On the occassion of the 60th anniversary of the European Union last 9th of May, the research and innovation magazine “Horizon”, edited by the European Commission, selected the 10 most innovative and promising projects within the EU that may shape the future of Europe.

Among the breakthroughs listed in the article, “Horizon” highlighted the importance and innovative iScape project. This promising EU-funded investigation is led by the FabCity Research Lab at the Institute of Advanced Architecture of Catalonia (IAAC), in collaboration with other institutions, and its ultimate goal is to tackle the challenges faced by our society such as air pollution and to advance our understanding on how to find and develop solutions for this worldwide environmental issue.

Every year nearly half a million of people die in Europe as a result of air pollution. As this situation is getting worse sharply, the iScape project attempts to address this problem by testing innovations such as green walls and roofs to absorb CO2 or air quality sensors to collect real time data in several cities throughout Europe.

iScape brings together a wide range of leading European scientific institutions in the area of assessment of air pollutant dispersion modelling, climate modelling, urban planning and pervasive sensing, amongst others. IAAC is providing its expertise on open and low-cost sensors by developing a new generation of Smart Citizen Kit sensors that will be tested in seven cities across Europe to deploy passive pollution control systems and monitor air quality.