This proposal responds to a call from the Research Councils for a national Centre on energy demand research, building on the work of the existing six End Use Energy Demand Centres, for which funding ends in April 2018. Energy demand reduction is a UK success story, with a 15% fall in final energy consumption since 2004. Major further reductions are possible and will be needed, as part of a transformation of the energy system to low carbon, to deliver the goals of the Paris Agreement and the UK carbon budgets. Moreover, a low carbon energy system will be increasingly reliant upon inflexible and variable electricity generation, and therefore demand will also need to become more flexible. In short, changes in energy demand reduction will need to go further and faster, and demand will need to become more flexible. These challenges have far-reaching implications for technology, business models, social practices and policy. Our vision is for energy demand research in the UK to rise to these challenges. The Centre's ambition is to lead whole systems work on energy demand in the UK, collaborating with a wider community both at home and internationally. We aim to deliver globally leading research on energy demand, to secure much greater impact for energy demand research and to champion the importance of energy demand for delivering environmental, social and economic goals. Our research programme is inter-disciplinary, recognising that technical and social change are inter-dependent and co-evolve. It is organised into six Themes. Three of these address specific issues in the major sectors of energy use, namely: buildings, transport and industry. The remaining three address more cross-cutting issues that drive changing patterns of demand, namely the potential for increased flexibility, the impact of digital technologies, and energy policy and governance. Each Theme has a research programme that has been developed with key stakeholders and will provide the capacity for the Centre to inform debate, deliver impact and share knowledge in its specific area of work. The Themes will also undertake collaborative work, with our first joint task being to assess the role of energy demand in delivering the objectives of the UK Government's Clean Growth Plan. The Centre will also include Challenges that respond to cross-thematic questions for UK energy demand. These will mostly be developed in consultation over the early years of the Centre, and therefore only one is included in the initial plan: on the decarbonisation of heat. The Centre will function as a national focus for inter-disciplinary research on energy demand. In doing this it will need to respond to a rapidly evolving energy landscape. It will therefore retain 25% of its funds to allocate during the lifetime of the Centre through a transparent governance process. These funds will support further challenges and a 'Flexible Fund', which will be used to support research on emerging research questions, in particular through support for early career researchers. We are working closely with key stakeholders in business and policy to design our research programme and we plan detailed knowledge exchange activities to ensure that the work of the UK energy demand research community has broader societal impact.

The 2019 Climate Change Act committed the UK to reducing its emissions of greenhouse gases to net zero by 2050. The 2019 UK Clean Air Strategy, sees "air pollution as one of the UK's biggest public health challenges", aims to secure clean growth whilst tackling air pollution through reducing emissions. Achieving these reductions in greenhouse gas and air pollutant emissions will entail substantial reductions in use of fossil fuels and changes to the transport fleet over coming years as we make the transition to a 'low carbon economy'. This will also have an important benefit for health of improving levels of outdoor air pollution by reducing emissions from power plants, motor vehicles, wood/coal burning at home and other sources. However, another important climate change action is to improve energy efficiency in homes. Those measures typically entail reducing levels of ventilation to cut down heat losses from escape of heated air. In addition to helping improve winter indoor temperatures, this can be beneficial for human health because it reduces the penetration into the home of air pollutants from the outdoor environment. But it will increase indoor levels of air pollutants derived from sources inside the home - such as particles and gases generated by cooking, volatile organic compounds (VOCs) given off from fabrics and furnishings, cleaning and personal care products. The changes to indoor pollution levels from improved home energy efficiency may thus be overall positive or negative for the health of building occupants depending on the balance of effects on pollutants entering and leaving the indoor environment. That balance is likely to depend on the levels of outdoor pollutants, indoor air pollutant sources and activities that generate these, the form of the energy efficiency improvements, the behaviour of occupants and their vulnerability to air pollutants. People at particular risk are young children, the elderly, those with pre-existing illnesses, and those experiencing social deprivation. To improve understanding of these issues, we have created a new research network (acronym 'HEICCAAM'). This network brings together experienced and early career researchers from nine universities from disciplines as diverse as air quality measurement and modelling, building physics, behavioural science, health and health inequalities, education and policy. The network will also include representatives of the public, as well as stakeholders from the public sector, business/industry and non-government bodies - including Public Health England, Health Protection and NHS Scotland, Scottish Environment Protection Agency, Age UK, the Passivhaus Trust, Good Homes Alliance, Edinburgh City Council, the Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers and the UK Met Office. The network will build evidence on the consequences for exposure to air pollution of actions aimed at tackling climate change and poor air quality, with particular focus on the home environment. Its aim is to provide underpinning research that can inform and influence policy and practice to safeguard human health. The network will include activities by six Working Groups tasked with generating a series of papers on relevant issues of science and policy. It will also undertake four small research projects aimed at improving understanding of key issues where there are knowledge gaps. It will have a particular focus on protecting the health of vulnerable groups and reduction of health inequities. Network members will have multiple interactions through electronic meetings, webinars, discussion groups and an annual meeting and workshop with a wider group of stakeholders. Through its activities, the network will help build long-term capability in interdisciplinary research in this area, including through the interactions with early career researchers, the development of new research plans, and linkage to other networks and existing research programmes.

Climate change is the greatest long-term challenge facing the world today. It not only poses a threat to the UK's long term economic stability but also to the quality of life of its citizens. Whilst there are many initiatives in place to mitigate climate change and to adapt (both buildings and living practices) to the inevitable climate change resulting from past consumption of fossil fuels, it is generally accepted that real change will only come about if such initiatives are supported by a change in behaviour amongst UK households. Such changes would include a more positive attitude towards low carbon technologies (both at the micro and grid level) and a greater understanding of the potential problems that climate change could pose, especially to vulnerable groups. This proposal will seek to stimulate this change through focussed engagement with older UK community.The factors that influence the uptake of low (or zero) carbon micro-generation technologies are not primarily technological but behavioural. Studies into behaviour change, and in particular the factors that influence it, have identified the importance of social networks and community groupings as trusted advocates was identified as critical to successfully influencing peer behaviour. Further, work by the Energy Savings Trust has identified 10 community segments that respond differently to sustainability interventions. Amongst these segments are: 'the Discerning Elders' / professional couples on the cusp of retirement who have limited financial commitments, are interested in environmental issues, and offer considerable opportunities for behaviour change; and the 'Restful Retired' / elderly couples and widow/widowers who could benefit financially from the savings that could accrue from energy efficiency measure. This project will work with those agencies trusted by the elderly (Age Concern, Heyday, Energy Saving Trust & Friends of the Elderly) to support behaviour change through public engagement focussed on the older UK community. The engagement will be designed to stimulate interest in climate change mitigation and adaptation solutions and engage this community in a public debate over the best way forward for the UK.

We propose an End Use Energy Demand (EUED) Centre focused on Energy Epidemiology to be located at the multidisciplinary UCL Energy Institute (UCL-Energy), which undertakes research on energy demand and energy systems. Energy Epidemiology uses data and modelling to study energy use in the real world, with the aim of understanding the interactions of policy, technology, infrastructure, people and culture. The Centre for Energy Epidemiology (CEE) will: undertake primary data collection; advise on data collection; provide secure and ethical curation of a wealth of administrative, commercial and research data; link, develop and use innovative research methods; and support a structured research programme on energy demand intended to achieve a major reduction in UK carbon emissions. CEE will provide key research and policy insights at city, regional, national and international levels. It will support UK academics, policymakers and industry to research energy demand, by providing a cost-effective, secure and ethical bureau service for energy and related data. It will work closely with the new cross-government Energy Efficiency Deployment Office (EEDO) of DECC, the Energy Saving Trust, UK Energy Research Centre (UKERC) and the new Open Data Institute (ODI) to marshal and maximise the value of existing and very large future sources of energy-related data ('big data'), ensuring the greatest impact for evidence-based energy demand research. The Centre will initiate and be a key player in an international network of energy epidemiologists, sharing research methods and undertaking cross-cultural comparisons of policies and technologies to reduce energy demand and to help the UK to meet its carbon targets. UCL-Energy: - has a clear focus on energy demand and its interaction with energy supply systems - this has been the core focus of UCL-Energy since its launch, with full UCL support, 35 months ago. - is multi- and interdisciplinary with lawyers, economists, social scientists, engineers, physicists, psychologists, architects, mathematicians and policy analysts co-located in open plan offices facilitating collaborative work. It has successfully worked with researchers from anthropology, English literature and history on energy demand problems. - makes an impact by supporting policy makers and industry to both set and achieve UK carbon targets. Examples of such support include the Green Deal, CCC budgets, smart meter rollout, and the development of products for reducing energy demand. UCL-Energy is the only university centre that has officially advised DECC's new EEDO, whose focus is squarely on EUED. - undertakes research of the highest quality; its staff were recognised as "world leading" by two successive EPSRC Platform Grant reviews. Roughly half its staff were submitted in the Built Environment UoA (30), for which UCL received the highest percentage (35%) of internationally leading staff (4*) in the UK. It holds the grant for the only Centre for Doctoral Training in energy demand. - is not sector-specific; it covers all energy uses and applies methods across sectors e.g. transport and buildings. - is managed as a coherent centre - this is facilitated by placing all staff under a single budget centre with a clear management structure. UCL-Energy is advised and guided by a prestigious International Advisory Board with CEOs and directors from leading companies around the world. - has leveraged a wide range of funding. From an initial UCL investment of £680k, it has so far raised £10m of external funding, including £2m from industry. - has strong leadership - its Director, Professor Tadj Oreszczyn has established a new academic department at UCL in less than 3 years, advises government at senior level, is on the boards of key organisations and has written several strategic papers on the future direction of energy demand research. - has critical mass and sustainability: UCL-Energy has 80 staff and PhD students

eViz uses innovative digital techniques to transform energy decisions and behaviour. People's behaviour can cause energy use to be 30-40% higher than Building experts anticipate. Generally, people are keen on saving energy for financial as well as environmental motives. However, uncertainty remains about the exact benefits of installing energy-efficiency measures and changing household habits. Despite a long tradition of energy advice, energy efficiency measures remain pallid and unconvincing, removed from people's day-to-day experiences. There is a gap between abstract, invisible energy flows and people's desire to understand their energy use and become more energy efficient. We offer a solution that bridges this gap. Our previous work has shown that visualising energy loss by means of thermal images led householders to install more energy-efficiency measures and reduced their energy bills when audited a year later, compared to a conventional energy audit (Goodhew et al., 2012). Building on this, the present research will take a major step forward by using novel digital data visualisation techniques to present intuitive, easily graspable representations of energy flows. Using our virtual reality and data visualisation expertise, we will produce sophisticated interactive 3D and 4D representations of energy flows. We will add and overlay scientific projections of future states to direct observations and employ a range of approaches including webcams, simulation, smartphones, and social media such as facebook. Energy flows will be visualised as a function of house type (e.g., detached), any retrofits undertaken (e.g., loft insulation) and occupant behaviour (e.g., opening windows). Visualisations will be developed with users to evaluate their intuitiveness and motivational properties. We will include interactive tailored visualisations as well as generic "walk-throughs" for domestic and public buildings. The Energy Saving Trust and other partners have agreed to disseminate visualisations through their web-site and dedicated events. The best visualisations will be used in field trials with our UK and International partners to evaluate financial and carbon savings over time. Social media (e.g., facebook) will be exploited to engage a wider range of people with this information. We will evaluate which types of visualisations and data people are willing to share (and which attract most attention and debate in their social network) and examine how people use these to discuss and reduce energy use. Our research programme will increase understanding of energy dynamics as a function of occupant behaviour and building characteristics. It will allow experts to make better predictions of energy efficiency and design buildings around human behaviour, and it will help occupants to change their habitual behaviour (e.g., open windows) to reduce energy use as well as motivate them to take up offers of energy-efficiency measures (e.g., loft insulation). All of these together will contribute to energy demand reduction and help people take charge of their energy use to future-proof their buildings in the face of rising energy cost and climate change. UK newspaper headlines report two issues just as we are finalising the eViz research progamme. First, the UK's carbon emissions have increased for the first time since 2007, one reason being increased home heating in the winter of 2010 (Guardian, 8th February 2011). Second, average household energy bills have doubled in the past six years and are expected to rise by up to 60% more by 2020 (Independent, 10th February 2011). The present research is dedicated to helping people stay warm in the context of attaining the UK's carbon reduction targets.