University of Glasgow

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-12

The past decade has seen a devastating rise in mass atrocities – including genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity – contributing to the forced displacement of 122 million people and exposing critical failures in international protection frameworks (UN, 2024). While much research focuses on local drivers of atrocity, including historical grievances and political repression, this project addresses a key blind spot: how external states shape atrocity dynamics through the military, economic, and diplomatic dimensions of their foreign policies. Focusing on the Israel-Gaza conflict as a critical case study, the project develops and applies an original theoretical and empirical framework to assess how international state practices contribute to or mitigate atrocity risk. By systematically analysing the policies of four influential states (the USA, UK, Iran, and Qatar), the research generates urgently needed insights into patterns of international complicity and provides actionable recommendations to strengthen global atrocity prevention strategies. This is urgent research. First, there is a compelling moral imperative to prevent large-scale harm. Second, mass atrocities fuel global instability, driving displacement, terrorism, and regional disorder. Third, repeated failures to prevent mass violence, particularly when powerful states are complicit, erode the legitimacy of the international order. Israel-Gaza exemplifies these challenges. On 7 October 2023, Hamas’ large-scale assault on Israel killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians. In response, Israel’s extensive military campaign in Gaza has killed over 62,000 Palestinians, including 17,000 children (Al Jazeera, 2025). The destruction of civilian infrastructure, mass displacement, and widespread allegations of war crimes and genocide underscore an urgent need to better understand how state actors across the globe enable or constrain mass violence. The USA, for example, has vetoed multiple UN Security Council resolutions on Gaza, reinforcing its pattern of shielding Israel from accountability. Iran has strengthened Hamas’s military capacity and regional influence. The UK maintains diplomatic and arms trade ties with Israel. Meanwhile Qatar has positioned itself as a mediator, facilitating negotiations over hostages and humanitarian access. By examining these four states, the project sheds light on global dimensions of atrocity violence and international complicity; not only in the Israel-Gaza conflict but also in ways that offer broader insights for crises such as Myanmar, Ethiopia, Yemen, Sudan, and beyond. Although studies have examined military patronage (e.g. Nanlohy, 2024), economic exploitation (e.g. Wenar, 2008), and diplomatic complicity (e.g. Dunford and Neu, 2019), these dynamics have rarely been applied to atrocity prevention (Shaw, 2012), nor integrated into a unified normative-empirical framework. This project fills that gap by advancing cosmopolitan harm theory (CHT). With its emphasis on states’ cross-border duties to avoid causing or enabling global harm (Linklater, 2006), CHT provides the ideal lens for analysing how international military, economic, and diplomatic state actions contribute to atrocity risks. Applying and extending this theory, the project develops an original normative and empirical model to generate cutting-edge insights into international complicity in atrocity violence. In sum, the project: i) Develops a comprehensive moral framework to enhance understanding of states’ responsibilities to prevent atrocities. ii) Examines how states justify and legitimise their involvement in global atrocity prevention, and how these narratives shape their foreign policy practices. iii) Assesses the real-world effects of state practices on atrocity prevention, identifying patterns of complicity or prevention. iv) Produces actionable policy recommendations by diagnosing key obstacles to atrocity prevention and proposing effective strategies to overcome them.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-12

Context Spatial transcriptomics is a rapidly developing transformational technology that detects genome-wide RNA expression in cells, tissues and organs at intracellular spatial resolution. Challenges Current state-of-the-art off-the-shelf technologies are not democratized, due to very costly proprietary reagents and untransparent data, instrument pipelines and mostly their limitation to mouse and human tissue sections. The majority also compromise imaging sensitivity and speed in favour of high genomic coverage (plex) using many rounds of hybridisation with slow automated microfluidic fluid exchange. Aims and objectives Our aim is to overcome these limitations using SparcFISH, our novel open, affordable and rapid high-plex spatial-transcriptomics method.  SparcFISH is based on the gold-standard low-plex spatial-transcriptomics method, single molecule FISH (smFISH), which our lab has applied effectively in complex tissues and organs in 3D and at super-resolution. All commercial platforms use 4-5 colours and many rounds of hybridisation. In contrast, SparcFISH will image many transcripts in one round of hybridisation by using unique colour combinations to detect different mRNA species. We will follow the same principles of our published single molecule FISH (smFISH) methods to detect at ultra-high sensitivity all the individual mRNA molecules in thick tissues in 3D.  Most commercial platforms need to reduce sensitivity to avoid crowding of spots at high-plex because they use low-resolution low-magnification objectives to detect amplified signal. In contrast, like smFISH, SparcFISH will use high-resolution and high-magnification objectives to detect smaller unamplified mRNA spots with absolute (>80%) sensitivity. Moreover, this makes the nascent transcript foci highly visible, so the rate of transcription and decay can be precisely estimated, as previously published by us. Our objectives are: Demonstrate the power of SparcFISH by doing 120-plex detection, using 3-colour combinations from a palette of 10 colours. We will make use of SpectraPlex, Leica’s recently launched convenient turnkey 15-channel spectral unmixing pipeline, already installed on our lab’s Leica Stellaris 8 confocal microscope. We will use the other 5 channels to detect DNA, cell membranes, the cytoskeleton, general cytoplasmic markers and/or cell identity markers, to segment individual cells and the definition of the tissue context in 3D. Apply SparcFISH to different specimen, starting with simple samples like Drosophila macrophage-like cells, and then moving on to complex 3D tissues like neuromuscular junctions (NMJs) and larval brains. We will work with our collaborators to apply SparcFISH to mouse marrow bone macrophages and brains slices. Beside the protocols and methodology behind SparcFISH, we will develop all the software tools and other resources required to demystify spatial transcriptomics, to lower the activation energy needed for adoption, and to build a community. SparcFISH is deliberately designed to be highly scalable. If there is time, we will demonstrate 1000-plex SparcFISH or higher, e.g. by increasing the number of channels. Potential applications and benefits With SparcFISH, we will demonstrate that spatial transcriptomics can be highly multiplexed yet affordable, without compromising key parameters such as sensitivity and speed, and without restricting it to certain genomes. We believe that our thorough and open approach will increase the adoption of cutting-edge state-of-the-art tools and technologies, which are also accessible and easy to use. We envision SparcFISH, together with the tools and resources we build around it, to have a transformative impact on the broader research community.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-12

The proliferation of the Internet-of-Things (IoT) is creating a cyber-physical continuum in which the human experience seamlessly co-exists with digitalised programmable intelligence. Examples include e-health, collaborative robots, and the metaverse. To realise a harmonious interaction between the physical and digital worlds in such applications, future wireless networks are required to provide not only unprecedented capacity, e.g., higher data rates and extended coverage, but also advanced sensing capabilities to capture the physical data and update the digital representation in real time. This project will address both requirements by pioneering new technologies for advanced light-based joint communications and sensing capabilities for light fidelity (LiFi) systems.   LiFi offers high-speed optical wireless communications using simple light sources and detectors. However, realising a reliable LiFi operation in practical scenarios requires overcoming the limitations imposed by the nature of the optical channel, namely the dependency on the line-of-sight, which means that the performance can be jeopardised by link failure caused by user mobility, misalignment, and blockages. PerceptiFi will overcome these challenges and unlock new potentials for energy-efficient, cost-effective, and reliable LiFi systems. My vision is to transform LiFi access points from wireless communication devices to multi-service systems that sense, think, and adapt.   Firstly, the project will engineer LiFi systems that are assisted by the physical environment via the integration of optical intelligent reflecting surfaces (IRSs). IRSs offer beam steering capabilities to control the indoor signal propagation, facilitating a dynamic operation that can be adapted to the varying system parameters. Secondly, the project will develop novel IRS-assisted light-based sensing mechanisms capable of locating active devices, monitoring passive objects, and tracking the changes in the environment with cm or sub-cm accuracy. Thirdly, analytically tractable performance evaluation metrics and resource allocation techniques will be proposed for effective IRS-assisted light-based joint communications and sensing, both in a single LiFi attocell and networked attocells. Fourthly, based on the developed sensing techniques, the project will conceive a novel architecture for perceptive LiFi systems that utilise sensing for autonomous configuration to dynamically provide capacity where and when it is needed. For example, if the communication channel undergoes rapid variations due to user mobility, random orientation of handheld devices, or link blockages, the LiFi system can sense these changes and adjust its operation in real-time in terms of user association, power levels, IRS’ elements allocation, etc.   This project is timely because of the unprecedented need for advanced data collection and wireless capacity worldwide. It supports the UK’s requirement for national capability in wireless communications while contributing to the UK's 2050 net-zero targets by enabling green and energy-efficient light-based multi-service systems. The outcomes of this research will tackle the main barriers to wide LiFi deployment, enabling the UK industries to gain market advantage by developing reliable LiFi solutions that could serve a wide range of vertical sectors, including smart homes, healthcare, automated manufacturing, public safety, and public transport. The project will be conducted in collaboration with multiple industrial partners within the LiFi ecosystem, including the major telecoms service provider, BT, the leading LiFi solutions supplier, pureLiFi, and the UK authority on advanced digital technology, Digital Catapult. The programme of research will also be supported by our academic collaborators at the Institute of Electronic Structure and Laser of the Foundation for Research and Technology-Hellas(IESL-FORTH), Greece, who are experts in the development of programmable optical IRSs.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-12

Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is the most common cause of respiratory infection in children and a major cause of infant deaths worldwide. New RSV immunisation strategies should reduce hospital admissions and save lives. The UK has recently introduced RSV vaccination in pregnancy from 28 weeks. Other countries have introduced neonatal immunisation with nirsevimab, a man-made RSV antibody. Both strategies aim to protect infants in early life. Maternal immunisation protects infants by transfer of maternal antibody through the placenta. Preterm birth and maternal conditions affecting the placenta may lead to reduced transplacental antibody transfer, potentially reducing maternal vaccine effectiveness. Maternal infections, such as HIV and malaria, cause placental inflammation and abnormal placental development, and are known risk factors for reduced transplacental antibody transfer. It is unclear whether other conditions, such as smoking, obesity and diabetes, which also cause abnormal placental development, have a similar effect. Rates of obesity and diabetes in pregnancy are high and increasing in the UK. These conditions also increase the risk of preterm birth and are associated with socio-economic deprivation. Preterm birth and deprivation are also known to increase the risk of infant RSV disease. If these common maternal conditions do reduce transplacental antibody transfer, this may mean that maternal RSV vaccination is more likely to fail those most in need of protection. It is important to determine this, given an alternative immunisation strategy is available. We aim to determine the relationship between maternal risk factors for placental abnormalities, placental antibody transfer, placental inflammation and infant risk of RSV disease. We will establish a mother-infant data cohort from all births in Greater Glasgow & Clyde over 2 years (approximately 26,000 mother-infant pairs). Within this cohort, we will collect infant and maternal blood from the umbilical cord and placenta of 6000 mother-infant pairs. Data and selected samples will be used for four integrated studies: Study 1: A cohort study to establish risk factors for maternal RSV vaccine failure. Maternal and infant risk factors will be compared in vaccine-exposed infants with and without hospitalised RSV <6 months of age. Study 2: A case-control study to determine whether RSV antibody levels at birth predict the risk of infant RSV. This will compare RSV antibodies in date-of-birth matched infants with and without hospitalised RSV <6 months of age. Study 3: A case-control study to determine whether maternal risk factors (obesity, diabetes, smoking) are associated with reduced transplacental antibody transfer. This will compare RSV antibodies in 100 mother-infant pairs in each of the three risk groups to 200 pairs without these risks. Study 4: A case-control study to explore placental inflammation and its relationship to transplacental antibody transfer in 50 mother-infant pairs in each of 3 maternal risk groups (obesity, diabetes and smoking) compared to 100 mother-infant pairs without these conditions. This study will also collect placental tissue. Identifying risk factors for maternal RSV vaccine failure will help countries choose the best RSV prevention strategy for their population. Infants at higher risk could benefit from targeted neonatal immunisation strategies. Determining a level of RSV antibody at birth that protects against early RSV disease could help inform future vaccine development. Determining the relationship between placental inflammation and antibody transfer will improve our understanding of early infant immunity. This is important not just to prevent RSV, but also to prevent other infections in infants.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-11

G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) are the most successfully exploited group of proteins for the development of medicines. A variety of GPCRs are activated by metabolic intermediates and play key roles in controlling blood and tissue levels of dietary energy sources, including glucose and fatty acids. This has promoted interest in targeting such receptors as potential treatments for ‘metabolic’ disorders including diabetes. GPCR-targetting medicines traditionally work by interacting with the same part of the receptor as the naturally-produced hormone and are called ‘orthosteric’ ligands. Those that activate the receptor are called agonists and those that block receptor function are called antagonists. GPCRs send signals into cells by activating G proteins and such effects are often limited in time when the GPCR subsequently interacts with an arrestin protein. Many if not all GPCRs can send signals into cells via multiple G proteins and, until recent years, it was broadly assumed that (orthosteric) agonist ligands simply mimicked the same pathways of activation and inactivation produced by the natural hormone. This is described as ‘canonical’ signalling. Recent times have shown this to be far too simplistic. Various orthosteric agonists can display ‘bias’ in that they cause activation of only subsets of the signals associated with the natural ligands, and some also fail to promote interactions with signal terminating arrestins. In addition, many GPCR-activating ligands bind at a site or sites other than where the natural ligands bind. These are termed ‘allosteric’. Because they bind elsewhere they frequently generate signals via distinct ‘non-canonical’ means. As a corollary of this they may act in an additive way, synergise with, or block in a non-competitive manner, actions of orthosteric ligands.  This cannot be predicted a priori and must be tested directly. This is generally done initially by examining effects of co-added ligands in cells transfected to express a GPCR of interest at relatively high levels compared to those found in real tissues. Whilst very helpful this can only guide expectations, and such studies then need to be performed in native tissues to provide clearer understanding. For a GPCR called Free Fatty Acid Receptor 2 (FFAR2) three classes of allosteric activators have been described. To understand how they might work we recently obtained atomic level cryo-EM structures of each of these with the GPCR and, via mutagenesis and in silico molecular dynamics simulations, shown how they signal. Whilst two of the classes interact with FFAR2 is a broadly similar way, the third interacts in a completely different manner, and all of them work in ways never previously described for any other GPCR activator.  We have also studied how each modulates orthosteric agonist function in transfected cells. We will now take such basic knowledge into tissues isolated from transgenic mouse lines we have developed that are optimised to study functions of FFAR2. This involved replacing mouse FFAR2 with variants of the human form and adding a peptide sequence into the receptor protein to allow easy visualisation of the GPCR and its immunoprecipitation for detailed studies on regulated post-translational modifications. As FFAR2 is associated with metabolic health we will focus on adipose tissue, pancreatic function and hormone release from entero-endocrine cells. These studies will provide insights into how to combine activators of FFAR2 to selectively optimise function across tissues and guide future design of novel medicines.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-10

For the last three decades, the decline of chemical synthesis in the western world has been driven by the movement of labour to low-cost economies. This movement has led to a loss of capability, fragile supply chains, and the exporting of pollution to the rest of the world. The offshoring trend has also reduced the impact that digital technologies could have had on areas of manufacturing critical to UK infrastructure, such as health and pharmaceuticals. In this Prosperity Partnership, the Digital Chemistry research team at the University of Glasgow (DiGChem) and Chemify Ltd will collaborate to create a revolutionary approach to chemical synthesis, leveraging digital chemistry or "Chemputation." This innovative method aims to accelerate the rate of chemical synthesis by an order of magnitude compared to competitors in India and China, all while maintaining the same cost. Context The offshoring of chemical synthesis has created significant challenges, including the erosion of local expertise, increased vulnerability in supply chains, and environmental concerns due to pollution. Additionally, the shift has stunted the potential for digital technologies to transform the chemical manufacturing sector within the UK, particularly in critical areas like healthcare and pharmaceuticals. The Challenge Despite Chemify Ltd.'s progress in developing technologies to enhance chemical synthesis, several significant barriers remain. These include ensuring safety, expanding the scope and reliability of processes, and improving planning capabilities. These obstacles must be addressed to fully digitize chemistry in commercial chemical synthesis and realize the potential of Chemputation. Aims and Objectives The primary aim of this partnership is to overcome the current limitations in digitizing chemistry to make it commercially viable. The objectives include: Ensuring Generality: Developing methods that can cover all chemical spaces to ensure versatility and adaptability in synthesis processes. Multiplex-Chemical Synthesis: Creating systems capable of performing multiple synthesis tasks simultaneously, thereby increasing efficiency and throughput. Establishing Safety: Implementing robust safety protocols to mitigate risks associated with chemical synthesis. Security, Verifiability, and Standardization: Building a standard framework that ensures the security, reliability, and verifiability of chemical processes. Potential Applications and Benefits The successful implementation of Chemputation could revolutionize the chemical manufacturing industry by significantly increasing the efficiency and capacity of chemical synthesis. This advancement has the potential to: Strengthen UK Infrastructure: Enhance the resilience and independence of UK manufacturing in critical sectors such as healthcare and pharmaceuticals. Reduce Environmental Impact: Minimize pollution by utilizing more efficient and controlled synthesis processes. Boost Economic Growth: Create high-tech job opportunities and retain expertise within the UK. Set Global Standards: Establish new benchmarks for safety, reliability, and efficiency in chemical synthesis that can be adopted worldwide. By addressing these challenges, the partnership aims to not only reclaim the UK's leadership in chemical synthesis but also to set a new global standard in the industry.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-09

The Super-CT (Superconductor Prototyping for Critical Technologies) project seeks to enhance the fabrication of superconducting circuits by scaling up the production process and implementing innovative designs, particularly focusing on niobium-based circuits. This project addresses key challenges related to the manufacturing of quantum technologies and aims to improve coherence and performance in devices like qubits, sensors, and logic circuits, particularly in high-frequency, low-temperature environments.  One of the major challenges this project addresses is the dependency on aluminum-based circuits in quantum technology. While aluminum has traditionally been used for these circuits, it has limitations in terms of its critical temperature, which impacts performance and scalability. The use of niobium, with its higher critical temperature and better resilience to external noise, offers a superior alternative. However, the UK currently lacks a robust supply chain for niobium-based superconducting circuits. This project aims to create that supply chain, thereby reducing reliance on external sources and aligning with national strategies for technological sovereignty and sustainability. The objectives of the Super-CT project include scaling up the fabrication process to achieve higher-quality circuits at a wafer scale, integrating complex circuits such as qubits and resonators, and demonstrating the performance of these technologies through rigorous testing. The project will also focus on commercializing this manufacturing technology, driving innovations that will have applications in fields like quantum computing, sensors, and signal processing. The benefits of this project are far-reaching. For one, it supports the UK's broader goals of developing a sovereign supply chain for critical technologies, reducing dependency on international sources. The use of niobium-based circuits not only improves the efficiency and scalability of quantum technologies but also contributes to the UK's sustainability efforts by reducing power consumption and supporting the achievement of Net Zero targets in the ICT sector.  Additionally, the Super-CT project will benefit various industries, particularly those involved in quantum technologies, autonomous systems, artificial intelligence, and advanced communications. The advancements in fabrication techniques and the ability to scale up production will also position the UK as a leader in the quantum technology space, offering both economic and technological advantages. In terms of applications, the superconducting circuits developed in this project will play a critical role in the next generation of quantum computers, which are expected to have significant impacts across industries, including drug discovery, energy management, and financial modeling. Beyond quantum computing, the circuits developed could also be applied to quantum sensors, which have applications in everything from medical diagnostics to environmental monitoring. The Super-CT project is closely aligned with several UK government strategies, including the National Quantum Technology Programme and the National Quantum Computing Centre. By advancing the state-of-the-art in superconducting circuit fabrication, the project will support the UK’s ambitions to become a global leader in science and technology. In summary, Super-CT addresses a critical gap in the UK's quantum technology infrastructure by focusing on niobium-based circuits, offering superior performance, scalability, and sustainability. The project’s outcomes will contribute to the UK's strategic goals of achieving technological sovereignty, advancing quantum technologies, and supporting Net Zero objectives, with applications across a wide range of industries and sectors.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-09

Lasers are found in many aspects of modern technology and are an essential tool for industry. The ultraviolet (uv) region of the spectrum is especially useful: for example, the minute circuitry used in modern electronics owes its existence to a photographic process in which silicon chips are exposed to uv light. However, the production of uv lasers presents a formidable technical challenge. The light itself is highly energetic and can causing damage to materials. Further, intense uv light has a polarising effect and acts like an optical 'tractor beam': microscopic particles are drawn to the point of highest intensity and get 'burnt' onto sensitive light-transmitting surfaces. While it is difficult to generate uv light, the incentive to succeed is great. Multi-billion-dollar industries are dependent on it with applications in chip manufacture, medical instrumentation, automotive industry, and environmental sensing. While commercial solutions do exist, the market is by no means closed to innovation with existing technology being either unreliable or complex. Cost is also a large factor with embedded laser systems contributing a substantial part to the value of advanced machinery. This project aims to bring together the know-how acquired from many years of dedicated research at the University of Glasgow together with the manufacturing capability of Skylark Lasers. The essential components of the laser will be fused together using hydroxide catalysis bonding to form a compact, monolithic assembly or 'bullet' laser. This innovation offers unique advantages over current technology: the laser will have reduced size and complexity and improved mechanical rigidity; it will also address the inherent issue of damage at optical surfaces. We anticipate that products based on this technology will gain significant market traction, leading to commercial success for the company and, ultimately, growth for UK high-tech industry. A primary market objective is to replace uv gas lasers of which there are around 100,000 operating globally. These consume 1000 times more energy than solid-state alternatives and have a much larger footprint. Their displacement from the market would have a significant environmental impact, in vastly reducing energy consumption, and would also remove carcinogen chemicals from the production cycle. Another application with an environmental impact is the use of uv LIDAR to predict wind conditions as a means of enhancing wind turbine efficiency. We envisage devices embedded within industrial systems for spectroscopy, microscopy, chip inspection and sterilisation. The University of Glasgow is a major partner in the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory, supported through STFC's core programme, and their expertise in hydroxide catalysis bonding has been instrumental to the success of this ground-breaking project. Skylark Lasers is an early-stage SME set to grow rapidly over the coming years having attracted significant investment for the development of its portfolio of solid-state lasers. A CASE studentship will provide a focal point for collaboration between researchers at the University of Glasgow and technologists at Skylark Lasers. The company will benefit from know-how acquired by the student and a particular goal of the placement following the PhD (CASE plus) will be to enable the company to produce fused assemblies in-house and so develop a new product line. For the university, this will be a striking example of how they can make an impact on the UK economy through knowledge transfer and will demonstrate the spin-off benefit of investment in fundamental research.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-09

Globally, liver cancer is the 8th most common cancer and has the 4th highest mortality rate. Reflective of this high mortality rate, late diagnosis and treatment options that have modest effects result in poor survival outcomes. Alarmingly, liver cancer incidence is increasing, mirroring the increased prevalence of risk factors that promote liver damage. This is most striking in the UK, where obesity and alcohol consumption are contributing significantly to the rise in liver disease and cancer cases. Together, this highlights an urgent need to improve liver cancer detection and treatment, which we can only do by understanding the mechanisms that initiate cancerous disease. Most liver cancer cases develop in the context of chronic liver damage. Over these extended periods, individual cells acquire cancer-associated mutations in their genome, and a subset of these cells progress into tumours. The critical question is why only a subset of mutated cells advance to cancer. My goal is to address this question; by examining the environment that surrounds the liver cells and identifying chemical signals that foster malignant cell growth in the liver. I will begin by mapping the trajectory of liver disease, molecularly profiling normal liver, pre-cancerous diseased liver and early liver tumours from archival human samples. I will use advanced ‘Digital Spatial Profiling’ technology to characterise the identity and function of different cell populations in the liver. This will detect regional changes in the diseased liver that enable mutated-cells to transform in to cancer. To validate discoveries from the human liver samples I will use genetically engineered mouse models of liver cancer to confirm their functional relevance to disease. These models will specifically inactivate genes to understand how they promote mutant-cell progression, which will inform drug discovery and early detection tests. Liver cancer is clearly associated with recognisable risk factors such as hepatitis infection, obesity, diabetes and alcohol abuse. This creates an opportunity for focussed liver cancer screening in at-risk populations. By identifying the key factors that promote cancer initiation, I am confident this research fellowship will accelerate the development of diagnostic tools and help inform liver cancer treatments, which in turn will lead to earlier therapeutic intervention and improved patient outcomes.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-09

Recent advancements in artificial intelligence (AI) have catalysed transformative reform in scientific research. These AI-driven methods rely on vast quantities of information, including copyright-protected works (e.g., scholarly articles, software code, and literary texts) and personal data (e.g., health records, social media activity) to train and validate models. Yet current UK legal frameworks, specifically the text and data mining (TDM) exception under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 (CDPA) and UK Data Protection Act, introduce significant legal uncertainties and restriction for researchers, such as who can use text/data from where for what purpose. While the existing copyright TDM exception can be interpreted as permitting certain AI training activities, it only covers non-commercial research and does not extend to the whole lifecycle of AI models and systems; together with data protection regimes, it creates ambiguities at virtually every stage of AI-based research and development. The existing copyright exception’s narrow scope, focused on non-commercial research, disallowing wider data sharing, and ambiguities on lawful access, does not reflect modern research practices. For instance, universities cannot easily collaborate with each other or with industry partners to create, retain, and share newly curated datasets, leading to major constraints on the breadth, scale, and reliability of data available for advanced AI research. Such restrictions, related to whether and when personal data can be used in AI-driven research, have been amplified by the UK Data Protection Act. Many data protection measures, such as consent, right to inform data subjects, have become hurdles for researchers seeking to use personal data in AI research. This risk aversion fragments available datasets, restricting both interdisciplinary research and the creation of high-value data assets for AI research. As a result, AI-generated insights risk being legally tenuous, underutilised, or epistemically unreliable. Without clear legal frameworks, researchers are fettered, and the potential of ‘AI for science’ cannot be fully unleashed. This project aims to identify the most important uncertainties and their effects on researcher and remove unnecessary legal hurdles by transforming the regulatory paradigm of current copyright and data protection regimes across the whole lifecycle of AI in research. It will propose policy and governance solutions that the UK should embrace a broader TDM and data protection exemptions to cover all research conducted prior to market entry, at which point transparency and licensing obligations would take effect. This could ensure responsible data practices and foster a vibrant environment for AI innovation in science. The project will confirm/reject these nuanced hypotheses by: Empirically investigating how researchers and institutions negotiate complex copyright and data protection constraints. Assessing the adequacy and implications of the existing copyright TDM exception and data protection legislation to determine how and why they fall short of supporting modern AI-driven research. Proposing a forward-looking regulation framework to align the needs of AI-driven research with updated legal exceptions and regulatory policy and guidelines. Potential applications and benefits include clearer legal guidelines and frameworks, enabling greater public-private research collaboration, improved data access and retention practices, and enhanced epistemic reliability of AI-powered research. The project will produce actionable policy recommendations for institutions (e.g., UKRI), the UK government, and regulators (e.g., IPO, ICO), fostering an open, innovative, and trustworthy environment for the responsible use of AI for science, thereby re-establishing the UK’s global leadership in scientific advancement.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-09

This project will explore the publication, collection and preservation activities of online fan communities and fan archives. It will investigate the methodologies and practices utilised by fan communities in creating and archiving fanworks, how these differ from current practices in national libraries, and what can be learned to aid the collection management of relevant works. Online fan-generated content is at high risk of loss due to technical, legal and geographical constraints. Resultantly, fan fiction and other fan publications are poorly represented in national library collections. Fan content is not just made by and for fans, but often also archived by fans themselves. This is done through personal archives, volunteer-run initiatives, and rescue-mission-style archiving of disappearing domains or software (such as the archival work done by Archive of Our Own with the Open Doors project). This studentship will research archival practices within fan communities and compare them to those deployed in libraries, utilising methods that seek to understand the people behind the collections. It will inform best practices for the inclusion of fan communities within collecting activity, including a legal and ethical framework, and consider how institutions can refine their collection methodologies to accommodate newer formats and content types. As part of this CDP, the student will be supported in documenting their research in the form of a curated web archive collection, alongside a more traditional PhD dissertation. This will provide an opportunity to develop a contemporary collection of complex digital publications and document innovative use of technology in the UK publishing field. This CDP builds on the British Library’s work on collecting and preserving born-digital complex publications as part of UK legal deposit. Legal deposit, underpinned by regulations that mandate the systematic preservation of a nation’s published output, is generally considered a public good and the foundation of a comprehensive national collection. In recent years, scholars have investigated the use and users of legal deposit collections (e.g. Gooding, Terras and Berube, 2019). However, since the introduction of the Non-Print Legal Deposit regulations in 2013, extending the legal deposit mandate to items “transmitted by electronic means,” an under-investigated tension exists between the responsibility of legal deposit libraries to capture web-based formats, and the ethics of engaging with the source communities that produce and share content online. This CDP will address this tension, by exploring both decentralised collection systems and institutional policy/practices, as well as build relationships with online communities and the collections they are curating. It will answer the following key research questions: 1.)     What are the information practices, needs and perspectives of fan communities engaged in preserving fanworks? 2.)     What existing practices and ethical approaches do the UK legal deposit libraries apply to collecting complex web-based objects? 3.)     How might these practices inform an ethical framework specific to the collecting of online fan-generated content? This PhD will actively support the British Library in fulfilling its mandate to collect as comprehensively as possible across the UK landscape. The findings will make a significant contribution to the field of Library and Archive Studies by deepening our understanding of the relationship between fandom identities and fanwork preservation practices, and help the British Library and other collecting institutions to develop ethical practices for collecting online fan-generated content in ways that are mutually beneficial to the institution as well as to the fandom community.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-09

'The following 14 letters are from the same lady [...] but none of them contain matters of any importance' [NRS, GD40/2/1] This twentieth century assessment of surviving collections of early modern women's letters in Scottish collections continues to shape scholarship. These gendered interpretations have obscured the extent of the survival of women's letters and the evidence they offer for women's economic, intellectual and socio-political power in early modern Scotland. Scholarship of Scottish letter-writing cultures has concentrated on later periods, for example the eighteenth century medical consultation letters of William Cullen or the nineteenth century correspondence of Jane Welsh Carlyle. For the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, there remains a focus on royal and elite correspondents. The example above is symptomatic of two persistent presumed obstacles to research on Scottish women's correspondence in the early modern period: 1. Scottish women's letters do not survive in any meaningful numbers 2. Those that do survive are understood using gendered stereotypes This project challenges both and makes a timely contribution to knowledge of women’s power and agency in early modern Scotland. It is the first comprehensive analysis of women's letters in Scots, English, French and Latin, between 1480 and 1625. Using an innovative digital methodology, it will produce the first multilingual edition of early modern women's letters, crossing social rank, and drawing together several hundred writers. The PI has already completed a preliminary census of British public archives and private collections, collating 1515 unpublished manuscript letters to and from non-royal women. By producing an Open Access database and digital edition of these letters, the project will make the sources accessible to a broad audience of students and scholars across disciplines, as well as the wider public. It expands recent research undertaken to recover Scottish women's lived experience and agency using official and legal sources, including wills, marriage contracts, property transactions, and kirk records. The letters deconstruct understandings of the domestic arena, revealing how women’s epistolary networks crossed local, national and international boundaries. Furthermore, women’s mobility between Lowland Scotland and the Gàidhealtachd, Ireland, England, and continental Europe is evidenced by senders and recipients’ locations, and writers’ multilingual literacies. This multilingual corpus and the evidence it offers for women's networks embeds Scotland within British and European epistolary cultures. Letters are recognised as key sources of women’s history and scholarship of early modern women’s epistolary networks and textual production has flourished in the past thirty years. Studies of English women letter-writers has produced detailed micro-histories in the form of editions of individuals’ correspondence and broader macro-thematic analyses which situate English women within European intellectual and social cultures. Similar recovery of Irish women’s letters in the early modern period through innovative archival and devolutionary methodologies, has challenged colonial assumptions of Ireland as marginal to socio-cultural literacies. Early modern Scottish women’s letters have not benefited from the same level of critical analysis. This database and digital edition will challenge this oversight and offer new evidence for women's letter-writing practices in early modern Scotland.   

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-09

Most medicines work by “throwing a spanner in the works” of their target biological protein, preventing them from causing a disease. This approach has served humanity well, and contributed to rising life expectancies over many decades. A key limitation to this classical approach is that a drug molecule must have a 1:1 interaction with its protein target in order for the “spanner” to work. An emerging strategy in medicinal chemistry seeks to overcome the 1:1 drug:protein requirement by targeted protein degradation. In this model, a drug compound doesn’t stop the protein from working, it signals for the degradation of that protein. Because the drug molecule survives, a single molecule can “take out” many copies of a protein. The protein degradation strategy is new enough that it hasn’t been fully explored. This project is about studying protein degradation in the context of p53, the most commonly mutated protein in all of cancer. Our multidisciplinary team is very excited to build on our existing preliminary results to address this challenge.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-09

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 2025 · 2025-09

Einstein's general theory of relativity predicts that accelerating systems in strong gravitational fields will emit vast amounts of energy in the form of gravitational waves (GW). These waves are ripples in the fabric of spacetime that propagate at the speed of light, carrying energy and information about the coalescence of compact objects including neutron stars (NSs) and black holes. The detection of GWs in 2015 marked the opening of a new window on the Universe, and in 2017 this was recognised through the award of the 2017 Nobel Prize in Physics with explicit recognition of the role of the UK as a critical part of the global team for hardware development critical to the success of Advanced LIGO (aLIGO). With the detection of GW170817, a binary NS with an electromagnetic counterpart, a new paradigm of multi-messenger astrophysics was firmly established. aLIGO is currently in its 4th observing run (O4) with several public alerts/detections per week, and a binary NS range of typically 150 Mpc (June 2024). Looking to the future, O4 will run until June 2025, generating significant amounts of high-quality astrophysical data for analysis. The LIGO detectors will be upgraded in preparation for O5 (A+) which is scheduled to start mid 2027 (half way into this new consolidated grant). A+ will see significant hardware upgrades, supported via the UK at the level of approximately £10 million (FEC) via a Glasgow-led A+ UK project. It is essential that the UK capitalises on the investment by STFC to maximise the science return from the current detectors, while at the same time developing the R&D for use in the LIGO detectors and essential to enable improvements in their sensitivity. This grant is a consortium application to allow the GW research groups at the Universities of Glasgow, Strathclyde, and the West of Scotland, together with Rutherford Appleton Laboratory to: observe, analyse and interpret data from the aLIGO detectors, developing and applying novel data-analysis algorithms to characterise continuous wave, compact binary coalescence and unmodelled burst signals, and using compact binary detections to constrain source populations, infer cosmological parameters and measure the NS equation of state; play a major role in the commissioning, characterisation and operation of the aLIGO and the A+ detectors, utilising machine learning techniques to identify and characterise the glitches associated with the instruments, thus enhancing the science observing time/output of the instruments; advance our fundamental research on suspension systems/materials for use in the LIGO detectors and essential to enable sensitivity improvements, pioneering the R&D which supports the continuous improvement, optimisation and development of the existing LIGO detectors.  undertake R&D on the deposition, modelling and characterisation of dielectric mirror coatings, essential for successful operation of the aLIGO/A+ detectors and their sensitivity enhancements, capitalising on world-leading coating facilities being developed in Scotland; enable experimental demonstration of low displacement noise suspended optics with our unique 10m prototype interferometer in Glasgow, upgraded in 2024 via joint STFC and University infrastructure funding. We will further test novel machine learning techniques to characterise and lock complex suspended cavities, for application to future upgrades within the current LIGO infrastructure and LIGO India. The UK groups involved in this consortium grant have a track record of delivering internationally leading scientific R&D in data analysis, source inference and hardware development.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-09

In 2015, the STFC-funded Advanced Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) made the first observation of gravitational waves. We will design and deliver resources to communicate to diverse audiences STFC-funded gravitational-wave research. Traditional astronomy uses light to observe the Universe, and is often communicated primarily through images and videos. Gravitational waves, however, are well-suited to being communicated via sound (the signal from a compact binary coalescence has a characteristic chirp), tactile resources, or movement. Therefore, the resources developed here will be multi-sensory: relying not just on sight, but also hearing and physical interactions. This will provide an immersive experience for audiences, providing multiple means for them to understand concepts. Furthermore, the work will result in creating resources accessible to blind and visually impaired (BVI) people (who are underrepresented in STEM). The project will communicate the STFC-funded research of the Institute for Gravitational Research (IGR), University of Glasgow. The IGR is one of the largest and oldest gravitational-wave groups in the world, with research spanning the breadth of the LIGO–Virgo–KAGRA (LVK) Collaboration. The IGR has extensive links to communities within Glasgow and across Scotland. Building upon these links, our activities will seek to engage audiences from socioeconomically deprived or remote areas. Through showing audiences how world-leading research done is locally, we aim to spark a greater interest in and appreciation of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). Our project has two main strands: Developing accessible multi-sensory resources including interactive sonifications of data, 3D printing tactile resources, and screenreader-compatible Python notebooks. Working with local schools, we will incorporate these into lesson plans for secondary students, including specific accommodations for BVI students. Resources will also be incorporated into hands-on demonstrations suitable for informal education activities such as science festivals, and we will deliver these at the Scottish festivals including the Orkney International Science Festival.  Creating engaging dance-themed workshops using music and motion to communicate gravitational-wave science. These will be co-created with a local youth group, providing them with an informal opportunity to collaborate with researchers. The final dances and associated activities will become part of the portfolio of activities made available by our partner art–science–community organisation Science Ceilidh.   This programme will coincide with the tenth anniversary of our first gravitational-wave discovery, showcase how our understanding has improved over the last decade, and look ahead to the work planned for the next generation of scientists. The activities will draw upon our local Scottish heritage, both through their grounding at the University of Glasgow and the tradition of ceilidh dancing. The proposed activities closely follow STFC’s principles and approaches to high-quality public engagement: Celebrating STFC stories, people and facilities on the tenth anniversary of the first observation of gravitational waves, sharing first-hand the story of how decades of STFC-funded research enabled this breakthrough, and how the field has been revolutionised advanced since Removing barriers and building bridges for participation by creating free multi-sensory activities that are widely accessible, and seeking out informal opportunities for community engagement   Sustaining collaborative partnerships by strengthening the existing community connections of the IGR, linking STFC-funded researchers to their surrounding communities  Creating inspiring and meaningful experiences through the combination of remarkable science, achieved through international collaboration and local expertise, and entertaining activities Evidence-based drawing upon peer-reviewed methodology and embedding evaluation throughout 

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-09

Context and challenge Cancer of the bowel is the 4th most common cancer diagnosis in the UK. The survival rate for bowel cancer has doubled in the last fifty years, with three out of five patients responding well to treatments and showing prolonged survival. Despite this, two out of five patients will not respond to current treatments. Patients with cancer spreading from the bowel to other organs have a particularly poor outlook. We therefore need to research and develop new treatments for these patients that lack good clinical options. This fellowship aims to tackle this problem by using genetic engineering to find crucial vulnerabilities in cancer cells to stop them growing and spreading. We hope to use this information to contribute to the development of new treatments for bowel cancer. Aims and objectives The initial phase of this fellowship allowed the development of an entirely novel way of using genetic engineering of cancer cells to identify genes that control cancer cell growth or spread in the body. In the renewal period, we aim to delve deeply into how these genes act and understand what the best way is to interfere with them to treat cancer. We propose the following work: Characterise the way poor outlook cancer cells hijack the immune system to help cancers spread. Use genetic engineering to work out how best to use drugs we already have in the clinic to better treat bowel cancers. Applications and Benefits Continued funding of this fellowship for the renewal period will have applications across academic research, public health practice and the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries. The wider research community The tools and knowledge that we develop on how to perform genetic engineering and cancer cell transplantation in hosts with a functioning immune system will be shared with the scientific community and national centres to allow others to perform this approach. The data generated will be crucial to understand whether the previously described traditional in-a-dish approaches typical of cancer research have missed key information compared to examining tumours in the body. Public health This research aims to identify new potential targets and clinical treatments for patients lacking these options, by developing new ways to study cancer that focus on understanding how cancer cells spread. By examining drugs currently in development or clinical use, this project has the potential to influence how poor outlook patients are treated. Biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries By working directly with the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries and making use of therapies already developed this work is aimed at fast-tracking our findings towards patient benefit. The public This fellowship aims to understand how cancers spread and identify vulnerabilities in cancer cells that might be used for therapies. Given the global health burden of bowel cancer, with 40% of those patients lacking effective treatments, this work aims to improve global cancer survival rates.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-09

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 2025 · 2025-09

Chronic pain is a major clinical problem that affects ~30% of the population and results in significant societal and economic impact. Currently available treatments often provide inadequate pain relief, and a major reason for the limited success in design of new treatments is lack of knowledge about the neuronal circuits that underlie pain. Primary afferent neurons, many of which signal noxious stimuli, transmit sensory information to the spinal cord. Here it is processed through complex neuronal circuits before being transmitted to the brain through projection neurons. Many of these neurons belong to the anterolateral system (ALS), and this pathway is required for conscious perception of pain. However, pain is a multidimensional experience involving sensory-discriminative and motivational-affective components, and these may involve different spinal circuits. ALS neurons are located in both the superficial and deep grey matter of the spinal cord, and until now the cellular organisation of the ALS was poorly understood. We recently made use of a transgenic mouse (Phox2a::Cre), which labels a major developmental subset of ALS neurons, to define five transcriptomic populations based on single nucleus RNA sequencing (snRNAseq). Three of these populations (ALS1-3) were located in the upper laminae (I-IV), while the remaining two (ALS4-5) were in deep grey matter (laminae V-VII, X). Importantly, ALS1 cells include a well-characterised class of neurons known as antenna cells, as well as a transcriptomic counterpart in lamina I. Antenna cells represent a major postsynaptic target for nociceptive primary afferents, but at present nothing is known about the ALS1 lamina I cells. A major focus of this project will be to investigate the connectivity and function of ALS1 cells. Furthermore, there is considerable debate concerning the contribution of superficial and deep ALS projection neurons to the different pain dimensions. We will therefore investigate how the ALS1 cells (an exemplar of superficial cells) and ALS4-5 (deep) cells differ in their projection targets, and in how they drive the different pain dimensions in acute and inflammatory conditions. We will use a multidisciplinary approach involving 5 complementary workpackages (WPs). In WP1 we will refine our transcriptomic analysis to cover all types of ALS projection neuron. This will also form the basis for optimal targeting of ALS1 cells in subsequent WPs. In WP2 we will investigate the synaptic input to antenna and lamina I ALS1 cells, to determine whether these are likely to be functionally homogeneous. We will also use anterograde viral tracing to compare projection patterns of superficial (ALS1) and deep (ALS4/5) projection neurons, and test the prediction that these differentially innervate brain regions involved in pain mechanisms. In WP3, we will use electrophysiology and calcium imaging to further compare the properties of the two different types of ALS1 neuron. In WP4 we will activate cells belonging to ALS1 and ALS4/5 and test the hypothesis that ALS1 cells drive somatotopically appropriate behaviours, while activation of ALS4/5 cells is aversive. Finally, in WP5 we will inhibit neurons in each population in an inflammatory pain state and test the prediction that targeting ALS1 and ALS4/5 cells selectively reduces somatotopically-relevant signs (ALS1), or the aversiveness of the pain percept (ALS4/5). This work will provide important insights into pain neurobiology by identifying neuronal circuits that are involved in acute and inflammatory pain. It should also reveal potential targets for the development of new strategies for pain relief.  

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-09

Toxoplasma gondii is a highly successful pathogen, able to infect all cells and warm-blooded animals. In the UK, infection can be serious in pregnant or immunocompromised people, but also causes huge losses for sheep farmers, making it an important medical and veterinary infection. To infect these diverse hosts, Toxoplasma must react to its environment and respond to the availability of nutrients, as loss leads to starvation and stress for the parasite. One nutrient that is vital for Toxoplasma is iron, which is essential for almost all cells. During infection, mammals tend to conceal iron, deliberately starving invaders to prevent them from growing. So successful pathogens, like Toxoplasma, have developed techniques to survive this stress. In this project, we want to learn how iron starvation affects growth and Toxoplasma protein production. We have found that Toxoplasma responds to iron starvation by shutting down the production of most proteins. This response raises two major questions, first, how is Toxoplasma able to prevent proteins from being made, and is this response important for the pathogen to survive? And second, Toxoplasma increases production of some proteins, but how does the parasite choose which proteins are made, and what are the roles of these proteins?   We will try to answer these questions in two main parts. In the first aim we will identify how Toxoplasma manages to slow down protein production. We have two hypotheses for how it does this, either indirectly through signalling pathways, or directly as the parasite removes a key protein involved in protein production. We will investigate both hypotheses using a range of techniques to determine if one (or both) are involved. We will also check how important this is to the parasite survival and recovery from starvation.   Although most protein production is reduced, the parasite appears to increase production of a subset of proteins. In the second aim of this project, we will identify which parasite proteins contain iron, and which proteins are prioritised for production. This selective increase in proteins has been seen in other organisms. However, it is usually concentrated on proteins which contain iron and unfortunately, we don’t yet know the iron-containing proteins in Toxoplasma. To identify these, we will use a new technique which relies on the intrinsic properties of proteins, which become more sensitive to high temperatures upon removal of iron. By measuring the temperature-sensitivity of all proteins and determining which ones change upon iron removal, we can identify iron-bound proteins of Toxoplasma, without being biased by what we already know. This allows us to understand how the parasite uses iron. To then determine which proteins the parasite is prioritising upon iron starvation, we will identify all newly created proteins, focussing on those that are involved in metabolism or contain iron (from our work above). We will then investigate these proteins to find out which proteins or pathways are essential for Toxoplasma to survive in low iron conditions.   This project will investigate Toxoplasma stress responses. This impacts how drugs can change in efficacy, and how to better target interventions to work with immune responses, as well as improving our understanding the parasite biology and host-pathogen interactions. This proposal benefits scientists studying parasites and nutritional responses, those interested in identifying new metal-bound proteins and gives a broader understanding of the role of iron in parasites.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-08

The fundamental features of quantum mechanics—such as the remarkable inseparability of seemingly distinct systems through quantum entanglement—are most prominently displayed at the level of individual nanoscale objects. Creating bespoke quantum-entangled states with atomic-level precision, and measuring them at the single-particle level is a grand challenge which could open up new scientific and technological domains. For example, enabling new sensors which translate the principles of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) down to the scale of individual molecules, with significant benefits, for example, for understanding chemical and biological processes, and improving healthcare. Chemical synthesis of molecular structures provides a natural way of controlling the nanoscale arrangement of atoms, holding promise for synthetically controlled entanglement. However, a major challenge for molecular systems has been that even if entangled states could be created, the ability to measure them at the single-particle level has been missing—an essential requirement for their application in both quantum science, and as quantum-enhanced sensors. This proposal addresses this challenge by developing the capabilities required to deterministically create and measure quantum entanglement among individual molecular states. To achieve this goal, our proposal brings together synergistic UK-US expertise in synthesis, measurement, and theory, to realise the capabilities for measuring chemically tuneable single-particle entanglement. As robust quantum states to create and sustain entanglement, we will use the magnetic properties of electrons/nuclei—spins—and, critically, address the outstanding challenge of how to detect single-spin entanglement by using molecular emission of visible/infrared light. Combining novel molecules, optical and magnetic resonance measurements, and theoretical insight, we will demonstrate spins in inorganic molecules that can support entanglement which can be deterministically created with optical/microwave pulses, sustained for prolonged timescales, and, crucially, efficiently detected at the single-spin level using light. By providing a new toolbox to create and detect tailor-made quantum states in molecules, this work opens the possibility of observing entangled states which are currently out of reach. For example, measuring entanglement among multiple (>2), deterministically placed interacting individual electron spins, something which is extremely challenging with existing solid-state spin systems due to their lack of spatial precision, but would provide transformative insight into how entanglement can be scaled and protected in complex systems. Likewise, this proposal will open the development of chemically tuneable spin-based sensors which are enhanced beyond conventional capabilities through entanglement. While promising examples of single-spin quantum sensing have been demonstrated with semiconductor-based platforms, the difficulty of deterministically creating and deploying multiple coupled individual spins limits the opportunity of entanglement-based enhancements for applications such as quantum-enhanced biosensing. A molecular approach can meet this challenge, realising quantum sensors which are intrinsically nanoscale, can support multi-partite entanglement, and be conveniently deployed (e.g., through functionalisation). Our proposal will enrich disciplines including chemistry, physics, materials science, and engineering through a novel chemical platform for manipulating entanglement. By training the future quantum workforce, and forging strategic interdisciplinary links between the UK and the US, we will enrich both our countries’ national efforts in quantum science/technology enabling advancements beyond current capabilities. By unlocking advanced quantum-sensing capabilities, new applications will emerge such as improved bio-microscopy modalities and enhanced sensitivity for magnetic-resonance based imaging and probing mass-limited samples. These benefits will contribute to a strengthened economy through quantum-enabled technologies, accelerated development of functional materials (e.g., for information storage), and enhanced medical diagnostics for improved societal health.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-08

Over the past several years, the rapid integration of AI tools into scientific research has dramatically accelerated the pace of inquiry and, by extension, increased the volume of published work. This surge in research output appears to advance scientific progress. At the same time, however, it presents a serious puzzle. Historically, science has been driven not merely by data accumulation but by the pursuit of genuine scientific understanding—a pursuit characterised by features that explain why we take scientific understanding to be a genuine achievement: for instance, a skilled grasp of explanatory and coherence-making relations, conceptual clarity, and rigorous interpretation. As AI systems demonstrate increasingly sophisticated capabilities in processing and analysing vast datasets—typically in ways that are opaque not only to scientific researchers but even to the algorithms’ designers—the question arises: to what extent does AI-assisted research contribute to the depth of understanding that has paradigmatically defined genuine scientific progress, as opposed to something epistemically ‘cheaper’? This question calls for careful examination of both its epistemological and ethical dimensions. The epistemological challenge concerns how we evaluate and characterise the kind of epistemic gain that is achieved by papers published as a result of AI-aided inquiry. Pertinent sub-questions here are: What constitutes genuine scientific understanding, and how does it differ from mere data processing or pattern recognition? Can AI-assisted research foster the same depth of insight and achievements in grasping explanatory connections that has historically characterised scientific breakthroughs? Meanwhile, the ethical dimension focuses on researchers’ responsibilities when publishing AI-assisted work—particularly when their own understanding of the underlying phenomena or methodologies may be incomplete due to AI outsourcing. This project will systematically investigate these challenges through a rigorous analysis of how AI-aided scientific inquiry relates to traditional scientific understanding. It will develop a new and much-needed framework for evaluating the quality of understanding in AI-assisted research and establish guidelines for responsible publication practices. The research will be conducted at Cogito, the largest and broadest epistemology research centre worldwide (over 60+ members). The project will be mentored by Prof. Christoph Kelp, a world-leading expert in the epistemology of scientific understanding and inquiry, as well as in ‘extended’ epistemology – the pursuit of knowledge by means of technological scaffolding. This research will also be led with the support of two large-scale scientific organisations at the European level: the Initiative for Science in Europe (ISE) and the Young Academy of Europe (YAE). The project will unfold over 24 months through three core work packages—one epistemological, one ethical, and one applied which draws from the results of the first two—culminating in a monograph titled AI Inquiry, Scientific Understanding and Progress, alongside peer-reviewed articles, conference presentations, and knowledge-exchange activities, including scientific policy guidance in the form of an AI-publishing toolkit. This guidance will be disseminated in Year 3 through initiatives at the YAE and ISE. My unique research profile—which combines expertise in epistemology, ethics, and philosophy of technology—positions me ideally to conduct a systematic investigation of these challenges. More generally, this fellowship provides the perfect opportunity and career support for me to develop my initial findings into an ambitious, cohesive project with both theoretical depth through dedicated research time for the monograph and meaningful policy impact.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-08

Trypanosomes are single-celled organisms transmitted by tsetse flies that cause serious disease in cattle – African Animal Trypanosomosis (AAT). Found mainly in sub-Saharan Africa, AAT kills 3 million cattle each year, with approximately 60 million cattle at risk, and impacts significantly on food security and livelihoods. The main measure farmers use to combat AAT is drug treatment, but only two drugs are available, both >60 years old. Treatment failures and resistance are widely reported. A new class of therapeutic molecules, the benzoxaborales, has been identified that shows promise as a potential new trypanocide, but to maximise the benefits of any new drug, we need to address current causes of treatment failure, and identify strategies to incorporate the new drug most effectively into existing control methodologies. Our previous research identified that resistance, inappropriate use, and poor drug quality are all linked to treatment failures. We have identified the mechanisms of resistance in the most important trypanosome species, and identified a marker for resistance. We also developed a modelling framework that identified risk factors for resistance. Our model predicts that the frequency of trypanocide use, the amount of tsetse control through applying insecticides to cattle, and whether wildlife hosts are also present, all influence the risk of resistance emergence. Identifying drivers of resistance development is essential in order to identify proactive strategies for managing resistance. In this project, our international, interdisciplinary team will, firstly, identify drivers of resistance across different agro-ecological settings by applying the new marker to samples from cattle, to test how the level of trypanocide use and misuse, insecticide use and presence of wildlife impact levels of resistance. Second, we will test whether drug-resistant parasites are less fit than wild type drug-susceptible parasites; this could compromise transmission and spread of resistance in the field. Third, using the data collected, we will further advance and parameterise our models of AAT control and resistance.  The models will enable us to develop integrated strategies for effective and sustainable control that exploit the strengths of current drugs, and assess how to integrate effectively a new drug, across different agro-ecological settings. Lastly, we will collect qualitative and quantitative field data to identify how to address other barriers to effective trypanocide use, including inappropriate use and trypanocide quality, to inform how optimal strategies can actually be achieved. Combining our empirical and theoretical findings will enable us to identify strategies for how to introduce any new drug most effectively, and will directly inform global strategies for improved AAT control. Importantly, we will also develop practical guidance for farmers, veterinary practitioners and policy makers that addresses causes of treatment failure, in order to achieve more effective control of AAT. In turn, impacts on animal health and production can strengthen food security, economic development and poverty alleviation (SDGs 1/2/8). Farmed animal health is a focus area of the BBSRC Research in Agriculture and Food Security Strategic Framework. The Framework specifically highlights that multidisciplinary approaches are needed to address pathogen resistance and develop innovative disease control regimes. This project also tackles the BBSRC strategic challenge of bioscience for sustainable agriculture and food and addresses specific priorities of animal health; combatting antimicrobial resistance; food nutrition and health and sustainably enhancing agricultural production, as well as the cross-council priority of global food security.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-08

Glasgow is in one of the most difficult socio-economic positions in a generation. 24% of children are living in poverty, and we have a growing understanding of complex, persistent poverty, post-pandemic challenges, and the need for a Just Transition requiring large-scale joined-up policy intervention. Recent research shows that less than 1% of citizens have a meaningful say in the design of their local neighbourhoods. The design and delivery of solutions within Glasgow often remain siloed by department and top-down, with little-to-no citizen involvement, leading to duplication, a lack of buy-in, and overlooking the existing strength of community responses to local problems. Local, citizen-led solutions are required that stimulate citizen participation and act as hubs to solve complex, local challenges with local input to build resilient local systems and infrastructure. Underlying these issues is a lack of understanding across Glasgow City Council (GCC) and citizenry of the infrastructural underpinnings and interconnectedness of contemporary challenges. To address the challenges through bottom-up solutions requires upskilling across GCC and citizenry, and establishing a joined-up, co-produced mode of solutions development and delivery that creates, improves, and remakes these infrastructures. The Critical Infrastructure Design project (CID) brings together the PI's expertise in critical infrastructure studies with host Centre for Civic Innovation's (CCI) extensive citizen-centred design practice and implementation to produce innovative interventions that will directly benefit the PI, CCI, GCC, and the city of Glasgow. It will (1) build the PI's network and capacity to create real-world impact through training in design methods and practical design-led application; (2) effect knowledge transfer of critical infrastructure and design approaches across CCI, GCC, and local communities; and (3) co-design a visionary participatory infrastructure and engine of community wealth and wellbeing in Glasgow by prototyping a Civic and Social Innovation Hub (CSIHub), providing a creative space and resources to bring GCC and local communities together to co-design local solutions. The prototype CSIHub will be based in one of the 10 poverty pathfinder neighbourhoods in Glasgow, areas specifically called out for complex challenges around poverty. It will provide an evidence base for the effectiveness of design thinking and citizen-centred solutions in reducing poverty and inequality, increasing opportunity and prosperity, and delivering Just Transition. This will enable future scaling of this way of working across the city of Glasgow and be shared as best-practice with other cities through dissemination workshops. The potential benefits of the initial work would be improved wellbeing for citizens of one of Glasgow's most challenging neighbourhoods, improved employability, strengthened local sustainability, and greater democratic and material power for the citizens in decisions governing their lives. Facilitating the CSIHub will be co-design and delivery by the PI and CCI of a suite of educational tools in critical infrastructure and design for GCC and citizens. Delivered through a flexible context-appropriate mix of courses and workshops, these will drive a new way of thinking, and enable more durable, long-term capacity for collaboration across policy teams and local communities, facilitating ongoing visionary infrastructural solutions across Glasgow's challenges. The skills, experience, and networks built through this project will be an essential next step for the PI to pursue their future goals: (1) creating effective research engagements with stakeholders, (2) building a career trajectory collaborating on genuinely impactful, multidisciplinary projects and, (3) translating their theoretical work in critical infrastructure into real-world interventions.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-08

Methylmercury (MeHg) is a potent neurotoxin that damages brain tissue, particularly impacting the neural development of mammalian prenatal infants1. In the environment, it is produced almost entirely by microorganisms from industrial mercury (Hg) pollution (e.g., fossil fuel combustion, chemicals production, mining) that travels through the atmosphere or via surface waterways to accumulate on land and in the sea2. Some of this mercury has been accumulating in environments like peatlands for centuries to millennia, beginning with atmospheric emissions from Roman-era mining3. The latest climate change models predict that warming global temperatures will accelerate microbial mercury methylation in sediments and seawater4. Methylmercury concentrations build up ("biomagnify") in marine and land food webs to present health hazards for humans and animals. The primary source of methylmercury poisoning to humans is fish, from which roughly one-third of the world's population, including the most economically poor, obtains at least 20% of its dietary protein5. More recently, however, it was discovered that methylmercury produced in rice paddies can be directly uptaken by some rice plants as well6, presenting a potentially even more serious ecotoxicological threat to human health. Despite over a half-century of research, we still do not understand how or why some microbes in the environment make methylmercury, thus undermining our ability to predict and mitigate methylmercury production in nature. However, recent discoveries have begun to uncover some vital clues. For example, we have found that mercury methylation seems to have some genetic link to the microbe's ability to mitigate arsenic toxicity7,8. We have also discovered that the genes encoding for mercury methylation date back to the last common ancestor of the bacteria and archaea9. In the context of these and other recent insights, we aim here to decode the genetic evolution and expression "triggers" for mercury methylation, in order to understand its genetic pre-requisites and environmental pre-conditions. Specifically, we will use carefully designed bacterial culturing experiments to test several hypotheses: 1) Hg methylation originated as an antimicrobial (i.e. antibiotic) function against other microbes in competition for food, 2) Hg methylation gene expression is linked genetically to arsenic resistance gene expression, 3) Hg methylation requires an anabolic metabolic pathway, 4) Hg methylation involves a catabolic metabolic pathway. We will also perform advanced bioinformatic analyses to unravel the evolutionary timings of genes encoding for mercury methylation, single-carbon metabolism and arsenic resistance. We hypothesize here: 5) arsenic resistance genes predated, and may have been co-opted for, mercury methylation, and 6) co-evolution of other metal resistance genes and mercury methylation genes, along with subsequent gene loss events and lateral transfers, can explain the complex distribution of mercury methylation capabilities across the Tree of Life, one of the most perplexing and long-lasting mysteries in this field. Importantly, the results of our experiments and analyses will give us new answers and insights into which environments and conditions promote mercury methylation and therefore how we might develop more effective interventions to protect environmental health, water quality and food security. In that regard, this proposal represents both fundamental "discovery" bioscience that will yield new knowledge into how microbes have evolved to function (i.e. the "Rules to Life") as well as interdisciplinary and applied "Molecules to Landscape"-facing research for protecting food security and reducing methylmercury pollution on land and at sea.