Officials during the signing ceremony.
Doha, Qatar: The Environmental Research Group (ERG) at Imperial College London and the Qatar Environment and Energy Research Institute (QEERI) at Hamad Bin Khalifa University have launched a new two-year strategic partnership focused on environmental health research in arid urban environments.
The partnership was formally inaugurated in February at Imperial’s White City Campus in London, bringing together representatives from both institutions to mark the start of a joint research programme designed to generate high-quality scientific evidence to inform environmental health policy and management in Qatar, the United Kingdom, and other regions facing similar environmental challenges.
The initial two-year framework establishes a platform for long-term collaboration through joint funding applications, shared research initiatives, and sustained knowledge exchange, reinforcing both institutions’ commitment to delivering research with tangible societal impact.
For QEERI and Hamad Bin Khalifa University, the initiative supports Qatar’s national priorities around environmental resilience, sustainability, and public health, while strengthening the country’s growing role in international environmental research.
Addressing Environmental Health Challenges in Arid Urban Regions Rapid urbanisation in hot and arid regions presents a complex combination of natural and human-made environmental exposures. The ERG–QEERI partnership will focus on three priority research areas as Air pollution exposure assessment across the indoor–outdoor continuum, developing improved methodologies to better understand personal and population exposure patterns in hot urban environments; Oxidative potential and toxicology of natural dust and pollutant mixtures, examining how desert dust interacts with anthropogenic emissions and the resulting implications for human health; and Microplastics in air and water, investigating the occurrence, transport, and potential health effects of emerging contaminants in hot, dry climates, with a particular focus on Qatar.
The programme combines ERG’s internationally recognised expertise in exposure science, air pollution epidemiology and toxicology, and environmental health with QEERI’s strengths in air quality science, source attribution, atmospheric chemistry, and environmental health.
Together, the partnership aims to deliver policy-relevant research with measurable public health benefits.
Executive Director of QEERI, Dr. Tareq Al-Ansari said, “This partnership reflects QEERI’s commitment to addressing pressing environmental challenges through strategic international collaboration. Working with Imperial’s Environmental Research Group strengthens our ability to deliver high-impact science that supports sustainable development and environmental health resilience in Qatar and beyond.”
For ERG, which is based within Imperial’s School of Public Health, the collaboration further expands its global environmental health research portfolio and supports its commitment to interdisciplinary research addressing sustainability and human health.
