KTN Innovation Exchange challenge - solutions to monitor and tackle urban air pollution within Indian urban environments

A new challenge has been posted on KTN’s Innovation Exchange by the Department for International Trade which is working with the Indian authorities.

As India continues to grow, the urban population is projected to reach 814 million (50%) by 2050 (Teri, urban Resilience). Well-planned cities create the conditions for growth by maximising the benefits of urbanisation and minimising the costs both present and future. As the migration of population from rural areas into the cities continues, the threat to public health due to poor air quality and airborne pollution gets ever more challenging.

The city stakeholders are now actively inviting the UK’s innovation and solution capability to come forward and engage with this commercial opportunity.

Of interest would be tangible and new ideas for the monitoring, forecasting, modelling and strategies delivering solutions with examples being:

• Innovative driven solutions for monitoring and sensor technology to provide a better understanding of the dispersion of pollutants in urban areas.
• Remote sensing technologies for monitoring and managing air pollution environments
• Innovative geospatial and earth observation data analytical systems applied to air quality monitoring.
• New approaches to reducing and removing air pollutants by capturing the pollutant after emission or redesigning the technology or process to reduce the amount of pollutant emitted.
• Novel and innovative methodology that combating airborne pollutants accumulation in densely populated areas.
• Abatement solutions for pollutants generated inside a building from sources such as building materials, furnishings and cooking/heating etc.
• Innovative personal alert systems/applications for the wider public that inform or predict city areas at high risk of air pollution/poor air quality.
• Retrofitting and adaptation of carbon emitting vehicles to improve air pollution performance.

Rewards and benefits

• Successful applicants will be invited into a closed online process (not too dissimilar to a hackathon environment) to refine their application/solutions with direct KTN support and guidance alongside datasets and support material provided by the city challenge owners.  KTN will also be able to strengthen solutions with additional collaborator introductions and wider sector intelligence input should the solution lead deem it necessary.
• The strongest solutions following this process will then be drawn forward to present to the challenge owners and contracting authorities.

If you have a potential solution, find out more and apply via KTN’s Innovation Exchange here.