In Europe, people spend most of their time in indoor environments. Although better outdoor air quality leads to general improvements in indoor air quality, certain sources of air pollution not covered by ambient (outdoor) air quality standards can dominate some indoor environments.
The IDEAL cluster, which kicked off in October 2022 in Athens, Greece, focuses on identifying the chemical and microbiological drivers contributing to indoor air pollution, identifying their main sources and assessing their health impacts. This will help to map indoor environment pollution levels, sources, and health effects, and will facilitate establishing purposeful indoor air quality standards and prioritize implementation of remediation measures.
Once sufficient work has been conducted on standards, what remains is the co-creation of solid public policies to implement the changes, which will lead to a significant improvement in the health and quality of life of European citizens.
7 shared groups to realise the IDEAL cluster’s work
The IDEAL cluster aims to raise awareness about the EU initiatives for public health and healthy indoor environments by increasing the visibility of the research projects, maximizing the spread of their results at institutional and academic levels, and influencing key stakeholders. To achieve its goal the IDEAL cluster has created 7 working groups (WG):
- WG1: Science translation for policy and practice.
- WG2: Data analysis/management and protection.
- WG3: Communication and Dissemination.
- WG4: Guidelines.
- WG5: Sensors.
- WG6: Health outcomes.
- WG7: In-vitro models.
7 projects involving over 120 organisations in Europe and €50M in funding
The IDEAL cluster involves over 120 European organisations and partners across 7 projects, funded by the European Health and Digital Executive Agency (HaDEA) under Horizon Europe’s topic “Indoor Air Quality and Health”: InChildHealth, LEARN, TwinAIR, K-HEALTHinAIR, INQUIRE, SynAir-G, EDIAQI. Overall, the funding for these projects amounts to €50 million.
InChildHealth, LEARN, and SynAir-G are focusing on school environments, K-HEALTHinAIR is focusing on hospital environments, INQUIRE focuses on home environments with infants and young children under 5 years old. EQIADI and TwinAIR focus on various indoor environments like homes, schools, workplaces, transport, and hospitals.
More information For more information about the IDEAL cluster, please visit our website: https://www.idealcluster.eu/
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team@idealcluster.eu
www.idealcluster.eu
