Innovation Voucher Project: SwimWild

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UHI Moray partnered with SwimWild in the development of an app for Wild Swimming enthusiasts.

The project involved developing a proof-of-concept centralised geo location information portal application to provide an innovative approach for people to find information about wild swimming opportunities in their local area and around Scotland. This also included trail walking for mental health and wellbeing.  

With outdoor swimming enthusiasts seeking more information on taking up wild swimming, a key aim of the project was to improve information sources on wild swimming locations which were very limited, fragmented, and basic, missing key, innovative core components, such as trails, accessibility, and difficulty. 

Outdoor swimming champions provide clear, honest, safe reviews on swimming locations with video and/or audio reviews. Further research explored the reasons and benefits of wild swimming through focus groups of existing wild swimmers.

Alice Goodridge, Founder of SwimWild:

“Working with UHI Moray on an innovation voucher project has been a rewarding adventure for SwimWild. It has opened up the possibilities of developing an app to help people find swimming groups and service providers around Scotland. The proof-of-concept developed so far is a great prototype and we look forward to working with UHI Moray on the next stage.”

Dr Malcolm Clark, Dr Neil Davidson and Kelly McLaren, UHI Moray project team:

“Working on this project with SwimWild has been a positive and rewarding experience in developing an innovative proof-of-concept for an application that will benefit so many people in so many ways.  This project created much media interest given the popularity of wild swimming through and post pandemic and the positive impact on mental well-being and also leading to interesting future research areas.  The project benefited from an engaging and enthusiastic client, and we are keen to progress the partnership and develop the application further.”