In a major step forward for environmental health and smart building innovation, GO AQS has officially announced its support for the development of the Global Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) Database for researchers. This pioneering open-source project, led by the Human-Oriented Built Environment Lab (HOBEL) at EPFL (École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne), aims to create the world’s first standardized, curated repository of global indoor air quality data.

As smart monitoring technologies in buildings rapidly evolve, the ability to monitor and improve the air we breathe indoors has become a critical public health priority. By backing this initiative, GO AQS aligns itself with a network of global research institutions to unlock the true potential of historical and ongoing environmental data.

In addition to the academic contributions, the database already includes a dataset covering approximately 6,000 buildings, which comes from other source.

A Vision for Healthier Buildings

The Global IAQ Database addresses a long-standing challenge in the scientific and building management communities: the fragmentation of data. Over the decades, thousands of field measurements have been conducted worldwide, but they often remain siloed in incompatible formats.

Supported by the Swissuniversities – Programme Open Science and framed within the ISIAQ Innovation Network, this project is transforming these scattered datasets into a unified, high-value global resource. GO AQS recognizes the immense value of this harmonized approach, which will seamlessly connect air quality data with crucial contextual variables like building design, occupant behavior, and regional climates.

Why This Matters

By establishing robust quality control and creating user-friendly tools for data exploration and download, the Global IAQ Database will provide researchers, practitioners, and policymakers with the open-access insights needed to shape the health guidelines, building standards, and climate policies of tomorrow.

GO AQS’s support underscores its commitment to data-driven sustainability and human-centric building design. Access to high-quality, harmonized data is the missing link to transforming how we design, operate, and breathe in indoor spaces.

Call to Action: Join the Global Effort

The success of this initiative relies on global collaboration. GO AQS joins EPFL in inviting researchers and academic institutions to contribute datasets from past and ongoing field campaigns. Contributors will gain significant international visibility, earn co-authorship opportunities where applicable, and directly influence the future of global IAQ standards.

For more information visit https://iaqdb-dev.epfl.ch/data-hub/