ETH4D Supports ETH Researchers to Turn Research Into Action
For research and innovation at ETH to have a real impact, it must go beyond the boundaries of the university and be made accessible to practitioners and policy makers. ETH4D is supporting "Research-to-Action" projects, ranging from a user study for a low-cost ventilator in South Africa, to an app to increase the reuse of building materials in India, to trainings for WASH stakeholders in Ethiopia on the use and dissemination of a decision support tool for sustainable sanitation options.
Sustainable And Locally Appropriate Sanitation Planning: Dissemination of Tool and Capacity Development
To reach safe sanitation is particularly challenging in urban areas of low-income countries, where conventional sewer-based solutions are often not viable. Although many new options such as container-based solutions or decentralized solutions have been developed, their implementation remains a challenge as engineering consultants lack methods and tools to systematically consider them when developing planning options. Together with colleagues from Arba Minch University (AMU) in Ethiopia, researchers of Eawag have therefore developed a web tool that enables WASH engineers to choose appropriate and sustainable solutions for different settings. ETH4D supports the project to train students and staff of AMU as well as other stakeholders from the sanitation sector in Ethiopia to use and further disseminate the tool.
Project Lead: Dorothee Spuhler (Eawag)
Field study to evaluate a mechanical ventilator for low-resource settings
During the COVID-19 pandemic, the lack of mechanical ventilators in low-resource settings was empathically uncovered. Noticeable reasons for this absence of ventilators are their costs, which lie between $5,000 and $25,000, the lack of service capacity and maintainability, and the shortage of staff trained for high-tech products developed for high-resource environments. The breathe project aims to overcome these obstacles by developing a low-cost ventilator specifically tailored to low-resource settings. The ventilator is designed to be intuitive to use, robust, and easy to maintain, while ensuring ventilatory functionality according to regulatory standards. The is to use standard components and provide sufficient functionality while minimizing the complexity of the device. The ETH4D Research to Action Grant enabled the project to conduct a field study at a rural hospital in the Mpumalanga province in South Africa to validate the design and test hypotheses on the environmental and cultural context of the ventilator use.
Project lead: Leonie Korn, MSc, Institute for Dynamic Systems and Control, Engineering Design and Computing
Enabling material reuse in India: Towards digital empowerment in the slums of Dharavi, Mumbai
As lower-income countries continue to experience urban growth, the amount of construction and demolition waste (CDW) generated is exponentially increasing. Studies show that 60% of materials and components from most existing buildings can be effectively reclaimed. India’s slum of Dharavi in Mumbai is known for its reuse and recycling businesses, which are currently run locally and do not involve government registration or legal authorization. India’s first CDW management regulation was passed in 2016 which outlined measures to be taken by contractors, recycling facilities, waste generators and state governments but failed to mention the informal sector who are key agents responsible for managing waste. A comprehensive framework to bridge the gap between the informal and formal construction market in India is required.
Lower-income communities in India are quickly adapting to digitalization and this digital boom can be leveraged to increase formalisation and technology adoption by the informal sector. ETH4D supports the project to understand the potential of a digitalized material exchange platform for building material and component reuse that may help empower the workers in not only resource dimensions but to help achieve increased social and economic inclusion.
Project lead: Deepika Raghu, Circular Engineering for Architecture
Research to Action Grant
Do you also want to discuss your work with practitioners, deliver a training or work on a prototype based on your research? Apply for the ETH4D Research to Action Grant which supports ETH Zurich bachelor students, master students, doctoral candidates, post-docs and senior scientists with up to 5 kCHF. Applications can be submitted at any time during the year and will be accepted on a rolling basis.