Researchers-in-Residence to facilitate co-production: the TRUUD project

We know that the built environment impacts on population health and wellbeing, particularly non-communicable diseases.1 For example, having safe walking or cycling routes will affect levels of physical activity and associated health outcomes,2,3 while access to urban greenspace is associated with physical and mental health.4The burden of disease and financial costs associated with unhealthy urban environments is significant, for example, poor air quality alone is estimated to cost the UK over £20 billion annually.5 Despite the negative health impacts of certain environments, urban development decision-makers tend to come from non-health sectors and have non-health priorities when it comes to areas such as transport, urban planning or property development.The system of urban development decision-making is complex, involving many stakeholders with competing priorities and influences. The TRUUD (‘Tackling Root causes Upstream of Unhealthy Urban Development’) project was established to try to untangle those influences that can result in unhealthy place-making and find ways to influence healthy decision-making. It is a 5-year research project (October 2019 to September 2024) involving around 40 researchers with diverse expertise including public health, transport, urban development, economics, policy studies, public involvement and systems engineering.