The research centre for inclusive access to outdoor environments
In association with Landscape Architecture, Edinburgh College of Art
and the School of the Built Environment, Heriot-Watt University.
Website: http://www.sparcoll.org.uk/
SPARColl
SPARColl (Scottish Physical Activity Research
Collaboration for NHS Health
Scotland)
Research team: Catharine Ward Thompson, Catherine Millington
Keywords: physical activity; health; Scotland; paths to health; walking
OPENspace is part of SPARColl, a project commissioned in 2005 by NHS Health Scotland to assess the effectiveness of interventions to increase people's physical activity, particularly through walking. OPENspace is collaborating in the SPARColl research consortium led by the University of Strathclyde and including the MRC Social and Public Health Sciences Unit, University of Glasgow, the University of Cambridge, the Child and Adolescent Health Research Unit, University of Edinburgh, the British Heart Foundation National Physical Activity Centre, University of Loughborough and the British Heart Foundation Research Centre, University of Oxford. SPARColl is contributing to assessing the effectiveness of walking programmes, such as the Paths to Health project, and is raising the profile of research on physical activity within the scientific community and beyond that to policy makers and practitioners. The OPENspace staff involved are Catharine Ward Thompson and Catherine Millington.