In Northern Ireland, an average person does over 80% of their journeys by car. This is very high compared to other parts of the UK, where 63% of journeys are made by car, and in Ireland, where the figure is just over 50%. Belfast is also one of the most congested cities in the UK. These problems are because too many people are driving too often. Being too reliant on our cars to get around leads to many detrimental impacts. For example, we walk and cycle less, our air quality worsens, and the number of road traffic collisions increases. It is, therefore, a growing issue in public health with more and more cities looking for solutions to help reduce our reliance on cars. However, solutions to such a problem are not simple as there are many different groups involved in or affected by the transport system. If we are to find policies and programmes that help reduce car reliance long term, then these groups must work together to solve the problem. Our project aims to co-develop sustainable and scalable policies and programmes that reduce the reliance on cars in Belfast. Our project is organised into 3 workstreams: 1) understanding the multiple layers of the system that influence the reliance on cars in Belfast; 2) exploring the current evidence and knowledge of what has worked in other cities; 3) developing possible policies and programmes with key organisations to reduce car use. Our policies and programmes are aimed at citizens who use their car for work, school drop-off, leisure and other activities in Belfast. But other road users will also directly benefit from less cars on the road, through less air pollution and fewer road traffic collisions. The general population will also benefit from cleaner air, less noise, and potential positive impacts on climate change. Our research includes the following steps: 1. We will undertake a survey using a technique known as Network Analysis to help us understand the network of stakeholders involved in the development, implementation and evaluation of programmes and policies to reduce car dependency and how they might best work together. 2. We will undertake a survey with road users in Belfast to evaluate and rank the importance of influences on car dependency and on alternative travel modes, using a technique known as Discrete Choice Experiments. 3. To develop agreement among stakeholders about the nature, ordering and relationships between programmes and policies of different organisations to reduce car dependency, we will develop visual diagrams of the 'system' of the various aspects that affect car dependency, using a technique known as causal loop diagrams. 4. We will host workshops with local citizens to 'sense-check' promising intervention approaches and policies to explore and ensure the acceptability, utility, affordability, feasibility and sustainability of new initiatives. Possible policies and programmes may include, for example: improved public transport, with the introduction of a new rapid transit system; investment in urban greenways to increase walking and cycling journeys; expanding the car-free areas of the city centre; extension of 'park and ride' and 'park and stride' facilities at the edge of the city. Our work will have the following outputs: 1. Identification of stakeholders influencing car dependency in Belfast and their relationships. 2. A review of the evidence for actions to reduce car dependency, leading to identification of possible new interventions and policies to be considered by stakeholders. 3. A map identifying ongoing and planned policies and interventions and their potential interplay. 4. A suite of potential co-ordinated policies and interventions 'tested' (in terms of acceptability and feasibility) with road users and local citizens. 5. A consensual understanding of the evidence provided and implications for reducing car dependency in Belfast. 6. A roadmap for multi-sectoral action to reduce car dependency in Belfast.

This project aims to maximise the policy impact of research already undertaken on walkability, particularly the development of a Real Walkability Network, which has initially been generated as part of the PARC project based on a study area of East Belfast. This project aims to extend the applicability of the developed policy tools to cover the two main cities of Northern Ireland, Belfast and Derry, so that the model then covers 37% of the population and some of the most deprived communities in the region. The project will disseminate the use of this model to practitioners in order to increase the evidence base for interventions in the built environment aimed at promoting physical activity. It will provide a range of benefits for both the academic community and the end users of research. For academics, it will make important contributions to ongoing research on understanding the environmental correlates of physical activity and through engagement with practitioner communities will aim to create a virtuous circle of research, implementation and feedback. For end users it will provide benefits in terms of the establishment of a useful decision-making tool that will enhance the evidence base for environmental interventions for improving physical activity and will provide training and capacity building in its use with the aim of establishing sustainability for its ongoing deployment. The value of the project is reflected in the large number of public bodies that have been willing to become partners, including Belfast and Derry City Councils, Department of Regional Development, Dept of Health Social Services and Public Safety, Public Health Agency and Belfast Healthy Cities, as well as cities in England, who have provided match funding and in kind support of over £88,000. The project will run for 12 months and employ two research assistants to help undertake three separate work packages: Work Package 1: Model consolidation and validation. (Months 1-5) This work package will involve the appointment, training and placement of 2 research assistants to be based in Belfast and Derry City Councils respectively, during which time they will consolidate and extend the model developed for East Belfast so that it has operational coverage of the entire 2 local authority areas. The model will be subject to validation using random checking of critical elements, such as land use and footpath coverage. During this time the research assistants will interact with staff of local authorities and other statutory agencies to begin to build up an understanding of the extent, form and availability of spatial data and the information needs of different partners, including potential links to regional strategies on obesity, active travel and physical activity. Work Package 2: Project integration and sustainability (Months 6-10). Work package 2 will involve a process of integrating the walkability models and other elements of spatial analysis into the existing physical activity-related programmes of the partner organisations to improve their effectiveness, efficiency and accuracy. This stage of the project will also involve developing the capacity of project partners to ensure the sustainability of the place-specific walkability models. Work Package 3: Knowledge dissemination and engagement with wider practitioner communities (Months 11-12) Work Package 3 will involve an evaluation and a report of the benefits, costs and opportunities arising from the operational deployment of walkability models and their integration with other central and local government responsibilities and initiatives. On the basis of this evaluation, a series of workshops will be run in Northern Ireland and the UK. Finally, the findings of the project will be presented at three conferences to disseminate the findings to different academic and practitioner communities.

The number of people worldwide living with dementia and cognitive impairment is increasing, mainly due to people living longer, so we want to figure out how where we live affects dementia and brain health as we get older. Some research suggests that where we live might influence our brain health. For example, poor air quality in towns and cities, can lead to a decline in brain health. As more of us now live in towns and cities, it is important that the environment where we live is scientifically designed and improved to maximise our brain health. The complex social and physical environments where we live make some people more vulnerable than others to developing cognitive impairment. In other words, the factors that account for who is most likely to develop cognitive ill-health due to the environment has less to do with 'how' we live and more to do with 'where' we live. We do not know how these factors interact to make urban environments a problem for brain health, nor which are the best policies and interventions for promoting healthy ageing and brain health for our poorest communities. Our project will provide evidence for policies and practices that provide supportive urban environments to promote healthy ageing, including promoting brain health. This could include using creative urban designs to support people to adopt and maintain healthier lifestyles such as being more active. However, this needs a strong evidence base with expert community advocates who can articulate how supportive urban environments can improve brain health. Our research has the following steps: 1. First, with the help of stakeholders, including those from business, industry, and local government, and a review of existing research, we will represent the relationships between our biology, our lifestyles and our environment in a diagram illustrating how they likely interact to affect brain health, because visual thinking can help stakeholders better identify possible intervention sweet-spots to improve brain health. 2. By analysing data from over 8,000 older people in Northern Ireland, and linking this to information about where they live, such as the amount of air pollution, the toxins in soil, or how walkable their neighbourhoods are, we will explore how different environmental factors relate to brain health. 3. Next, we will collect new data on a subgroup of 1,000 older people including more in-depth measures of brain health and better measures of physical activity, using GPS devices worn around the waist that monitor our locations. This will allow us to explore how the urban environment influences our brain health. 4. Then, we will explore how aspects of our biology play a role in how the urban environment affects our brain health. 5. We will host workshops with local citizens to 'sense-check' our findings and co-develop promising prevention approaches. In these, we will explore the acceptability, affordability, feasibility and sustainability of new initiatives to improve the environmental influences on brain health. This might include, for example, policies on: expanding the car-free areas of the city to reduce air pollution; increasing the number of footpaths and cycle paths to encourage walking and cycling; improving public transport to reduce car use. As a result of our research we will produce: 1. A map of the system in which our genes, lifestyle behaviours and urban environments interact to affect brain health, to help guide stakeholders towards policies and programmes that can improve brain health. 2. An evidence base exploring how where we live affects our brain health. 3. A suite of potential policies and interventions to improve brain health and promote healthy ageing 'tested' (in terms of acceptability and feasibility) with older people, business, industry, policymakers and other stakeholders.

There is strong evidence that natural environments within urban areas, such as parks, woodlands, lakes and beaches, have positive impacts on health. These urban green and blue spaces (UGBS) could be huge assets for protecting and equalising health if they were available, accessible, valued and well-used, particularly by less advantaged groups. The problem is that they are not. This is largely because the many policies, organisations and communities involved in designing, creating, managing, promoting, maintaining and using UGBS are disconnected. Also, the voices of less advantaged communities that UGBS could be helping most are either not heard or not persuasive. Perhaps as a consequence, those communities are much less likely to benefit from these spaces. We know that the UGBS we have are not the UGBS we need to make the best possible contribution to better and more equal health. GroundsWell aims to change that. We propose a new partnership - researchers working together with communities and those who currently create and control UGBS, to plan, design and manage it better so that it benefits everyone, especially those who need it most. The main research will take place in three cities - Belfast, Edinburgh and Liverpool. These have sufficient similarities (such as large and diverse low-income communities) but also distinct features (such as geography and culture) making them, collectively, an ideal laboratory. Each city already has policies and programmes in place to improve UGBS, but there is much room for improvement. GroundsWell will take a systems approach. This means understanding the multiple and interconnecting components of policy-making, practice, perception and people which together affect the presence, location, character and use of UGBS. It also means working to transform the system so that the components function together. To do this, GroundsWell will mix co-development of new theoretical frameworks, novel data science including simulation, health economics and policy analysis, but at its heart will be community engagement and partnership. We will develop and use meaningful community engagement, co-production and citizen science to understand the system, identify how and where it is broken, and co-create solutions. We anticipate interventions aimed at how the UGBS system operates, and small-scale interventions around actual spaces and their use. Data play an important part in understanding systems. GroundsWell will develop an accessible, trustworthy and policy-relevant system to collate, collect, house and share data on UGBS across the three cities. These data will be used to help the whole Consortium understand the UGBS there, identify possible interventions, and then assess whether they work, for whom and why, creating feedback loops to help us continually monitor, learn and adapt what we do. Novel simulation approaches will also be used to suggest interventions, and in particular what could be effective beyond the three cities. Health economics will suggest what would be best value for money. An important part of putting actions and solutions in place is understanding if they work (or not). Evaluation of our actions and the Consortium as a whole will be undertaken in partnership with our communities, drawing on the new data system we establish, and enabling them to directly see whether and how the process has benefited them. In particular, we will assess and share our impacts on health inequalities. We are realistic about the likely scale of our impacts. Small actions within existing UGBS and local communities are unlikely to affect population level health and inequalities within our funded period. That is why we are going to focus on improving the UGBS system as a whole, laying foundations for long-term benefits. We know that the use and enjoyment of UGBS is something that adults pass on to their children. If GroundsWell can improve and equalise the role of UGBS, it will achieve a lasting impact.