Overview
Pollution comes in many forms: noise pollution in particular has been increasingly linked to stress and poor health outcomes.
The EU-funded IN-NOVA project endeavours to reduce noise exposure with new and innovative barriers. The project will provide training for a total of 13 doctoral candidates in cutting-edge noise control technologies. Students will benefit from the expertise of leading research universities and innovative global companies in the fields of acoustics, vibration, materials engineering, signal processing and control sciences. Novel barriers could be used for quieter cars and aircraft cabins as well as homes and workplaces. The project will also propose the first standards and labelling rules for active noise control systems.
To better reduce exposure of people to noise and increase their acoustic comfort, innovative noise barriers should be developed. The overarching aim of IN-NOVA is to provide a top-level training for 10 Doctoral Candidates (DC) - MSCA Fellows plus 3 DCs funded by UK (supervised by UCL - 1 DC and UOS - 2DCs), in a wide variety of cutting-edge noise control technologies, developing a new generation of creative and entrepreneurial innovators. The DCs will benefit from a unique soft-skills training programme that will kick-start their careers as highly employable professionals.
To reach these goals, IN-NOVA has pooled the interdisciplinary, complementary and multisectoral expertise of leading research universities and innovative global companies in the fields of acoustics, vibration, materials engineering, signal processing, and control sciences, represented by outstanding researchers and practitioners. All SRs will get strong intertwining academic and non-academic supervision to jointly develop novel, complete concepts for innovative barriers to reduce noise transmitted into and from enclosures through encapsulated structures (dual problems), thus creating a more pleasant and healthier local soundscape in workplaces and leisure areas as well as in car and aircraft cabins. They will use structural design, destructive interference of waves, holistic approaches to soundscape forming, metamaterials, and employ advanced combined active, novel passive and semi-active technologies. The IN-NOVA research, training and outreach activities will have an important and lasting impact on the DCs, members of the consortium, individual people, society, environment, international scientific community, industry, policy makers, and on the EU as a whole. It will propose first standards and labelling rules for active noise control systems. It will also make possible reduction of mineral resources and energy consumption due to reduced weight of the structures. The project is fully consistent with EU, WHO and UNESCO policy declared in numerous acts.