In this project, we will develop a Data Linkage and Analytics Framework that permits the systematic analysis of new, novel, rich and complex datasets routinely collected by transport authorities for geographically extensive areas. The objective is to better understand the pressing policy challenges of social exclusion in daily mobility. The project will use data on electronic ticketing, GPS-tracked vehicle movements and ancillary sources collected by Transport for West Midlands and linked to administrative, consumer and survey data collected by the Office for National Statistics, the Department for Transport and ESRC. The project will use the secure data and computing infrastructure available at the ESRC Consumer Data Research Centre (CDRC) to store, manage, link and process the data. Given the demonstrator nature of this grant call, the focus will be upon travel patterns and behaviour change by older residents, who are eligible for concessionary travel under the English National Concessionary Travel Scheme (ENCTS). Transport for West Midlands has recently detected a worrying dramatic decline in bus boardings by concessionary pass holders. There is an urgent need to understand and assess these developments, in particular with respect to their implications for health and well-being. Are declining mobility trends indicative of systemic failures to address the mobility needs of older residents? What, if any, are the likely consequences for social care and older residents' abilities to lead independent lives - for example with respect to social participation, fulfilling daily consumption needs, or maintaining livelihoods in a context of limited social provision and health care? In order to investigate the possible causes of the decline in boardings, the procedures set out in our research design will examine and characterise observed mobility trends among concessionary pass holders that have withdrawn from frequent pass use since 2010 (the year in which electronic travel cards were introduced in the West Midlands Metropolitan Area). In order to establish potential causes of the decline, the mobility profiles will be compared with others that indicate sustained usage. This paired comparison will be grounded in a range of potential transport disadvantage indicators, derived by linking the profiles to small area statistics, indicators of consumer behaviour and transport surveys. The specific policy problem of declining boardings will thus be used as a way to develop a general Data Linkage and Analytics Framework that can be applied to study transport and social exclusion more generally in different geographical contexts. Since an increasing number of cities in the United Kingdom and beyond are introducing electronic fare collection systems for bus passengers, there is a demonstrable need for a transferable framework of this sort. The project will produce a set of policy recommendations, jointly formulated by UCL and Transport for West Midlands, as well as a clear strategic commitment to scale up and extend the framework. We envisage that a long-term societal benefit will be the use of the methods and findings to inform ways of improving and promoting sustainable, inclusive and health-supporting mobility for everyone across the country.

Over the last decade, the street has emerged as one of the primary sites where everyday publics encounter AI. Industry and public sector organisations have deployed a variety of AI-based technologies in UK streets, from autonomous vehicles (AVs) to navigation apps, data-driven modelling in smart city projects and facial recognition technologies (FRT). These deployments have been accompanied by significant policy initiatives defining societal benefits of AI-driven innovation (safety, levelling up, sustainability, inclusion) as well as institutional engagements with affected communities through policy exhibitions, user-centred workshops and citizen cafés. However, from the perspective of the street, AI innovation often manifests as a messy social reality, provoking frictions that exceed existing frameworks for responsible innovation: in Cambridge, firefighters battling a fire had to move a delivery robot that was in their way, while in Australia suburbs were left without electricity after a food delivery drone made an emergency landing on top of a set of powerlines. There remain, then, significant divergences between the general frameworks for responsible AI and the particular lived realities of AI in the street. To build capacity among everyday publics and AI innovation consortia to engage across such divides, this 6-month project will develop a situated, creative approach to public engagement with AI: street-level observatories of everyday AI. To bridge divides between lay and expert understandings of AI innovation, we will evaluate and prototype a set of street-level observatories for everyday AI. The aim of these observatories is to explore how everyday publics perceive and engage with AI at a primary site - city streets - where specific transformations, benefits, harms and (ir)responsibilities of AI in society can be made visible and thus legible for both publics and stakeholders. To realise this, we will collaborate with local partners and the arts to trial creative interventions that invite people on the street to observe the effects of AI in the lived environment. Our scoping project will 1) build partnerships across the humanities, arts and social sciences and with organisations and groups committed to situated forms of public engagement with AI-based science and innovation in connected and automated cities. In partnership with local government, we will 2) trial street-level AI observatories in 4 diverse UK cities—Cambridge, Coventry, London and Edinburgh—and one international location, Logan (Australia). The observatories will combine digital, place-based and/or embodied approaches, such as data walks and sensor media (apps) and will be designed to support shared learning across the project teams and partners. Trialling AI observatories in city streets will enable us to undertake 3) a joint process of evaluating and prototyping an everyday AI observatory. This will make visible the entanglement of everyday social life with AI, showing people and technologies in complex real-world settings where sectoral, disciplinary and specialist interests intersect. This will be a space of interest to partners in local and national government, public policy innovation, and AI scientists and industry representatives, and create opportunities for developing shared understandings of societal responses and priorities between industry, policymakers, researchers and everyday publics.

To capture the full social and economic benefits of AI, new technologies must be sensitive to the diverse needs of the whole population. This means understanding and reflecting the complexity of individual needs, the variety of perceptions, and the constraints that might guide interaction with AI. This challenge is no more relevant than in building AI systems for older populations, where the role, potential, and outstanding challenges are all highly significant. The RAIM (Responsible Automation for Inclusive Mobility) project will address how on-demand, electric autonomous vehicles (EAVs) might be integrated within public transport systems in the UK and Canada to meet the complex needs of older populations, resulting in improved social, economic, and health outcomes. The research integrates a multidisciplinary methodology - integrating qualitative perspectives and quantitative data analysis into AI-generated population simulations and supply optimisation. Throughout the project, there is a firm commitment to interdisciplinary interaction and learning, with researchers being drawn from urban geography, ageing population health, transport planning and engineering, and artificial intelligence. The RAIM project will produce a diverse set of outputs that are intended to promote change and discussion in transport policymaking and planning. As a primary goal, the project will simulate and evaluate the feasibility of an on-demand EAV system for older populations. This requires advances around the understanding and prediction of the complex interaction of physical and cognitive constraints, preferences, locations, lifestyles and mobility needs within older populations, which differs significantly from other portions of society. With these patterns of demand captured and modelled, new methods for meeting this demand through optimisation of on-demand EAVs will be required. The project will adopt a forward-looking, interdisciplinary approach to the application of AI within these research domains, including using Deep Learning to model human behaviour, Deep Reinforcement Learning to optimise the supply of EAVs, and generative modelling to estimate population distributions. A second component of the research involves exploring the potential adoption of on-demand EAVs for ageing populations within two regions of interest. The two areas of interest - Manitoba, Canada, and the West Midlands, UK - are facing the combined challenge of increasing older populations with service issues and reducing patronage on existing services for older travellers. The RAIM project has established partnerships with key local partners, including local transport authorities - Winnipeg Transit in Canada, and Transport for West Midlands in the UK - in addition to local support groups and industry bodies. These partnerships will provide insights and guidance into the feasibility of new AV-based mobility interventions, and a direct route to influencing future transport policy. As part of this work, the project will propose new approaches for assessing the economic case for transport infrastructure investment, by addressing the wider benefits of improved mobility in older populations. At the heart of the project is a commitment to enhancing collaboration between academic communities in the UK and Canada. RAIM puts in place opportunities for cross-national learning and collaboration between partner organisations, ensuring that the challenges faced in relation to ageing mobility and AI are shared. RAIM furthermore will support the development of a next generation of researchers, through interdisciplinary mentoring, training, and networking opportunities.

This 5-month project will establish a West Midlands Local Policy Innovation Partnership (WM LPIP). This will involve connecting local policy and research partners across the region to deliver a programme of activity that supports inclusive and sustainable local growth. We will achieve this through the provision of research, evidence, data and expertise to take advantage of opportunities and to find place-based solutions to challenges that matter to local people and communities. Our emphasis in the Phase 1 period which is the subject of this application is on building, strengthening and diversifying partnerships between research organisations and local stakeholders in the West Midlands to identify local priorities and formulate a plan for addressing them in the coming years in the WM LPIP Phase 2 programme. Insights and solutions will be developed within and across policy domains relating to economy (inclusive and sustainable local economic performance, innovation, skills), community (communities in their places, felt experiences and pride in place, cultural recovery) and environment (living and working sustainably in a greener economy) themes. Our ambition is to make inroads towards tackling 'wicked problems' across geographical scales (hyper-local, local, regional, national) that are challenging to address because of their complex and interconnected nature, as well as more straightforward challenges where the prospects for people and places can be improved more quickly. To achieve this, we will map relevant local and national administrative data to outline data sources that are available for analysis and insights into thematic priorities. We will also undertake a rapid evidence review of the academic and grey literature on the challenges relating to achieving inclusive and sustainable economic growth, with a particular emphasis on place. We will also draw on academic and policy literature and strategies relating to circumstances and activities in the different sub-regions in the West Midlands. Alongside this we will design and deliver a series of place-based stakeholder and community workshops across the West Midlands. Each stakeholder workshop will bring together local stakeholders from across the public, private and third sectors to discuss key challenges and priorities for the local area and the region, with local universities drawing on their networks to enable this. A public engagement event will follow to help us to further understand the needs of local communities and to receive feedback on the priorities identified in the place-based workshops. In this way priority areas of focus will be established in consultation with local stakeholders and communities and we will develop a platform for sustained engagement with them. Together the place-based and policy prioritisation workshops will inform the design of our model and work programme for Phase 2 of the WM LPIP.

"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.