Boosted economy and decentralised science: News from the College

Here’s a batch of fresh news and announcements from across Imperial.

From the economic benefits of taking action on climate change, to a new ‘Decentralised Science’ community of PhDs, here is some quick-read news from across the College.

Climate action boosts economy

Researchers from the Grantham Institute have published a new paper in the journal Nature Climate Change that shows how taking action on climate change can increase economic growth.

Since the 1990s, governments have asked the IPCC, the United Nations body for assessing the science related to climate change, to model the economic impacts of taking climate action. Organisations that are heavily invested in fossil fuel infrastructure, such as fossil fuel companies, have interpreted the models to show large economic losses to GDP.

This paper explores how these IPCC models do not account for the costs of climate change - such as crop failure, deaths and illnesses caused by extreme heat, buildings damaged from extreme weather events - or the collateral benefits of taking action to avoid these impacts. It shows that when the models include these important factors, climate action can boost the economy.

New White City Sports Space

A new multi-purpose Sports Space and a large outdoor screen has been installed at White City Campus.

Located at Scale Space, the sports facility will be available to Imperial students and staff to book for team games, and there is a range of fitness classes available to sign up for at £5 each.  The giant outdoor screen has been installed as part of the wider placemaking work taking place at White City, and is located directly opposite Phase A of Scale Space, adjacent to the new Sports Space.

Further details on the Sports Space are available online, including booking information, classes and opening times, or for guidelines about getting your content on the big screen. 

New PROMISE to combat RSV

An EU-funded project has launched to set out a route towards immunisation against Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) in Europe and worldwide. RSV is a common respiratory virus that usually causes mild, cold-like symptoms, but can lead to hospitalisation and even death.

The ‘Preparing for RSV Immunisation and Surveillance in Europe’ (PROMISE) consortium is funded by the Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI). Peter Openshaw and Ryan Thwaites, from the NHLI, will be looking at the biomarkers of RSV disease in children, focusing on markers of disease in the respiratory tract.

“RSV is a leading cause of infant hospitalization worldwide, in addition to contributing prominently to mortality in elderly and immunosuppressed adults. Through this study we aim to better understand this severe disease and develop new therapies” Ryan Thwaites.

PROMISE hopes to inform public health strategies, while understanding the impact of COVID-19 on RSV epidemiology and fostering confidence in vaccines.

Decentralised science

Kira Glatzel from the MRC Centre for Molecular Bacteriology and Infection at Imperial has founded a community of PhDs to broaden the reach of science to diverse new audiences. DeSci, short for decentralised science, is “a place where science, research and the blockchain metaverse meet – dissolving the traditional boundaries present in the scientific research field, opening up agenda-less funding channels and fostering new ways for peers to collaborate and interact. 

To generate funding for the first stages of the project, the team are launching MICROBES, a NFT (non-fungible-token) digital art collection, which is a primary exploration of the original themes of the DeSci concept. The collection comprises 999 unique works, created with genuine scientific research as source material from budding scientist in the field of microbiology.

Find out more about DeSci and follow them on Twitter.

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