Flying Team

Istituto Superiore di Sanità

National Institute of Health, National Centre for Innovative Technologies in Public Health, Italy

The National Institute of Health (ISS) represents the main centre for research, control, and technical-scientific advice on public health in Italy, 1800 people, including researchers, technicians and administrative staff, work daily with the aim of protecting the citizens’ health. The main activities of the ISS are distributed in 6 Departments, 16 National Centres, 2 Reference Centres, 5 technical-scientific services and a Notified Body for the assessment of the suitability of medical devices.

The Centre promotes the improvement of public health through research, development, optimization and evaluation of innovative technologies using multidisciplinary expertise. The field of activity ranges from medical devices, biomedical engineering, radiological health, nuclear medicine, nanotechnologies and innovative therapies.

Main tasks in the project

ISS is the project coordinator of MISTRAL, leads WPs 5, 6, 7 and 8, and leads tasks in WPs 3, 5, 6, 7 and 8.

ASL TARANTO

Local Healthcare Authority of Taranto, Italy

The Local Healthcare Authority of Taranto (ASL TA) is an entity with public legal personality and entrepreneurial autonomy that operates within the framework of the National Health Service (NHS) in Taranto, southern Italy. The Statistics and Epidemiology Department and the Prevention Department of ASL TA are involved in the Health and Environment Centre (CSA) set up to ensure coordination and integration between the various actors in the implementation of the tasks institutionally carried out within the Environment and Health theme and to strengthen them through specific lines of activity, also involving paediatricians of free choice and general practitioners.

Main tasks in the project

ASL TA coordinates the ZEPHYR and TRAMONTANA cohorts.

Planet

APS “Public Health, Environment and Social Equity” – PLANET

APS PLANET is a young not-for-profit organization acting as a mediator between public authorities and citizens to pursue public health, social and digital equity and reducing environmental impact. We aim to tackle health inequalities within and between the European States through action on the socioeconomic and environmental determinants of health. APS PLANET provides consulting, ideas, and resources for people working to create social change. It brings the right people together to challenge established thinking and drive transformation. It works with the clients to build the capabilities that enable organizations to achieve sustainable advantage.

Main tasks in the project

APS PLANET will ensure due data management and ethics aspects (WP 2). APS PLANET is also involved in WP5 to support the delivery of the architecture planned in relation to Counterfactual Explainable Artificial Intelligence for Health Impact Assessment at the local level and the dissemination of the results of the modelling to relevant stakeholders and decision-makers.

Universiteit Hasselt

Hasselt University, Centre for Environmental Sciences, Belgium

Hasselt University (UHasselt) is a young, independent, and innovative university which is regionally anchored and has a pronounced regional, national and international orientation. The basic principles of Hasselt University’s research and education policy are academic and scientific freedom, social engagement, and attention to ethical standards. In the Times Higher Education Best Small Universities Ranking, a sub-ranking focusing on universities with fewer than 5000 students, Hasselt University is ranked number 15 worldwide. The Environmental Epidemiology research domain within the Centre of Environmental Sciences at Hasselt University is embedded in a multidisciplinary national and international network.

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Main tasks in the project

UHasselt will support the project by looking at the identification and validation of the biological pathways that mediate the influence of the environment on health. By doing so, UHasselt measures black carbon particles in biological matrixes as novel exposure markers in the three different settings. UHasselt contributes to the ZEPHYR study with ENVIRONAGE cohorts.

Akademia Górniczo-Hutnicza

AGH Univeristy of Krakow, Poland

AGH University of Krakow (AGH) is a modern university that actively participates in the building of a knowledge-based society and the creation of innovative technologies. The university has a well-established position in the country and is recognized abroad. Experienced staff, advanced laboratories, a unique campus, and, above all, the bonds that connect the AGH community are its greatest assets.

In the MISTRAL project AGH is responsible for carrying out systematic reviews of exposure-response functions and causation resulting from literature and EU-funded projects. The identified gaps in the environment and health risk factors and health-related tangible and intangible costs will further used to formulate a list of recommendations on priorities for new data collections.

AGH is also coordinating two observational studies performed in Rybnik, Poland. The Zephyr study is cross-sectional observational study on recruited different sub-populations stratified by various age groups. The Tramontana study is the retrospective longitudinal analysis of the incidence of chronic diseases with the highest impact on the population.

Nuromedia

Nuromedia GmbH is an independent software engineering company and company builder founded in 2005 by experts in the media industry, with profound expertise in international R&D and offices in Cologne, Germany. Nuromedia covers the entire process of software and research project development – from the initial idea to final production/implementation – and has a wealth of experience developing for web, mobile, and cross-platform. By participating in research & development projects in both national and international research consortia, Nuromedia ensures that its projects will always utilize the most advanced state-of-the-art technology. In MISTRAL Nuromedia will mainly contribute to the design and development of a Virtual Infrastructure for federated data management and processing. High importance will be given in the development of innovative tools for user friendly access

Wings ITC Solutions

WINGS ICT Solutions is an SME, which focuses on the development of solutions (software and hardware) for various vertical areas. The areas are utilities (water, energy, gas), smart/digital/liveable cities (providing the means for managing the air quality, the transportation infrastructure, and buildings, as well as delivering services for health, parking and user mobility, and citizen security/safety), food security/safety (safety of meat/milk/oil, smart aquaculture, etc.), and, more recently, industry/logistics. The foundation for the solutions comprises IoT technologies (all types of sensors and actuators, diverse devices/vehicles, etc.), advanced wireless networks (4G, WiFi, 5G, etc.), cloud and big data platform, artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms, and security mechanisms (such as blockchain, distributed ledgers, etc.). For these sectors WINGS develops specific platforms/products (powered by AI, IoT, cloud/big data, advanced wireless, and security mechanisms.

The MISTRAL project presents the development of a technological toolkit for dynamic, intelligent HIA toolkit in order to predict the health impact of health-related features, forecasting the trajectories of disability and quality of life reduction. This method will use environmental, socio-economic, geographical, and clinical characteristics, managed, and elaborated with a federated learning architecture. The generated models will be adjusted for lifestyle and individual conditions data sourced from large population-based digital surveys. To achieve these goals WINGS will implement the most suitable solutions to characterize indoor air pollution and to estimate concentration levels thereof with user-friendly technologies, through AIRWINGS, an innovative device which contains sensors that have the capability to measure all air substances that the EU directive has set as pollutants that need to be monitored indoors and outdoors, as well as noise levels. The AIRWINGS device can communicate with a cloud platform, where the user will be able to get all vital information regarding real-time air quality measurements on each of the measured parameters.

Ubitel

Ubitel is the responsible of the work package communication, dissemination and exploitation of MISTRAL project. Ubitel will create the visual identity, social profiles and Web page, during the first stage, and in parallell the first definition of the dissemination plan, to be applied during the execution of Mistral project. Working toguether with the rest of parnerts will define and execution a plan for the exploitation of the results of Mistral project and the introduction in the market.

Ubitel has participated in several european projects during the last 10 years, related to health, well-being and social. Thanks to that experience, Ubitel is a strong parnert to participate in ambitious innovative projects.

Politecnico Bari

Polytechnic of Bari (POLIBA)

The Polytechnic University of Bari (POLIBA) is the youngest among the Italian polytechnic universities incorporating engineering and science faculties and focusing on technological faculties and subjects (1990). POLIBA contributes to the project with two of its departments: the Department of Electric Engineering and Computer Engineering (DEI) and the Department of Civil Engineering, Environmental Engineering, Construction Engineering and Chemistry (DICATECh).

POLIBA-DEI involves mainly the Information Systems Lab (SisInf Lab), whose research activities have been evolving over the years around a common nucleus: intelligent systems and intelligent data management. Thanks to the strong expertise in Artificial Intelligence, Software Engineering and Industrial Informatics, SisInf Lab works on new and innovative solutions in the fields of automated reasoning, big data analysis, formal verification of software systems, recommender systems and Internet of Thing,

POLIBA-DICATECh involves the research group on ESTIMO which research activities ranging from the development of procedures to support the evaluation of the effects of interventions on the territory to models for the analysis of real estate markets in the Environment (Built) sector to the assessment of interventions according to the Life Cycle Costing Analysis and Life Cost Assessment approach.

Main tasks in the project

POLIBA-DEI will lead WP1 by developing a novel Virtual Infrastructure for data access and processing in a global as a view logic that will enable the partners to create complex models and to predict the health impact of health-related features, forecasting the trajectories of disability and quality of life reduction. POLIBA-DEI will also contribute to all the other WPs. POLIBA-DEI will work in synergies with NUROMEDIA and WINGS for the integration of their components in the architecture and UNIBA-FIS for the management and processing of environmental monitoring and climate data.

POLIBA-DICATECh will be responsible for Task 3.2 in WP3, where they will coordinate the development of a tailored questionnaire for the socio-economic status of a population in the three countries, and Task 4.4 in WP4 on the implementation of cost-utility, cost-effectiveness, and geographical-real estate evaluation modelling starting from the mortality-related outcomes.

University of Bari (UNIBA)

The University of Bari Aldo Moro is one of the most prestigious universities in southern Italy and it is one of the largest in Italy, with a student population of around 60,000 across the Bari, Brindisi, and Taranto campuses. The university offers various courses for undergraduate, graduate and post-graduate students. Aside from teaching, the university is also focused on scientific research at the doctorate level. UNIBA contributes to the project with two departments: School of Medicine: Interdisciplinary of Medicine (DIM) and Physics (FIS). UNIBA-DIM consists of researchers and professionals from numerous scientific fields of biomedical research to ensure interdisciplinarity expertise. In particular, the group Occupational Medicine will be involved in MISTRAL having experience in Environmental Exposure and Toxicology, Health Impact Assessment, Air Pollution Studies, and Occupational Epidemiology and Medicine. UNIBA-FIS promotes research activities in basic and applied physics, with a particular focus on environmental and health physics through new emerging technologies and Artificial Intelligence techniques as well as on remote sensing applied to One Health models by means of Artificial Intelligence and Complex Systems. Noteworthy, the Department has been selected among the University Departments of Excellence by the Italian Ministry for Universities and Research (MUR) for the five-year period 2023-2027 and has been awarded a €15 million grant for its project “Quantum Sensing and Modeling for One-Health” (QuaSiModO).

Main tasks in the project UNIBA will contribute to all the WPs of the MISTRAL Project. UNIBA will lead WP4 related to “Innovative analytical methods and models for health impact assessments and related cost-benefit analysis” where UNIBA-DIM will develop and validate a multi-dimensional score to predict QALY and exposure-related markers (T4.2), while UNIBA-FIS guides T4.3 on the generation of innovative analytical methods, models, and AI architectures to predict health-related outcomes. UNIBA-DIM also takes the lead on Task 3.1 to carry out the cross-sectional surveys on lifestyle and health status in Italy, Poland and Belgium, while UNIBA-FIS will integrate Copernicus Air Pollution Data with residential exposure estimates. UNIBA-FIS will contribute to WP1 along with WINGS to identify the air pollutants to be measured at the individual level in indoor scenarios.

University of Suffolk

The University of Suffolk, located in the town of Ipswich, Suffolk, is a new and innovative educational institution committed to sustainability and environmental responsibility. At the forefront of this commitment is the Suffolk Sustainability Institute (SSI – https://www.uos.ac.uk/content/suffolk-sustainability-institute), which offers a range of programs and initiatives aimed at promoting sustainable practices in the local community and beyond.

The BA(Hons) in Architecture is a prime example of this commitment, with a curriculum that emphasizes sustainable design principles and equips students with the knowledge and skills needed to design buildings and structures that are both locally erudite and environmentally responsible. Graduates of the program are well-prepared to address the urgent challenges facing our planet and are equipped to become leaders in the field of sustainable architecture.

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The University of Suffolk will play a key role in the study, using advanced mapping techniques and innovative geographical methods to analyse the geographical distribution of pollution from steel mills. The research aims to yield significant advancements in landscape research and human geography, while also providing valuable insights into the critical intersection of industry and public health.

University of Oxford

Based within the University of Oxford’s Social Sciences Division, the School of Geography and the Environment (SoGE) is a dynamic, diverse, interdisciplinary academic department home to natural and social scientific interests. The School is internationally recognised for the quality of its teaching, research and wider engagement across the breadth of human and physical geography and environmental studies.

In the MISTRAL project, our team (Anna Lora-Wainwright, Raffaele Ippolito, Beth Greenhough and Maaret Jokela-Pansini) is responsible for the social science part of the project and contributes to engaging with stakeholders, setting up ethical guidelines regarding data, and communicating results to the stakeholders and the public, among others.