Poor air quality is widely recognised to affect human health and wellbeing. Cumulative exposure to pollutants throughout the life course is a determinant for numerous long term health conditions including dementia, heart disease and diabetes, Short term high exposures are shown to exacerbate conditions such as asthma and COPD, increase risks of heart attacks and stroke and influence respiratory infections. The very young, very old and those with pre-existing conditions are most at risk and inequality further increases this; the poorest in society often live in the lowest quality housing in the most polluted areas. Human exposure to air pollutants occurs in both indoor and outdoor environments. Urban air pollution results from a combination of local outdoor sources (e.g. transport, combustion, industry) and regional and large scale atmospheric transport of pollutants. We spend up to 90% of our time indoors and indoor air quality is therefore a significant part of human exposure. Indoor air quality is influenced by the climate, weather and air quality in the external environment in addition to local indoor sources (e.g. microorganisms, chemicals cleaning and personal care, cooking, industry processes, emissions from building materials, heating and mechanical systems) and the building design and operation. In all cases it is the airflows within and between indoor and outdoor locations that enables the transport of pollutants and ultimately determines human exposures. Understanding airflows is therefore at the heart developing effective mitigating actions, particularly in cases where there is limited ability to remove a pollutant source. Being able to predict the influence of airflows enables understanding of how pollutants are likely to move within and between buildings in a city, both under normal day-to-day conditions and in response to emergencies such as heatwaves or wildfires. With the right computational and measurement tools it is then possible to change the design or management of city neighbourhoods enabling better urban flows to reduce exposure to pollutants and also to innovate new ventilation solutions to control the indoor environment in buildings. While there are a number of approaches that already enable assessment of urban flows and indoor flows, these aspects are not currently considered together in an integrated way or focused on optimising environments for health. The Future Urban Ventilation Network (FUVN) aims to address this by defining a new holistic methodology - the Breathing City. This will define a new integrated assessment approach that considers coupled indoor-outdoor flows together to minimise exposure for people within a neighbourhood who are most at risk from the effects of poor air quality. The network will bring together people from a range of disciplines and areas of application with a common interest in improving urban and indoor airflows to improve health. Through small scale research and workshop activities we will advance the understanding of the fluid dynamics that determines the physics of this indoor-outdoor exchange. The network will develop a research programme to address technical gaps in modelling and measuring pollutant transport and how we can use this to determine long and short term exposures to a range of pollutants. We will work collaboratively with industry, policy makers and the public to understand how this approach could change city planning, building design guidance and community actions to enable health based future urban ventilation design and to "design out" health risks for people who are most vulnerable.

VSimulators is a worldwide unique facility for exploring how people experience motion and vibrations in the build environment, such as sway in tall buildings, vibration of lively floors, or movement of footbridges. The facility consists of a pair of simulators located at the Universities of Bath and Exeter providing complementary capability in mimicking motion and environmental factors in the built environment. Using hydraulic actuators driving a climate controlled room, the Bath machine can simulate biaxial movement at ultra-low frequencies with large amplitudes primarily to study comfort and health of occupants in tall and super tall buildings which are proliferating in cities across the world. The Exeter machine uses a 6-axis electric 'hexapod' actuation system supporting a rigid 4 meter square platform. This will simulate multi-axis motion primarily to study comfort of humans using footbridges, floors and grandstands vibrating in response to occupant dynamic forces. The Bath machine will incorporate peripheral video displays of internal and external environment, systems for sophisticated environmental control and measurement of occupant physiological and psychological reactions, while the Exeter machine will use sophisticated virtual reality and full capability for force identification and motion capture of occupants. Using shared equipment (e.g. treadmills, inertial sensors, optical motion capture) and technical support the complementary capabilities will be applied to research human-structure interaction (based upon human comfort, well-being and productivity), assisted mobility and rehabilitation and populate a spectrum of vibration serviceability guidance. The facility will provide a worldwide unique capability available to researchers and practitioners from a range of industries and backgrounds. Together with this multi-disciplinary network of people, VSimulators' unique capability will transform what research we are able to do and how we carry out that research.

There is an inexorable trend for civil engineering structures to become more slender and lightweight, as engineers strive to design more efficient structures with reduced economic cost, reduced carbon footprint and increased flexibility of usage. Unfortunately, due to their reduced mass and stiffness these structures are inherently lively and there is a desperate need for advanced technologies that are capable of ensuring satisfactory vibration performance when people walk, run and jump on them. There are two key issues to address: (1) Technologies are required to deal with existing vibration problems, which are increasingly and widely observed in structures such as floors, footbridges, sports stadia and staircases. Currently available technologies are insufficient to deal with the majority of these problems, which means that extensive and low-tech structural modification schemes have to be employed that are both expensive and highly disruptive. (2) If the ambitions of structural engineers for ever more slender and efficient structures are to be realised, it will be necessary to 'design in' advanced methods of vibration control when developing new structures. This is because many contemporary structures are already being designed at their limits of vibration acceptability. Unfortunately, the new technologies required for this transformative design approach are not yet available. In the last five years, the applicant and his team have carried out exciting research into active control of vibration in floor structures, in which large reductions in vibration have been achieved that are not possible using other floor control technologies. They have also demonstrated that significant material savings may be made using this technology, which has the potential to significantly reduce the carbon footprint of new buildings. This is the main vision for this fellowship and the future, where advanced and intelligent vibration control strategies will become commonplace in structures subject to human dynamic loading. However, a solution that works for floor vibrations from a single person walking is not necessarily going to work for a sports stadium with many thousands of people jumping during a rock concert. Hence, what is required is a required is a complete 'suite' of control technologies, from which the most appropriate solution may be chosen and implemented for any particular vibration problem. In these days of active noise cancelling headphones and semi-active vehicle suspension systems, it is time for these advanced technologies to find their place in civil structural engineering, to solve the unique problems of human-induced vibration. Hence, in this research a comprehensive framework of technologies will be developed, so that the most appropriate technologies may be selected for a particular application. This will be the first time in the world that such a holistic approach has been taken to mitigation of human-induced vibrations. Fundamental research into a range of these technologies, including active, semi-active and hybrid vibration control techniques will be carried out to prove their viability in the civil engineering sector through analytical modelling, laboratory testing and in-the-field implementation. Finally, extensive industrial liaison and public outreach activities are planned to ensure the take-up of these technologies, which is the key way in which this research will benefit UK plc.

Globally, one in four cities is facing water stress, and the projected demand for water in 2050 is set to increase by 55%. These are significant and difficult problems to overcome, however this also provides huge opportunity for us to reconsider how our water systems are built, operated and governed. Placing an inspirational student experience at the centre of our delivery model, the Water Resilience for Infrastructure and Cities (WRIC) Centre for Doctoral Training (CDT) will nurture a new generation of research leaders to provide the multi-disciplinary, disruptive thinking to enhance the resilience of new and existing water infrastructure. In this context the WRIC CDT will seek to improve the resilience of water infrastructure which conveys and treats water and wastewater as well as the impacts of water on other infrastructure systems which provide vital public services in urban environments. The need for the CDT is simple: Water infrastructure is fundamental to our society and economy in providing benefit from water as a vital resource and in managing risks from water hazards, such as wastewater, floods, droughts, and environmental pollution. Recent water infrastructure failures caused by climate change have provided strong reminders of our need to manage these assets against the forces of nature. The need for resilient water systems has never been greater and more recognised in the context of our industrial infrastructure networks and facilities for water supply, wastewater treatment and urban drainage. Similarly, safeguarding critical infrastructure in key sectors such as transport, energy and waste from the impacts of water has never been more important. Combined, resilience in these systems is vitally important for public health and safety. Industry, regulators and government all recognise the huge skills gap. Therefore there is an imperative need for highly skilled graduates who can transcend disciplines and deliver innovative solutions to contemporary water infrastructure challenges. Centred around unique and world leading water infrastructure facilities, and building on an internationally renowned research consortium (Cranfield University, The University of Sheffield and Newcastle University), this CDT will produce scientists and engineers to deliver the innovative and disruptive thinking for a resilient water infrastructure future. This will be achieved through delivery of an inspirational and relevant and end user-led training programme for researchers. The CDT will be delivered in cohorts, with deeply embedded horizontal and vertical training and integration within, and between, cohorts to provide a common learning and skills development environment. Enhanced training will be spread across the consortium, using integrated delivery, bespoke training and giving students a set of unique experiences and skills. Our partners are drawn from a range of leading sector and professional organisations and have been selected to provide targeted contributions and added value to the CDT. Together we have worked with our project partners to co-create the strategic vision for WRIC, particularly with respect to the training needs and challenges to be addressed for development of resilience engineers. Their commitment is evidenced by significant financial backing with direct (>£2.4million) and indirect (>£1.6million) monetary contributions, agreement to sit on advisory boards, access to facilities and data, and contributions on our taught programme.

The design of floor structures supporting human occupants is increasingly being governed by vibration serviceability criteria. This is a result of increasing slenderness of modern floor systems and the trend for fewer partitions and other non-structural elements that otherwise would provide damping. At the same time, demands for better vibration performance are increasing. Occupants of high quality commercial, residential and hospital buildings will complain when excessive levels of vibration are felt. Also, many new items of scientific, healthcare and manufacturing equipment are sensitive to even very low levels of vibration and the structures that support them must be designed to ensure an appropriate vibration environment.To address these issues, the proposed research will investigate the use of active vibration control (AVC) to improve the vibration performance of floor structures under human-induced loading. This technology has already been shown by the PI to be feasible but it requires substantial further research to be established as a practical option for structural engineers and building developers. Hence, the key aims of the proposed research are:- To identify and develop control strategies suitable for active control of human-induced vibrations in floors and to evaluate improvements in floor vibration performance through simulations, laboratory testing and field installation. A full spectrum of complexity will be investigated, ranging from simple single-input-single-output collocated systems to much more complex adaptive model-based systems using multiple sensors and actuators.- To develop inertial actuation technology appropriate for AVC on floor structures, and hence to demonstrate that an AVC system can be `packaged' to be affordable, compact, robust and reliable. These are key technological hurdles that must be addressed if the benefits of AVC systems are to be realised in the highly commercial civil engineering sector.