REPAIR Showcased at the WISERD Annual Conference
16th July 2026
Project REPAIR was showcased at the Wales Institute of Social and Economic Research and Data (WISERD) Annual Conference 2026, held at Cardiff University on 8–9 July. This year’s conference, themed In Pursuit of Sustainable Futures, brought together researchers, policymakers and practitioners from across Wales and beyond to explore how research can contribute to healthier, fairer and more sustainable futures.
As part of the conference, Professor Andrew Kemp led a symposium entitled From Definition to Delivery: Promoting Sustainable Wellbeing and Resilience in Wales. The symposium was delivered alongside Project REPAIR partners Dr Amy Isham of Swansea University and Associate Professor Zoe Fisher of Swansea Bay University Health Board, alongside Kelly Davies, coach and PhD researcher, and Stuart Gray, Student Wellbeing and Peer Development Officer at Swansea University.
Together, the speakers explored how sustainable wellbeing can be translated into practical action across healthcare, higher education, communities and the built environment. The symposium presented a systems-informed understanding of sustainable wellbeing that extends beyond the individual to recognise the interconnected wellbeing of communities, society and the natural world. It highlighted how lasting wellbeing depends not only on individual circumstances and capabilities, but also on the social, cultural and environmental conditions that enable people and nature to flourish together.
Project REPAIR featured as a key example of how these ideas are being translated into practice. Through its work on biophilic urban regeneration and nature-based solutions, the project is exploring how transforming urban environments can support healthier, more inclusive and climate-resilient communities. Centred on the Swansea Biophilic Living development, known as the Biome, REPAIR provides a real-world setting in which to investigate how place, relationships and nature can support both human and planetary wellbeing.
The symposium also demonstrated how REPAIR both draws upon and contributes to the team’s wider programme of sustainable wellbeing research. Alongside REPAIR, presentations highlighted work supporting people living with acquired brain injury and initiatives designed to strengthen sustainable wellbeing among university students. Nature provides an important connecting theme across this wider programme, linking research and practice across healthcare, education and place.
Importantly, these different strands of work do not exist in isolation. Insights developed through healthcare and higher education are helping to shape REPAIR, while lessons emerging from REPAIR are also informing the team’s wider thinking, research and practice. This reciprocal relationship allows theory and application to evolve together across different settings.
A recurring theme throughout the symposium was the importance of developing the skills, qualities and capacities needed to create positive and sustainable futures. Through its partnership with the Inner Development Goals initiative, Project REPAIR is exploring how capacities such as systems thinking, presence, compassion, co-creation and constructive hope can support the collaborative, place-based approaches needed to respond to complex social and environmental challenges.
This focus aligns closely with Wales' commitment to long-term thinking through the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act, which places prevention, collaboration, integration and involvement at the heart of public decision-making. The symposium highlighted how approaches such as the Inner Development Goals can complement this agenda by supporting the personal and collective capacities needed to address increasingly complex challenges.
The session concluded by emphasising the importance of sustained partnership working across academic disciplines, healthcare, higher education, public services, communities and government. By connecting research with real-world experimentation, Project REPAIR is helping to bridge the gap between understanding sustainable wellbeing and delivering it in practice.
The conference provided an important opportunity to share REPAIR’s transdisciplinary approach with a wider audience and to contribute to national conversations about sustainable wellbeing, climate adaptation, nature-based solutions and the capabilities needed to create places where people, communities and nature can flourish.
The symposium presentation slides and the WISERD 2026 Abstract Book are available below for anyone wishing to explore the ideas and discussions in more detail.
wiserd-symposium-2026-slides.pptx