The Air Quality Platform (AQP) was initially designed for the 3rd edition of the School Lab which took place in Milan, at the Living Planet Symposium (LPS), in May 2019. In its educational version and role, the AQP encourages school students and teachers to discover the exciting science and technology behind Earth Observation, giving them some insights also on Earth Science and Space Science, by linking state-of the-art space activities to the secondary school curriculum.

At the LPS 2019, the European Space Agency invited schools around Lombardy and the Milan area for its School Lab, providing them with DIY kits for building their own air monitoring platform and conducting individual experiments. Specifically for the event, but kept operational afterwards, ESA developed and deployed a simple server and website capable of collecting and displaying measurements from AQPs. The first units came straight from the event and went back to the schools with the relevant students and teachers, but soon thereafter more units were built and deployed around Europe. More information about the project can be found in the Air Quality experiment page, including a link to an interactive map showing the current list of AQPs in their different locations in Europe. Among other things, the AQP showcases how citizens can contribute to keeping an eye on different air quality parameters and what different variations can be observed within, for example, a city.