People and Nature Lab launched at UCL East

Bat sensor in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park - The Lab's first project: bat sensors in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. The world's first automated smart detectors for monitoring bats through their echolocation calls, the 'Echo Boxes' continuously record and identify bat calls using machine learning across the Park sending the results back in real-time to understand the health of the environment. Long lasting solutions to the global challenges of biodiversity loss, ecosystem degradation and climate change, will be the focus of the new People and Nature Lab, launching today at UCL East. One of numerous new interdisciplinary centres opening up at the new campus at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park at East Bank this year, the facility will bring together researchers in ecology, engineering, computer science, social science, health and the built environment, working closely with the Zoological Society of London and the Natural History Museum. By crossing disciplinary boundaries and collaborating with external partners, the research teams will work together to better understand the problems facing the natural world and develop sustainable solutions that can also benefit human health and wellbeing. The Lab's academic lead, Professor Kate Jones (UCL Centre for Biodiversity & Environment Research, UCL Biosciences) said: "We are completely dependent on natural ecosystems for all human endeavours, and restoring biodiversity is at the heart of solutions to address the biggest problems the planet is facing - for example, stabilising food security, preventing the next pandemic and building healthy cities.