Cumbria's status as one of the top outdoor adventure locations in the country is forming the backdrop for a new research project.

Outdoor education and adventure centres are major employers in Cumbria, with scores of people travelling to the county every year to get in on the action.

Academics and outdoor professionals are aiming to put together evidence which shows that outdoor education can help physical and mental health, as well as improve numeracy and literacy.

A collaboration between the University of Cumbria and the professional body for outdoor education, the Institute for Outdoor Learning (IOL), is bringing together researchers and practitioners for a pilot in the north west, south west and in Scotland.

“Research in the field of outdoor education has given some strong hints that the claims of professionals do indeed stand up,” Dr Chris Loynes, a reader in outdoor studies at the University of Cumbria, said.

“However, most of these have been small studies or have been unpublished.

"What we need is to bring all the evidence together and plan new research to fill the gaps, so that outdoor education can have confidence in what it does well."

The project will support outdoor practitioners in conducting their own action research.

The findings will then be combined nationally by the research team at the university so that the strength of the evidence can be widely communicated.

Meanwhile tourism bosses are hoping more can be done to make Cumbria the adventure capital of the UK.

Speaking earlier this month, Ian Stephens, managing director of Cumbria Tourism, said he wanted local authorities to do more to encourage developments in outdoor businesses, following the increasing success of sports such as kayaking, skydiving, mountain biking and rock climbing.

Mr Stephens hopes that by next year Cumbria will be seen as the go to destination for extreme sports, the “adventure capital” of the UK.

“The outdoor education profession is raising the standards of practice across a range of applications like teaching and therapy,” Andy Robinson, chief executive of Outdoor Education Institute for Outdoor Learning, said.

“We want the quality of practice to be led by a strong evidence base and we want to work with practitioners to achieve this."