Pilot Grants
Nature and Human Health UT’s pilot grant program has been funded through an anonymous donor. We are grateful for the support of this funding and the opportunity to award pilot grant research and programmatic efforts.
Pilot Grants
General Criteria
Pilot Grant proposals must: focus on a topic that draws upon multiple disciplines or approaches that address a pertinent question that concerns the relationships between nature and human health, be cost-effective; lead to future work that extends or sustains the proposed activities; and addresses issues of access to nature and health among populations that are under-served. Proposals will be accepted from any sector (e.g., community, commercial, or educational institutions), and may be for projects that are based anywhere in the State of Utah. Preference will also be given to projects that pull in two or more disciplines (e.g., medicine and natural history); or societal sectors (outdoor recreation and ecosystem health).
2024 Pilot Grant Recipients
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West Valley City’s Neighborhood Services Department, is the principal investigator on this project. Healthy West Valley will partner with Salt Lake County Parks and Rec and the Tracy Aviary Nature Center to provide signage around the Decker Lake loop to educate residents and trail users on the history of Decker Lake and the importance of this area for bird migration in Utah.
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This project is led by Carly Knudson, a master's student in the Parks, Recreation, and Tourism Department at the University of Utah. This project aims to understand why college students do not regularly engage with nature-based experiences and identify barriers and facilitators that, if overcome and addressed, could improve their mental health by increasing the time they spend in nature.
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Breathe 4 Trees is an organization committed to achieving environmental sustainability through tree planting initiatives. Our proposed project aims to expand our impact within the West Valley areas of the State of Utah by increasing tree planting and promoting diversity and inclusion in our programs, particularly communities of color.
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Camping in Color is a community-based project led by Hilary Lambert, PhD student in the University of Utah’s Parks, Recreation, and Tourism Department. This project will work in collaboration with the Wasatch Mountain Institute to build on the Camping in Color’s pilot program's success and continue growing community impact, intergenerational sustainability, and programmatic development that will allow for similar program offerings to other diverse, underserved communities in the Salt Lake area.
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This project will be carried out by Sarah Herrmann, PhD, at Weber State University. This project aims to investigate the impact of indoor plants on college students’ mental health, perceptions of college, perceptions of their courses, and academic performance.
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This project is led by Jenna Templeton, Assistant Director of the Women’s Resource Center at the University of Utah. This project aims to build community, belonging, and well-being practices among first generation scholars through engaging outdoor-based programming.
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Hanna Saltzman, MD, is the principal investigator and a fellow in the University of Utah’s Pediatric Department. This pilot project seeks to understand how nature-based interventions may improve the health of youth with rheumatic diseases. Results will inform the design of a nature-based health intervention to be evaluated in a future clinical trial.
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This project is led by Laura George, STEMCAP’s (STEM Community Alliance Program), Associate Director. This project will initiate science arts summer camp experiences for incarcerated youth which will include environmental education, artistic reflection, and hands-on experiential learning during a time of the year when programming is limited inside youth detention centers.
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The PI of this project is a PhD student in the PRT Department of the University of Utah, Paige Fery. The project will include research with program participants and other women anglers to explore the gender-based mental and social health outcomes associated with women and gender minority fly-fishing experiences. This project will build capacity for outdoor recreation programs that provide an accessible and welcoming environment for women.
2022 Pilot Grant Recipients
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Homelessness, Health, and Nature: A Community-Based Research Partnership
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Nature Rx Pilot: Identifying barriers and facilitators to implementing nature-based mental health interventions for older adults.
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The effects of nature-immersive experiences on social, mental, and physical health in adults with mental illness or symptoms of mental illness.
Peer Reviewed Publication:
LoTemplio, S., Bettmann, J.E., Scott, E. et al. Do Mental Health Changes in Nature Co-occur with Changes in Heartrate Variability and Executive Functioning? A Systematic Review. Curr Envir Health Rpt (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40572-023-00407-6
Given the global burden of mental health issues, new solutions are needed to promote mental health. Nature exposure represents a promising option to promote mental health, but the mechanisms are poorly understood. Recent frameworks have argued that changes in mental health in nature are caused by activity changes in the vagus nerve, which connects the heart and the brain, and that these changes also improve executive functioning (EF) abilities. This suggests that changes in mental health symptomology in nature should be accompanied by changes in vagus nerve activity, as well as changes in executive functioning. Yet, little work has systematically examined co-variation of these outcomes in empirical studies. The present manuscript systematically examines whether changes in mental health in nature are accompanied by changes in vagus nerve activity (approximated by heartrate variability) and changes in executive functioning.
Conference Proceedings:
Bettmann, J.E., Couch, S., Stagaman, E., & Hanley, A. (2022, November). The effects of nature-immersive experiences on adults with mental illness: A meta-analysis. Paper presented at the international conference of the Association for Experiential Education, Black Hills, NC.
Bettmann, J.E., & Hanley, A.W. (2022, October). The effects of nature-immersive experiences on social, mental, and physical health in adults with mental illness or symptoms of mental illness. SHIFT Summit, Fort Collins, CO.
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A Randomized Control Pilot Study of Nature Immersion for Veterans with Post-traumatic Stress Disorder.