PhD Studentship - Developing Age-friendly and Just Indoor Spaces: Indoor Environmental Quality and Net Zero Transitions

Funding

School of Civil Engineering Studentship to start on 1 February 2025, providing the award of full academic fees, together with a tax-free maintenance grant at the standard UKRI rate (£19,237 in academic session 2024/25) for 3.5 years. EPSRC Doctoral Landscape Award to start on 1 October 2025, offering the award of fees, together with a tax-free maintenance grant (currently £19,237 academic session 2024/25) for 3.5 years.

Lead Supervisor: Dr Douglas Booker d.d.booker@leeds.ac.uk

Project summary

With the UK Government committed to achieving Net Zero by 2050, decarbonising the built environment is essential to meet these goals. Improvements to buildings to make them more energy efficient requires high levels of air tightness to prevent heat loss: this can improve thermal comfort and reduce fuel poverty. However, high levels of air tightness can result in a significant unintended consequence: poor indoor air quality (IAQ). Poor air quality is the largest environmental public health risk in the UK. Outdoor air quality tends to be the focus, despite on average people spending ~90% of their time indoors, where the brunt of air pollution exposure happens. While poor IAQ affects us all, it disproportionately impacts more vulnerable groups such as younger and older people. Research investigating the experiences and impacts of IAQ on older people is underdeveloped (especially compared to younger people), despite a rapidly aging population in the UK, and older people spending even more time indoors than other population sub-groups. This project will examine the experiences and impacts of Net Zero building upgrades on indoor environmental quality (IEQ) for older people, including measures of both thermal comfort and IAQ. Moreover, this project will develop and deploy an energy / environmental justice lens to explore how decarbonising the UK built environment can be achieved in a just way for older people.

Applicants to research degree programmes should normally have at least a first class or an upper second class British Bachelors Honours degree (or equivalent) in an appropriate discipline.

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