The Horizon Europe 2020 TInnGO (Transport Innovation Gender Observatory) project1 aimed to facilitate and empower the inclusion of underrepresented and diverse groups in smart mobility. Women are still considered to be an underrepresented group across the transport sector, forming less than 30% of all employees in the sector. Significantly women’s travel needs are not met by current transport provision, despite widespread evidence that they make different types of journeys and have different mobility concerns. It may hypothesised that even less is known about other minority groups (such as those from the BAME (Black, Asian, Minority and Ethnic community and those with disabilities). The design of future transport services and products is further skewed by the predominance of male undergraduate transport designers and engineers. While there are many noteworthy attempts to attract young women into STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) careers and provide support for them in the male dominated sector, the work conducted by TInnGO’s Coventry team focussed on developing gender and diversity sensitive smart mobility solutions to highlight everyday mobility issues for women. These have been termed ‘Design provocations,’ 50 such designs were produced over 18 months in conjunction with 4 undergraduate design interns and are available for comment on our Open Innovation Platform2. From this experience, the team have produced a series of design tools to facilitate undergraduate student’s empathy and awareness when designing gender and diversity sensitive smart mobility products. [1] https://www.tinngo.eu/ [2] https://oip.transportgenderobservatory.eu/home

There is a need for research to support the transition away from single-use plastic packaging towards a circular economy. This research developed simulated wear processes and assessment techniques that emulate aspects of a reuse system in order to evaluate different plastic food packaging types that are typically used for single-use applications. Two thermoformed polyethylene terephthalate materials (rPET and heat-resistant PET) for food packaging trays were tested. Researchers subjected both thermoformed packs to a range of simulated wear processes including wash cycles, simulated damage, surface scratching, and artificial fouling. Assessment techniques included using adenosine triphosphate (ATP) swabs to indicate cleanliness of the pack surface and 3D scan data to measure physical change. The findings show that scratch damage applied to packs, following fouling and wash cycles, produced promising readings under 30 relative light units (RLUs) on ATP swabs. The heat-resistant PET packs exhibited minimal deformation throughout repeated wash cycles. The assessment techniques developed to evaluate plastic materials have provided valuable insight into the cleaning, damage, and deformation of plastic packaging. These insights can support more complex decision making in the design and production of circular food-to-go plastic packaging solutions.