Professor Jin Wen and Associate Professor Simi Hoque have been awarded an NSF grant of $243,717 for their project entitled “Collaborative Research: AccelNet: An International Network of Networks for Well-being in the Built Environnent. (IN2WIBE).” This project is a collaboration among Drexel, USC, ASU, and the University of Alabama.
Professor Jin Wen (left) and Associate Professor Simi Hoque.
This project will facilitate collaborative research, education, and outreach through an International Network of Networks for Well-being in the Built Environment (IN2WIBE). At the core of IN2WIBE is a shared understanding that well-being is strongly dependent on the links between the built environment and the personal, cultural, economic and social forces that drive health, productivity, satisfaction, and comfort. Research networks on well-being in the built environment exist, however, they are shaped by their institutional, regional, or social contexts and are mostly locally convergent. Well-being in the built environment is a broad research area, and there exist myriad approaches and solutions that emerge from different disciplinary perspectives. These efforts need to be integrated to foster effective, robust, and widely-applicable solutions. IN2WIBE will connect and educate future building scholars on well-being in buildings while informing better building design, construction, operation, and use. This will be achieved through leveraging resources from 34 existing networks and partners in five continents (North America, Africa, Europe, Australia, and Asia), comprising a total of 17 countries. Through strategically designed activities, IN2WIBE will cultivate and foster connections through the development of community consensus.
In the coming years, Jin and Simi will be organizing a series of international workshops, including one at Drexel and a conclusion one in Jordan.