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March 10, 2007
"Green care: Health effects, economics and policies": COST Action 866 - Green Care in Agriculture: Austrian Horticultural Society
Location: Vienna, Austria
Dates: 20-22 June 2007
Abstract Submission Deadline: 10 March 2007
More Information including Programme
Complete Announcement of Cost Action 866
The overall aim of this conference is to discuss how Green care services in agriculture can be further developed and organised by relevant research activities. This will be achieved by discussing conceptual and theoretical frameworks and research methods for assessing health effects, economics and social impact of various types of Green care services, and how these fit into current and future national health and social care systems.
Participants that are from the Action’s member countries can be eligible for reimbursement of their expenses, up to a maximum of six persons per country and within our overall budget (roughly 60 persons). We may have to consider a good balance between countries, working groups and scientific expertise when this selection is made. For those being able to pay their own expenses, the conference is open to anybody within the available space.
ABOUT THIS COST ACTION
COST is European Cooperation in the field of Scientific and Technological Research, and is a scientific network programme under European Science Foundation. It is administered by a Management Committee of 1-2 persons being representatives of each of the member countries of the Action. This Action presently has 14 member countries, and its activities are regulated by the Memorandum of Understanding. COST cannot fund research projects, but coordinates scientific work.
‘Green care’ is the utilisation of agricultural farms - the animals, the plants, the garden, the forest, and the landscape - as a base for promoting human mental and physical health, as well as quality of life, for a variety of client groups. A multidisciplinary scientific effort is essential to further develop green services as part of a multifunctional agriculture. This COST Action will coordinate research and develop new research on green care in biological, medical and health sciences, including conceptual, theoretical, and methodological developments. The Action will also focus on economics and management of green care farming, as well as developing policies and discussing how green care can fit current and future national health and social care systems, and affect rural development positively.
The main objective of the Action is to increase the scientific knowledge on the best practices for implementing green care in agriculture with the aim of improving human mental and physical health and the quality of life.
The scientific work in the Action is based on three Working Groups (WGs):
WG 1: Health effects of green care
Chair: Joe Sempik, UK
The main aim of this Working Group is to coordinate research and develop new research in biological, medical and health sciences for the purpose of gaining new insight into the effects of various types of green care on several aspects of physical and mental health and the quality of life of people. The work must include conceptual and theoretical discussions and developments, as well as discussions on research methodologies.
Milestones: 1. Development of a conceptual framework and theoretical models for the health promoting mechanisms of green care. 2. Comparison and discussion of ongoing research projects related to health effects on people. 3. Establishment of a set of good research methodologies.
WG 2: Economics of green care
Chair: Saverio Senni, Italy
The main aim of this Working Group is to coordinate research and develop new research on economics and management of green care farming. This includes the cost-benefit effectiveness of green care across the economic spectrum (micro, mezzo and macro levels) within the framework of multifunctional agriculture, market based versus governmental based economics, marketability of public goods and positive agricultural externalities, as well as measurements of the positive externalities of Animal Assisted Therapy and Horticultural Therapy.
Milestones:
- Development of a methodology to determine the economic benefits of green care services for farmers, for other parts of the agricultural sector and for the health and social care sectors, and also the social returns of such services.
- Development of systems to support green care regionally and nationally.
- Development of a research programme on economics of green care.
WG 3: Policies related to green care88
Chair: Thomas van Elsen, Germany
The main aim of this Working Group is to investigate how green care fits into current and future national health and social care systems. This includes the organisation of the green care system and the building up of the network behind the health and social care systems. A further aim is to define how rural development is affected; creation of new jobs and strengthening of the economic viability of rural communities, those of less-favoured and remote rural areas in particular.
Milestones: 1. Definition of terms and concepts for the different services of green care. 2. Evaluation of the contribution of green care not only to rural and agricultural policies, but also to policies in health care and social care. 3. Development of a research agenda - policies of green care.
AIMS FOR THE CONFERENCE
The overall aim of this conference is to discuss how Green care services in agriculture can be further developed and organised by relevant research activities. This will be achieved by discussing conceptual and theoretical frameworks and research methods for assessing health effects, economics and social impact of various types of Green care services, and how these fit into current and future national health and social care systems.
The discussions in the Working Groups (WGs) will draw on the experience and discussions of the COST Workshop held in Brussels 4-5 December 2006. After presenting and discussing different situations in various countries during the last meeting we want to make steps forward in order to build up a network behind the health and social care systems. The affection of rural development and the economic viability of rural communities, especially of less-favoured and remote rural areas, will be taken into account as well. More details are to be found in the minutes of the last meeting.
CALL FOR ABSTRACTS
We invite offers of presentations in the plenary sessions (15 minutes), in the Working Groups (10-15 minutes), or as posters. Presentations should either be presentations of research results, scientific methods you currently use, or theoretical or conceptual issues. Priority will be given to presentations which are judged to contribute best to fulfilment of the aims of the conference. The number of presentations will be limited to ensure adequate time for discussions.
Those offering a presentation must submit a one-page abstract that clearly indicates the authors’ names, addresses and e-mail address to corresponding author, objectives, methods, main research results (if any), theoretical/conceptual issues (if any), and conclusions. These abstracts must accompany the Registration Form to be submitted by 10th March 2007.
The Scientific Committee, which is the same as the Executive Committee of the COST Action, develops a final programme based on offered presentations and the discussion topics. Those having their abstracts accepted, for oral or poster presentations, must submit an extended two-page summary based on a given template for the Proceedings of the conference by 15th May. After the conference, we will consider inviting some of the presenters to submit a full article for a book to be published by COST.
