Improving opportunities for children from disadvantaged communities to engage with nature
10 March 2026
A partnership between Cardiff University and WWT, the wetland charity, is supporting children from disadvantaged communities by helping them access and engage with nature.
The UKRI Knowledge Transfer Partnership links Cardiff Academics Professor Merideth Gattis from the School of Psychology and Professor Luigi De Luca from Cardiff Business School with the wetland charity to work on their Generation Wild programme.
The programme is a nationwide nature connection initiative that supports children from disadvantaged communities to interact with nature.
Spending time in nature has many psychological benefits, including cognition and communication, connection and belonging, and wellbeing more generally. Importantly however children from disadvantaged communities have fewer opportunities to engage with nature.
Professor Gattis said: “Over the past five years we have been collaborating with WWT to help them evaluate and improve the Generation Wild programme. The UKRI Innovate UK Knowledge Transfer Partnership has allowed us to appoint Bethany Harries, who works as the Knowledge Transfer Associate across both Cardiff University and WWT and acts as a link between research and practice.”
Generation Wild operates across seven WWT centres in England, Northern Ireland, and Wales, reaching 17,000 children and families from disadvantaged communities every year through partnerships with local schools. The programme uses storytelling, hands-on activities and immersive experiences to help children engage with nature and to inspire a life-long love of nature.
Bethany Harries said: “My role will focus on evaluating the impact of the programme on children’s wellbeing, environmental identity, and nature connection. ”
“We will work closely with schools, WWT centres, and community partners to ensure the programme continues to be accessible and effective and to evidence the benefits. We will also explore new ways of delivering Generation Wild so that even more children can benefit from it.”
The Knowledge Transfer Partnership will operate for 30 months, with the initial phases in 2026 focusing on co-designing new digital tools.
This Knowledge Transfer Partnership enables us to continue our long-standing partnership with Cardiff University, making use of their significant expertise as we look to build on the existing success of our award-winning Generation Wild programme.
