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.

Energy Storage (ES) has a key role to play as a part of whole UK and global energy systems, by providing flexibility, enhancing affordability, security and resilience against supply uncertainties, and addressing the huge challenges related to the climate change. Following UKRI investment over the last decade, the UK is in a strong position internationally in ES research and innovation. Although areas of UK expertise are world leading, there is little interaction between these areas and interplaying disciplines e.g. artificial intelligence, data and social sciences. This fragmentation limits the community's ability to deliver significant societal impact and threatens the continuity of delivering research excellence, missing opportunities as a result. Consequently, there is now an urgent need for the ES community to connect, convene and communicate more effectively. The proposed Supergen Storage Network Plus 2019 project (ES-Network+) responds to this need by bringing together 19 leading academics at different career stages across 12 UK institutions, with complementary energy storage (ES) related expertise and the necessary multidisciplinary balance to deliver the proposed programme. The aim of the ES-Network+ is to create a dynamic, forward-looking and sustainable platform, connecting and serving people from diverse backgrounds across the whole ES value chain including industry, academia and policymakers. As a focal point for the ES community, we will create, exchange and disseminate ES knowledge with our stakeholders. We will nurture early career researchers (ECR) in ES and establish ambitious, measurable goals for equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI). We will complement existing activities (e.g. Faraday Institution, UKERC, Energy Systems Catapult, CREDS, other Supergen Hubs) to serve the UK's needs, delivering impact nationally and internationally. The ES-Network+ will convene and support the ES community to deliver societal impact through technological breakthroughs, generating further value from the UKRI ES portfolio. It will be a secure and inclusive eco-system for researchers in ES & related fields to access, innovate, build and grow their UK and international networks. It is distinctive from the current Supergen Storage Hub: We have a PI with non-electrochemical background, an expanded investigator team with complementary expertise in energy network integration, mechanical and inter-seasonal thermal ES, hybrid storage with digital knowledge, cold storage, transport with ES integration, ES materials measurement & imaging and social science with policy implications. Early career researchers will hold key positions within the ES-Network+ and we will underpin all of our work with EDI values. We will develop an authoritative whitepaper for steering ES related decision-making, giving an overview of the ES community and a technical view on how ES research should be steered going forward. The team is extremely well-connected to the ES industry and the wider energy community and has secured 57 supporting organisations, including energy production, transmission, distribution & network operation, specialist aggregators of heat & power, storage technology developers and integrators; ES related manufacturers, ES related recycling; and research institutes/centres/hubs/networks/associations both nationally and internationally. The supporting organisations also bring in a significant amount of extra resources to ensure a successful delivery of the ES-Network+.