Resilient Roots
Promoting nature-based schoolyards for sustainable transitions
- Call
- DUT Call 2025
- Duration
- –
- Project coordinator
- STICHTING VU
Nature-based schoolyards, schoolyards with “green”, “blue”, and “brown” natural elements, can be a powerful multifunctional tool to address current societal and sustainability challenges in urban areas. Despite growing attention for nature‑based schoolyards, current initiatives often fall short of their transformative potential. Implementation and management frequently encounter a range of barriers resulting in limited or low-quality realization. Many nature-based schoolyards are primarily used for recess and remain insufficiently integrated into educational or community activities. Moreover, access to high‑quality nature‑based schoolyards remains uneven, with less access in less affluent neighborhoods.
Resilient Roots aims to promote the effective and equitable implementation and use of nature-based schoolyards as inclusive, multi-functional, green and social infrastructures that contribute to climate resilience, biodiversity, and wellbeing. The project seeks to identify policy and governance structures and strategies that effectively support the equitable implementation and management of nature-based schoolyards, their integration into education, and neighborhood community use and wellbeing. To achieve this, Resilient Roots sets to:
1. Map the implementation and management practices that support the scaling of nature-based schoolyards.
2. Identify how nature-based schoolyards can be employed for educational purposes.
3. Identify how nature-based schoolyards can support community use and wellbeing.
Resilient Roots results in a range of (co-designed) recommendations, tools, and strategies, consolidated knowledge and best practices, and interdisciplinary and cross-country knowledge shared in scientific papers. These results will be disseminated via materials and events targeted at policy makers, school and educational stakeholders, community actors (including children), green practitioners and interest groups, and the academic community. These actors will not only be at the receiving end of the project, but will be actively engaged throughout the project through co-design, knowledge-exchange sessions, round-table discussions, and online events. This will ensure that the results are inclusive, fair, and apt for real-world implementation
Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam , Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
Municipality of Rotterdam , Municipality of Barcelona , Municipality of Lund , Municipality of Malmo, IVN Natuureducatie , Vereniging voor Duurzame Ontwikkeling , Associació Globus Verd, Children and Nature Network
Contact
Nicole van den Bogerd
n.vanden.bogerd@vu.nl