Open KE Fellowship: Air Quality Science in Support of Government Strategies

尽管英国空气质量在过去40年里有所改善，但预测和控制仍是一大挑战。空气污染对环境和人类健康有重大影响；英国每年因空气污染而死亡的成本估计为200亿英镑，但这大大低估了总成本。空气污染还导致健康状况不佳的程度增加，给医疗服务带来压力，降低我们的生产率。还有与基础设施项目延误和作物减产有关的成本，以及对空气污染在减少我们在环境中看到的动植物种类方面的作用的担忧。环境、食品和农村事务部(Defra)是负责空气污染的政府部门。他们致力于制定和维护以最好的科学证据为依据的政策。近几年来，空气污染的情况大幅增加。媒体继续感兴趣，公众意识不断提高，Defra有雄心壮志有效地解决这一具有挑战性的问题。政府部门强烈呼吁采取行动，减少空气污染对社会的影响，首席医疗官表示，我们需要将控制污染视为预防疾病。这是一个真正的机会，可以确保英国的空气质量政策得到由NERC研究社区开展的世界领先科学的指导。该奖学金旨在改善整个英国研究界的协调。它寻求将各学科领域的专家以及与创新者和企业联系起来，以鼓励进行研究，不仅提高我们对空气污染问题的理解，而且考虑有效和实际的解决方案。其目标是帮助研究人员让Defra和其他研究用户参与开发研究想法，以确保产生的成果既是令人兴奋的新科学，又尽可能有助于政策决策。资助英国研究的研究委员会也热衷于在改善空气污染和减少其对健康和环境的影响方面发挥作用。在接下来的几年里，有许多机会可以影响大笔战略研究资金的使用。该奖学金还将寻求制定空气污染战略科学的建议，以确保它被视为优先事项。总的来说，该奖学金旨在最大限度地利用英国的研究优势，产生能够为空气污染行动提供信息的信息，从而减少糟糕的空气质量对环境、人类健康和经济的影响。

Although UK air quality has improved in the past 40 years, it is still a major challenge to predict and control. Air pollution has significant impacts on the environment and human health; the cost to the UK from deaths attributable to air pollution are estimated at £20 billion a year, but this hugely underestimates the overall cost. Air pollution also leads to increased levels of poor health, putting pressure on the health service and reducing our productivity. There are also costs associated with delays to infrastructure projects and reductions in crop yields as well as concern over the role of air pollution in reducing the variety of plant and animal life we see in our environment. The Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) are the Government Department responsible for air pollution. They are committed to developing and maintaining policies that are informed by the very best scientific evidence. The profile of air pollution has increased massively over recent years. There is continuing media interest and heightened public awareness, as well as ambition in Defra to effectively tackle this challenging issue. There is a strong call for action across Government to reduce the impact of air pollution on society, with the Chief Medical Officer saying that we need to see controlling pollution as disease prevention. This is a real opportunity to make sure that UK air quality policy is informed by the world leading science carried out by the NERC research community. This fellowship aims to improve the coordination across the UK research community. It seeks to link experts across subject areas, as well as with innovators and businesses to encourage the production of research that not only improves our understanding of the air pollution issue, but also considers effective and practical solutions. The objectives aim to help researchers to involve Defra and other research users when developing research ideas to ensure that the output produced is both exciting new science and is as useful as it can be for informing policy decisions.Research councils, who fund UK research, are also keen to play their part in improving air pollution and reducing its impacts on health and the environment. Over the next few years there are a number of opportunities to influence how large strategic research funds are used. This fellowship will also look to shape proposals for strategic air pollution science to ensure that it is seen as a priority.Overall, this fellowship aims to make the most of the UK's research strengths to produce information that can inform action on air pollution, thereby reducing the impacts of poor air quality on the environment, human health and the economy.