Who are you and for what partner organisation do you work?
I am Mat White and I am a Senior Scientist in Environmental and Health Psychology with the University of Vienna.
What is your expertise related to nature-based therapy?
I have been working in the academic field of nature and health since 2010, mainly focusing on collecting and assessing data linking different types of environmental exposures with different mental health and well-being outcomes. This research has included epidemiological, experimental, intervention and qualitative approaches. Although I had relatively little direct experience of monitoring and evaluating nature-based therapies specifically in my academic work before RESONATE I was a practitioner in the area during the 1990s before it took on its current guise and terminology.
Can you describe the Work Package (WP) you lead in a couple of sentences?
My role as overall RESONATE project co-ordinator and WP1 leader is largely supportive, ensuring the different teams can best deliver and test the interventions and evaluations they need to provide high quality outcomes. Much of this role involves making sure that the different Case Studies are able to collect the range of health, environmental, economic and social data needed for the different Work Packages. I also liaise with the other projects funded under this and similar EU calls including NATURELAB, GreenME, RECETAS, and environMENTAL, to aid joined-up complementary approaches so that the field as a whole benefits.
What excites you most about the RESONATE project?
The team. It is such an incredible privilege to be able to work with so many people whose research and applied work I have admired for a long time. And for this group of people it is not just an academic exercise – the team really wants to make an impact and make strides in providing the building blocks needed for widespread support of people to use natural spaces for their health and well-being in sustainable and equitable ways.
What is your own favourite way to engage with nature for your health and wellbeing?
Surfing. Sadly I was mis-informed about the quality of waves when I moved to Vienna.
