European grant for research on sustainable healthy living in urban areas

Almost 1 million euros has been granted to the research project "Grage - Grey and green in Europe: elderly living in urban areas". A consortium of 10 partners from all over Europe (Italy, The Netherlands, England, Germany, Finland and Greece) and Ukraine will carry out an interdisciplinary study on the challenges of ageing and sustainable development in urban areas. The consortium gathers groundbreaking expertise from different scientific backgrounds (legal, economic, linguistic, engineering), from academic and non-academic institutions. The Principal Investigator for UU is Dr Paola Monachesi (Department of Languages, Literature and Communication).

Interdisciplinary study of active aging in the city

The research focuses on a social, juridical, economic and technological analysis of active aging in urban environments. It evolves around the idea of citizenship as a collector of interest, healthy environment and suitable urban solutions for an aging society. More specifically, these are the themes that will be addressed in the project:

• green urbanisation;
• food sustainability;
• elderly urban behavior analysis.

Utrecht University: how technologies stimulate sustainable lifestyles

At Utrecht University, we will investigate the role that information and language technology can have in transforming cities into environments that support green and healthy lifestyles. These changes require a better understanding of the way physical and online spaces coexist in cities and of the changing behavior of their inhabitants.

The Utrecht team will assess techniques using personal and GIS (Geographic Information System) technologies to collect and analyse data on environmental, physical (health) and mobility behaviour. The focus will be on health, mobility and travel behaviour in urban contexts. The research will be carried out in collaboration with the Faculty of Geosciences (Prof. Martin Dijst).

Funding

GRAGE is a project funded by the EU Commission under the Marie Slodovska Curie RISE (Research Innovation Staff Exchange) actions, in which the collaboration between universities and enterprises is being facilitated through the mutual exchange of staff. Mobilities are financed through a monthly allowance of 2000 euros and an additional research funding of 1500 euros for each month that the researcher will be abroad. The project will last 4 years.

Want to participate?

The funding is ideal for PhD students that would like to spend a period abroad as well as for staff members that are looking for a location for their sabbatical. UU staff members and PhD students that are interested in the themes of the project are encouraged to contact Dr. Paola Monachesi to discuss conditions of participation.