The PIAMA-study is a large ongoing population-based cohort study with prenatal inclusion and follow-up until the current age of 16 years performed by the University of Utrecht, the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM), the Groningen Medical Center Groningen, the Erasmus University Medical Center and Sanquin laboratories. The study was designed to investigate the influence of lifestyle and environment on the development of asthma, allergy and lung function (for more details see piama.iras.uu.nl/). 

• ing. M. (Marieke) Oldenwening

Cities and urban regions are key sites and vantage points of societal transitions to circular economies, healthy living, resilience and inclusiveness. One of the key mediators of such transitions are technical infrastructures—socio-technical systems in the provision of energy, water, wastewater, waste, mobility and information and communication services. However, those systems are highly path dependent and are interlaced with the built environments of cities, urban practices of production and use and embedded in a complex web of political interests and epistemic cultures. Our infrastructure choices today set the default for many decades to come. Changing urban infrastructures thus imposes exceptionally high requirements in terms of the transformative knowledge for decision makers. Our ambition with this hub is to develop a platform for new transdisciplinary collaborations on urban sustainability transitions through the lens of urban infrastructures. We will explore and test innovative techniques and practices of urban ‘futuring’, experimentation, co-provision and governance in cities around the world and develop sustainability indicators and assessment tools to understand, evaluate and promote pathways to urban sustainability. The hub will bring together the substantive knowledge of leading researchers at Utrecht University and will work closely together with stakeholders in novel ways to co-create knowledge in ‘city learning labs’ and transdisciplinary workshops, that is both policy relevant and intellectually ambitious.

• prof. dr. Harriet Bulkeley
• dr. ir. J. Colen Ladeia Torrens MSc
• prof. dr. Peter Driessen
• dr. Martijn van den Hurk
• prof. dr. Albert Meijer
• Peter Pelzer MSc
• dr. Shaun Smith
• dr. Vanessa Timmer
• prof. dr. ir. R.C.H. (Roel) Vermeulen
• prof. dr. Annelies Zoomers
• prof. dr. Jochen Monstadt

this project studies effects of low air pollution levels on mortality and morbidity, using data from European cohort studies and administrative databases.

• dr. ir. G. (Gerard) Hoek
• J. (Jie) Chen