New Roots: Recruiting a Nature Connection & Wellbeing Specialist with Edinburgh Napier University

Image by Rach Coleman. Words by Rach Coleman.

Healthy forests have expansive and interwoven root systems. We know this now more than ever. Once this was something of an embodied understanding, a knowing without words - but now we have created or found new and old words to describe it. The Wood Wide Web, mycorrhizal fungi networks. Healthy forests are made up of different organisms working together, supporting one another, creating and forming connections.

Trash Free Trails has always drawn inspiration from forests in how we work, and today we get to share that we are growing new roots and connections, this time with Edinburgh Napier University and through a new research project, or Knowledge Transfer Partnership.

And we are looking for someone to help!

Image by Danny Easton

We've spent the last 5 and a half years researching single-use pollution. In many ways, our research has been focused on an outcome of the problem we are trying to solve, rather than on the cause. Our new research project though, isn't solely about disconnection from nature either. Instead, through this research we hope to understand how the act of trail cleaning contributes to our sense of wellbeing, nature connection and sense of place.

New roots, so our little forest can grow in entirely new directions.

Edinburgh Napier University are recruiting a Nature Connection & Wellbeing Specialist to take on this research. You'll spearhead this project, working alongside the TFT team and your supervisors to undertake hands on research, co-design and coordinate trail cleans focused on wellbeing, and help develop a new toolkit for nature connection.

We know how meaningful the act of trail cleaning is - we see it every time we host an event, someone comes along solo and makes a new friend, or a volunteers gets to go somewhere new, propelled by a desire to make a difference. This project will translate this into academically rooted research, helping us to grow new skills, and help more people connect with places they care about than ever before.

This project has been brewing for a long time, stewarded by our Associate Director Rich, and now we can't wait to see someone new take it on and bring their energy and passion to this undertaking.

You can find out more and apply for the role on Edinburgh Napier University's website here.