Table 1 Description of the three projects included in this study

Project A: Local policy priority setting with citizens.

This project focuses on implementing a method for involving citizens in local policy priority setting for a healthy living environment. The project started in 2018 within one Dutch province, in which the local priority setting was performed with several citizen groups. Currently (January 2022), follow-up activities based on this priority setting are being implemented. The experiences of collaboration from start until January 2022 are subject of this study. Most of the partners participating within this province are included in the ‘daily board’ of the project, in which the course of the project is discussed. These partners are RIVM, universities of applied science, regional public health services, regional safety services and the participating municipality within this province. This daily board is embedded within a larger consortium which includes similar partners from two other provinces. Within this consortium, knowledge is shared across the provinces

Project B: Understanding the influence of large scale farming on air quality by measuring air quality with famers and citizens.

In the local (rural) area of this project, citizens and farmers had different perspectives on the influence of large scale farming on the local air quality. In 2019, together with the municipality, province and RIVM a project was started for them to measure the air quality together. The aim of this project was twofold; 1. create insight in the local air quality and 2. facilitate the local discussion for follow-up actions, by creating trust amongst the local partners during the project. The ‘core group’ within this project included representatives of both citizens and farmers, representatives of the municipality and the province, and RIVM, who provided the project leader for the project. In this core group, decisions were made about the course of the project. Additionally, citizens and farmers were included in the project to perform the measurements for the air quality. By the end of 2021 results of measurements were discussed and a dialogue between citizens and farmers about solutions for cleaner air was held. The partners presented lessons learned to the broader local and regional community

Project C: Creating a knowledge base to assist local policy decisions regarding the effect of climate change on health.

This project was based on a continuation of an existing consortium preparing a research project for a research call. As the original research call didn’t result in a grant for the research project the lead partners of the consortium started another research project in 2019 together with the RIVM. The new research project focused on creating a knowledge base about the effects of climate adaptation and mitigation on health to facilitate local and regional decision making. The ‘core group’ within this project included a University of applied science, province and the regional public health service. Partners involved were apart from the core group other municipality’s and waterboards. The results of the project with RIVM were based on a needs assessment and literature review, and were presented to the local and regional partners in 2021