The growing threat of the environmental crisis presents young people with a bleak prospect for the future and a sense of immense burden that often leaves them feeling hopeless. Part of the reason for this feeling of hopelessness is the common assumption that others care much less about the environment than they do. While a clear misperception, this assumption feeds a vicious cycle of dwindling hope and suppressed environmental engagement because any environmental action is expected to be isolated and therefore unlikely to make a difference to a global threat. It is therefore crucial to find ways to break this cycle and empower young people who will require resilience and sustained engagement to deal with the crisis. The proposed research seeks to address this aim. It is based on robust evidence showing that people have highly similar human values (e.g., agreeing on the importance of protecting the environment or freedom) but often fail to recognise these similarities. We have found that this misperception is absent in young children, but from the age of 11, young people start to underestimate the similarities with peers, and this gap grows with age. Importantly, our work among adults has shown that making people aware of these similarities can close the gap and elicit a sense of connectedness with others. In light of young people's important role in the environmental crisis, it is vital to examine how we can help young people discover their shared values to build hope and environmental engagement. However, one crucial consideration is that it may not always be clear how shared, abstract values can be translated into concrete environmental action. For instance, while people may recognise that their value of protecting the environment is shared by peers, they may disagree about whether recycling is an effective means for achieving this value. In fact, past work suggests that a group of individuals needs an opportunity to exchange ideas to achieve socially coordinated action. The present research programme will test a combined approach that allows young people to discover their shared values and then use this new awareness in an exchange of ideas with peers to build value-based consensus around concrete goals for environmental action. Together with our project partner, Global Action Plan UK (GAP), we will test this new approach through two large-scale studies with diverse samples of school students aged 12-14 and 16-18, and university students aged 18-24. Study 1 uses a cross-sectional design to provide a first correlational test of how shared values and exchanging ideas relates to hope and environmental action. Study 2 is a five-wave longitudinal experiment that presents young people with accurate information on value similarities and uses cutting-edge technology to allow them to exchange ideas and find consensus among diverse viewpoints. Across both studies, the project will examine additional research questions of theoretical and practical relevance, including whether highlighting similarities in some types of values (e.g., protecting the environment) is more effective than highlighting similarities across all values, and whether the effects of shared values and consensus differ depending on participants' age, gender, and socioeconomic status, among other variables. Throughout the project, a young people advisory group will be consulted to inform study design and evaluate the findings. Together with our project partner, GAP, we will produce a range of non-academic outputs, including non-technical summaries of the findings and recommendations for implementation of our intervention in newsletters, articles, videos, and workshops, which will be distributed to relevant stakeholders (e.g., schools, universities, MPs) through GAP's well-established networks.

The Government's 'Future of Mobility' and 'Road to Zero' strategies outline a second UK transport revolution, characterised by rapid decarbonisation, increased automation and enhanced connectivity. This radical transformation presents both opportunities and challenges for improving air quality over the next two decades, occurring in the context of disruptive changes in transport technology, increasing public environmental awareness and evolving transport behaviours. In this context, actions taken during the emerging transition phase will influence air pollutant sources and exposure patterns across indoor (i.e. vehicle, rail/bus) and outdoor (i.e. pavement, platform, bus station) land transport environments, with profound future implications for public health. We recognise this critical opportunity for encouraging policy foresight, cultivating scientific advancement and stimulating citizen engagement at the air quality, climate and health nexus. Our vision is to establish a diverse interdisciplinary network, connecting researchers across nine UK higher education and research institutions with >20 network partners, comprising commercial, public sector and non-profit organisations. We will establish sustainable connections to undertake co-definition of issues and opportunities and co-delivery of innovative, evidence-based solutions. We will deliver a varied portfolio of network activities including TRANSITION summits, problem-solving workshops, hackathons, discovery studies, site visits, policy engagement events and creative outreach activities at transport locations. Thus the network partners will achieve the ambitious but achievable goal of directly shaping future air quality, climate and transport policy, reflecting the ambitions of the UKRI SPF Clean Air Analysis and Solutions programme.

The aim of this network is to bring together interdisciplinary expertise to address the problem of air quality in schools. The future health of our nation and indeed all human society depends on educating children in healthy environments. The Tackling Air Pollution at School (TAPAS) network focuses on that vulnerable section of every society - school children and their environment. Our vision is to create and develop a menu of options that can be introduced into schools to provide an environment free of pollutants and in harmony with nature, so that children have a fulfilling and healthy educational experience. These products need to be effective, inexpensive and, where possible, educational: i.e. they should involve the children in an understanding of their environment and provide them with an opportunity to engage with it in social, scientific and behavioural terms. We have chosen to focus on schools and school children for the following reasons. Children are a particularly vulnerable section of society. They are physiologically less able to regulate their temperature and are more susceptible to exposure to air pollution than adults. Among the vulnerable groups in society school pupils will experience the impact of poor air quality for the longest period into the future. Recently, over 2000 schools in the UK were identified as being in 'pollution hotspots' where air pollution exceeds WHO limits. From a practical viewpoint, working in schools has many advantages. School keep records on student attendance and pupils which provide information on absences related to health. They also have data on room occupancy, pupil activities (e.g. PE, meals) and movement through the school. This information is essential to determine personal exposure. Additionally, schools offer a wide variety of spaces including labs, meeting halls, dining areas as well as classrooms, each with different ventilation and indoor sources of pollution. The ability of schools to mitigate exposure to pollution is hampered by lack of knowledge. For example, the impact of idling vehicle engines near school while dropping off and collecting children on exposure in the playground or on indoor levels of NOx and particulate matter (PM) is unclear, making it impossible for schools to decide whether to ban idling or not. Our interdisciplinary team consists of experts in indoor and outdoor pollution, air pollution modelling, data science, building design and ventilation, education, social behaviour and health impacts. This will allow this network to address the critical issues associated with pollution in schools by offering a menu of solutions. We also propose to include a significant educational component so that pupils will learn about the impacts of poor air quality and take this knowledge with them as they grow up, thereby producing a lasting change in society. Schools also accommodate children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) who are even more vulnerable and who often require special environmental conditions. Furthermore, there are currently a wide range related activities concerning indoor environmental quality in schools that this network will bring together for the first time in a coordinated fashion.