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Noise Network Plus Launch Meeting 18th March 2025 in Central London

We are excited to introduce “Noise Network Plus“, a £1.8M EPSRC-funded interdisciplinary network designed to address the grand challenges for noise pollution for the next 10-15 years. You can find the EPSRC’s press release about Noise Network Plus and the other TERC networks here. (More information about the Network is below.)

We will be holding a one-day Launch Meeting on Tuesday 18th March 2025 in Central London to identify the challenges that need to be addressed, and plan how the Network can work to address these challenges, including through pilot projects. To help us, we will be bringing together a broad cross-section of people from engineering and other disciplines including researchers, industry, professional institutions, policymakers, charities, and other stakeholders. This meeting will include presentations, networking and small-group discussions.

To encourage productive discussions during the day, the Launch Meeting will have limited capacity. If you would like to be invited to join, please submit this Expression of Interest form by Wednesday 12 February 2025 (now closed to applications).

The leadership team comprises Mark Plumbley and Abigail Bristow (University of Surrey), Charlotte Clark (City St George’s, University of London), Simone Graetzer and Antonio Torija Martinez (University of Salford) and Alan Hunter (University of Bath).

The programme for the day is available here.

Noise Network Plus: Engineering a Quieter Future

Noise – unwanted sound – has a major impact on public health, society and wildlife. Noise has a profound effect on human health and wellbeing, causing heart disease, high annoyance and sleep disturbance. Road noise in England alone is estimated to cause £7-10bn of health costs, with 130,000 healthy life years lost each year. Noise pollution affects wildlife, including birds and marine mammals, damaging wildlife health and reproduction. Noise also affects AI systems and sensors, including sonar echo sounders and underwater acoustic modems. As well as existing sources of human-made noise, such as road, rail, and air transport, new technologies such as drones and air taxis could introduce new sources of noise. The transition to Net Zero, through more sustainable energy sources, may also introduce new noise challenges from onshore wind turbines or air source heat pumps. We must ensure that noise does not become a barrier to the wider adoption of these important technologies. However, as the House of Lords Science and Technology Committee reported in 2023, noise is a “neglected pollutant”. It is also largely neglected across the UK engineering community. Outside of the acoustical engineering community and the Institute of Acoustics, noise is almost invisible in the work of professional engineering institutions. Noise is not included in teaching of sustainability in engineering degrees. Hence noise is often neglected until late in the engineering design process, resulting in products, systems and buildings that may create or transmit unnecessary noise. Reducing noise and its impacts is a complex, systemic, and interconnected problem, requiring insights from many perspectives and creative ways of working. It is exactly the type of problem identified in the EPSRC Tomorrow’s Engineering Research Challenges (TERC) report.

To address this, our vision is to re-engineer the discipline of engineering so that noise is considered in all stages of the design process. We will create a mission-oriented inter-organizational research and innovation network, “Noise Network Plus”, as a catalyst to bring together diverse, dynamic teams from across disciplines, promote dialogue, co-design missions, form lasting and inclusive collaborations, and build unprecedented noise research capabilities. With noise being such an important concern for many people, we will undertake public engagement from the outset, to involve as wide a community as possible in our research agenda and the co-design of our missions. To test new research ideas, gather missing evidence and carry out feasibility studies, we will fund a set of pilot projects, and support the development of full-scale future multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary research projects to tackle the challenge of noise.  We will also reimagine the education and training of engineers, across all engineering disciplines, and work with universities and the professional engineering institutions to including systems thinking in general, and sound and noise in particular, across engineering education. To ensure that the activities of the network are sustained beyond the funded period, we will plan for its legacy from the start, working with universities, industry, and engineering institutions to embed the network connections and missions across the discipline. By taking a “systems thinking” approach to understand the complex systems that build noise into the world, we will begin a long-lasting inter- and multi-disciplinary programme of research and engagement to reduce noise and its impact on people, the environment, and the economy: engineering a quieter future.

Accessibility and dietary information for in-person attendance

The venue is Prince Philip House, London. To access the building, there are two ramps for assisted access. One is on an elevated path running parallel to the main entrance. The second is a dedicated wheelchair ramp accessed through the entrance to No 4 Carlton House Terrace. The reception is manned by the security team who work round the clock to ensure the safety and security of all persons within the building.

Vegetarian, vegan, halal and pescatarian food will be made available. In the case of dietary requirements and/or allergies, you will have the opportunity to advise us via the registration form, should you be offered an in-person place.

Contact details

Questions or concerns can be addressed to the Network Project Lead, Professor Mark Plumbley, at m.plumbley@surrey.ac.uk.

Posted on 3rd February 2025 in Events, Noise, Specialist Interest Groups

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