not only people who are BPB, an inclusive way to audiences globally through high-quality online access. The UK-US research team brings together experts on psychology, aesthetics and design, critical disability studies, cultural diversity, translation studies and includes members who are partially blind and non-blind, neurotypical and with learning differences and of different ethnic and cultural backgrounds. With our digital heritage sector-leading partners - Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery; Royal Holloway Picture Gallery; Smartify and VocalEyes - this research will challenge current AD practice, where sighted curators/describers produce AD for BPB audiences. We will develop and extend AD usage as a tool for all visitors (blind, partially blind and sighted). We will do this by creating and evaluating the W-ICAD (Workshop for Inclusive Co-created Audio Description) model whereby AD creation is led by partially blind co-creators, collaborating with blind and sighted co-creators. The W-ICAD model will give museums a streamlined way to create new AD, extending their digital provision and boosting inclusion. The research will compare how audiences in the UK and US experience AD so that AD creation takes account of varying cultural needs or expectations.

Climate change is projected to have a significant impact upon buildings, infrastructure and utilities. The EPSRC funded programme of research called Building Knowledge for a Changing Climate (BKCC) has over the last three years advanced knowledge of the impacts of climate change on urban drainage, engineered slopes, the electricity supply industry, the aviation industry, historic buildings and infrastructure and the urban environment more generally. It has also developed specialised climate and socio-economic scenarios for impacts assessment studies. Substantial research challenges remain in areas not addressed in the BKCC programme and in more systematic examination of the design and implementation of options for adaptation to climate change. An enthusiastic group of end users from industry and government has been assembled as part of the BKCC programme and have played an active role in the design, monitoring and dissemination of the research results.The Sustaining Knowledge for a Changing Climate will build upon the progress that has been made in BKCC and sustain the community of researchers and end users that has been assembled during BKCC. It will synthesise the results from all of the BKCC projects and present them in a high quality report that will be distributed widely to industry and at a high profile conference aimed at end users. It will continue research in areas of broad interest to industry particularly on problems that only received limited attention during BKCC. Specifically it will, through scoping and pilot studies, work shops and publications progress thinking on (i) use of probabilistic climate scenarios in planning and managing the built environment and infrastructure; (ii) adaptation options that can be beneficial in a range of sectors; (iii) impacts and adaptation in existing and new building stock and (iv) integrating adaptation and solutions to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions. Finally, SKCC will, through stakeholder and researcher workshops develop a coherent user-led plan for future research into the impacts of climate change on the built environment and infrastructure and development of adaptation solutions. This will prepare for major new research proposals in the field of climate impacts and adaptation.