Makerere’s AirQo named Earthshot Prize finalist

What the report says

Ugandan clean-air initiative AirQo, based at Makerere University, has been named one of 15 finalists for the 2026 Earthshot Prize, according to The Observer. The project was selected in the prize’s Clean Our Air category for work focused on measuring and addressing air pollution in African cities.

Founded in 2015, AirQo combines low-cost sensors, open data and artificial intelligence to track pollution levels and make the findings useful to communities, researchers and policymakers. The article says the initiative was created after founder Prof. Eng Bainomugisha saw how little reliable air-quality data was available in Kampala and how difficult it was to use conventional monitoring systems at city scale. AirQo now deploys fixed and mobile monitors, including units mounted on motorcycles, and uses machine-learning tools to calibrate devices, identify hotspots and support pollution forecasts.

The Observer reported that AirQo operates more than 500 monitors across more than 16 cities in nine African countries, with data reaching communities in a population of more than 30 million people. In Uganda, the initiative’s evidence has contributed to the country’s first national air-quality regulations and supported traffic-management efforts in Kampala. AirQo says it plans to expand to more cities and strengthen its open-source platform and training programmes.

The Earthshot Prize, founded by Prince William in 2020, will announce five winners in Mumbai in November 2026. More broadly, the nomination highlights the growing role of locally developed environmental data systems in cities where pollution monitoring has often been limited.