One Year with RECETAS: a Look Back at our Achievements

As we enter the final phase of the RECETAS Project, the 4th Annual Consortium Meeting, held in Helsinki on June 4–5, 2025, provided a meaningful opportunity to reflect, showcase emerging results, deepen collaboration, and celebrate our collective achievements.

The Annual Consortium Meeting, hosted by the University of Helsinki, offered our consortium members a time for knowledge sharing, insights and data exploration of preliminary findings and exchange of ideas. The poster exhibition invited attendees to “travel” through the activities across six city sites, while collective sessions highlighted recent successes and set goals for the months ahead.

But this meeting was more than data, it was about connection: with walks through Finnish landscapes, a concert by Finland’s oldest choir at the Sibelius Monument, and discovery of Saunasaari, and creative collaboration at Villa Aikala and Oodi Library. 

One Year of Nature Based Interventions

RECETAS is exploring how nature-based activities, supported by facilitator-led groups over 10 weeks, can enrich social prescribing to reduce loneliness, foster connection, and support healthier lives. Our interventions with diverse populations are helping to build a pioneering model where nature plays a central role in improving health outcomes. The pilot cities tested between six and eleven different nature-related activities, providing valuable insights on the most effective formats.

Our pilot cities are currently carrying out the last stages of the studies of the Friends in Nature intervention on alleviating loneliness and improving health-related quality of life. The interpretation of results is now underway in each of the pilot locations:

• In Barcelona, Prague, and Helsinki, randomized controlled trials were conducted with adults in low-income areas, older adults living at home, and older adults living in assisted living facilities (ALF).
• In Marseille, Melbourne, and Cuenca, cohort studies included socioeconomically disadvantaged adults, LGBTQIA+ refugees, and nursing home residents.

 

One Year of International Presence

RECETAS was awarded 1st place at the SilverEco & Ageing Well International Festival, a global event celebrating innovation in ageing well. Our Friends in Nature digital platform was recognized as the Best Initiative in e-Health and Healthcare.

Designed to combat loneliness, the digital platform will connect people, prescribers, participants, facilitators, in real time through a global social prescribing system—with a planned release in 2026!

At a European Parliament hearing on “Policy Interventions and Good Practices” in Brussels in November 2025, RECETAS Coordinator Jill Litt shared insights from the project, spotlighting the Friends in Nature approach. The event followed the EMPL Committee’s initiative on loneliness and the EU’s first large-scale survey of 26,000 people.

RECETAS joined five other EU projects—Emotional Cities, ENLIGHTENme, HEART, URBANOME, and WELLBASED—for the Urban Health Cluster meeting 2025. This collaborative initiative aimed to align efforts and foster synergies to tackle environmental, climate, and socio-economic factors shaping healthier, more equitable urban spaces. Read the Joint Policy Brief on the Urban Health Cluster website.

At the 4th World Conference on Forests, Parks & Public Health, in May 2025 RECETAS Coordinator Jill Litt shared how nature can heal, nourish, and connect. The event fostered global dialogue on the nature-health connection, emphasizing the need to bridge the gap between evidence and action in both research and policy.

One Year Across RECETAS Cities

Cuenca hosted the 2nd Meeting with Nature for Inclusive Aging, celebrating community bonds and the connection to nature. The event honored local traditions through ancient Andean rituals that symbolized the deep relationship between humans and the cosmos.

Marseille was awarded a regional Hippocrate Garden Trophy, sparking a dynamic collaboration with the association Biodiversanté. This partnership led to the co-creation of a film and debate event featuring the documentary Long Live Germs, by journalist Marie-Monique Robin.

Melbourne advanced awareness about nature based prescribing, by taking part in the World Social Prescribing Day 2025, and joining campaigns like the Loneliness Awareness Week. The team also extended its outreach through platforms such as the Human: Connecting podcast featuring RECETAS investigator, Dr. Nerkez Opacin.

Prague hosted the 2024 RECETAS Annual Consortium Meeting with the participation of the Ministry of Health. The team also partnered with Czech Radio and the Prague City Library to share RECETAS themes on loneliness and nature with the wider public.

Barcelona strengthened policy engagement, notably by participating in the Advisory Board of the Municipal Strategy Against Loneliness 2020–2030 and presenting RECETAS to the Catalan Department of Health and Social Affairs.

RECETAS in the News

• Washington Post – Do you Live in a Lonelygenic Environment? Being in Nature Might Help, by Meeri Kim, 17 June 2025 “Contact with nature creates a space for restoration, recovery, and connection,” Litt said. “It allows people to open up, feel a sense of connection with others, and experience the rhythms and cycles of life.”
• BBC Earth – Bat-watching, beach explorations and « sniff » walks: How nature can provide a tonic for loneliness, by Julia Hotz, 27 December 2024. « Nature can provide a profound sense of connection – not just to the natural world, but to ourselves and others. »
• Le Monde – La nature, ce poumon vert qui dope notre santé, by Florence Rosier, on January 6, 2025 – Nature, the green lung that boosts our health. « With more than 55% of the world’s population now living in cities, reconnecting with nature has become a powerful tool for improving our health – lowering mortality rates, reducing inflammation markers and childhood obesity, and offering strong anti-stress benefits. »
• Diari ARA – Per què la natura funciona millor que qualsevol pastilla per millorar el benestar emocional, by Cristina Sáez on 22 February 2025. Why nature works better than any pill to improve emotional well-being. In addition to the known health benefits of green spaces in cities, scientists add that they help combat loneliness.

What’s Next?

You can join the movement for connection, nature, and wellbeing at the occasion of the World Mental Health Day 2025 in RECETAS pilot cities!