In November, over 70 members of GroundsWell came together for our annual retreat in Edinburgh. Researchers, policy makers and community partners took part in two days of workshops and discussions on what GroundsWell has achieved so far and all the exciting things still to come. The first day of the retreat kicked off with an interactive icebreaker building structures using Lego. There were lots of interesting designs including outdoors gyms, a wildlife corridor and a Swedish spa. After the icebreaker, we started the main sessions of the day with a panel discussion between co-directors and community partners talking about what they had gained from their GroundsWell partnerships.  

In the afternoon, we went on a site visit to one of two UGBS in Edinburgh: Saughton Park or Linking Leiths. At Saughton park we heard about the refurbishment of the park, including the installation of a micro-hydro which provides all of the electricity that the park requires. At Linking Leiths we heard about the plans they had co-produced with the community aiming to connect a neighbourhood of small parks, while also improving biodiversity and access to quality urban greenspace. Following the site visits we continued with more workshops on climate action and co-production before being treated to dinner and a ceilidh at Edinburgh botanic gardens in the evening. 

The second day was also packed with workshops on a range of topics including agent-based modelling, communicating our work and geographic data. There was lots of time dedicated to discussing progress within each of the work packages and next steps for the consortium as a whole. Overall feedback at the end of the day was positive and most of us left feeling inspired and energised by the new ideas and perspectives generated over the two days! 

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