• H2020
• Societal Challenges
• Climate Action

Engineers from Trinity College Dublin have been awarded a €6m research grant from Horizon 2020 to improve air quality in cities and reduce their carbon footprint.

The funding will go towards the iSCAPE (Improving the Smart Control of Air Pollution in Europe) project, which will see the engineers develop sustainable and passive air pollution remediation strategies, policy interventions and behavioural change initiatives from this summer until 2019.

Next-generation environmental living labs in cities will be deployed throughout Europe, including Dublin (Ireland), Innovation-City Ruhr (Bottrop, Germany), Lazzaretto Bologna (Italy), Vantaa (Finland), Hasselt (Belgium), Bologna (Italy), and Guildford (UK).

The iSCAPE team, from the Department of Civil Structural and Environmental Engineering and the CONNECT Centre at Trinity, is led by assistant professor in civil engineering Dr Francesco Pilla, who is joined by Professors Brian Broderick, Aonghus McNabola and John Gallagher.

Pilla said: “iSCAPE encapsulates the concept of ‘smart cities’ by promoting the use of low cost sensors and by engaging citizens in the use of alternative solution processes to environmental problems. iSCAPE will support sustainable urban development by promoting the sharing of results with policy makers and planners using local test cases, and providing scientific evidence, ready-to-use solutions potentially leading to real-time operational interventions.

“This integrated approach will include the development and assessment of a framework aimed at changing the mobility behaviour of people by studying processes and dynamics that lead to more resilient, healthy, and sustainable cities, by bringing together theory from urban planning, public policy, urban and environmental sociology and urban geography.”