Mindset-XR Innovation Support Programme company spotlight: EcoGPX and Intercultural Roots for Public Health

October’s spotlight shines on EcoGPX Ltd and Intercultural Roots for Public Health (IRPH).

IRPH facilitates creative, ecological and inclusive approaches to health and wellbeing through its Extending Nature project, which helps people connect with nature through accessible, immersive experiences designed to support anxiety and benefit mental health.

EcoGPX Ltd develops the technology behind PLACES by EcoGPX®, a mobile platform that enables organisations to engage communities in their place-based work. Through PLACES, participants can discover and connect to what’s happening in their local neighbourhood, and organisations can contribute insights and experiences through themed and accessible mixed reality (MR) audio, images and video. PLACES provides a window into real moments and stories that are often hidden, and over time builds valued eco-social and health evidence of what really matters to people and places.

With support from the Mindset-XR Innovation Support Programme, Extending Nature has already reached a substantial professional healthcare innovation audience, with the EcoGPX and Intercultural Roots team introducing nature-connectedness practices to more than 350 participants across four of our Mindset-XR roadshows in London, Edinburgh, Cardiff and Leeds.

With our support, the collaboration has also been invited to contribute a ‘Call for Problems’  abstract and video at BMJ Future Health Europe, London, 29–30 October 2026, bringing its distinct work creating the conditions where health can flourish to a wider healthcare innovation audience.

In this spotlight, Dr Alex Boyd, Founding CEO at EcoGPX Ltd and Intercultural Roots for Public Health, shares how inclusive feedback is shaping their innovation and why the health and care system should be excited about it. 

How has user feedback, particularly from patients and clinicians, shaped your product?

Working closely with people with lived experience of disability, chronic illness, anxiety and displacement, as well as our Coventry Community Advisory Board and clinical partner, Medical Creatives, we have embedded inclusive, accessible and trauma-informed principles throughout the development of Extending Nature and the second version of PLACES.

Research undertaken by IRPH, including a literature review and consultation with more than 22 experts in nature connectedness, identified key principles that informed the commissioning process. These included slowing down, sensory grounding, connecting breath and movement with natural rhythms, cultural sensitivity, and fostering a sense of ecological belonging.

User and expert feedback has directly shaped both the design of the experiences and our evaluation approach. Our methodology combines lived-experience insights with validated measures of anxiety, nature connectedness and wellbeing to assess the potential benefits of these interventions for people living with Generalised Anxiety Disorder (GAD) and, potentially, other health conditions.

How could your innovation tackle inequalities in mental health?

Through more than 20 commissioned XR nature-connectedness experiences created with expert eco-somatic practitioners, Extending Nature offers free, accessible opportunities to breathe, listen, move, notice and connect with nature, whether in local green spaces (such as parks and woodlands) or blue spaces (such as rivers and lakes), or indoors at home, in a hospital ward or waiting room.

Using immersive sound, video and gently guided creative practices, the project aims to overcome barriers to accessing nature and wellbeing support, particularly for disabled people, people living with chronic illness, and communities that may be underserved by conventional services.

We encourage people to download the free PLACES by EcoGPX® app on iOS or Android, experience Extending Nature, and share their feedback on what they find beneficial and where improvements could be made. These insights will help inform the ongoing development of the project and ensure the resources continue to meet the needs of diverse communities.

Why should the health and care system be excited about your innovation?

Extending Nature demonstrates a health-promoting, preventative approach that creates conditions in which wellbeing can flourish through nature connectedness, arts, culture and heritage. In doing so, it supports the NHS 10-Year Health Plan’s three shifts: hospital to community, analogue to digital, and sickness to prevention.

Designed for independent use or alongside existing support, including talking therapies such as CBT and green social prescribing, the freely available Extending Nature experiences offer a potentially scalable approach to preventative, community-based creative health.

Following specialist advice from Hardian Health, the current Extending Nature offering is understood to have a health and wellbeing purpose, specifically supporting people experiencing anxiety, while not being designed as a regulated medical device. This creates opportunities to explore how it could complement existing health, care and community-based support services.

What type of support are you seeking most from readers to help drive your project forward?

We invite NHS Trusts, ICBs, neighbourhood mental health services, local authorities, community and voluntary organisations, museums, galleries, heritage sites, wildlife trusts and visitor attractions to explore how PLACES could help bring their places, people, stories and projects to life.

Download PLACES by EcoGPX®, explore the Local feed and existing Projects, experience and share the free Extending Nature resources, and consider: “What could my organisation or community create using PLACES?”

Organisations interested in becoming Powered by PLACES are invited to complete the enquiry form to explore partnership, subscription and investment opportunities. All applications are subject to ethical review, with contributors and project owners expected to adhere to principles of consent, safeguarding, privacy, copyright, respectful representation and responsible content moderation.