Welcome to IN-HABIT
INclusive Health And wellBeing In small and medium size ciTies (IN-HABIT) is an EU funded Horizon 2020 project which ran from 2020 to 2025.
Why IN-HABIT?
Cities play a pivotal role in steering the transition towards a sustainable society and in promoting, preventing and mitigating socioeconomic inequalities in the access to health and wellbeing among urban dwellers.
In Europe, the majority (65%) of the urban population lives in cities with fewer than 500,000 inhabitants. However, most urban research and innovation (R&I) and resources are located in Central and Nordic countries and in large cities, while the most pressing urban challenges tend to be found in the periphery and in small and medium-sized cities (SMSCs). Europe thus faces important R&I gaps to cater for the needs of these smaller cities.
The IN-HABIT project has sought to address these problems, based on four shared values which have inspired all our work over the past five years.
Health
Cities play a key role in addressing inequalities in access to health. IN-HABIT has aimed to boost inhabitants’ mental and physical health by nurturing healthier lifestyles, driving healthy mobility practices, providing access to health services and more.
Wellbeing
Wellbeing is a specific urban dimension. Responding to COVID-19’s impact in this area, IN-HABIT has focused on boosting the wellbeing of inhabitants in neighbourhoods facing challenges, fostering mindset and behaviour changes to drive real impact.
Inclusion
People are at the heart of the project. IN-HABIT has aimed to make cities work for all their inhabitants, including making urban public spaces more inclusive and developing an urban planning framework focusing on gender, diversity, equity and inclusion.
Replication
Measuring the impact on health and wellbeing at a city level, IN-HABIT shares knowledge of solutions successfully deployed, spreading inclusion-oriented urban innovation and enabling other cities to replicate the actions and their positive results.
Four pilot cities were chosen for this project
In each of the four pilot cities, the project has investigated how the mobilisation of existing undervalued resources, such as culture and heritage, food, human-animal bonds, and art and environment, might contribute to boosting health and wellbeing, with a focus on gender, diversity, equity and inclusion.
OBJECTIVES
IN-HABIT's aim is to investigate inclusive health and wellbeing (IHW) in peripheral small and medium-sized cities by mobilising local undervalued resources (culture and heritage, food, human-animal bonds, environment and art).
In order to:
1. Make urban public spaces safer, more accessible and more inclusive by mobilising undervalued resources.
2. Promote healthy behaviour and increase well-being of inhabitants in neighbourhoods facing challenges through innovative solutions.
3. Create IN-HUBs in each city, innovative partnerships made up of people, private and public organisations and institutions.
4. Develop an urban planning framework focusing on gender, diversity, equity and inclusion.
5. Develop new ways of measuring the impact of actions on inclusive health and well-being.
6. Share knowledge of the solutions successfully deployed in each city for use elsewhere.
7. Place responsible research and innovation, gender, diversity, equity and inclusion, and open access at the core of the project.
SOLUTIONS
In order to achieve its objectives, IN-HABIT has sought to identify and implement Visionary and Integrated Solutions (VIS) co-designed, co-developed and co-managed by local inhabitants and relevant stakeholders, such as the renovation of the Las Palmeras central square in Córdoba, the animal lines in Lucca, the community bike-sharing service in Nitra or the renovation of the Agenskalns market in Riga.
PROJECT PARTNERS
Throughout this project, the University of Córdoba has led a consortium of 21 partners from seven European countries and Colombia, including the four municipalities which are the Pilot Cities of the project.
SISTER PROJECTS
INHABIT has collaborated with three sister projects, Varcities, Go Green Routes and euPOLIS. Together we have signed a joint manifesto proposing the application of visionary and integrated solutions to improve well-being and health in cities.
IN-HABIT IN COLOMBIA
Thanks to our partnership with the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana in Colombia, we have travelled to the city of Bogotá to learn about local projects and to share experiences regarding Inclusive Health and Wellbeing. We have also collaborated on the replication of our methodologies in these cities. You can read about the collaboration in this press release.
