IfCA – the award-winning clean air initiative

The winner of two sustainability research awards, the renowned clean air initiative brought together UK and India innovators, government, academics and civil society organisations to find air quality solutions, laying the foundation for future ITES programmes.

Key outcomes

Landmark innovation pilots

The Clean Air Street initiative created a demonstration area where SME/startup businesses could test and showcase their technology in a real world setting.

Major commercial opportunities for SMEs

Clean Air Testbeds enabled startups to forge industry and sector partnerships, showcase their technologies, and explore commercial opportunities.

Award-winning research and impact

The project has achieved environmental impacts as well as raising citizen, stakeholder and policy maker awareness of issues.

EV charging infrastructure design

IfCA helped develop a model for EV charge point location optimisation to support planners and policymakers.

The challenge

Cities across the world are facing huge environmental challenges related to climate change, with growing urban air pollution a major public health issue. Accelerating the transition to electric vehicles (EVs) emerges as a crucial part of the solution – but while cities need and want to act, resources to tackle the system-wide challenges faced or develop the complex, innovative solutions and infrastructure needed are often lacking.

To address these challenges, in 2019 Energy Systems, Connected Places and Satellite Applications Catapults, with collaborative partners in India, launched the Innovating for Clean Air (IfCA) project. Led by Energy Systems Catapult, the project was a three-year initiative funded by UK Research and Innovation and focused on the Karnataka state capital city of Bengaluru.

The solution

Through engagement with Indian stakeholders in Bengaluru, the Catapults identified some of the key EV and air quality challenge areas for the city and Indian enterprise. They then launched an open call in the UK to find small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) who could deliver innovative solutions.

We aimed to enable the introduction and early adoption of selected EV and air quality products and services by deploying them in real-life urban testbeds in Bengaluru, creating tangible collaboration opportunities for UK and Indian innovators.

These Clean Air Testbeds involved a cohort of 17 high potential UK and Indian SMEs developing innovative clean air and electric vehicle solutions.

Out of those, nine deployed their solutions on the Clean Air Street – a collaborative initiative between the Connected Places and Energy Systems Catapults, the Directorate of Urban Land Transport, and the Indian Institute of Science. The other eight innovators carried out experiments in multiple locations across the city, including office buildings, residential areas, schools and university campuses.

Satellite Applications Catapult are also working with SME Earthsense to develop a unique measurement system for air quality by integrating satellite, ground and mobile sensor data to deliver a detailed localised map of the air quality to help support the integration of EVs within the city of Bengaluru.

Led by the UK’s Catapult Network and providing a unique business collaborative Indian and UK innovators, the project aimed to increase the evidence base for policy that delivers cleaner air, while creating a replicable model which can be used in other cities and countries. The Energy Systems Catapult also worked with the Sustainable Transport Lab team at the Indian Institute of Science and Connected Places Catapult to model EV charging infrastructure in India to advise on the optimal location and size of charge points in the city.

Garlanded by the sector for its impact and real-world practical focus, IfCA has since laid the groundwork for the Innovating for Transport and Energy Systems (ITES) initiative. Adopting a wider focus across international transport and energy decarbonisation, ITES still retains the ‘market-led, impact-driven innovation’ approach at the heart of IfCA.

“EV Technology is extremely grateful to Energy Systems Catapult for making it possible for a young UK SME to explore opportunities in India and for identifying a project partner for this exciting pilot study. “Through the project, we have identified ways to create a lower cost approach, to make it more relevant for the Indian market. This has had the added benefit of potentially opening up use cases in the European market which may have otherwise gone untapped. “We continue to collaborate with the project partner in India and with Energy Systems Catapult to extend our work in the exciting arena of electric mobility.” Alistair Clarke, Founder and CEO of eFleet Analytics (formerly EV Technology).