SICTA moving forward – from results to utilization

Only 20% of children in Sweden and globally achieve the World Health Organization´s guidelines for daily physical activity, moreover, climate challenges are becoming increasingly apparent.

One way to promote children´s physical activity and at the same time have a positive impact on the environment is to increase the use of active school travel, i.e. children walking or cycling to school.

In a series of research projects, we have conducted research in the area and among other things developed a school-based intervention, something that is now being studied further within the Forte project "Impact evaluation of the school-based intervention Sustainable Innovation for Children Transporting Actively (SICTA)".

Our previous research has proven to be both in demand and useful and was highlighted in the Government´s investigation SoU 2023:29 as a good example of positive societal impact. Unfortunately, results are not automatically transferred from research to practice, no matter how effective they are.

We now want to support the school-based innovation by creating strategies for policy change among key societal actors as well as educational material aimed at parents´ social norms.

The nature of the project means that communication activities are of great importance, and we have previously shown that we can initiate media debate on the issue.

The project consists of three parts, where parts 1 and 2 include dialogue with different stakeholders and where part 3 focuses on communication and dissemination of the materials generated in the first two parts of the project.

For instance, relevant material are created that shows the benefits of active transport to strengthen parents who already allow their children to use active transport and to reverse the trend of increased concern for the traffic environment and increase the proportion of parents who allow their children to walk and cycle.

Collaboration with stakeholders, end users and decision-makers is central to the project.