New project to put a damper on noise pollution

Led by Surrey University, Noise Network Plus will feature engineers, policymakers, industry stakeholders and social scientists. The team will focus on conscious design to reduce the background hum of everyday life that many of us simply take for granted. Over the next 10-15 years, this could result in quieter buildings, products and transports systems, with significant benefits for people and the wider natural world. 

“Noise is a frequently neglected pollutant, but it has a big impact on health, society and the environment,” said Professor Mark Plumbley, project lead and Professor of Signal Processing at Surrey University’s Centre for Vision, Speech and Signal Processing (CVSSP). “For example, road noise can lead to sleep disturbance and heart disease, costing £7-10bn each year in England alone. Once noise is out there, it is really hard to remove. We need to re-think how we design noise from the start.” 

The collaboration – which includes City St George's University of London, plus the Universities of Bath and Salford – will use the £1.8m EPSRC funding to build on the partners’ existing research facilities around noise pollution.