Professor Ed Manley awarded ERC Consolidator grant
Professor Manley has won the prestigious grant to advance knowledge in cognitive geography – mapping the way we think about our environment – to improve active travel and mobility.
His research project, titled ‘Representations of Cognitive Geography for Navigating Sustainable Neighbourhoods (ReCoGNiSe)’ will study how people experience and remember their local environments, bringing together research from geography and neuroscience.
The research team will gather data from large computer models, interviews, and sketch maps by participants, working across three urban study sites: London UK, Boston USA, and Singapore.
The ReCoGNiSe project will change how we represent geographic space to better reflect how people think about it.
Focusing on the spatial cognition of walking, the results will show how we could design cities and urban areas with people’s experiences in mind, to support more sustainable, active travel.
Professor Manley said: “I am delighted to receive an ERC Consolidator Grant, which will allow us to explore a challenging area of geographic research.
“Understanding the relationship between people and space is vital in creating more sustainable cities and neighbourhoods - but conventional analysis methods embed crude assumptions about human perception.
“This project will allow us to collect new data on how people remember space, and build models of the world that better support people to make sustainable mobility choices.”
European Research Council (ERC) Consolidator grants are awarded to outstanding researchers to support impactful and innovative research. This year only 11% of the 3121 who applied to the scheme from across Europe were awarded funding.
President of the European Research Council, Professor Maria Leptin, said: “To see all this talent with groundbreaking ideas, based in Europe, is truly inspiring. This bold research may well lead to new industries, improve lives and strengthen Europe’s global standing.
“This was one of the most competitive ERC calls ever, with record demand and also many excellent projects left unfunded. It is yet another reminder of how urgent the call for increased EU investment in frontier research has become.”
