News + Events

Behind the scenes activity

We apologise for being so quiet with the updates online lately. We may have been digitally quiet, but we have been talking lots and tapping away on our keyboards behind the scenes to keep the Project DeStress work flowing. Dr Sarah Payne and Dr Neil Bruce have made a number of appearances at events in […]


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More DeStress(ed) minds on the job!

A Happy Belated New Year The Project DeStress team have all had a lovely destressing time over the Christmas and New Year holiday break, that we are all raring to get back into our work, beginning with analysis on the fieldwork we conducted last summer and developing the visual scenarios for our simulator. We are […]


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Lisa Lavia joins the research team

Dr Sarah Payne is delighted to announce that Lisa Lavia, Managing Director of the Noise Abatement Society has started her doctoral research as part of Project DeStress. Already a Project Partner, Lisa is now extending her involvement with the project, diversifying from assisting with public engagement and enhancing the impact of DeStress results, to creating her […]


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Initial Fieldwork Trip Report by Dr Neil Bruce

Since starting Project DeStress on the 1st of August, it has been all go, getting ready for the first series of fieldwork trips associated with the project. As I write, these are now underway and our first location Brighton, has been completed. A large part of Project DeStress is conducting fieldwork in three cities across […]


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A buzz of DeStress Activity

The last few months have been exciting, with lots of activities happening for Project DeStress. The identification of quiet, calm, or tranquil urban outdoor places has started by the public, with 511 points being mapped in the case study cities of Edinburgh, Sheffield, and Brighton and Hove. The mapping questionnaire was launched on International Noise […]


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Where’s your quiet, calm or tranquil urban outdoor place?

Project DeStress is interested in knowing where people go outdoors that they think is a quiet area in a city. Quiet areas are important places that we need to protect as they provide a space where we can rest and recover and avoid noisy environmental stressors. Quiet areas may also help mitigate against the negative […]


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Project DeStress is recruiting!

Two fabulous opportunities have arisen to join the research team at Project DeStress, at Heriot-Watt University with Dr Sarah Payne. One is for a post doctoral acoustician the other is to become a doctorate research student. Further information about each is described below and full details can be found at the relevant links. I look forward […]


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And so it begins

Yesterday February 13th 2018, Project Destress formally began. So there is more than love in the air today, there is excitement, enthusiasm, and motivation to begin work on this great project. In the coming months DeStress will be recruiting a Postdoctoral Research Assistant and a PhD student to help understand how urban soundscapes and the […]


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Launching of Project DeStress

Project DeStress is a research project beginning February 2018. It is run by Dr Sarah Payne, an Environmental Psychologist and Assistant Professor of Health in the Built Environment, at Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, UK. The project is funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), a Research Council UK. There are four great project […]


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