• The ATMOPOLIS project integrates environmental and social sciences to understand how air and noise pollution exposure affects the diversity of citizens across European cities and propose actions to help improve their quality of life.
• Citizen participation with innovative techniques such as photovoice will empower the studied communities to narrate the perception and cultural differences on the exposure to pollutants and their emissions.
• ATMOPOLIS will create an integrated tool that allows cities to test different mitigation policies to understand their impact on pollution, health, and carbon emissions, and their economic costs.

Brussels, Belgium – 21/01/2026. Today marks the kick-off of a new EU-funded project ATMOPOLIS, an innovative study involving leading academics, local and knowledge actors and citizens to understand air and noise pollution, their link with carbon emissions, and to develop an integrated tool to evaluate the health and climate impacts of mitigation policies. The project will count on citizen participation to collect environmental and community data from five European cities, bringing an innovative social perspective often missing in environmental and urban planning studies.

Air and noise pollution are environmental and health risk factors with multiple implications that vary across cities. According to European Union (EU) estimates, exposure to air pollution  concentrations above recommended limits of air pollutants such as PM_2.5, NO₂ and O₃, were estimated to be responsible for 357.000 deaths in the EU in 2022. The EU also estimates that long-term exposure to noise pollution is responsible for 48.000 new cases of heart disease and around 12.000 premature deaths every year in Europe. The impacts of pollution are not equally shared, and vary across individuals depending on cultural and socioeconomic factors, amongst others. Understanding the complexity of urban systems, and their barriers and opportunities to action, are key to address the negative effects of pollution through improved mitigation measures.

ATMOPOLIS groundbreaking approach differs from previous studies, as it seeks to take an integrated approach to addressing the impacts of both air and noise pollution together, and with a focus on finding society-centred solutions acceptable to both citizens and cities. This innovative perspective will enable tailored solutions and cost-effective approaches for the studied cities.

“Air pollution is the single greatest environmental health threat in the EU, and noise pollution the third. ATMOPOLIS will identify the measures that can lead to the greatest reductions their exposure and negative health impacts, while also considering co-benefits for the climate. By working with cities and citizens, we will work to support action to implement these measures using both top-down policy and bottom-up behavioural change and awareness” states Jonathon Taylor, project coordinator and Associate Professor at Tampere University.

The project is a joint effort of 14 partners which will conduct research across the European cities of Greater London Authority (UK), Łódź (Poland), Sarajevo (Bosnia and Herzegovina), Podgorica (Montenegro), and Tampere (Finland). With an approximate budget of €5 million, the project is funded under the Horizon Europe call “Zero-Pollution Cities”, contributing to the objectives of the EU Mission “Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities 2030”.

By combining diverse expertise, novel methods, and community data, ATMOPOLIS will assess the different dimensions of emissions and exposure. At the city-level, an integrated model will be developed and used as a tool for policy making and testing the health and carbon emission impacts and cost-effectiveness of mitigation actions. A community-level, exposure and individual perception data will be collected, their interaction with pollution messaging studied, and used to develop outreach materials to engage the public, encourage behavioral change, and empower citizens to demand action. In this way, change will flow in two directions: from academics and policy-makers, and from the citizens themselves.

ATMOPOLIS will have a social dimension, from the individual to the community levels, for a better understanding of the health and social impacts of pollution on people. In addition to environmental measurements for individuals, it will leverage vast amounts of community measured and reported noise pollution data to understand both levels, sources, and the causes of complaints. The study will examine impacts across different population groups, including groups that may be more exposed to pollution, and those more vulnerable to negative health impacts. Individuals’ perceptions of air and noise pollution will be collected through personal narratives and methodologies such as photovoice, capturing the community voices and their visual experiences in photographs that reflect their personal perception of exposure and role in producing emissions. The project will engage with citizens, increasing their awareness and empowerment towards policy acceptance and behavioural changes, translating evidence to society-centred actions and ultimately tackling air and noise pollution from a more integrative perspective.

People and communities will play a vital role in reducing pollution – something which is missed by purely technological solutions. By working to understand exposures, the impact on people, and the opportunities for action at citizen, community, and city administration levels, we can identify pathways to achieve ambitious pollution reduction goals” remarks Jonathon Taylor, project coordinator.

ATMOPOLIS, under the full name of “AIR AND NOISE POLLUTION MITIGATION THROUGH INTEGRATED, SOCIETY-CENTRED ACTIONS”, is a 4-year project under the European call HORIZON-MISS-2024-CIT-01 as part of the Zero-Pollution Cities call. ATMOPOLIS is led by a cross-sectional consortium of 14 partners from 9 countries: Tampere University (Finland), University College London (United Kingdom), London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine Royal Charter (United Kingdom), Akademia Pedagogiki Specjalnej im. Marii Grzegorzewskiej (Poland), Internationales Institut fuer Angewandte Systemanalyse (Austria), Meteorologisk Institutt (Norway), University College Dublin (Ireland), Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona (Spain), Scienseed SL (Spain), City of Łódź (Poland), Greater London Authority (United Kingdom), Institute for Public Health Sarajevo Canton (Bosnia and Herzegovina), city of Podgorica (Montenegro), and Global Action Plan (United Kingdom).

For more information, please contact:

• Jonathon Taylor, Project Coordinator (TAU): jonathon.taylor@tuni.fi
• Anna Molinet, Communications Officer (Scienseed): anna.molinet@scienseed.com