Third Local Living Lab in Murcia

On the 12th of July, the General Directorate for the Natural Environment of the Autonomous Region of Murcia (DGPNAC) gathered key stakeholders for the third Local Living Lab meeting in the region.

Andrés Muñoz (DGPNAC) summarized the GREENHEALTH project and Local Living Labs' role for those who missed previous meetings before updating the audience on the project's first 18 months.

Francisco Soriano from DGPNAC outlined the Good Practices identification process and the examples shared in the previous inter-regional events in Croatia and Ireland.

During the discussion, he mentions that the Region of Murcia needs to increase the efforts to build more scientific evidence to measure activity impact and to involve the health sector more explicitly. On this topic, Carmen Antúnez, from the neurology department at Hospital Virgen de la Arrixaca, proposes to conduct a clinical trial with a control group. Andrés Muñoz highlighted efforts by the Regional Ministries of Environment and Health to enhance coordination. Their plan involves enhancing research in this specific field.

The participants exchanged their knowledge on existing and potentially promising local initiatives that could be integrated into the GREENHEALTH project. Some examples include:

• school gardens,
• voluntary activities in universities, which could also be compensated as credits
• activities to connect elderly persons and/or persons with intellectual disabilities with nature
• green prescriptions (since gym prescriptions are a reality already)

Before the end of the meeting, the participants engaged in a SWOT exercise and determined which of the successful practices shared during the recent interregional learning event in Ireland would be best suited for replication in Murcia.