In the last 5 years, air quality has become a key consideration for the UK government agenda, as illustrated by the increasing number of Low Emission Zones (LEZ), Ultra Low Emission Zones (ULEZ, including the first ULEZ in a mega-City in London) and even the world’s first Zero Emission Zone (Oxford, starting from 2020) and dedicated funds. This is due to the alarming evidence of local and wider implications of air quality to the health of citizens, and world climate. As transportation contributes to grow a high percentage of the total emissions, traffic management and regulations, such as the emissions-controlled zones, have the potential to significantly contribute towards a solution. Yet, this localised approach to reducing emissions may have other wider implications to near-by areas, a critical example being the SRN. For example, prohibiting or discouraging vehicles from crossing one region (such as a city centre), may disproportionally burden the strategic road network (such as a ring road) around that region with a net negative effect. A linked consideration is that as cities/regions are aiming to incentivise active travel by, for example, prioritising pedestrians over cars at traffic lights, this might have implications on the link roads. A holistic approach is needed where the impact of such local measures can be evaluated alongside their implications on the SRN. Establishing a working and scalable Proof of Concept (PoC) to deliver this vision is challenging as it involves, especially if this system is to be dynamic, responding the live situations. Suppose that an area would like to dynamically change between prioritising walkability (and healthy travel) as a Business As Usual (BaU), yet at times of high congestion would need to switch the traffic management to increase traffic flow (thus reducing congestion and enabling better use of vehicles), our solution to this problem will: • Systematise clear trigger points, based on predictions of the implication of not taking any actions • Creating measurable and actionable KPIs that can be used for the evaluation of the system at traffic control centres • Be based on real time data of both traffic and air quality (AQ data may be from on-vehicle sensors, infrastructure-imbedded sensors or satellite data) • Establish clear tactics that are appropriate to the region (divergence routes, time-to-green etc) that are based on traffic modelling of their implications, which are also evaluated • Be communicated to the drivers over the air via reliable routes, such as highways authority’s social media, broadcast radio etc. • Be communicated to the drivers via edge devices, such as traffic lights and DSRC communication.

The Government's 'Future of Mobility' and 'Road to Zero' strategies outline a second UK transport revolution, characterised by rapid decarbonisation, increased automation and enhanced connectivity. This radical transformation presents both opportunities and challenges for improving air quality over the next two decades, occurring in the context of disruptive changes in transport technology, increasing public environmental awareness and evolving transport behaviours. In this context, actions taken during the emerging transition phase will influence air pollutant sources and exposure patterns across indoor (i.e. vehicle, rail/bus) and outdoor (i.e. pavement, platform, bus station) land transport environments, with profound future implications for public health. We recognise this critical opportunity for encouraging policy foresight, cultivating scientific advancement and stimulating citizen engagement at the air quality, climate and health nexus. Our vision is to establish a diverse interdisciplinary network, connecting researchers across nine UK higher education and research institutions with >20 network partners, comprising commercial, public sector and non-profit organisations. We will establish sustainable connections to undertake co-definition of issues and opportunities and co-delivery of innovative, evidence-based solutions. We will deliver a varied portfolio of network activities including TRANSITION summits, problem-solving workshops, hackathons, discovery studies, site visits, policy engagement events and creative outreach activities at transport locations. Thus the network partners will achieve the ambitious but achievable goal of directly shaping future air quality, climate and transport policy, reflecting the ambitions of the UKRI SPF Clean Air Analysis and Solutions programme.

"OmniCAV will lay the foundations for the development of a comprehensive, robust and secure simulator, aimed at providing a certification tool for Connected Autonomous Vehicles (CAVs) that can be used by regulatory and accreditation bodies, insurers and manufacturers to accelerate the safe development of CAVs. It brings together a team of eleven internationally renowned organisations, with decades of accumulated knowledge in the area, in order to produce a single-point-of-call simulator to establish when a CAV can safely progress from a testbed to road trial. To achieve this, OmniCAV will use highly detailed road maps, together with a powerful combination of traffic management, accident and CCTV data, to create a high-fidelity dual (traffic and driving) simulation environment, including AI-trained road users to interact with the AV under test. Scenarios for testing will be developed and randomised in a holistic way to avoid CAVs training to specific conditions, whilst maximising coverage, and the integrity of the testing environment will be taken into consideration through creation of a root-of-trust design to secure the test inputs, simulator configuration and resulting test outputs. Critically, the simulator will offer market-leading coverage of a representative element of the UK road network, through encompassing rural roads, peri-urban and urban roads, to help enable autonomy for all. Representatives of the key end-users, including a local authority, an OEM and an insurance provider, will be engaged throughout to understand their needs. The validity of the synthetic test environment compared to the real-world is of particular importance, and OmniCAV will be tested and refined through an iterative approach involving real-world comparisons and working in conjunction with a CAV test-bed. This is an ambitious project aiming to step-change the safe trialing of CAVs in a safe, holistic and challenging manner in order to accelerate their training, deployment and adoption."