EXCLUSIVE: Jobs boost for health sector

THE Westcountry is poised to become home to a world-leading institute which will investigate how the environment affects human health.

The proposed £18 million centre could create hundreds of high-quality jobs while tackling some the country's most stubborn health problems.

The Peninsula Medical School, the Plymouth and Exeter university collaboration, is leading a bid to create the world's first establishment to research how the environment can be employed to tackle conditions such as obesity, heart disease and depression.

The centre, in Cornwall, would also help slash spiralling National Health Service treatment budgets and pioneer research on how human health is likely to be affected by climate change.

Project leaders are seeking £9 million of EU funding for the International Centre for Environment and Human Health and will advertise for a full-time project director in the New Year.

They have just been asked by the European Commission to explain the benefits a cash injection would bring to the Westcountry economy.

Bosses say moving to the so-called commissioning stage is "absolutely key" and shows the commission is "strongly committed" to exploring the ambitious plan.

If the £18 million centre goes ahead, researchers intend to exploit a "unique collection" of organisations and assets, from the Met Office in Exeter and Plymouth's marine research hub to Dartmoor

National Park and the Cornish coast. The centre's sprawling remit could include establishing the science behind why cross-country walks are a more effective alternative to anti-depression drugs, or advising the government how to protect vulnerable elderly populations as more heatwaves are prompted by global warming.

The centre, to be based in Treliske, near Truro, among the growing cluster of medical-related academics and businesses, would confirm the Westcountry as a global leader in an underdeveloped but increasingly popular area of research. By appointing just 20 academics in Cornwall, early estimates suggest hundreds of jobs could be created through support staff paid for by research income, spin-off businesses and growth among local firms, particularly those connected to outdoor activities.

Prof Michael Depledge, former chief scientist at the Environment Agency, who leads the project, said: "The centre will capitalise on some of the greatest strengths of Cornwall, and change the perception of the West around the world." Prof Depledge, professor of environment and human health at the Westcountry medical school, said a coastal community such as Cornwall, and the wider rural Westcountry, is the ideal place to give innovative environmental research the scientific grounding it needs.

Put simply, the centre will study connections between the environment and human health in two ways. First, it will look at how the changing environment affects human health. The impact of climate change, and in particular the increase in extreme weather events such as storms, is likely to be one of its biggest areas of research.

Second, it will examine how the environment can be used to improve health and wellbeing by addressing some of the causes of obesity, diabetes, heart disease, depression and many other illnesses and conditions the Government spends billions of pounds on each year.

One example is the "green gym", a concept devised in the late 1990s by Dr William Bird. The GP, who has been hired by the medical school, pioneered the idea that exercising outdoors is markedly better for human health than exercise in a conventional gym or sports centre. Green gym activities include clearing scrubland, tree-planting or digging on an allotment. Prof Depledge said: "There is scientific evidence, although it is not very well developed, that if you combine exercise with the natural environment – exposure to lots of greenery, to natural waters such as the sea, lakes and rivers – health benefits are greatly improved.

"The research we want to do is to document activities outdoors, in the natural environment, that do really promote health and well-being."

The centre will offer policy advice and solutions to government, business and NGOs. The idea is much of the research will involve studies in the Westcountry that can then be rolled out across the country and even internationally. The bid for a chunk of the hundreds of millions of pounds of EU Convergence funding earmarked for Cornwall is being considered by the South West Regional Development Agency and supported by a number of academics.

Prof Depledge hopes the European Commission will agree the funding in the next six months. The centre will then look to secure match-funding elsewhere.