Pilot Grants
Nature and Human Health UT’s pilot grant program has been funded through an anonymous donor. We are grateful for the support of this funding and the opportunity to award pilot grant research and programmatic efforts.
What is the pilot grant program?
Launched in 2021, the Nature and Human Health Utah (NHH-UT) Pilot Grant Program supports innovative, interdisciplinary projects that explore and strengthen the connections between nature and human health. Funded through an anonymous donor and the REI Cooperative Action Fund, the program provides seed funding for research and practice-based initiatives across Utah that align with NHH-UT’s mission to ensure equitable access to nature as a determinant of health and wellbeing.
NHH-UT is not currently accepting applications for pilot grants at this time.
Interested in learning about the projects we’ve funding in the past? Check out the projects from our previous pilot grant cycles below.
2026 Pilot Grant Recipients
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Principal Investigator: Dr. Rhiannon Cowan, research associate, Department of Neurosurgery, University of Utah
This pilot examines whether immersive virtual reality nature experiences can reduce depression and stress among patients with drug-resistant epilepsy who are confined to hospital beds during long-term neuromonitoring. The study will assess mood, stress, perceived restoration, and intracranial brain activity to better understand the neural mechanisms underlying nature’s mental health benefits.
Other participants: Amy S. McDonnell, Elliot H. Smith, Shervin Rahimpour, Ben Shofty, Jessica Veach -
Principal Investigator: Lewis Kogan, Utah State University’s Swaner Preserve & EcoCenter
This project evaluates a structured 10-week outdoor and adventure-based program for justice-involved youth across the Wasatch Front and Back. Outcomes include resilience, self-efficacy, stress, and overall well-being, as well as the mechanisms through which outdoor challenge and reflection support youth development.
Other participants: Meagan Ricks, Miranda Margetts, Ben Ukoh-Eke -
Co-Principal Investigators: Drs. Joshua Landvatter, Jessica DiCarlo, Kelly Baron, Brett Clark, and Scott D. Odell
This pilot implements an 8–12 week pollution-aware nature engagement program for adults living in west-side Salt Lake Valley neighborhoods. The project will assess feasibility and preliminary impacts on sleep quality, stress, blood pressure, and time spent in nature, while developing a scalable, community-informed model for improving equitable access to health-promoting outdoor spaces.
Other participants: Caitlin Quirk, Mara Scallon, Oquirrh Foundation -
Principal Investigator: Dr. Heidi Schreiber-Pan, founder and executive director, Center for Nature Informed Therapy
This project expands access to nature-informed mental healthcare by providing training scholarships and mentorship for six Utah-based clinicians serving underserved populations. The project will also pilot and refine the Nature-Informed Biopsychosocial-Spiritual Model Assessment, generating Utah-based outcomes data while increasing access through a dedicated scholarship pool.
Other participants: Joanna Schaefer, with external collaborators from the University of Norway, SUNY, and the University of Maryland
2024 Pilot Grant Recipients
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West Valley City’s Neighborhood Services Department, is the principal investigator on this project. Healthy West Valley will partner with Salt Lake County Parks and Rec and the Tracy Aviary Nature Center to provide signage around the Decker Lake loop to educate residents and trail users on the history of Decker Lake and the importance of this area for bird migration in Utah.
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This project is led by Carly Knudson, a master's student in the Parks, Recreation, and Tourism Department at the University of Utah. This project aims to understand why college students do not regularly engage with nature-based experiences and identify barriers and facilitators that, if overcome and addressed, could improve their mental health by increasing the time they spend in nature.
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Breathe 4 Trees is an organization committed to achieving environmental sustainability through tree planting initiatives. Our proposed project aims to expand our impact within the West Valley areas of the State of Utah by increasing tree planting and promoting diversity and inclusion in our programs, particularly communities of color.
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Camping in Color is a community-based project led by Hilary Lambert, PhD student in the University of Utah’s Parks, Recreation, and Tourism Department. This project will work in collaboration with the Wasatch Mountain Institute to build on the Camping in Color’s pilot program's success and continue growing community impact, intergenerational sustainability, and programmatic development that will allow for similar program offerings to other diverse, underserved communities in the Salt Lake area.
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This project will be carried out by Sarah Herrmann, PhD, at Weber State University. This project aims to investigate the impact of indoor plants on college students’ mental health, perceptions of college, perceptions of their courses, and academic performance.
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This project is led by Jenna Templeton, Assistant Director of the Center for Student Access and Resources at the University of Utah. This project aims to build community, belonging, and well-being practices among first generation scholars through engaging outdoor-based programming.
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Hanna Saltzman, MD, is the principal investigator and a fellow in the University of Utah’s Pediatric Department. This pilot project seeks to understand how nature-based interventions may improve the health of youth with rheumatic diseases. Results will inform the design of a nature-based health intervention to be evaluated in a future clinical trial.
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This project is led by Laura George, STEMCAP’s (STEM Community Alliance Program), Associate Director. This project will initiate science arts summer camp experiences for incarcerated youth which will include environmental education, artistic reflection, and hands-on experiential learning during a time of the year when programming is limited inside youth detention centers.
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The PI of this project is a PhD student in the PRT Department of the University of Utah, Paige Fery. The project will include research with program participants and other women anglers to explore the gender-based mental and social health outcomes associated with women and gender minority fly-fishing experiences. This project will build capacity for outdoor recreation programs that provide an accessible and welcoming environment for women.
2022 Pilot Grant Recipients
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Homelessness, Health, and Nature: A Community-Based Research Partnership
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Nature Rx Pilot: Identifying barriers and facilitators to implementing nature-based mental health interventions for older adults.
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The effects of nature-immersive experiences on social, mental, and physical health in adults with mental illness or symptoms of mental illness.
Peer Reviewed Publication:
LoTemplio, S., Bettmann, J.E., Scott, E. et al. Do Mental Health Changes in Nature Co-occur with Changes in Heartrate Variability and Executive Functioning? A Systematic Review. Curr Envir Health Rpt (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40572-023-00407-6
Given the global burden of mental health issues, new solutions are needed to promote mental health. Nature exposure represents a promising option to promote mental health, but the mechanisms are poorly understood. Recent frameworks have argued that changes in mental health in nature are caused by activity changes in the vagus nerve, which connects the heart and the brain, and that these changes also improve executive functioning (EF) abilities. This suggests that changes in mental health symptomology in nature should be accompanied by changes in vagus nerve activity, as well as changes in executive functioning. Yet, little work has systematically examined co-variation of these outcomes in empirical studies. The present manuscript systematically examines whether changes in mental health in nature are accompanied by changes in vagus nerve activity (approximated by heartrate variability) and changes in executive functioning.
Bettmann, E.J., Speelman, E., Blumenthal, E., Couch, S., Schmalz, D. (2024). Nature Exposure, Even as Little as 10 Minutes, is Likely to Yield Short-Term Benefits for Adults with Mental Illness: A Meta Analysis. Ecopsychology. https://doi.org/10.1089/eco.2023.0063
Existing research suggests that nature exposure positively affects mental health, but has not answered important questions about nature’s specific impact on adults with mental illness. Intentional exposure to nature could be a means for mental illness symptom relief. The present study was a meta-analysis to answer the question: what are the effects of nature exposure on the social, mental, and physical health of adults with mental illness? The present review included all studies relevant to the study research questions that collected quantitative data on nature exposure experiences using validated instruments for at least two time points on each participant and which were published between 1990 and 2020. Analyses showed significant, moderate effect sizes for all studies and smaller, but significant, effect sizes for studies with control groups regarding the impact of nature exposure on adults with mental illness. Analyses also yielded important information regarding the effect size of the type of nature dosage, nature setting, nature-based activity, type of mental illness, and other variables. Health care implications of the present study include the importance of prescribing nature exposure to adult populations. Nature exposure does not require the oversight of health care professionals, is accessible, and is affordable. Focusing on increasing humans’ exposure to nature has the potential to ease overstrained health care systems throughout the globe.Conference Proceedings:
Bettmann, J.E., Couch, S., Stagaman, E., & Hanley, A. (2022, November). The effects of nature-immersive experiences on adults with mental illness: A meta-analysis. Paper presented at the international conference of the Association for Experiential Education, Black Hills, NC.
Bettmann, J.E., & Hanley, A.W. (2022, October). The effects of nature-immersive experiences on social, mental, and physical health in adults with mental illness or symptoms of mental illness. SHIFT Summit, Fort Collins, CO.
A meta-analysis of nature exposure for adults with mental illness Powerpoint
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A Randomized Control Pilot Study of Nature Immersion for Veterans with Post-traumatic Stress Disorder.
A Randomized Controlled Pilot Study of Nature CALM for Veterans with PTSD Powerpoint