University of St Andrews

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-06

Circe: Co-rotating Interaction regions colliding with exoplanets On the present-day Earth, geomagnetic storms occur when fast and slow streams of the solar wind collide, generating shocks and producing showers of fast particles that penetrate into, and interact with, the Earth’s atmosphere. These corotating interaction regions permeate the solar wind and their cumulative effect on planetary atmospheres can exceed that of the more powerful, but less frequent, flare-related coronal mass ejections. Although these interaction regions are known to be important in the solar wind, and are well-studied in massive stars, there have been no large-scale studies of their frequency and power in solar-type stars. This project will extend our understanding of these features to the many other types of stars now known to host a range of exoplanets whose upper atmospheres may be vulnerable to the heating induced by this geomagnetic activity. We will develop semi-analytical models in a broad-based study that will characterise these corotating interaction regions as a function of stellar mass and age. We will build on the recent growth in space-based in-situ studies of the solar wind that provide a wealth of data on these interaction regions and the impact of their accelerated particles on the Earth, Mars and Venus. For other stars, we will use spectropolarimetric studies that provide magnetic maps of the surfaces of > 100 stars, many of which are known planet hosts. These maps show the locations from which fast and slow wind streams emerge and hence determine where they collide. Young, rapidly-rotating stars are likely to produce the most powerful interactions. Indeed, using one of these maps as an input, a proof-of-concept MHD simulation of the young Sun kappa Ceti predicted corotating interaction regions whose pressure pulses are 1300 times greater than the background stellar wind. We will also use rotational evolution models to evolve a solar-mass star in time from its pre-main sequence phase to the present day. This will allow us to determine at what point in its history the solar wind hosted the most powerful corotating interaction regions. We will compare this with the known stages in the evolution of the Earth’s atmosphere, and estimate the distribution of energies of the particles accelerated by these interaction regions.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-06

Strabismus (squint or crossed eyes) is one of the most common and debilitating eye disorders in childhood. Individuals with this condition cannot align the two eyes to look at the same visual object. The current treatment is visual correction followed by surgery of the muscles that move the eyes in the eye sockets. This treatment does not work in everyone. In many children the eye misalignment persists and a majority of those treated do not regain normal vision. Visual problems may prevent the children from performing well academically, competing successfully in sports, and pursuing some occupations. The appearance of "crossed" eyes leads to low self-esteem and social difficulties. The reason the treatment does not work could be that it does not address the root cause of the disease. It is not known what causes strabismus. To precisely control where we look, the brain has access to information about the rotation of each eye in the eye sockets. One source of such information is called 'oculoproprioception'. It is provided by stretch receptors in the muscles that rotate the eye. We have observed in healthy adults that when one eye is passively rotated in complete darkness, the other eye mirrors this rotation, albeit with a smaller amplitude. We are proposing to test for the first time the hypothesis that the misalignment of the eyes in strabismus might be caused by inaccurate oculoproprioception. Answering this question is challenging for several reasons. First, animal models of strabismus are inadequate for understanding the role of oculoproprioception in human disease, as there are inter-species differences in anatomy and function. Second, because corrective strabismus surgery itself affects oculoproprioception, one would need to examine before surgical intervention, in early childhood. To address these challenges we propose to pool resources, knowledge, and expertise across several institutions. The project has two main aims. First, we will adapt behavioural tasks previously used in adults to assess whether the passive movement of one eye has a smaller impact on the movement of the other eye in 4- to 5-year-old children with strabismus relative to healthy controls. Second, we will identify how the healthy brain orchestrates the coupling between the movement of the eyes. The hypothesis is that brain areas that receive proprioceptive input, drive the activity of brainstem areas that control the extraocular muscles. Thus, the project will shed light on the cause of a clinical condition in humans at behavioural and neural levels. The outcomes will provide the basis for earlier assessment and a more effective intervention in strabismus.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-05

Since the realisation of Bose-Einstein condensation of ultracold atoms in 1995, experiments on ultracold atoms have allowed us to explore and understand many aspects of many-body physics, i.e. understanding the consequences of quantum mechanics with large numbers of interacting particles. This is important because such many-body physics is responsible for effects such as superconductivity, superfluidity, and magnetism. In addition, understanding this physics is necessary to be able to exploit quantum behaviour for computing or communication technologies. Even with the impressive capabilities these experiments have shown, there remain phenomena that have been challenging to realise with the short-range interactions between atoms confined using fixed patterns of lasers. Recently, experiments with cold atoms in optical cavities (i.e. placed between high quality mirrors that trap light) have provided an extra set of tools for how to engineer many-body physics. In particular, experiments using cavities supporting multiple cavity modes have vastly broadened what states can be explored. Light in the cavity can affect atoms in the same way as an external laser, but crucially allows feedback of the motion and state of the atom on the cavity light. This gives controllable cavity-mediated quantum interactions between atoms, where we can change the range and structure of how atoms interact. Building on our collaboration with the only group in the world to have realised such experiments, we will develop the theoretical methods and approaches that are required to understand these experiments. While our work is driven by the exciting developments in these specific systems, the methods we will develop have far wider application. A key feature of these experiments is that because they involve light, they generally require understanding the effects of light leaking out of the mirrors, and of driving by external lasers to balance this. The light that escapes plays a key role, allowing us to monitor the experimental system, and potentially introduce quantum feedback. This means that the methods we need are those of the field of "many-body open quantum systems". This field seeks to understand how to describe quantum systems that are affected by noise, loss, and external driving. As such, this field is crucial to understanding how quantum technologies operate in the real world. To maximise the possibilities arising from these new "Multimode Cavity QED" experiments, our key objectives are: Developing theoretical methods (including numerical techniques) for modelling many-body open quantum systems. Understanding the quantum dynamics in the spin-glass states that can be realised in experiment, including finding how to optimise their performance as "associative memories" (where one can input a corrupted version of a memory, and have the system recover the corrected version). Determining how superconducting pairing can be realised and controlled using atoms in a multimode cavity, and whether this can be used to study "exotic" forms of superconductivity, such as those which may explain high-temperature superconductivity. The methods we will develop to achieve these goals will find widespread application across a range of many-body open quantum systems, thus supporting a broad range of experimental and theoretical researchers.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-04

Nest building is a fundamental part of reproduction in most birds.  It is widely believed that this behaviour is largely instinctive.  However, after a decade of research, we have established that cognition plays a significant role in all aspects of nest building in a diversity of bird species. These data form the solid basis for our (Meddle, Hebert, and Healy) current BBSRC grant, in which we are attempting to determine where in the brain reproductive hormones act when a bird is building its nest.  Among other outcomes of this work, we expect to be able to identify some of the key locations in the brain that control building. Identification of these neural locations will allow us to attempt develop for nest building the exciting, field-pushing methodology developed by Susanne Hoffmann, Research Group Leader at the Max Planck Institute for Biological Intelligence at Seewiesen, Germany for song learning.  Song learning in birds has, for multiple decades, been an iconic model for understanding the relationships between brain, cognition and behaviour in vertebrates, including humans.  Hoffmann's work has been a major innovation in understanding the role of song because she has developed and implemented a system of in vivo neural recordings of awake, behaving birds. Hoffman has not just implemented such a system but has it running in birds singing in the wild: in her work she collects data on the song the birds are singing while recording from the regions of the bird's brain known to enable production of song (Hoffmann et al. 2019).  One of the outcomes of that work has been to show the role the song regions in the brain play in enabling the coordination of the rhythmic motor actions used by birds to sing duets.  These duets are so well coordinated that the human ear is often unable to detect which bird is currently singing.  Because our current data should provide us with useful neural candidate locations we wish to adapt this system to allow us to examine the roles played by the brain in nest building (and potentially to other physical cognition tasks such as tool use) develop such a system for in vivo recording while a bird is building its nest. The visiting team includes the current BBSRC holders, Healy, Meddle, and Hebert because they would form the larger part of the team for an upcoming ERC grant application in which we would undertake the development of this system.  Tello-Ramos is also included because of her expertise with sparrow weavers in the wild. Should the work on zebra finches proceed successfully, we plan to take the system, as Hoffmann has done with such success to the field, also to sparrow weavers.  Sparrow weavers are an ideal species with which to take this major step, because the system works (for song) in this species already, and because this species is a builder extraordinaire: they build more structures than probably any other bird species and they do so in a habitat that is logistically appropriate for implementing this technology. Hoffmann, S. and co-authors. (2019) Duets recorded in the wild reveal that interindividually coordinated motor control enables cooperative behaviour. Nature Communications, 10: 2577.  

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-04

Generation, control and detection of light play a critical role in optoelectronics, which implicitly require interactions of light with materials. Over the past decades, outstanding progress has been made to control and engineer the optical properties of sub-wavelength photonic nanostructured materials, which has unlocked new opportunities to manipulate light at the nanoscale and tune light-matter interactions. For instance, there is currently a growing interest in the organic electronic community for the applications of plasmonic nanostructures to control/improve key photophysical processes, enhance the light outcoupling efficiency and boost the overall performance of organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs). However, some of the applications of plasmonics and metamaterials are still limited by their large optical losses and their multiple-step fabrication/nanostructuring methods. In this context, this joint collaborative project with Kyushu University, RIKEN and Ajou University will explore the potential of a novel class of organic solution-processable sub-wavelength nanostructures to control the electro-optical properties of organic electronic devices such as organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) and organic photodetectors. The successful outcome of this project will then serve as a basis to establish a novel platform of organic low-loss photonic materials that can transform the field of organic optoelectronics. In the frame of this EPSRC oversea travel grant, the involved collaboration between Chemistry, Materials Science, Chemical Engineering and Physics delivers the necessary world-leading expertise and skills to generate new research directions in organic optoelectronic materials and devices, whilst creating a new bridge between the UK, Japan and South Korea in the important field of organic semiconductor technologies. This international joint collaborative project will in the longer term produce new research and business opportunities by contributing to the development of innovative organic electronic technologies. In addition to the potential future societal and economic benefits for the three involved countries, this research will greatly support our global efforts to develop new communication and sustainable infrastructures for future smart societies.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-04

This Open Fellowship Plus application focusses on discovery, development and innovation enabling precision molecule editing and diversification, an area central to drug discovery and of great interest to our pharmaceutical industry partners. It also looks to examine and address diversity across the science + engineering community involved in translation, with a particular focus on the largest population grouping (women) who remain significantly under-represented in spinouts and start-ups. The formation of C-X bonds (where X is F, Cl, Br, or I) is of great importance to the pharmaceutical and agrochemical industries. The introduction of a halogen into a molecule can be used to modulate bioactivity, bioavailability and metabolic stability. It also provides a chemically reactive and selectively functionalisable handle, that can be used to build or diversify molecules. For these reasons >81% of agrochemicals contain a C-X bond, and for pharmaceuticals >26% contain a C-Cl bond with a further 67% requiring a C-Cl bond for assembly. Current industrial approaches to making C-X bonds still require Cl2 and Br2. Such approaches rely on fragile supply chains with much of the elemental halides being generated through energy expensive processes in India, China, Russia, Ukraine, and require the C-X bond to be introduced at an early stage. Most critically, these approaches lack selectivity and, even when applied to simple starting materials, result in hard to separate mixtures. For this reason, only simple halogenated building blocks are generated. To incorporate a halogen into a molecule, whether that be a pharmaceutical or agrochemical, its assembly must be designed using these simple halogenated building blocks. Transitioning from current thinking to new thinking + discovery In contrast to current industrial approaches to halogenation, enzymes confer exquisite selectivity, enabling precision late-stage halogenation. Unlike current industrial approaches, salt is used as halogenating agent, only one product is generated simplifying purification, and complex bioactive scaffolds, rather than simple building blocks, can be accepted as substrates. In this ambitious fellowship proposal, we will: - use bioinformatics approaches, coupled to wet screening and AI to discover new halogenases - develop and apply AI guided directed evolution and selection to these new halogenases - explore innovative new approaches to cofactor recycling toward enabling reaction intensification and scale up - demonstrate precision late-stage diversification of pharmaceutically relevant scaffolds, developing new and innovative diversification procedures. Demonstrating PRIMED for Diversification in the context of pharmaceutical design and discovery. The proposed work is poised to bring significant advantage and acceleration to molecule making and diversification, particularly in the context of drug discovery. It will also bring benefit to biocatalysts through the development and pioneering of AI informed enzyme selection. Further insight and benefit will be brought through the Open Plus component, shining a light on diversity data within the translational arena.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-04

This project, entitled "Bringing Outer Space Governance into the 21st Century", will provide knowledge synthesis on the question: "What measures can be taken to improve outer space treaties and international governance, given the rapidly changing activities and expanding technologies in outer space?" Rapidly evolving technologies and increasing numbers and types of space actors have generated numerous urgent challenges that international space law and governance are struggling to address, manage, and mitigate. These challenges include orbital debris, light and radio pollution from satellites, disputes over space mining, coordination challenges in orbit as well as on-and-around the Moon, and uncontrolled re-entries of rocket bodies. These challenges intersect with escalating security issues as space continues to be militarized and weaponized. These shortcomings in international space law and governance have furthered adversarial relations between states. They have also allowed space actors to escape accountability for their actions. Space scientists have warned that, if international space law and governance are not reshaped and strengthened to meet these challenges, activities in some areas of outer space could be seriously jeopardized. This knowledge synthesis project will respond to that warning by collecting the very best existing research and stakeholder knowledge and using it to identify how international space law and governance can be improved. The two co-applicants have demonstrated expertise in international space law and governance They have published extensively on these topics and are members of academic and policy networks that can be effectively leveraged for this project. Their work on this project will be supported by Charlotte Hook, a PhD student in Political Science at the University of British Columbia who previously worked as a full-time research technician on an interdisciplinary team combining astrophysics and international space law. Hook's work on the project will take place in both Canada and the UK, maximizing the collaboration between the co-applicants and enabling fulsome engagement with stakeholders in both countries. This project will make three key contributions: (1) It will provide decision-makers in Canada and the UK with a knowledge synthesis report on the best recent research and recommendations on outer space governance, thereby assisting their policy development and space diplomacy. (2) It will identify needs and opportunities for future research through its evaluation of the current state of knowledge. (3) It will engage in knowledge mobilization throughout the project with cross-sectoral input to facilitate dialogue between stakeholders, increase knowledge of outer space governance and treaties, and find points of consensus for how to improve outer space governance. Outer space is suffering from a lack of certainty and consensus in international space law and governance. New technological developments and space actors create risks and opportunities that are not being addressed or exploited. By identifying and synthesizing the best recent research and stakeholder knowledge, along with actionable recommendations, this project will greatly assist decision-makers in addressing current and new challenges in outer space.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-04

NMR spectroscopy is a key tool for understanding the atomic-scale structure of solids which is a vital step in the design of functional materials. This proposal will deliver a world-class facility supporting research and training at the cutting edge of solid-state NMR spectroscopy, expanding capacity and enhancing capability. The research enabled will underpin a range of EPSRC objectives and themes, supporting researchers developing new batteries, the hydrogen economy, industrially important catalysts, and porous materials for separations, gas storage, drug delivery and carbon capture. This will contribute to the EPSRC Advanced Materials and Circular Economy thematic areas, with particularly strong input into the physical sciences, energy, engineering and healthcare technology themes, mapping onto several EPSRC and institutional strategic priorities. Currently, the facility (the only laboratory dedicated to solid-state NMR in Scotland) supports over 100 users involved in multidisciplinary transformational research across the institution (e.g., Chemistry, Physics, Earth Sciences, Geography), the EaStCHEM pooling initiative and the wider region. However, the current spectrometer consoles are aging, inefficient and are end-of-life, with repairs no longer supported by the manufacturer. The increasing number of breakdowns significantly affects the capacity and efficiency of this already oversubscribed facility. The current instrumentation is also limited in that it cannot perform many of the more complex experiments demanded by modern science. Replacing the consoles with modern instrumentation capable of interleaved acquisition and the acquisition of new multiple-resonance probeheads will not only provide increased efficiency and enhanced capacity (alleviating the significant overdemand), but will widen the range of experiments that can be performed and the complexity of the materials that can be studied. The facility employs a hybrid usage model. This combines in-person access for specialist, trained users, collaborative projects (with key academic researchers and industrial partners from the UK and across the world), and an NMR service for less experienced users. This ensures access to this vital technique for a wide and diverse user base, irrespective of background and expertise. The facility is supported by a dedicated Facility Manager, providing on-site scientific expertise, specialist training and technical support. As the only solid-state NMR facility in Scotland, the laboratory provides researchers from across the country with access, expertise and support, and enables efficient use to be made of the instrument time available at high field (e.g., at the Scottish High-Field NMR Facility in Edinburgh). The strong and supportive Scottish NMR Community (coordinated through the Scottish NMR Users Group, SNUG), is ideally placed to take advantage of the sharing of equipment and best practice. The flexible access model results in usage by academics from all four nations. In order to both improve day-to-day efficiency and provide a skilled future generation of researchers, the proposal will deliver training for all users including the development of standard operating procedures and specific training in advanced experimental techniques as needed. The proposal will also deliver significantly improved financial and environmental sustainability for the facility. The superconducting magnets require a regular supply of liquid helium, which is a costly and finite natural resource produced as a byproduct of fossil fuel extraction. By installing helium capture capabilities, the facility will be able to connect to the University’s recycling system. This will both sever a link to fossil fuels and provide a major cost reduction. Replacing old, inefficient consoles will also deliver further sustainability benefits.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-03

Algebraic geometry is the mathematical study of shapes defined by algebraic equations, such as lines and circles. Classical algebraic geometry answers questions like "How many intersection points are there between two lines?" which can be rephrased as finding the number of solutions to a set of algebraic equations. While techniques that we now use in the field are modern and sophisticated, much of our inspiration and methodology evolved from these classical ideas. Symplectic geometry, on the other hand, finds its roots in physics. As a mathematical field, it is relatively young compared to algebraic geometry, with its modern treatment in mathematics beginning in the 1970s. The objects studied in symplectic geometry are solutions to the equations of motion. One needs to look no further than a double pendulum to see that the geometry of moving objects is more fluid and flexible than the equations that govern algebraic geometry. In the 1990s, a remarkable prediction arose out of string theory: that studying algebraic geometry in one setting is equivalent to studying symplectic geometry in a "mirror" setting. This equivalence, called mirror symmetry, has provided beautiful insights into mathematics since Candelas, Ossa, Green, and Park employed it to make a collection of bold predictions in symplectic geometry. By leveraging our knowledge of classical algebraic geometry and applying mirror symmetry principles, previously unattainable questions in symplectic geometry were now in reach. My research focuses on applying this mirror equivalence in the other direction. In the last decade, our understanding of the mirror dictionary has become robust enough that we can finally pass our intuition from symplectic geometry through the mirror to provide us with new tools in algebraic geometry. As these methods come from different areas of mathematics, they are a fresh perspective on a classical area of study. My goal is to attack problems related to enumerative geometry (counting of solutions to equations) and resolutions (describing shapes as solutions to equations) in algebraic geometry via their symplectic analogs.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-03

The chemistry and mass of Earth's atmosphere have changed markedly over the past 4.5 billion years, but quantitative constraints are rare. Earth's environmental history is traditionally read from sedimentary rocks that formed at Earth's surface. This approach has yielded important insights into oxygenation events that facilitated the rise of complex life. A key process is the removal of organic carbon which led to an increase in atmospheric O2. However, despite over half a century of effort to quantify changes in biomass burial there is no agreement concerning the scale of change in biomass burial through time. For example, recent predictions range from no significant change to >10-fold increase over the past 3.5 billion years. One major issue is that there is no sedimentary rock record for most of early Earth's history because sedimentary rocks are metamorphosed and/or removed by the relentless churn of plate tectonics. However, when tectonic plate collide sediments are partially melted and produce a robust rock which dominates the oldest sections of Earth's rock record - granite. We have shown that granites produced via the melting of sediments show statistically significant enrichment in nitrogen contents since the end of the pre-Cambrian, which is coeval with the rise of complex life. The key known-unknown required to convert the data from the granite record into the volume of biomass buried in sediments is what happens to sedimentary-hosted nitrogen during crustal melting? The answer contains the variables required to quantitively evaluate the effect changes in biomass burial have had on the N2/O2 and CO2/O2 ratios of Earth's atmosphere. We have designed a project to answer this question which will enable us to quantitively assess how plate tectonics and changes in biomass burial have co-contributed to shaping Earth's present-day environmental conditions, thus charting the co-evolution of Earth's atmosphere, biosphere, and geosphere.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-02

Affordable energy for all Africans is the immediate and absolute priority in the Sustainable Africa Scenario (SAS) 2030. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA) Africa Energy Outlook 2022 report, solar energy-based mini-grids and stand-alone systems are the most viable solutions to electrify rural areas, where over 80% of the electricity-deprived people live [1]. Though Africa has 60% of the best solar resources globally, it has only 1% of installed solar photovoltaic (PV) capacity. Thus more investment and effective solar PV capacity building is required in the region to make electricity from clean energy sources as the backbone of Africa’s new energy systems. The existing silicon PV technology alone cannot meet this demand as it is an expensive mature technology, with global materials security issues, and enormous quantities of PV waste with poor recycling options [2]. Emerging PV technologies such as halide perovskite solar cells combine the unique properties of high power conversion efficiency (>25 %), low-cost printability, and provision to adopt a circular economy to ensure a sustainable clean energy transition for the region [3,4]. Halide perovskite PV offers the lowest cost of solar PV to date (<32 $ per MW h) and it matches with the levelised cost of electricity by solar PV (18-49 $ per MWh) required in Africa in the Sustainable Africa Scenario, 2020-2030. However, the mainstream highly efficient halide perovskite solar cells (PSCs) use thermally evaporated metals such as gold (Au), silver (Ag), copper (Cu) etc as the back electrode. These metals account for 98 % of the cost, 65 % of the carbon footprint and 45 % of the energetic cost of perovskite solar cells [5]. Replacing these metal electrodes with carbon electrodes enhances the stability, scalability and commercialisation aspect of PSCs along with further reduction in cost and carbon footprint. However, carbon back electrode-based PSCs (c-PSCs) have consistently lower power conversion efficiency (PCE) compared to metal electrode-based PSCs (m-PSCs) (20 % vs 26 % efficiency comparison for 0.1 cm2 area devices) limiting their commercialisation. The proposed project aims to bridge the gap in power conversion efficiency between the carbon-back vs metal electrode-based PSCs and demonstrate low-cost and highly efficient (>15 %) printable carbon electrode-based mini modules (10 x 10 cm2). This aim will be realised by combining the strengths of know-how in the fabrication and device physics of efficient halide perovskite solar cells of UK-based physicists with the defect analysis strengths of African physicists. To bridge this efficiency gap, the challenges to overcome are (i) reducing the interfacial losses and (ii) efficient photon management inside the perovskite active layer and the research objectives are identified accordingly. The proposed aims and objectives will formulate the foundations for achieving the vision for the proposed project: to provide accelerated growth in the scale-up of cheaper and cleaner energy sources in South Africa to achieve Sustainable Africa Scenario 2030 through capacity building in cost-effective and efficient PSCs in the partnering institution (University of Pretoria) in South Africa. References: IEA Africa Energy Outlook 2022 Charles et al Energy Environ. Sci., 2023, 16, 3711 Carneiro et al Energy Reports 2022, 8, 475  Faini et al MRS BULLETIN 2024, 49 Zouhair Sol. RRL 2024, 8, 2300929      

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-02

Understanding the formation and evolution of Earth; constraining the sensitivity of Earth's climate; finding new sources of critical metals for green technologies; investigating how life originated; deciphering the formation of planetary atmospheres; and tracking contaminants through Earth's ecosystems - all are fundamental questions at the frontier of NERC research. The ability to measure in-situ chemical fingerprints using laser ablation (LA) has, over the last 20 years, played a transformative role in our ability to answer such questions. Here we propose a facility that will lead the next step change in spatially resolved geochemical analysis, by opening up new arrays of elements and isotopes for analysis, improving on spatial and analytical resolution, and diversifying sample types to address critical applied and fundamental research topics across the natural environmental sciences. The state-of-the-art facility proposed here couples the emerging technologies of LA-LIBS (Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy), which analyses the light produced during ablation and enables the measurement of key volatile elements (e.g. carbon, hydrogen, fluorine), with the revolutionary advance of collision cell mass spectrometry, which eliminates interferences from elements with overlapping masses and opens up an array of new geochemical tracers. A cryocell will enable analysis of new sample types, including frozen tissue and fluids associated with ore formation. These technologies will be combined to establish LA:TRACE, a new chemical imaging and isotopic facility based in North Britain for UK and international researchers addressing a diverse range of environmental research. To maximise the value and application of this facility, the LA-LIBS system requested here will be coupled with a suite of recently installed state of the art instruments, providing significant added value. Core capabilities include a Nu Sapphire CC-MC-ICPMS with pioneering reaction cell technology, capable of measuring new stable and radiogenic isotope systems at unprecedented precision; and an Agilent QQQ-ICPMS for high-precision trace element abundances. Three additional ICPMS instruments are also available, along with dedicated technical support, facilitating efficient operation and representing a unique opportunity to gear NERC capital funding into a unique, world-leading facility. Cryo-stage LA-LIBS allows exploration of the chemical interface between minerals, organics, and fluids, with elemental and isotopic analysis across the periodic table on a wide array of materials. The nature of this technology alongside the diverse expertise of the multi-PI host laboratory lends itself to addressing topical research questions spanning multiple research fields, with a correspondingly broad array of beneficiaries. Three priority examples are listed below, highlighting the novel coupling of technologies in brackets. - New models for the formation of metal deposits critical to new green technologies, by coupling metal (QQQ) and volatile (LIBS) measurements in minerals and fluid inclusions (cryo-cell), with newly measurable chronometers (CC-MC-ICPMS), to benefit exploration strategies, economic growth, and the clean energy transition. - Diagnosing pathways of toxin bioaccumulation by 3D mapping of contaminants such as mercury (QQQ) and their relationship with different organic phases (LIBS) in frozen tissues (cryo-cell) from marine mammals, to benefit environmental pollution and marine ecosystem management. - Understanding the sensitivity of Earth's climate to changes in forcing, informed by past changes in volcanism. Volcanic climate forcing can be tracked using sulfur concentrations (LIBS & QQQ) and isotopes (CC-MC-ICPMS) in ice cores (cryo-cell), stalagmites, and tree rings, and compared to ice-hosted crypto-tephra (QQQ) and aerosols (LIBS), to reconstruct key eruptive parameters. Beneficiaries include climate scientists and natural hazard planners.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-02

We will provide a skills development programme for the astronomy communities in Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, and Rwanda through observational projects with the Las Cumbres Observatory (LCO) 1m global telescope network. Acknowledging the specific value of fundamental sciences for long-term sustainable economic development, we address the prevalent barrier of lack of access to world-leading research facilities. Moreover, experience has shown that facility access needs to be paired with active engagement with potential user communities and a gradual development of expertise and experience in order to eventually develop strong research programmes. Our programme involves four national coordinators in each respective country who will act as focal point for their local community. Rather than building a single research project that focuses on a small number of individuals, we aim at supporting and growing whole communities at large, not only covering researchers with a PhD, but also PhD students and undergraduate research projects. Dedicated in-person workshops, covering observational and statistical techniques as well as campaign design and management, will accompany the target community along their research journey with the LCO network and support building inter-African collaborations, as well as path towards independence and African leadership (not being reliant on the strength of a non-African partner) as part of an integrated process. The opportunity for less resourced countries is in innovation, building on the creativity of its people to eventually shape new global trends. This provides potential to leap ahead rather than just trying to catch up. We will therefore particularly support research projects that trial new ideas or approaches, while providing pathways to larger projects and internationally competitive facility proposals. LCO uniquely combines the features of fast response, uninterrupted long-term monitoring, and full-sky coverage, resulting from a purpose-built design for observing astronomical transient events with durations ranging from seconds to several years. We will be getting astronomy research communities in East Africa ready for the unprecedented flood of alerts on transients of up to 10,000,000 per night from the LSST survey, expected from early 2026.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-02

"Relocating Filmstrips, Remapping Europe" closes a gap in media history by studying, through a transnational perspective, the filmstrip, a series of still images often with an accompanying, scripted commentary projected for the purposes of civic instruction and education across the globe from the mid 1920s to the 1970s. Whether deployed by government, industry, or religious groups, for use in schools, churches, or public spaces, the filmstrip represented a low-cost, resilient alternative to portable film and slide projectors and a significant, if ephemeral, precursor to such contemporary digital formats as PowerPoint and TikTok videos. The project seeks to relocate filmstrips, both across European archives and within media history. Staffed with one PDRA each at the University of St. Andrews and Goethe University Frankfurt, the project has a duration of 33 months and pursues three closely related objectives: 1) We locate filmstrips in a variety of archives and reconstruct their production, distribution and presentation history. We identify existing collections and select items for digitisation in collaboration with our archival partners. 2) In examining, and contextualising, the varied uses of filmstrips across mid-20th century Europe, we develop an interdisciplinary theoretical framework to address questions of popular knowledge and epistemic authority. 3) We secure a future for filmstrips by developing a digitisation and conservation protocol for filmstrips which will be used in this project and can be scaled out and up for future research initiatives. The filmstrip today is largely forgotten, and dismissed as obsolete media, both by the archives that hold these materials and the scholars, educationalists and media practitioners that might use them. This final stage will facilitate a series of workshops with filmmakers, curators and artists in the UK, Germany and with collaborating schools in Africa (UniCam in Accra, Ghana, the National Film Institute in Jos, Nigeria, and the Cimathek in Cairo) to explore further creative and pedagogical uses of the filmstrips beyond the conclusion of the project. The project's academic research will be developed through close collaborations with archives and partner institutions. The research outputs include an international conference, an edited book collection, two peer-reviewed articles and, with the archives, an international workshop, which informs the project's most significant output, a virtual exhibition featuring approximately 250 digitised items. The virtual exhibition is designed for use in secondary and tertiary education and in programs ranging from archival and curatorial studies to history, pedagogy and social science, as well as in curatorial and artistic projects. With its subject matter and approach, the project opens a new chapter in the cooperation between research universities and media archives. The two principal investigators have been at the forefront of closing a historical gap between academic film and media studies and heritage institutions, most notably through research projects with the British Film Institute and the DFF - Deutsches Filminstitut & Filmmuseum, as well as through the creation of archival studies modules and master programs at St. Andrews and Goethe University in Frankfurt. Building on this experience, the project combines the academic valorisation of hitherto neglected collections with the outreach capabilities of heritage institutions to set a template for media research with immediate and long-term scholarly and public impact.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-02

Europe is in polycrisis: Climate, economy, migration, democracy, armed conflict and academia are pertinent fields where crisis abounds. This project explores the temporal registers of crisis, the vernacular articulation of life in turmoil, and the cultural dynamics expressed in crisis contexts. The central contention is the need to unravel what we term ‘times of crisis’. Centered in anthropology and working across art, history, ethnology and philosophy, this project critically places time at the heart of crisis work, asking what it means to live in times of crisis, how crisis changes over time, and how crisis is perceived in hindsight. Critically, what distinguishes ‘crisis time’ from ‘normal time’? Framing current conditions as ‘crisis’ or projecting time itself as being ‘in crisis’ are prevailing sensibilities in much discourse about polycrisis in Europe and beyond. This project offers empirical, methodological and theoretical apparatuses to better analyze what such crisis attentiveness effects, interrogating what the diverse yet now common category of ‘crisis’ accomplishes. Offering ethnographic takes on philosophical questions concerning ‘times of crisis’, each work package addresses three temporal pins – past, present, and future. The work packages focus on individual nodes of polycrisis in three regional settings: Eastern Europe (war and conflict), Mediterranean (economy), Scandinavia (migration), with shared research questions designed to aid comparison and comprehension. Empirically, the project highlights the diverse ways times of crisis are inhabited, methodologically it shows how times of crisis are expressed in art and literature, and theoretically it poses socio-philosophical questions concerning the temporal coordinates of crisis. Beyond the academy, activities will engage partners at the National Museum of Denmark, EthnoFest Athens, Open Society Archives Budapest, Post Bellum NGO, Divadlo Feste, and the Slovene Ethnological Association.    

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-01

All living things are infected by viruses, leading to conflict or cooperation. The interactions between cells and viruses (also known as "phage" in bacteria) have thus shaped the evolution of life in a profound way. Discoveries arising from the study of antiviral defence systems in bacteria have been fundamental to the development of molecular biology (Restriction-Modification systems harnessed for cloning) and the new era of genome editing for research, strain improvement and human health heralded by the CRISPR system. In the past few years, scores of new defence systems have been detected in bacteria - many appearing ancestral to components of the human immune system. Here, we focus on an uncharacterised defence system known as "mCpol" (minimal CRISPR polymerase) which uses a specialised enzyme to make a "distress signal" - alerting the cell to the presence of viruses and activating its defences. mCpol may be the ancestor of class 1 (multisubunit) CRISPR systems. Both defences activate proteins that are thought to make pores or channels in the surface (membranes) of cells, causing their contents to leak out with the result that viruses fail to complete their replication cycle. These types of defences are still very poorly understood, so we seek to elucidate the functions and mechanisms of mCpol and CRISPR-associated membrane proteins (CrAMPs). We will combine in vitro studies of the proteins to understand their mechanisms with analyses of their in vivo function and consequences for both cells and viruses. The work will address fundamental scientific questions that will impact on the broad and rapidly developing field of bacterial antiviral defence. One impetus for the study of these systems is renaissance in interest in phage therapy as a tool to kill or disarm pathogenic bacteria. This is driven in part by the impending crisis in antimicrobial resistant (AMR) bacteria and the lack of new antibiotics. It has also been invigorated by the development of new tools to engineer phage as better therapeutic agents. These approaches hold great promise but require a complete understanding of the defence systems that bacteria use to circumvent viral infection. This project brings together a new team with complementary skills and expertise to tackle this important and challenging question, with ample opportunities for career development and training of associated undergraduate and doctoral students (World-class people and careers). Malcolm White is an expert in type III CRISPR systems and antiviral signalling; Sam Pitt is an expert in the study of membrane channel proteins; Bela Bode is a leading proponent of pulse EPR. The work will take place across three academic schools linked by the world-class facilities of the Biomedical Sciences Research Complex (World-class places). The project proposed is at the cutting edge of a rapidly expanding field, driven by recent technology development and fundamental new discoveries (World-class ideas) that hold the promise for development of new approaches to tackling infections using phage therapy (World-class impact). Another avenue for application of this research is the use of mCpol cyclases to make cyclic nucleotides and analogues which are difficult to synthesize chemically. These compounds are valuable research tools. We have a track record of identifying and developing IP arising from BBSRC-sponsored work and will work with institutional partners to achieve this (World-class innovation).

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-01

Fluids play a critical role in the evolution and chemical modification of the Earth's crust. They control heat and mass transfer, mineral reactions, and deformation processes. The movement and physio/chemical interaction of aqueous geofluids with rocks in the Earth's upper crust is thereby fundamental for critical raw material mineralisation and the formation of geothermal fluid flow systems. With the rapidly increasing global demand for raw materials, the EU faces significant challenges regarding its dependencies on access to raw materials. Fluid movement in the upper crust is, by its nature, controlled by an interaction of physical and chemical processes that can operate from the tectonic plate to the microscopic 'rock grain' scales. Fully understanding these complex systems inherently requires a multidisciplinary/multiscale approach using cutting edge structural geology, mineralogy/petrology, geochemical and geophysical tools. ForMovFluid proposes to adopt new and existing laboratory and field techniques in these geoscience sub-disciplines to address key knowledge gaps related to fluid flow drivers, pathways, and fluid/rock reactions. In doing so, the objective of ForMovFluid is to train 15 doctoral researchers in cutting edge geoscience field and laboratory techniques and broader professional skills to develop future leaders in the field. This will contribute significantly to addressing the climate emergency by developing novel solutions for the energy transition that hinges on enhanced access to hydrothermal-hosted critical metal deposits, as highlighted in the EU Critical Raw Materials Act. The aims of ForMovFluid are to further our understanding of the movement and physio/chemical interaction of aqueous fluids with rocks in a variety of tectonic settings in the Earth's upper crust, and to establish a long-term pan-sector research network that will go on to contribute to European geofluid research and to underpin Europe's raw material and geothermal sectors.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-01

Organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) have steadily become the dominant display technology in electronic products such as mobile phones and TVs. There are, however, some structural weaknesses in these vacuum-deposited devices. These include the incorporation of scarce metals within the emitters of the device and reliance on energy-intensive and costly vacuum deposition technology. Thus, solutions are required to make these devices more sustainable, both in terms of the choice of material and the manufacture of the devices. An emerging alternative, solution-processing OLEDs, provides a route to cost-effective and simplified manufacture of these devices. Despite being cheaper, the current best solution-processed OLEDs still underperform their vacuum-deposited counterparts and still rely on scarce noble metal-based phosphors for red and green pixels and fluorescent materials for blue. This Fellowship will address the principal remaining materials challenge, which is the development of high-efficiency and stable blue solution-processable emitters for solution-processed OLEDs. Building on my group's core expertise in optoelectronic materials design and recent published and patented advances in an exciting class of emitter, thermally activated delayed fluorescence dendrimers, we will unleash their full potential to deliver high-performance blue emitters through a combination of innovative materials designs that address the colour point, efficiency and stability of the device. Key outcomes will also include a shift from traditional manual methods to a groundbreaking Automated Film Preparation Platform (AFPP) integrated with machine learning (ML) to enable rapid materials development and optimization, an innovative approach in SP-OLEDs. Aligned with EPSRC the priority areas "Photonic Materials" and "Manufacturing for the Future", the IP developed within the Fellowship is envisioned to be commercialized via a spin-out company SolOLED, with a mandate to deliver high-performance emitters for the emerging solution-processed OLED market.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2024 · 2024-12

Advanced functional molecules and materials find applications in our everyday lives, from the batteries and displays found in mobile phones, to fuel cells, materials for CO2 capture and computer hard disk drives. As such the study of new molecules and materials underpins progress in diverse fields such as medicine, agriculture, industrial synthesis and catalysis, and energy generation and storage. One of our roles as scientists is to understand how atoms are arranged in these materials. Once this understanding is gained, we can link it to specific properties and the performance of these materials which will ultimately find their way into our everyday lives. One key technique used to study these materials is called single crystal X-ray diffraction. Single crystal X-ray diffraction is a technique used for several reasons: it can identify unknown products or by-products in samples we make in the laboratory; it can give an extremely detailed understanding of how atoms are arranged in these materials; and it can allow us to understand how these atomic arrangements change when materials are subjected to different conditions, such as high or low temperatures, or different gas environments. In turn this allows us to design molecules to have specific chemical features leading to desired properties. This proposal will enable the purchase of two new single crystal X-ray diffractometers that will replace two aging, expensive to operate instruments. The new diffractometers will form a central part of the single crystal X-ray diffraction facility at St Andrews, allowing us to maintain our high sample throughput (typically over 500 samples per year) while significantly improving the sustainability of the facility. The design of the new diffractometers gives them impressive reductions in energy and water use (estimated at up to £15k per year), while still allowing for the collection of high quality data across a broad range of samples. The total cost for both diffractometers is £800k, with the University of St Andrews contributing £300k. Single crystal X-ray diffraction is widely used in physical sciences with the single crystal X-ray diffraction facility supporting over 150 users directly in the School of Chemistry at the University of St Andrews (UStA), as well as others in the Schools of Physics & Astronomy, Earth & Environmental Sciences, and Biology. This facility will support the research of early career researchers and a large number of PhD students (through the EaSICAT and NexGenTech doctoral training programmes) and post-doctoral researchers, in addition to half of the established academics within the School. The vision is that these instruments will be an important addition in our goal to develop sustainable world-class facilities. They will provide a key core science facility that can be accessed by all researchers to enhance the quality of science possible. The work that will be carried out will focus on a variety of materials of fundamental scientific interest as well as applications in batteries, fuel cells, catalysis, photovoltaic materials, gas storage and delivery, and natural products.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2024 · 2024-12

How does Earth's climate respond to perturbation? Despite decades of work, this fundamental question remains difficult to answer, with a wide range of climate sensitivities to external forcing persisting in state-of-the-art models. To improve understanding of the climate system and narrow the range of uncertainties in future climate projections, innovative new approaches are required. Here I propose a novel strategy that will provide unique new tests of climate models and emergent constraints on climate sensitivity, by harnessing the record of major volcanic eruptions. Volcanic eruptions exert an enormous influence on climate, as their sulfate aerosols reflect incoming sunlight, driving abrupt cooling on timescales of 1-5 years. However our ability to read this record is currently limited by uncertainties in volcanic forcing (the impact of eruptions on incoming radiation - primarily a function of stratospheric sulfate) and global climate response. By using cutting edge new technology to measure sulfur isotopes in ice cores, I will uniquely constrain stratospheric sulfate and eruption latitude and season, transforming knowledge of past volcanic forcing. I will compare this to new and improved reconstructions of global climate response, achieved by incorporating new, globally-distributed paleoclimate records into model-data assimilation products. By examining the climate response to each of the 233 major eruptions of the last 2000 years, I will provide robust observational constraints on volcanic climate sensitivity. I will use these to test sensitivity and feedbacks in state-of-the-art climate models. These tests will inform both understanding of the wide range of sensitivity to aerosols in current models and the debate on controversial geoengineering schemes. As model response to volcanoes and CO2 are linked, this work will ultimately be used to refine the range of sensitivity to CO2 rise and improve projections of future climate.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2024 · 2024-11

Abstracts are not currently available in GtR for all funded research. This is normally because the abstract was not required at the time of proposal submission, but may be because it included sensitive information such as personal details.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2024 · 2024-11

Understanding planetary flows is a tremendous challenge for fluid dynamicists and planetary scientists, because of their extreme regimes, the multiple scales and physical processes involved, and their indirect effect on observational data. The colourful bands of Jupiter are caused by intense east-west winds called zonal jets, whose origin and stability are still poorly understood. Zonal winds interact with numerous large-scale vortices, including the famous Great Red Spot, and together, jets and vortices belong to an extremely chaotic flow. Building on the discoveries of Galileo and Cassini, Juno has revealed that Jupiter's zonal winds are deep, penetrating over thousands of kilometres into its mantle of liquid hydrogen. In contrast, midlatitude anticyclones are shallower, not exceeding a few hundred kilometres. Juno also revealed remarkable dynamics at the poles, with polygonal clusters of cyclones, while Saturn exhibits a single polar cyclone with a polygonal jet at the North Pole. These structures raise many fundamental questions: How can we explain their formation, intensity, and size? Why are they so stable? What factors determine their extent below the cloud level? How do zonal jets and vortices interact with each other? Why are the polar regions of Jupiter and Saturn so different? Ocean worlds are icy satellites of Jupiter and Saturn thought to harbour global salty oceans beneath their solid surface. One of the primary goals of ESA's Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (JUICE) and NASA's Europa Clipper missions is to investigate if the Galilean moons Europa and Ganymede have suitable conditions for life. It is crucial to develop accurate models of subsurface ocean circulation for assessing the habitability of these moons as well as their thermal and orbital evolution. However, it is a formidable challenge as the thick ice cover prevents any direct observations: Which processes drive the ocean's circulation, and what is the effect of rotation? Can lateral temperature contrasts drive a global overturning circulation? What are the properties of heat and material exchanges between the rocky interior and the ice crust? What would be the impact of the oceanic circulation on observables (gravity, magnetism, rotation, ice thickness)? New observations and interior models have yet to be matched by self-consistent models of the complex dynamics occurring in the fluid interiors of gas giants and icy moons. Spatial observations are sparse and result from the interaction of multiple physical processes, making it difficult to reach a clear and comprehensive understanding. The goal of the project is to complement measurements by process-oriented modelling and to follow an original and multi-method approach, at the intersection of fundamental fluid mechanics and planetary science. Our premiss is that key features of the dynamics of gas giants and icy moons can be reproduced in well-controlled laboratory experiment, where physical models can be readily tested. Water will be employed to represent either hydrogen or liquid oceans, and a rotating table will be used to simulate the planet's rotation. The goals of the project are to develop novel experimental analogues of (1) the emergence of zonal winds from waves and their collective behaviour, (2) the vertical structure of zonal winds and their interaction with stratified layers, (3) the complex interaction between zonal winds and vortices at low and high latitudes and (4) horizontal convection in the presence of rotation and its ability to penetrate into a stratified environment. By combining these fluid mechanics experiments with idealised numerical and theoretical analyses, I will deduce properties of gas giants and ocean worlds inaccessible to direct measurements, but also better understand underlying physical processes which are generic and applicable to other systems such as terrestrial oceans, atmospheres and liquid cores.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2024 · 2024-09

I have two core and two supplementary aims. The first is to convert my PhD dissertation into a monograph. My PhD examiners were clear in their Reports that it is ready for publication almost as is. My external examiner, Prof. Nigel Rapport, wrote: 'This is perhaps the most 'finished' thesis that I have had the pleasure of examining: the PhD that is closest to the form of a published book' (Rapport 2024: 5). My internal examiner, Prof. Matei Candea, meanwhile, wrote: 'This is an extraordinarily effective PhD thesis, one of the most innovative and beautiful instances of anthropological writing I have read in a very long time, published works included... The quality of the writing is such that much of the thesis feels like it would be publishable roughly as is' (Candea 2024: 1-2). Both examiners have offered to guide me through the process of publishing. A prospective publisher might be Cambridge University Press. While my examiners think that the dissertation is close to publication standard, they identified areas in which it might also be improved. My first aim is to make these improvements. My proposed mentor, Prof. Christos Lynteris, is expertly placed to guide me through this process. He has an exemplary publication record and, through his work on the spread of disease between humans and animals, is a discipline-leader in my core literatures (the anthropology of the environment, human-animal relations, and multi-species ethnography). Further, the Department of Social Anthropology in St Andrews has a strong tradition in the anthropology of Britain, my regional specialism, and would, therefore, provide the perfect environment to support me as I turn my PhD from a dissertation into a monograph of real scholarly value. My second core aim is to secure funding for a 3-year postdoctoral project, hosted in the Department of Anthropology at St Andrews. Working in collaboration with Prof. Lynteris, I will target the 2025 early-career research competitions (ESRC; Leverhulme; and Wellcome Trust, specifically). My new research project builds directly on my PhD research. It will be focused on the UK's 2001 Foot-and-Mouth Disease (FMD) outbreak and its long-term impact on the hill farming community of Cumbria. The 2001 outbreak was one of the worst on record and led to the deaths of more than six-million farm animals. The long-term impact it had on those who farmed those animals, however, was impossible to quantify. By bringing anthropological theories of affect and epizootics into conversation for the first time, my project will advance our understanding of the complex social life of FMD and, through ethnographic techniques, reveal how this long past epizootic continues to have a profound effect in the present. The first of my supplementary aims is to present my work at two international conferences: the 'European Association of Social Anthropologists' annual conference and the 'American Association of Anthropologists' annual conference. By attending these two world-leading anthropological conferences, I will be able to disseminate my research, deliver papers, and network with other scholars. The second supplementary aim is to organise an academic workshop in St Andrews, focused on the human experience of animal diseases. I will invite researchers from across the international scholarly community to participate. The workshop will build on my research and provide a forum for intellectual exchange and will later result in the publication of an edited collection.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2024 · 2024-09

Doctoral Training Partnerships: a range of postgraduate training is funded by the Research Councils. For information on current funding routes, see the common terminology at https://www.ukri.org/apply-for-funding/how-we-fund-studentships/. Training grants may be to one organisation or to a consortia of research organisations. This portal will show the lead organisation only.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2024 · 2024-09

The UK is committed to achieving Net Zero by 2050. Waste heat is a huge cause of energy losses in domestic and industrial settings. Large scale thermoelectric recovery of waste heat into electricity can lead to significant reductions in CO2 emissions. In addition, there is a need to power the internet of things (IoT), which dictates the deployment of billions of interconnected sensor devices. Here thermoelectrics can provide free electricity by scavenging waste heat, eliminating the need for batteries or grid connectivity. However, despite the many advantages of the use of thermoelectricity in energy generation and scavenging, commercially it is still an inefficient and expensive technology which relies on scarce materials, mainly Tellurium compounds. New, abundant materials with ease of processing, which can enable large scale production in order to become competitive sources of electricity are needed. Amongst the many new materials investigated lately to increase performance and replace the prominent Bi2Te3 and PbTe for use in thermoelectric generators, half-Heuslers are leading contenders for mass production and commercialisation. They are stable, mechanically robust and are composed of abundant, inexpensive elements. However, a substantial improvement in their power output (i.e. improving W/£), which would largely exceed the power output of current thermoelectric devices is also needed. To radically improve the power output from thermoelectric materials, new approaches are required, beyond reducing the heat transport through them, which has been the key paradigm in the field. We propose an alternative, challenging and disruptive approach based on insights from advanced modelling of charge transport in half-Heusler materials. This shows that the power output, even of already studied materials, can be increased by 2-10-fold by improved materials growth, control of defect chemistry, doping and bandstructure engineering. This will reduce the £/W cost by up to an order of magnitude as the overall material compositions remain similar. This work is a paradigm shift in thermoelectric materials research away from the mainstream focus on nanostructuring and thermal conductivity reduction, to materials with huge electronic responses to a temperature difference. Success of this research will enable the application of Heusler alloys in large-scale waste-heat recovery (kW range energy harvesting) and/ or powering the internet of things (mW-W range of energy scavenging). The project team brings together leading UK expertise in Heusler materials synthesis and thermoelectric materials modelling and will work closely with Industrial and Academic partners to ensure success and translation into working technologies. The resulting developments in synthetic and computational methodologies will be highly relevant to other electronic and opto-electronic materials fields as well.