European network on noise and health

This proposal puts forward plans to establish a research network of experts on noise and health in Europe. This network will establish future research directions and policy needs in Europe. The network will review the existing literature on environmental noise exposure and health focussing on the consolidation of existing state of the art knowledge and the identification of gaps in the evidence and future research needs and hypotheses to be tested. In the network we will train junior researchers in noise and health through setting up an exchange network across Europe.

The network will focus on noise exposure assessment in health studies in order to build more complex analytical models of noise and health effects that take into account moderating factors including the joint effects of air pollution and noise. A specific function of the network will be to establish communication between researchers on noise and researchers on air pollution.

We will improve the measurement of health outcomes relevant to noise research and strengthen the available methodologies for future research, by extending analyses on existing research taking advantage of the large EU-funded RANCH and HYENA studies and relevant national studies.

We will develop novel designs for research on noise and health to provide to the EU a new strategy for the development of noise and health research in the future.

We will disseminate the results to the EU, to national governments, to fellow researchers, and other stakeholders.