The growth and prosperity of cities and urban areas is propelled by advantages of agglomeration. These advantages however are not equally experienced by all members of the population, moreover the distribution is often not socially justified, as the groups that benefit from the higher density and better connections are not the same who experience the burdens such as congestion and poor air quality. This is a globally recurring issue, despite considerable differences between urban areas worldwide in terms of economic context, spatial planning and infrastructure provision. This research, within the call?s theme of social justice and the policy domain of infrastructure and built environment, will investigate physical and socio-economic processes that underlie the uneven distribution of urban outcomes. An international comparison of metropolitan areas in the UK, Netherlands and Brazil will take place to both identify universal drivers towards unjust outcomes and specific circumstances that can reduce or enhance existing social differences. In particular, the project will investigate the specific urban planning strategy of transit-oriented development (TOD) and its potential for delivering more equitable outcomes. This will be achieved through an international survey into job accessibility, population preferences and affordability in relation to transport and housing options; a dedicated measuring campaign targeting in-vehicle exposure to transport pollutants and advanced statistical and geographical information analysis. There are currently ambitious plans for TOD in São Paulo and the project will engage with stakeholders to target actual issues and allow the research to have a direct impact on social justice in São Paulo.

The ADAPT project inspires a shift from advance-worrying to advance thinking and planning about Antarctica’s tourism future. The project offers tools (future scenarios, adaptation pathways, signal monitoring system) that help public and private stakeholders to make informed and robust decisions regarding Antarctica’s tourism future, in which values and qualities are protected and there is a social licence for tourism in Antarctica.

Bringing together an international and multi-disciplinary team of researchers, this project investigates potential inequalities experienced by Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer (LGBTQ) people at three ‘transition’ points in life highlighted in the call for application themes: school to work transitions; employment progression in mid-life; and the transition into retirement and its implications for end of life. The key objective is to provide cross-cultural evidence, for the first time ever, concerning life course inequalities experienced by LGBTQ people, comparing and contrasting these across four European countries with different yet interrelated social, historical, economic and political backgrounds: England, Scotland, Portugal and Germany. Additionally, the project examines how inequalities related to gender identity and/or sexuality vary and intersect with others, such as social class, ethnicity, citizenship status, health status, dis/ability, religion and geographical location across the life course. Work-packages, led by research team members will be conducted in each of the four countries to gather data from existing national and international surveys, new qualitative research and the critical examination of relevant legal, policy, organisational and practitioner documents. The accumulated data will be integrated into social simulation models, which will be used to inform theoretical development in relation to the LGBTQ intersectional life course and impact in terms of indicating future policy and research agendas. The findings will be disseminated to other academics and other relevant stakeholders (e.g. organisations/service providers) through reports, social media, presentations and knowledge exchange activities in each applicant country.

MoSIN, a multidisciplinary consortium with food system actors (allergic consumers, physicians, researchers, risk managers/assessors from food producers and retailers, and consultants) aims to improve understanding of how food allergy develops in a changing food environment (dietary habits, exposure, ancestry and sex). It will culminate in the development and implementation of a monitoring system for emerging food allergies, which will improve and harmonize allergy risk management and communication of understandable allergy information. This project will contribute to increasing awareness of the risks of allergic reactions to (novel) foods, preventing food allergic reactions and undernutrition, and subsequently reducing (healthcare) costs.