Cambridge–CityUHK Postdoctoral Research Fellow Scheme · £300,000 · 1 September 2025 – 31 August 2029 · Principal Investigator (Cambridge): Helen X. H. Bao
About the project
Urban and rural areas across the world are grappling with increasing challenges to mental health and overall well-being, exacerbated by socioeconomic inequalities, environmental stressors, and rapid urbanisation. While advanced spatial analysis and big-data tools have made significant strides in identifying what affects well-being, the critical question of why remains underexplored. Addressing this gap requires integrating explainable AI (XAI) into spatial analysis to uncover the mechanisms underlying urban and rural well-being disparities, particularly for mental health.
The project builds on existing work that mapped emotional hotspots in four UK and EU cities using advanced spatial analysis and social-media data, and extends it by incorporating XAI to interpret and explain the patterns identified, generating operable recommendations for policymakers. The ultimate goal is a framework for improving well-being and mental-health outcomes through data-driven, explainable interventions. It will deliver a scalable methodology combining XAI and spatial analysis to explain and address well-being disparities; evidence-based guidance tailored to UK contexts; XAI-enhanced visualisation platforms for stakeholders to explore and interpret well-being data; and academic papers, policy briefs and stakeholder-focused reports.
Team Members
- Helen X. H. Bao — Principal Investigator, Department of Land Economy, University of Cambridge
- Eddie Hui — Principal Investigator (Hong Kong), City University of Hong Kong
- Zeyu Zhao — Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Department of Land Economy, University of Cambridge
Publications
This project’s publications are in preparation.
Working papers
The team has been working on the following paper: