Care Settings Working Group

National and Regional Engagement

Significant visibility was achieved through invited keynotes, presentations, and stakeholder workshops at major events during the first quarter of 2026, focusing on practical applications and sector engagement:

Climate Adaptation in Wales (MACC Workshop)

On 5 March 2026, Professors Anna Mavrogianni and Rajat Gupta participated as expert panel members at the MACC workshop in Cardiff. The session facilitated the exchange of research on climate resilience and health, strengthening the Hub’s ties with adaptation networks across Wales.

London Climate Ready Partnership Forum (City Hall, London, 27 February 2026)

Professors Anna Mavrogianni and Rajat Gupta attended the London Climate Ready Partnership Forum on Tackling Heat Risks in London, where they introduced HEARTH, as well as the HEARTH London Working Group. They were joined by project team members from the Greater London Authority (GLA), Annette Figueiredo, Dr Emer O’Connell and Dr Jiayu Pan, and from UKHSA, Dr Ross Thompson, as shown in the photograph below.

National Housing Maintenance Forum (Stratford-upon-Avon, 20 January 2026)

Professor Rajat Gupta delivered a keynote to social housing providers, introducing HEARTH in the plenary session (Keeping Warm Homes Healthy: How to Avoid Unhealthy Retrofit). At the conference, HEARTH was exhibited by Dr Yuanhong Zhao through posters and flyers, including calls for participation. A number of social housing providers expressed interest in collaborating on the research.

National Housing Maintenance Forum, Stratford-upon-Avon, 20 January 2026

Global Knowledge Exchange

HEARTH contributed to international research dialogues through a series of invited keynote presentations by Professor Shakoor Hajat (LSHTM), highlighting current priorities in climate and health research and strengthening international collaboration in environmental epidemiology:

• University of Tokyo (27 January 2026): Keynote on “Current Climate and Health Research in the UK” as part of the Lecture Series in Global Health Policy.

•  Nagasaki University (30 January 2026): Keynote on “Current Climate and Health Research in the UK” within the Seminar Series.

• Seoul National University (1 February 2026): Keynote at the Symposium for Environmental Epidemiology in East Asia, introducing HEARTH and engaging with leading scholars on air pollution, climate change, and future regional collaboration.

Accepted Research Papers 

Peer-reviewed research from the Hub has been accepted for presentation at several major conferences throughout 2026, covering the breadth of the Hub’s interdisciplinary programme:

• Geographic Information Science Research UK (GISRUK 2026) – Birmingham, 15–17 April 2026: Oral presentation on How Temperature Datasets Shape Spatial Heat Vulnerability: Observations versus Urban Climate Modelling.

•  Making Research Stronger Together: Public Health Research in Local Authorities London Conference – London, 06 May 2026: Abstract for the paper titled “A place-based approach towards understanding and improving heat resilience in older people housing” accepted for presentation.

• European Geosciences Union (EGU 2026) General Assembly – Vienna, 3–8 May 2026: Oral presentation on humid heatwaves, their meteorological drivers, and associated impacts.

Shaping National Standards (BSI PAS 20501)

In January 2026, Dr Hugh Waddington (LSHTM) represented the Hub in a scoping workshop for a new British Standards Institution (BSI) standard. The focus of this work is defining and measuring the human health benefits of net zero actions, ensuring that public health remains a central metric in future climate mitigation standards.

Co-designing Heat Adaptation for NHS (ARCHI Stakeholder Workshops)

Strategic leadership continued through the NIHR-funded ARCHI (Adaptation for Resilience and Equity in Communities and Health Infrastructure) project, co-developing heat adaptation interventions for NHS buildings in collaboration with HEARTH. This progressed through series of workshops in the first quarter of 2026:

• 24 March 2026: This workshop focused on hospital estates, presenting evidence from environmental monitoring, thermal simulations, and hospital archetype modelling to support practical, scalable cooling solutions for hospital and care environments.