New Funding Proposal Submitted!

The RESPIRA consortium has recently taken an important new step in strengthening its long-term research agenda by submitting a new international funding application. This time, the proposal is led by our colleagues at Leiden University, with Prof. Marleen Dekker and Dr. Agnieszka kazimierczuk at the helm. They have been involved in various RESPIRA activities and projects and organised an inspiring panel at the CLEAR-AIR forum in Nairobi. The submitted project draws inspirations from these activities and builds on the network, expertise and collaborative momentum developed within RESPIRA. The proposal aims to expand our shared work on air quality, health and climate governance in African urban contexts.

If successful, the project will bring together four European beneficiary universities in Leiden, Leuven, Gothenburg and Birmingham, working in close collaboration with a wide network of academic and non-academic associated partners across Africa and Europe, including universities in Morocco, Nigeria, DR Congo, Uganda and Kenya, as well as urban authorities, NGOs, UN-Habitat, meteorological institutes and technology partners .

The project would train 11 doctoral candidates in an integrated programme that treats air quality in African cities as a holistic, interdisciplinary problem. The research combines high-resolution sensing, satellite analytics, AI/ML modelling, qualitative and participatory methods, and governance analysis to identify air-pollution drivers, model exposure and impacts, understand behavioural dynamics, and translate scientific results into policy tools and decision-support systems .

The overall goal would be to pioneer action-research and doctoral training that illuminate how air quality is experienced, managed and improved in African urban contexts, while also strengthening EU–Africa cooperation. The network aims to deliver new analytical frameworks, low-cost sensor technologies, explainable AI models, and socio-economic impact assessments, alongside policy briefs, toolkits and governance guidelines co-developed with African partners .

A central ambition is to rebalance traditional Euro-African research relations by prioritising equity, shared leadership and local relevance. All doctoral candidates would be employed through European institutions while maintaining strong field-based links with African universities, and each European beneficiary commits to establishing at least one double or joint doctoral degree with an African partner to ensure long-term institutional collaboration beyond the lifetime of the project .

The project also places strong emphasis on dissemination, open science and societal impact, with plans for multilingual communication, citizen-science engagement, and the translation of scientific outputs into practical tools for policymakers, NGOs and communities. Thumbs up for Agnieszka kazimierczuk for leading the writing process, and fingers crossed for a positive outcome!!