The Airborne Infection Reduction through Building Operation and Design for SARS-CoV-2 (AIRBODS ) project aim is to deliver guidance on the ventilation operation and future design of non-domestic buildings and to quantify the risk of, and reduce the transmission of SARS-CoV-2 in buildings. It is doing this through experimentation, computer simulation and fieldwork supporting the guidance and tools.

There is large amount of research on COVID-19 infections including the spread and removal mechanisms of the virus in indoor spaces. Ventilation, air cleaning and air disinfection are the main engineering measures to control the virus spread in buildings. Wells Riley model allows to calculate the infection risk probability for any airborne virus aerosol-based transmission, but this calculation is overcomplicated in the ventilation design because of large amount of input data needed that is not easy to understand to ventilation designers.

Air cleaning has been considered an alternative method of improving indoor air quality and, in some cases, as a supplement to ventilation. The need for energy reduction to reduce the emission of CO2 into the atmosphere and subsequently combat the consequences of climate change has brought air cleaning into focus in recent years.

By 2050, the entire built environment must be climate neutral. Before that final date, we have to find an alternative to the use of fossil energy in the built environment. The switch to a climate neutral built environment requires an integrated approach, focusing on switching to alternative, non-fossil fuels and on reducing the energy demand by taking energy efficiency measures.