Air Quality: Establishing and maintaining local authority and university collaborations

The UKRI SPF Clean Air Programme have produced a resource to support and promote local authority-university collaborations for cleaner air.

We approached officers and researchers working within established local authority-university partnerships throughout the UK to explore how the relationships started, key challenges experienced, and the breadth of what can be achieved through working together.

From this initiative we have produced a guide detailing the reciprocal benefits for local authorities and universities, as well as providing practical advice for navigating the different organisational structures, creating partnerships, supportive infrastructure, challenges, and specific relevant funding opportunities. Four case studies were included to give specific examples of how these partnerships have worked, including the Hampshire Local Authority Wood Burning project.

Multiple local authority partners expressed the view that having the university “badge” on outputs was viewed by stakeholders as adding an independent and trustworthy name to messaging, which can increase public awareness and acceptance. Importantly for those collaborations we connected with in this study, projects typically led to local benefit, as well as ongoing collaborations and partnership on further funding bids.