Ruimte maken voor gezondheid in de stad: naar een Zuid-Limburgse kennisagenda

MAKING SPACE FOR HEALTH IN THE CITY: TOWARDS A RESEARCH AGENDA IN SOUTH LIMBURG Our consortium consists of partners from research, policy and practice. Together, we combine knowledge about restructuring living environments with its effects on behavior and its consequences for public health. The project members, that include the Academic Centre for Public Health Limburg, the department of Health Promotion (HP-UM), sustainability institute ICIS (ICIS-UM) and the health authority GGD South Limburg, have been collaborating already with organizations from the environmental domain in Maastricht and Kerkrade. These existing collaborations will now be embedded durably, in order to meet the needs of municipalities and GGD: municipalities need support to shed light on how to weigh health in policies. The GGD expressed the desire to gain experience with including health in environmental planning, also in collaboration with organizations outside the health domain. In both cities, we will address those needs, by setting up a research agenda together with partners from practice and citizens. We will specifically target vulnerable citizens from deprived neighborhoods, because of their persistent health deprivation. The research agenda will be prioritized and operationalized into specific research proposals to prepare for phase 2.