Open KE Fellowship: Air Quality Science in Support of Government Strategies

Lead Research Organisation: University of York
Department Name: Chemistry

Abstract

Although UK air quality has improved in the past 40 years, it is still a major challenge to predict and control. Air pollution has significant impacts on the environment and human health; the cost to the UK from deaths attributable to air pollution are estimated at £20 billion a year, but this hugely underestimates the overall cost. Air pollution also leads to increased levels of poor health, putting pressure on the health service and reducing our productivity. There are also costs associated with delays to infrastructure projects and reductions in crop yields as well as concern over the role of air pollution in reducing the variety of plant and animal life we see in our environment.

The Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) are the Government Department responsible for air pollution. They are committed to developing and maintaining policies that are informed by the very best scientific evidence. The profile of air pollution has increased massively over recent years. There is continuing media interest and heightened public awareness, as well as ambition in Defra to effectively tackle this challenging issue. There is a strong call for action across Government to reduce the impact of air pollution on society, with the Chief Medical Officer saying that we need to see controlling pollution as disease prevention. This is a real opportunity to make sure that UK air quality policy is informed by the world leading science carried out by the NERC research community.

This fellowship aims to improve the coordination across the UK research community. It seeks to link experts across subject areas, as well as with innovators and businesses to encourage the production of research that not only improves our understanding of the air pollution issue, but also considers effective and practical solutions. The objectives aim to help researchers to involve Defra and other research users when developing research ideas to ensure that the output produced is both exciting new science and is as useful as it can be for informing policy decisions.

Research councils, who fund UK research, are also keen to play their part in improving air pollution and reducing its impacts on health and the environment. Over the next few years there are a number of opportunities to influence how large strategic research funds are used. This fellowship will also look to shape proposals for strategic air pollution science to ensure that it is seen as a priority.

Overall, this fellowship aims to make the most of the UK's research strengths to produce information that can inform action on air pollution, thereby reducing the impacts of poor air quality on the environment, human health and the economy.
 
Description Strategic, trusted relationships with policy makers are a vital tool in enabling academics to be involved in early stages of policy development and throughout the policy development process, and therefore to have the greatest impact from their research and expertise.
Exploitation Route I am working with Defra to develop ways in which they can foster string relationships with the air quality research community to enable trusted relationships to be more commonplace and therefore open up opportunities for research to impact policy and policy needs to influence research.
Sectors Environment
 
Description As a result of a policy forum run as part of this award Defra have been following the process of developing a Publicly Available Standard for use of small sensors for air quality. This is in progress with BSI currently and should be published imminently. Through this work I secured a fellowship with the Chief Scientific Adviser's Office to look at the use of systems approaches in Defra. This finished in March 2021 and initial impacts are that Defra's Air Quality and Industrial Emissions team are engaged with the Committee for Climate Change on future scenarios for achieving net zero carbon emissions and are engaging in cross Whitehall discussions on that using a dashboard of potential impacts for air quality developed through a workshop I designed and facilitated with Defra colleagues and the Air Quality Expert Group. This systems work also led to the set up of the Defra Systems, Innovation and Futures team in Defra which is now a core function of the Chief Scientific Advisers office. I have worked with AQEG to feed into advice around the development of a new PM2.5 target under the Environment Act, a landmark new piece of legislation in the environmental space. The value of working with academics in collaboration to deliver evidence for policy is now widely recognised in the Defra AQ team and they have a specific member of staff tasked with progressing this.
First Year Of Impact 2020
Sector Energy,Environment,Transport
Impact Types Policy & public services
 
Description Air Quality Expert Group Advice on PM2.5 Target Setting for Environment Act 2021
Geographic Reach National 
Policy Influence Type Participation in a guidance/advisory committee
Impact This has influenced the modelling which is the central piece of evidence which is informing what target is set for PM2.5 concentrations under the Environment Act. This is nationally important as it sets the level of ambition signed up to by the government and the discussions across government about how such a target can be achieved with future legislation.
URL https://uk-air.defra.gov.uk/library/air-quality-targets
 
Description Appointment to Defra Air Quality Expert Group (AQEG) as ad-hoc member
Geographic Reach National 
Policy Influence Type Participation in a guidance/advisory committee
URL https://uk-air.defra.gov.uk/research/aqeg/
 
Description Developing a method to assess compliance with the new Population Exposure Reduction Target under the Environment Act 2021
Geographic Reach National 
Policy Influence Type Participation in a guidance/advisory committee
Impact This has made the assessment of the particulate matter population exposure reduction target that is part of the Environment Act 2021 more robust and defensible. It provides a practical solution to an issue that was causing problems for civil servants as it was not clear how they would justify simply comparing annual averaged values from very different networks (the planned network expansion is from approx 32 sites to >100).
URL https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2023/96/contents/made
 
Description Ex-Officio member of Air Quality Expert Group
Geographic Reach National 
Policy Influence Type Participation in a guidance/advisory committee
 
Description Mapping factors impacting PM2.5 concentrations in support of target setting under the Environment Act 2021
Geographic Reach National 
Policy Influence Type Participation in a guidance/advisory committee
Impact This impacted the evidence submitted to Ministers of the achievability of an ambitious new PM2.5 target and influenced the approach to discussing achievability. This supported the setting of the new target to be announced later in 2022.
 
Description Systems mapping to inform development of robust targets for PM2.5 under Environment Bill 2021
Geographic Reach National 
Policy Influence Type Citation in other policy documents
Impact This work influenced Defra to consider a systems approach in how they developed the modelling and consultation that informed the development of the particulate matter targets under the Environment Bill. It influenced what modelling work was commissioned and therefore how they assessed achievability of the proposed target and ultimately set a target and achievement date. The below are extracts from the Evidence report about the work - "Work was undertaken to develop a systems map of PM2.5 to inform the target development work. This did not aim to capture every PM2.5 interdependency, however it did illustrate how wider socioeconomic factors such as the economy, urban planning and population distribution affect PM2.5 concentrations." and "The map helped to inform the sector studies and sensitivity analysis, enabling the most important and uncertain sectors to be identified."
URL https://consult.defra.gov.uk/natural-environment-policy/consultation-on-environmental-targets/suppor...
 
Description Technical peer review of modelling for achievability of WHO guidelines for PM2.5 (AQEG Task and Finish Group)
Geographic Reach National 
Policy Influence Type Participation in a guidance/advisory committee
URL https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/air-quality-assessing-progress-towards-who-guideline-leve...
 
Description Defra Systems Research Programme Senior Fellowship: Air Quality
Amount £115,800 (GBP)
Organisation Department For Environment, Food And Rural Affairs (DEFRA) 
Sector Public
Country United Kingdom
Start 04/2019 
End 04/2021
 
Description Systemic environmental risk analysis for threats to UK recovery from COVID-19
Amount £402,043 (GBP)
Funding ID NE/V018159/1 
Organisation Natural Environment Research Council 
Sector Public
Country United Kingdom
Start 01/2021 
End 01/2022
 
Description Understanding inequality and inequity in the distribution of air pollution - Defra PhD Studentship
Amount £67,000 (GBP)
Organisation Department For Environment, Food And Rural Affairs (DEFRA) 
Sector Public
Country United Kingdom
Start 10/2021 
End 09/2024
 
Description Wave 2 support for SPF Clean Air Champions - "Addressing the Challenge of the Indoor/Outdoor Continuum"
Amount £761,400 (GBP)
Funding ID NE/X004236/1 
Organisation Natural Environment Research Council 
Sector Public
Country United Kingdom
Start 08/2022 
End 08/2025
 
Description Research on systemic risk & the environment for policy 
Organisation Department For Environment, Food And Rural Affairs (DEFRA)
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Public 
PI Contribution Through my work in the Defra Chief scientific advisers office facilitated initially through this fellowship I developed a working relationship with Professor Tom Oliver at University of Reading. As a result I am now a co-investigator on a project he is leading on this topic and we are looking for future funding to continue this work. I have been contributing my air quality expertise, awareness of Defra and ways to engage with them and my experience applying systems approaches in policy settings. I contributed to the design of workshops and outputs and the stakeholders engaged during the project.
Collaborator Contribution Tom contributed the project idea and suggested the collaboration. He contacted me off the back our developed relationship and awareness of my capabilities. He is the project lead on the funded project. Defra Systems, Innovations and Futures Team were engaged in this project and contributed actively to the deign through their knowledge of the policy landscape, needs of policy makers and their experience assessing risk.
Impact We have a funded project in progress. This is multidisciplinary and includes other partners from other universities. The included disciplines are social science, ecology, chemistry, science policy and virology. The project produced a report available at https://www.sysrisk.org.uk/resources/ this was launched at a meeting with stakeholders from across many government departments. I am now part of a group in convened by Defra working on Global Catastrophic Risks for Air Quality.
Start Year 2020
 
Description Research on systemic risk & the environment for policy 
Organisation University of Reading
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution Through my work in the Defra Chief scientific advisers office facilitated initially through this fellowship I developed a working relationship with Professor Tom Oliver at University of Reading. As a result I am now a co-investigator on a project he is leading on this topic and we are looking for future funding to continue this work. I have been contributing my air quality expertise, awareness of Defra and ways to engage with them and my experience applying systems approaches in policy settings. I contributed to the design of workshops and outputs and the stakeholders engaged during the project.
Collaborator Contribution Tom contributed the project idea and suggested the collaboration. He contacted me off the back our developed relationship and awareness of my capabilities. He is the project lead on the funded project. Defra Systems, Innovations and Futures Team were engaged in this project and contributed actively to the deign through their knowledge of the policy landscape, needs of policy makers and their experience assessing risk.
Impact We have a funded project in progress. This is multidisciplinary and includes other partners from other universities. The included disciplines are social science, ecology, chemistry, science policy and virology. The project produced a report available at https://www.sysrisk.org.uk/resources/ this was launched at a meeting with stakeholders from across many government departments. I am now part of a group in convened by Defra working on Global Catastrophic Risks for Air Quality.
Start Year 2020
 
Description UKRI Working Group on Clean Air SPF 
Organisation Department For Environment, Food And Rural Affairs (DEFRA)
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Public 
PI Contribution I was involved in meetings around the development of the bid into UKRI for a programme under the Strategic Priorities Fund focused on Clean Air. I consulted on documents and provided advice on the strategic science need. I also discussed with Defra their engagement with this work and provided supporting advice and liaison on this.
Collaborator Contribution NERC and the Met Office led the bid into the UKRI SPF and convened the partners to bring together a strong bid into this process.
Impact This led to a funded programme (£19.6M) from the UKRI SPF fund with parts led by the Met Office, NERC and Innovate UK and with co-funding for sections of that programme from Defra. This programme included MRC, EPSRC, ESRC as partners as well. A sandpit was held in December 2018 to develop multidisciplinary projects for submission to the NERC funding call and a workshop in February 2019 to shape the Met Office calls which are due out in March 2019. I was invited to join the steering committee for this and the SPF Wave 2 investment also on Clean Air and continue to sit on that group to present.
Start Year 2018
 
Description UKRI Working Group on Clean Air SPF 
Organisation Meteorological Office UK
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution I was involved in meetings around the development of the bid into UKRI for a programme under the Strategic Priorities Fund focused on Clean Air. I consulted on documents and provided advice on the strategic science need. I also discussed with Defra their engagement with this work and provided supporting advice and liaison on this.
Collaborator Contribution NERC and the Met Office led the bid into the UKRI SPF and convened the partners to bring together a strong bid into this process.
Impact This led to a funded programme (£19.6M) from the UKRI SPF fund with parts led by the Met Office, NERC and Innovate UK and with co-funding for sections of that programme from Defra. This programme included MRC, EPSRC, ESRC as partners as well. A sandpit was held in December 2018 to develop multidisciplinary projects for submission to the NERC funding call and a workshop in February 2019 to shape the Met Office calls which are due out in March 2019. I was invited to join the steering committee for this and the SPF Wave 2 investment also on Clean Air and continue to sit on that group to present.
Start Year 2018
 
Description UKRI Working Group on Clean Air SPF 
Organisation Natural Environment Research Council
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Public 
PI Contribution I was involved in meetings around the development of the bid into UKRI for a programme under the Strategic Priorities Fund focused on Clean Air. I consulted on documents and provided advice on the strategic science need. I also discussed with Defra their engagement with this work and provided supporting advice and liaison on this.
Collaborator Contribution NERC and the Met Office led the bid into the UKRI SPF and convened the partners to bring together a strong bid into this process.
Impact This led to a funded programme (£19.6M) from the UKRI SPF fund with parts led by the Met Office, NERC and Innovate UK and with co-funding for sections of that programme from Defra. This programme included MRC, EPSRC, ESRC as partners as well. A sandpit was held in December 2018 to develop multidisciplinary projects for submission to the NERC funding call and a workshop in February 2019 to shape the Met Office calls which are due out in March 2019. I was invited to join the steering committee for this and the SPF Wave 2 investment also on Clean Air and continue to sit on that group to present.
Start Year 2018
 
Description NCAS/Defra Policy Forum: Recent advances in air pollution - updates from the Clean Air SPF 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Policymakers/politicians
Results and Impact The aims of the forum were to:
- Inform government stakeholders about the emerging insights created by the
significant UKRI Strategic Priorities Fund investment in Clean Air Research.
- Enable influence on the generation of outputs from government stakeholders to
ensure they maximise full potential for impact both on future science and policy.
- Help SPF funded researchers to identify useful link between projects.

It was a full day workshop with researchers from each of the projects funded under the Wave 1 Clean Air SPF programme and Defra officials. It was run as a
facilitated workshop with elevator pitches from the SPF Clean Air Programme funded projects followed by round table discussions in breakout rooms grouped into the four themes detailed above. These discussions focused on emerging insights and outputs from the projects particularly those that have the potential to be turned into products or tools that could be used by Defra or local authorities. In each area some priority outputs were identified around which Defra would like to have further engagement, discussion and potentially commission further work.

Defra have, as a result of this forum, included the researchers from the QUANT project more closely in the process creating a Publicly Available Specification (PAS) for small sensor usage for air pollution measurements.They have also identified some areas where they may want to fund follow on work but are struggling with mechanisms to do that. Defra are in discussion with UKRI, specifically NERC about a way to progress this. Further discussions and individual meetings are happening with specific projects and a short term appointment is being put together to bring a researcher from one project into Defra to upskill members of the air quality team in the use of techniques used in that project. I am facilitating the set up of this post and will report on it more specifically in the return next year. A number of follow up meetings are in progress with specific project teams which may result in further activity.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
 
Description NCAS/Defra Sensor Symposium 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Other audiences
Results and Impact This was funded as an NCAS forum and follows on from NCAS policy fora previously organised but engages a different audience including business, academia, philanthropic organisations, local authorities, Defra and its agencies.The symposium was run as a facilitated workshop and attendees were expected to contribute through elevator pitches, round table discussions with feedback and whole room discussions; only a couple of presentations were included from Defra to give context and guide discussions. 

The meeting aimed to:
? Get a common understanding between Defra, researchers and other users
about the state of science around small air pollution sensors and effective
use of this technology in air quality research/monitoring.
? Explore barriers to progress in this area.
? Agree action required, and ideally by whom, to accelerate the route to
effective implementation of this technology in air pollution monitoring.

Main outcome was a desire from Defra to keep this group as a sounding board for their future activities in this space. They took an action to investigate setting up a Publicly Available Standard for sensors from BSI. This work with BSI engaged some academics in development of the standard which is due to be published imminently.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2019