Scottish researcH partnership for Air Pollution health Effects (SHAPE)

This forum brings together the Scottish air quality (AQ) community to explore challenges to, and opportunities for, improving indoor and outdoor AQ in Scotland.

Air pollution (AP) is a global public health emergency, with 99% of people breathing air that breaches agreed limits (WHO, 2022). Annually, air pollution causes 6.7 million global deaths, with 2500-3500 premature deaths per year in Scotland (FoE, 2016). AP is extremely difficult to solve, partly due to it being (largely) invisible (Holgate, 2022). Scotland is a particularly challenging setting because of strong differentials in health inequalities (e.g., Schofield et al., 2016). Stricter World Health Organisation AQ Guidelines introduced in 2021, the UK’s commitment to Net Zero, Brexit and the Cleaner Air For Scotland 2 AQ strategy mean that now is the time to significantly strengthen AQ research and engagement for decision making in Scotland.

Hence SHAPE brings together multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary AQ researchers and wider stakeholders. Together, we will advance our scientific understanding of exposure and health, focusing on co-benefits and solutions to inform decision-making to reduce health inequalities and improve population health. We will engage through an in-person workshop and online activities between multi-disciplinary academics across career stages including early career researchers (ECRs), and stakeholders in government, non-governmental organisations and industry. Through this, we will create a legacy of next generation ECRs engaged in stakeholder-driven AQ interdisciplinary research.

The aim of the Scottish researcH partnership for AP health Effects (SHAPE) is to bring together the Scottish AQ community to explore challenges to, and opportunities for, improving AQ in Scotland. With this funding we would aim to formalise and extend the existing SHAPE network.

The objectives are to:

Develop a vibrant network of multi-disciplinary academics and non-academic stakeholders that are poised to tackle emerging AQ issues in Scotland through collaborative working and future grant applications.

Undertake co-designed (stakeholders with academics) evidence synthesis on an emerging AQ problem in Scotland, e.g., challenges of meeting the WHO AQ guidelines in Scotland, unintended consequences of net zero policies such as “sealed homes” with worsened AQ.

Write a SHAPE position paper outlining key challenges to, and opportunities for, improving AQ in Scotland.

Disseminate findings from SHAPE to the wider research community, stakeholders and the public, to impact future research, policy and practice.

Create a legacy of next generation early career researcher (ECRs) engaged in stakeholder-driven AQ research.