Urban Research News: Three New Research Initiatives at Tampere University

Photo: Annika Annala

Tampere University highlights three significant new research efforts that strengthen socially sustainable and climate‑resilient urban development across Europe. Two of the initiatives have benefited from TURNS seed funding, and the third involves TURNS as an active project partner.

ATMOPOLIS: Tackling Air and Noise Pollution Through a Social Lens

A new international project, ATMOPOLIS explores how air and noise pollution impact communities by integrating citizen science with environmental data. The consortium spans 14 European partners and pilots its methods in five cities, including Tampere. Tampere University’s role is to integrate environmental modelling, health impact assessment and social sciences to address air and noise pollution and their links to carbon emissions. The project is led by Jonathon Taylor (BEN).

This project preparation has received TURNS seed funding in 2024.

https://www.tuni.fi/en/news/new-research-leads-european-cities-tackle-pollution-social-perspective

ERC‑Funded Research on Socially Sustainable Urban Development

The European Research Council ERC has awarded Senior Research Fellow Eeva Puumala (SOC) funding to advance the societal impact of research results. The project ‘Responsive VR for urban sustainability: Promoting inclusion through affect-aware and behaviour-sensitive immersion (VR-Sense)’ approaches virtual reality and generative artificial intelligence from a social scientific standpoint. It seeks to transform the way knowledge about urban spaces is produced and how diverse experiences are taken into account.

This project preparation has received TURNS seed funding in 2025.

https://www.tuni.fi/en/news/eeva-puumala-gets-erc-funding-research-socially-sustainable-urban-development

URBAN PROSUMERS: Co‑Creating Climate‑Neutral Solutions in Tampere

The URBAN PROSUMERS project supports the EU’s Climate Neutral and Smart Cities Mission by involving local stakeholders in creating sustainable solutions in mobility, food systems, and energy. It builds a knowledge‑transfer hub that empowers citizens to act as both producers and consumers of sustainable solutions. The project is conducted in collaboration with Tampere University, TAMK, City of Tampere, Ecofellows and MDI, and it is led by Pauliina Lehtonen (SOC).

TURNS plays an active role in supporting this project.

https://projects.tuni.fi/urbanprosumers-fi/

These three initiatives strengthen Tampere University’s contribution to socially just, participatory and environmentally responsible urban transitions and are aligned with TURNS’s mission to support interdisciplinary sustainable urban research.