"Poor air quality is the largest environmental risk to Public Health in the UK" [DEFRA, 2017]. Air pollution in the West Midlands affects some 2.8 million people, reducing average life expectancy by up to 6 months, and is responsible for economic costs estimated at £860m per year. Air quality is therefore a key priority for local and regional government, and increasingly the general public, with further emphasis arising from the "Diesel-gate" emissions scandal, and ongoing High Court challenges to the Government's Air Quality strategy. Historically, local air quality policy has been the responsibility of the individual Local Authorities. However, air pollution does not respect political boundaries, and the 2016 formation of the West Midlands Combined Authority will lead to an integrated approach to air pollution, under the Second Devolution Deal for the West Midlands (2017). In parallel, the NHS Sustainability Transformation Trust is bringing an integrated approach to health and social care provision - with air quality a core priority. This gives rise to a unique and timely opportunity to translate environmental science research expertise into regional policy and interventions to reduce air pollution. The University of Birmingham group has critical mass, international research expertise and NERC track record in air pollution, and its health and economic impacts. We have a history of links with regional partners, ranging from commissioned work and joint research projects to informal collaborations. Accordingly, we have developed the West Midlands Air Quality Improvement Programme (WMAQIP), through a co-design process alongside regional stakeholders including the WMCA / Mayor of the West Midlands, Local Authorities, private companies, industry sector bodies and third sector organisations, to deliver: -Situational awareness (understanding of air pollution levels and sources), e.g. applied to refinement of the Birmingham Clean Air Zone and design of future interventions in Coventry, avoiding over £5m annual costs plus benefits to visitors / commuters working in the cities. -Predictive Capability to evaluate AQ policy options, in comparison with business as usual predictions, for pollution levels, health and economic impacts - identifying interventions to achieve Birmingham City Council's goal of halving AQ-related mortality by 2030 (750 deaths/yr and £170m annual costs avoided); avoiding additional healthcare costs of £600m required under business-as-usual scenarios, and informing allocation of recurrent and one-off intra-city transport investment of £250m. -Application of the resulting capability to specific policy scenarios - including infrastructure design around the 2022 Birmingham Commonwealth Games to deliver improved air quality, understanding the air quality consequences of future vehicle fleet evolution to electric vehicles, and optimising air quality co-benefits from green infrastructure for HS2 development. WMAQIP directly addresses the UK Industrial Strategy grand challenge of Clean Growth, which commits the Government to "create a future where our cities benefit from cleaner air", and the Infrastructure foundation of productivity, which identifies a determination to "tackle air pollution and support affected areas, given the significant negative impact it has on public health, the economy and the environment." WMAQIP combines NERC research expertise with direct inputs from a range of partner organisations. The programme will deliver policy impact from application of environmental science applied to specific policy priorities through a cohort of Impact Fellows, physically embedded within stakeholder organisations to provide knowledge transfer and training, and hence lasting impact. Programme legacy will be maximised by formalising capabilities as tools which may be applied elsewhere, and actions to promote their dissemination.

The Urban Living Birmingham (ULB) Consortium brings together the expertise of four universities; national and international academic institutions; and very many local, regional and national organisations. The core academic team, led by the University of Birmingham with Birmingham City University, Aston University and the University of Warwick, have world-leading track records in cities, engineering, services and social sciences; a portfolio of pioneering inter-disciplinary research; and a deep understanding of Birmingham and the West Midlands. On 20th November 2015 a meeting of 39 representatives from across Greater Birmingham's public, private and third sectors was held to discuss the Urban Living Partnership Pilot Call. Taking a city focus within the context of the region, this group noted that the appetite for innovation in the development and delivery of urban services was high in Birmingham, but the degree of success and ability to integrate these innovations into mainstream strategies and policies varied greatly. Therein lies the paradox and it became evident that there is a missed opportunity for Birmingham, and British cities more generally, to co-innovate by effectively drawing upon end-users. As the largest city in the UK outside London, with one of the most diverse and youthful populations anywhere in the UK, the City of Birmingham has the potential to set a new agenda for 21st century urban living. Like most great cities, Birmingham is experiencing disruptive change brought about in part by global economic forces combined with reductions in national and local public expenditure. Since the late 1960s, Birmingham has performed poorly on all economic indicators. In addition, in 2014 a review of the city's governance and the organisational capabilities of the city council noted that Birmingham had problems that were so significant that they were of national importance. This project identifies the diverse and interdependent challenges facing the City of Birmingham by the application of a rigorous diagnostic process based on the analysis of datasets informed by end-users and representatives from the public, private and third sectors. The focus is on the identification of opportunities for innovation in integrated and city-wide solutions that cut across traditional policy silos and that have the potential to transform the city into a prosperous, healthy and vibrant living place. The Urban Living Birmingham consortium aims to identify improvements to urban services by combining top-down urban governance with bottom-up lay and expert knowledge to provide an environment that emphasizes and encourages innovations that generate a step change in urban service provision. It will do this by bringing together, developing and applying end-user and open innovation processes (from business disciplines) and participatory and cooperative design principles (from urban design disciplines) to selected urban services and systems to co-create a resilient Birmingham that provides 'better outcomes for people'. Most transformational service innovations occur when service providers go beyond listening to consumers to co-innovating with consumers. This user-centric approach to innovation reflects a process of end-user innovation in which users can modify existing products and services, but also service providers can learn from this process. Urban Living Birmingham will contribute towards the transformation of Birmingham into a city that is a regional asset and a global beacon for urban service innovation; a city with an exceptionally rich quality of urban living, increased social cohesion, reduced deprivation, increased connectivity and productivity, and a healthy urban population.

Air pollution causes 29,000 pre-mature death and cost the economy £20 billion per year in the UK alone. A majority of these impacts are associated with Vulnerable Groups (VGs), who are most strongly affected by air pollution with up to ca. 12 life years lost for the individual. Children (VGI) & people with pre-existing medical conditions (VGII) are of particular concern in terms of long-term health, societal & economic impacts. Despite this, most of the efforts in air quality improvement focuses on the general population and outdoor exposure. This leads to major gaps in understanding their exposure to key air pollutants (particularly PM1, ultrafine particles and VOCs), health risks & economic consequences, and the key challenges and mitigation options for these Vulnerable Groups. This network will be the first step towards establishing practical air pollution solutions for Vulnerable Groups tackling a major health & economic challenge that cannot be resolved within traditional, often segregated air quality communities. It will build a new truly cross-disciplinary and self-sustaining network bringing academics with a wide spectrum of expertise ranging from economics via psychology & engineering to indoor & outdoor air pollution science together with key industrial, governmental and NGO stakeholders. The long-term vision of the network is to develop innovative & cost-effective behaviour and technology interventions to reduce the Vulnerable Groups' future air pollution exposure, improve health & directly implement these interventions through policy advice, planning, and business innovations. The network will be composed of 8 streams (6 Work Packages (WPs) & 2 Scoping Groups (SGs)). Collectively, it will review the state-of-the-art in our understanding on (i) the VGs' air quality challenges at the indoor/outdoor interfaces, (ii) behaviour interventions to reduce pollution exposure, (iii) technology interventions at indoor/outdoor interfaces, (iv) health benefits of interventions, and (v) economic benefits of these interventions. They will also identify the future research priorities, particularly in terms of cross-disciplinary challenges, policy & business engagement. Each of the WPs will be co-led by academics and non-academic stakeholders, with support from a core group composed of Co-Is/stakeholders with relevant expertise and their institutional critical mass. Importantly, engagement will be co-led by the government-supported Connected Places Catapult (CPC). This will catalyse and enhance the existing engagement with decision makers and business partners to align our future research with their practical priorities. The network will carry out an initial scoping study to longlist wider contributors that can contribute expertise to networks and then shortlist key members to be directly involved in the network. The network will generate abundant opportunities for within- and cross-disciplinary exchanges through network meetings, direct face-to-face meetings with stakeholders (e.g. local authorities or key industrial partners), writing retreats, social media and webinars. The network will also illustrate potential solutions via a pilot study informed by insight gained in the engagement (WPs 1-6) as part of the interdisciplinary Cross-WP Scoping Group and the Cross-Network Scoping Group will liaise with the other five networks to link outcomes and establish opportunities for future bid development. This work will leave a lasting legacy of a collaborative, interdisciplinary network that will drive forward research and innovation in delivering the air pollution solutions for vulnerable groups, improving their health, and reducing the cost to the NHS and the economy.