SDG Accelerator RESEARCH

The UCL Policy Commission: ‘MApping, Governing, and Implementing City Action for Climate, Health and Nature’ (MAGI Commission) is a two-year project (2025-2026) funded by UCL Public Policy and supported by UCL London. The Commission represents a critical policy-engaged research initiative, developed in three steps: Step 1- mapping local assets for the integration of climate, public health and green infrastructure initiatives at the local level; Step 2 – unpacking governance frameworks for green infrastructure adaptation with health co-benefits, with a particular focus on monitoring and investment frameworks; and Step 3 – developing roadmaps for implementation and scaling-up.  The Commission works closely with the Greater London Authority (GLA), four London Boroughs, Camden, Islington, Lewisham and Newham, and private and community sector stakeholders.

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‘Green space adaptation, and mental health and wellbeing outcomes: an urban experiment’ (GREEN.WELL.X) is an one-year project (2024-2025) funded by and UCL Grand Challenge Mental Health & Wellbeing pump-priming grant and research collaboration between Professor Catalina Turcu (Bartlett Faculty) and Professor Hugo Spiers (Brian Sciences Faculty). The project works closely with the London Borough of Islington in North London to set up two urban field experiments (including two intervention sites and four control sites) to measure the mental health and well-being outcomes of residents and visitors before and after the installation of green space and street furniture in two locations. 

The project employs a twofold methodological approach. First, it applies a multiscale protocol to select control sites: (1) at the macro scale, using ArcGIS to filter sites based on the Index of Multiple Deprivation, Biodiversity and Vegetation Ranking, Land Use, and Residential Share; and (2) at the micro scale, using street-level audits and site observation to account for variables such as street typology, adjacent building morphology, and traffic volume. Second, a survey is conducted with approximately 400 participants. The survey, NDIX.urban (NeuroDesignIndex.urban) is based on the WHO-5 Index and collects data both before (March–May 2025) and after (July–August 2025) intervention at the two urban settings, with the same timeline mirrored at the control sites.

‘Pocket Gardens 4 Resilient Schools:  Green space adaptation to combat Urban Heat Islands impacts on children in London’ is an one-year project (2024-2025) supported by UCL Grand Challenge Climate Crisis funding and research collaboration between the Bartlett School of Planning, Space Syntax and Institute for Child Health. The project looks at how greenspace adaptation can secure a cleaner and cooler local environment for schools in London. It undertakes complex spatial analysis at Greater London Authority (GLA) level to develop greenspace-related typologies of schools at risk of urban heat island (UHI) effects and develops design guidance for greenspace measures in schools in consultation with eight schools in the London Borough of Islington in North London.

The Climate and Health Metrics of Green Adaptation in Islington (CRAFTIslington) is an one-year  UCL Public Public Policy's Rapid Response Policy Advisory Scheme (EPSRC and AHRC IAA) project (2024-2025) that aims to develop urgent solutions to policy demand. It works closely with the London Borough of islington’s Pocket Park Framework (PPF) to: 

• Map climate and health co-benefits of PPF - by developing a benefits matrix of green infrastructure adaptation 
• Propose a monitoring framework of green infrastructure adaptation - by drawing on SDG and ESG targets 
• Investigate potential for scaling-out and scaling-up - by assessing synergies and tensions with other climate policies at the borough and GLA level.  

Relevant publications:

• Urban Greenspace, Climate Adaptation and Health Co-Benefits: Municipal Policy and Practice in London
• London’s pocket parks

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The Policy and Implementation for Climate & Health Equity (PAICE) is a two-year Wellcome Trust funded project (2023-2025) that works closely with the UK’s Climate Chance Committee, in order to inform and evaluate UK Net Zero policies using transdisciplinary approaches to generate and implement evidence.

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The Complex Urban Systems for Sustainability and Health (CUSSH) is a five-year Wellcome Trust funded project (2018-2024) that delivers key global research on the systems that connect urban development and population health. It undertakes resaerch across six cities –  London (UK), Rennes (France), Kisumu and Nairobi (Kenya), and Beijing and Ningbo (China) – and focuses both on local priorities and city-scale actions aligned with planetary health.

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The Food for Urban Lives and Localities (FULL) is a two-year FORMAS Swedish Research Council project (2020-2022) which looks at the social and governance implications of the COVID-19 pandemic on the urban food system across five cities: London (UK), Stockholm (Sweden), Sydney (Australia), Whuan (China) and Seoul (South Korea).

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• Widening Research and Policy Capacity on Housing Segregation and Transport Inequalities in Stockholm and London

Co-funded by UCL, KTH Royal Institute of Technology and University of Stockholm
Prof Laura Vaugan (UCL), Prof Ann Legeby (KTH Royal Institute of Technology), Dr Tanja Joelsson (Stockholm University), Dr Jonathan Rock Rokem (University of Kent)

• The prevalence and patterns of moped and e-scooter enabled crime

Co-funded by UCL, KTH Royal Institute of Technology
Prof Spencer Chainey (UCL) and Prof Vania Ceccato (KTH Royal Institute of Technology)

• A joint programme on ageing, work, and the life after COVID

Dr Baowen Xue (UCL) and Hui-Xin Wang (Stockholm University)

• Developing the statistical tools for dark matter discovery in the current and next generation of rare event search experiments    

Prof Chamkaur Ghag (UCL), Jan Conrad, Vasile Cristian Antochi and Pueh Leng Tan (Stockholm University)

• Soundscape Attributes Translation Project (SATP): towards standardized assessments of urban sound environments across languages, countries, and cultures    

Co-funded by UCL and Stockholm University
Dr. Francesco Aletta (UCL), Prof Mats E. Nilsson (Stockholm University), Prof Maria Larsson (Stockholm University) and Dr Östen Axelsson (Stockholm University)

• Sharing Experience of Interdisciplinary Curriculum Reform in Engineering Education    

Prof John Mitchell (UCL) and Prof Arnold Pears (KTH Royal Institute of Technology)

• Ecology and evolution of European oral microbes over the past three centuries  

Co-funded by UCL and Karolinska Institutet
Dr Lucy van Dorp (UCL) and Ville Pimenoff (Karolinska Institutet)

• Resignation Syndrome: towards a new understanding    

Co-funded by UCL and Karolinska Institutet
Dr Michael Moutoussis (UCL), Predrag Petrovic (Karolinska Institutet) and Karl Sallin (Uppsala University and Karolinska University Hospital)

• Health Economic Evaluation: training and knowledge sharing of new methods and software    

Co-funded by UCL and Karolinska Institutet
Dr Nathan Green (UCL), Dr Michael Crowther (Karolinska Institutet) and Prof. Paul Dickman (Karolinska Institutet)

• Enhanced efficiencies of hybrid vehicles for improved city air quality

Co-funded by UCL and KTH Royal Institute of Technology
Prof Panagiota Angeli (UCL),  Prof Outi Tammisola (KTH Royal Institute of Technology) and Prof Luca Brandt (KTH Royal Institute of Technology)

• Coordinated decision making policies for accelerating decarbonisation of urban energy systems under uncertainty    

Dr Sebastian Maier (UCL) and Prof Afzal Siddiqui (Stockholm University)

• PUDEME: Pre-urban demography in early medieval Europe (London and Stockholm)    

Co-funded by UCL and Stockholm University
Dr Stuart Brookes (UCL), Dr Cecilia Ljung (Stockholm University), Dr Johan Runer (Uppdrag Arkeologi), Prof Anders Andrén (Stockholm University), Dr Alison Klevnäs (Stockholm University) and Lena Beronius-Jörpeland (National Historical Museums)

• Developing Data-driven analytic and modeling approaches for Mass Transport in Cities through Student and Practitioner Networks    

Dr Taku Fujiyama (UCL), Dr Carl-William Palmqvist (KTH Royal Institute of Technology) and Dr Zhenliang Ma (KTH Royal Institute of Technology)

• SELCS Turing Summer School in Madrid, Paris, Rome and Stockholm    

Dr Thibaut Maus de Rolley (UCL) and Anna Rudels (Swedish Institute)

• Focus on Open Science Workshops, delivering Open Science policy, practice and solutions

Dr Paul Ayris (UCL) and Wilhelm Widmark (Stockhom University)

• UCL-Stockholm training programme in population mental health and pathways to policy impact

Co-funded by UCL and Stockholm Region
Dr James Kirkbride (UCL), Prof Christina Dalman (Karolinska Institutet) and Dr Anna-Clara Hollander (Karolinska Institutet)

• How are sign languages learned as second languages?

Prof Chloe Marshall (UCL), Prof Johanna Mesch (Stockholm University), Dr Krister Schönström (Stockholm University) and Dr Ingela Holmström (Stockholm University)

• Integrated sensing and communications for perceptive smart cities

Prof Christos Masouros (UCL) Jose Mairton Barros da Silva Jr. (KTH Royal Institute of Technology) and Carlo Fischione (KTH Royal Institute of Technology)

• Net zero affordable housing – an institutional comparison between Sweden and the UK

Dr Stanimira Milcheva (UCL) and  Bertram Steininger (KTH Royal Institute of Technology)

• Metabolic reprogramming of B-cell functions in immune-mediated pathology

Dr Kristine Oleinika (UCL) and Prof Mikael Karlsson (Karolinska Institute)

• Could moral philosophy explain inconsistent findings in eco-psychology?

Dr Dimitrios Tsivrikos (UCL) and Prof Gunnar Björnsson (Stockholm University)