University of Southampton

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-03

The Crystal Sponge (CS) method is a highly promising, proven technique where gold standard single crystal X-ray diffraction (SCXRD) can be applied to samples that can either only be produced in minute amounts (those too small to grow a crystal) or those that cannot be crystallised (gases, liquids, and oils) to obtain atomic resolution chemical structures. The analyte (guest) is soaked into a crystalline porous framework (host) and the aggregate crystal structure is subsequently solved, revealing new structural information on the guest. The structures of ~450 analytes have been published using the CS method to date, while many times more have been studied in commercially sensitive projects or remain to be published. However, there are ongoing problems with the CS-SCXRD method, including: 1.A lack of different sponges available, with most work carried out using a single generic sponge. 2. An associated limited analyte scope, due to inappropriate chemical compatibility and/or poor soaking, with a glaring lack of alternatives. 3. A lack of reliable synthetic methods to make suitable large, untwinned crystals of the known sponges. 4. Laborious solvent exchange and activation processes. 5. Long soaking times due to pore diffusion into large crystals and subsequent careful evaporation of loading solvent, with consequently poor reproducibility of analyte loading. 6. A relatively low hit-rate for successful data collections, meaning the process can be repetitious and time consuming. 7.Relatively poor data quality rendering structure refinements difficult and laborious. 8.Quality of results generally lower than the community accepted standard. These problems have resulted in poor uptake and accordingly there are few experts and limited adoption as an 'analytical' method for determining chemical structure. Electron Diffraction is a game changing technique that will improve this situation by offering structure determination on nanocrystals as small as 100nm in size, two orders of magnitude smaller than X-ray diffraction, as well as cryogenic loading and analysis of powders, fragile samples and solvates. We hypothesise that ED is, therefore, highly suited to CS analysis and our proposal focusses on developing the CS method for ED by demonstrating the following potential advantages: 1.Many more potential sponge materials will be explored (including highly inert sponges) as there is no longer a requirement for large single crystals. 2.Much more rapid and complete analyte soaking, due to ~6 orders of magnitude decrease in total sponge particle size, with concomitant decreases in required analyte amounts. 3.Quicker and simpler handling procedures, as there are minimal concerns about sponge nanocrystals drying out or cracking. 4.New soaking procedures and protocols become possible, e.g., soaking analytes into completely dry particles. 5.Novel sample preparation and presentation becomes possible, due to less technological constraints, e.g., multiple nanocrystals on sample grids (ED) versus individual crystals on a single pin-like mount (SCXRD). 6.Much faster data collection times, allowing analysis of multiple nanocrystals from one batch very quickly (potentially automated) on a single grid, therefore outrunning any sample/analyte instability. 7. Potential for screening multiple sponge materials on one grid with individual or multiple analytes, to rapidly determine which sponge is best for which material type. In doing so, we will demonstrate the CS method is applicable to a broad subset of new sponges and analytes, ultimately rejuvenating the technique in the eyes of academia and industry and finally unleashing its potential to become the go-to technique for structure determination of uncrystallisable molecules.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-03

The past two decades have witnessed a global explosion of research into the gut-immunology-brain axis (GIBA), illuminating its importance for human development, health and longevity. Understanding how the gut connects to and influences the nervous system, allows scientists, drug developers and policy makers to develop novel strategies to improve physical, cognitive and mental health across the life-course. Unlocking the potential of GIBA requires an interdisciplinary approach that combines knowledge and technology from diverse research fields that may not have traditionally interacted. The UK possesses a wealth of expertise and infrastructure in GIBA-relevant areas. However, due to a lack of effective collaborations, few researchers make use of these resources; they frequently remain siloed within a narrow userbase and unknown to the wider research community. When combined with limited opportunities for interaction between researchers from diverse yet complementary disciplines, and the need to develop new tools to investigate this complex and dynamic network, this presents a significant barrier to the progress of UK GIBA research. The aim is to establish a national GIBA Network+ to build a vibrant, diverse, interdisciplinary UK-wide research community to advance the mechanistic understanding of GIBA across the life-course, and its modulation by lifestyle and other factors. It will provide a vehicle to deliver networking opportunities to facilitate closer collaborative relationships between diverse disciplines, signposting existing UK infrastructure and resources, with a strong focus on an inclusive and positive research culture that particularly fosters the development and visibility of early-career researchers (ECRs). This will be achieved through the following objectives: Communication: Capture the current expertise, methodologies, and resources available in the UK into a single, easily accessible location and increase its visibility.  Collaboration: Support knowledge exchange and effective interdisciplinary collaborations through networking events and the creation of working groups focused on addressing key research questions pertinent to the field and identifying barriers to successful partnerships. Research: Strengthen the collaborative partnerships arising from the working groups and increase the mechanistic understanding of GIBA through funded projects with a focus on generating impactful outputs. Development of ECRs: Ensure longevity of the Network+ by supporting the progression of ECRs and research technicians (RTPs) through funded fellowships, training workshops, leadership experience, and mobility awards. Training: Upskill the research community working across the GIBA landscape through a comprehensive multidisciplinary training programme, generation of online material, and support of training placements. Impact: Establish a framework to maximise the impact and dissemination of research outputs arising from the Network+, ensuring effective communication, translation and knowledge transfer to relevant stakeholders, including the commercial sector, the public, and those involved in public policy.  The Network+ will establish itself as an authority in this area, offering thought leadership, developing tools and approaches for wider adoption, and providing guidance on standards within the field. An effective framework will be implemented for engagement with stakeholders and other complementary networks (e.g. BBSRC OIRC-hubs, BBSRC-MRC Networks) to maximise impact and support the long-term research and innovation priorities of the BBSRC. This includes developing and connecting expertise across the UK (world-class people); increasing awareness of available facilities and technologies and supporting their optimisation (world-class places); facilitating the generation of novel multidisciplinary research (world-class ideas); its commercial translation (world-class innovation); its academic, public and international impact (world-class impacts); while ensuring EDI considerations are adopted throughout (world-class organisation).

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-03

In my fellowship I have conducted groundbreaking research and spearheaded innovative initiatives, leading a team to explore and devise technological enhancements for democratic innovation. Employing a mix of artificial intelligence, design methodologies, and social science, I've amalgamated data, and analysed and compared cases to draw out lessons for democracy. I have designed software using participatory methods to craft technologies and interventions that prioritise human experience and transparency in democratic procedures. This project is driven by the aspiration of empowering citizens, bolstering the safety of communities, and heightening confidence in societal institutions through understanding which interventions build and fortify democratic activities. It involves making space for often marginalised voices, curbing hateful speech, and ensuring diverse community participation in public discourse and in governance. My focus lies in the creation of interdisciplinary data science tools that allow for analysis of political text, speech, and video. The approach involves constructing advanced models that answer pertinent research questions and navigate the ethical and social consequences of deploying algorithms in democratic engagement. The project team is committed to designing and engineering democracy software that transcend temporary successes, with an emphasis on adapting interventions to a variety of governance, workplace, and community settings. We aim to build knowledge about how techniques can be used wherever we need to make collective decisions, and deal peacefully and fairly with disagreement. We will develop AI interventions that augment existing democratic innovations, that are pragmatic and applicable in day-to-day contexts. We aspire to understand how these innovations can be sequenced optimally for transparency, trust, and mutual oversight. This involves carrying out randomised controlled trials and employing other research methods to ascertain when and how to step in to restore trust in institutions, and consequently, enhance the governance of emerging technologies. The fellowship supports me to lead a multidisciplinary research and innovation hub in the UK, one that is fervently devoted to preserving and enriching democracy. This project aims to deliver novel research involving many scientific disciplines contributing to a flourishing economy and society in the UK and beyond.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-03

Over the past decade, family life in the UK has been rapidly changing, with fertility declining to new lows. Simultaneously, economic, political, and global uncertainty has increased, impacting individual decision-making. The recent cost-of-living crisis has placed an unprecedented strain on families, limiting financial resources and social mobility. Young adults have been particularly hard hit, with a higher percent facing unemployment, difficulties with housing, and economic precarity. These new conditions raise questions about how young and middle-aged adults form families, maintain partnerships, and make decisions about childbearing. Understanding these social, demographic, and reproductive changes requires detailed, high quality, nationally-representative data. With this aim, the first ever Generations and Gender Survey (GGS) was successfully conducted online in the UK in 2022-23, collecting data from 7300 individuals aged 18-59. The GGS is one of the main outputs of the Generations and Gender Programme (GGP), an international Research Infrastructure supported by the European Commission. Over the past 20 years, the GGP has collected survey data in 25 countries in Europe and beyond. This publicly accessible data has more than 5500 users worldwide and has been used in over 1500 publications. This proposal requests funding for wave 2 of the UK GGS, intended to be a longitudinal survey with 3-year follow-up. Following respondents as they experience new events, such as marriage, separation, and childbearing is important for understanding how earlier factors impact later behaviours. The international GGP hub has designed the wave 2 questionnaire to test demographic theory and address emerging social challenges, such as life-course inequalities; economic and global uncertainties; employment precarity; gender equality and work-family balance. We will also implement UK-specific questions, for example on voting behaviour and ethnicity. Many other UK surveys, especially on childcare and family life, are based on non-probability surveys or are not directly internationally comparable. Only by comparing across countries will we understand whether trends in the UK are specific to Britain or part of a larger global development. This project will ensure that the UK continues to engage with Europe’s preeminent demographic research infrastructure, which has now expanded to include many non-European countries. The ESRC considers the GGS one of its premier international Infrastructure Investments, and it is crucial to continue to participate in this global initiative. The first wave has been deposited at the UK Data Service and the GGP hub, providing easy access for the UK and international research community. This current project will not only ensure that the second wave is funded, but that the first wave will continue to be publicised and supported. Given the ESRC’s current investment, this data collection represents value-for-money, including incentives for completing the survey which benefit the British public. Besides data collection, the project includes methodological, demographic, and dissemination work packages. The methodological work package will assess data quality and representativeness in a longitudinal survey conducted only online. It will also evaluate an incentive experiment designed to reduce attrition. These analyses will provide insights into online data collection, allowing for improvement of design and implementation. The demographic work package will use the partnership, fertility, and intergenerational living questions from both waves to investigate how intentions materialise over time, informing policymakers about factors associated with family formation and childcare. Finally, the dissemination work package will ensure that this infrastructure investment is used by academics, public, and stakeholders globally.  

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-03

Wild deer populations have increased dramatically throughout the northern hemisphere during recent decades. The UK is home to six deer species that can substantially impact the natural systems that we all depend upon. Capable of rapidly colonising newly created woodlands, deer can inhibit growth by browsing young trees, saplings, and seedlings. Consequently, deer present a serious challenge to the government's ambitious target to increase woodland area from 13% to 18% of UK land area and achieve net zero by 2050. It is therefore essential that people involved in woodland management plan for deer impacts. Whilst managing deer populations and designing planting schemes to mitigate their impacts is more important than ever, managing deer is challenging. They are highly mobile animals that cross man-made boundaries, and their local foraging decisions are driven by environmental characteristics of the broader landscape. Consequently, local management actions on a single property can elicit effects that cascade across entire landscapes and influence deer impacts on land elsewhere. For example, fencing a woodland might displace deer to neighbouring farmland, or planting trees locally will alter woodland cover and configuration at the landscape scale, influencing deer movement and impacts elsewhere. Rural landscapes across England and Wales are comprised of patchworks of land uses and landowners with varying and even conflicting management objectives, including different views on deer. Indeed, while considered a 'pest' to many landowners, deer are culturally and economically valued by others. In such situations, woodland creation and management decisions that influence deer behaviour and foraging preferences are necessary to ensure successful woodland expansion. These decisions could include, for example, where to locate new woodlands, fencing, alterations to woodland tree species and structure, or the provision of alternative food resources or deer repellents. However, landowners may not be aware of these options, their effectiveness, or the scientific evidence behind them. Indeed, while scientific understanding of deer ecology, impacts and mitigation is evidenced by a vast literature from across the temperate zone, much remains to be done to translate this knowledge into management practice, in a way that integrates local expertise and multiple stakeholder objectives. Project iDeer has been designed to address this incorporation and implementation gap. Project iDeer will deliver a co-designed interactive decision support tool - the 'iDeer tool' - to facilitate strategic woodland creation and management that minimises deer impacts on new and existing woodland and other neighbouring land uses in England and Wales. Landowner consultations from previous projects have established a clear desire for digital decision support tools that integrate local with scientific knowledge to inform land management plans. The iDeer tool will output 'risk maps' that enable users to see how choices in woodland management made by one landowner will influence deer activity on neighbouring land and the wider landscape. For example, how the creation and fencing of one hectare of woodland on one land parcel might increase crop disturbance by deer on the neighbouring land parcel. Users will be able to output and compare these risk maps enabling them to make informed decisions about how to manage their land whilst also considering impacts on neighbours and the wider landscape. We propose to bring together an interdisciplinary team with collective expertise in woodland and deer ecology, conservation conflict, animal behaviour modelling, social science methods and web tool development. Solutions-focussed from the start, we will work with stakeholders that are involved in woodland and/or deer management, including farmers, woodland managers, public forestry bodies, and conservation practitioners, to ensure that the iDeer tool will achieve its aim.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-03

Tribology/lubrication are enabling technologies which can mitigate the 23% (119 EJ) of the world energy consumption originating from tribological contact. Potential savings estimated at 1-1.4% of the gross national product, 8.7% of total global energy consumption and a reduction in CO2 emissions by up to 3140 MtCO2 are possible through three groundbreaking approaches: the large-scale computational modelling of tribological systems, experimental methods with in-situ capabilities and novel materials including lubricants and additives. The development of advanced lubricants and additives is particularly promising as they are expected to exceed half of these estimated potential savings in each of the five areas: engine and drivetrain, wind turbines reliability and efficiency, metalworking, marine and rail industries. Our proposal is aligned to address two of those approaches, namely exploring new lubricants and their in-situ characterization. The material of choice for advanced lubricants is a type of liquid crystals, namely lamellar liquid crystals. Their low shear strength between layers, solid-like elasticity, high load carrying capacity and increased biodegradability have significant potential for high fuel efficiency, longer lifespans of machinery, reduced maintenance, increased environmental friendliness - all important drivers for a global shift to renewable and energy efficient operation. Understanding how LC properties could be exploited for lubrication has been limited mainly because of the lack of suitable methods to characterise them in tribological contacts. To address this challenge, we propose a new technique based on microscopy exploiting Brewster angle reflection to monitor and visualise in real time, lubricants in tribological contacts. The method, which we called Brewster Angle microscopy Plus (BAM Plus) will be applied for the first time to tribological systems. It will allow us not only to visualise, but also develop qualitative and quantitative information on molecular-thin layers in static and dynamic contacts. Understanding the mechanism behind the low friction properties of lamellar liquid crystals, their interaction with surfaces and alignment under pressure and/or shear will facilitate the development of a new class of efficient, green lubricants based on them. The application of BAM Plus to other types of organic/biomaterials will demonstrate its versatility and potential for breakthrough in lubricant development research.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-03

Several important areas such as data centres, LiDAR, programmable photonic circuits, quantum computing and environmental sensors need much better optical phase shifters and modulators that can reduce power consumption. Here, we propose novel solutions for the realisation of heterogeneous phase shifters and modulators that can Efficient silicon optical modulators (EPICAL) 1. Details transform the field of silicon photonics and make a significant impact in the aforementioned applications. We will investigate the integration of silicon photonics devices with BaTiO3 (BTO) that has one of the largest Pockels coefficients, using mass manufacturable techniques and new design ideas, which will pave the way for the demonstration of compact and low power silicon photonic circuits. The most important aspect of the proposed work is to demonstrate that BTO with large Pockels effects can be grown directly on Si platforms. We will investigate orientation of the films, and their optimum compositions and thicknesses, to demonstrate efficient phase shifters and modulators. The key objectives of the proposal are: - To develop direct and fast growth of relatively thick BTO/BSTO films with large Pockels coefficients on Si platforms. - To investigate variations of BTO/BSTO compositions and their influence on the film quality. - To study the role of dopants for the enhancement the Pockels effect. - To demonstrate efficient hybrid modulators in Si technology using the developed films. - To explore operation of the modulators at longer wavelengths and low temperatures. This proposal brings together experts and leading groups from silicon photonics and perovskite material growth, with complementary expertise and facilities to tackle a very challenging task of the realisation of compact and efficient modulators in silicon.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-02

Mollusc aquaculture produces 20 million tonnes (USD 29.8 billion) live biomass annually, supporting both marginal farming communities and export trade. Asia hosts >95% of activity with bivalves dominating production, primarily oysters, mussels, and benthic clams. These non-fed species offer a ‘low-carbon’ solution to high-quality nutritional security and confer environmental benefits for biodiversity and seawater nutrient status. Molluscs are inexpensive, nutritionally rich and sector expansion can enhance food security in Southeast Asia. Nevertheless, mollusc output as a proportion of aquatic animal aquaculture declined to 20.3% from 30.2% since 2000, with producers facing challenges from climate change and disease, concerns over algal toxins, food safety and reliable access to high-quality seed, and other societal, cultural and commercial pressures. Questions remain as to whether mollusc culture can develop and grow into a sustainable industry, in the face of bottlenecks to seed supply, changes in production and nutritional value resulting from climate change, and commercial pressures from other aquatic food producers. At grow out, diseases and climate impacts present major issues, with a more complete understanding of environmental tolerance of crop species necessary to map the suitability of existing and potential future farm locations. Meanwhile, hatchery technology offers promise for enhancing reliability of supply and providing a platform for future resilience by enabling initiatives such as selective breeding. The WAVES consortium aims to develop capacity in diversified mollusc aquaculture to create system resilience and to promote the sustainability and growth of this sector. To achieve our ambition, four key objectives have been co-developed that place engagement with farming communities and stakeholders at its heart: i) conduct systems mapping of current mollusc production in Vietnam, Malaysia and Indonesia (clams, mussels and oysters) as models of wider Asia to provide deep understanding for activities, livelihoods and climate change threats; ii) create a systems dynamic model and develop a scenario tool to forecast plausible futures for mollusc aquaculture; iii) generate data to support species diversification for climate resilience, to promote hatchery development for reliable supply of high-quality seed, and to produce safe and nutritious food; iv) iterate and disseminate findings to develop context-sensitive roadmaps for future sustainable expansion of resilient mollusc aquaculture. Our consortium entrains multinational expertise in bivalve aquaculture and physiology, with specialists in microbiology, nutrition, food safety, systems-thinking, climate forecasting, sustainable socioeconomic development, environmental justice and multilevel governance, to genuinely implement systems-scale understanding in forecasting plausible futures for mollusc aquaculture. Beneficiaries include coastal communities where operations are located and people whose livelihoods rely on mollusc farming that are threatened by climate change effects. Development and expansion of mollusc farming, through improved productivity and enhanced natural resource use, will contribute to regional food and nutritional security. Core to our vision is enhancing regional capability and capacity for systems approaches, which will be achieved through collaboration, training and mentorship. The WAVES Consortium seeks to enable the equitable transition of mollusc aquaculture to sustainable systems resilient to the challenges posed by climate change, ensuring optimised use of the natural environment, and with increased output enhancing local food security and nutritional benefit. The project will provide a contextually-relevant fulcrum to stimulate further investment and create a UK-Asia alliance of researchers leading developments in mollusc farming and contributing to UN SDGs 2, 3, 6, 8, 12, 13, 14 and 17.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-02

Accelerated transport decarbonisation is essential for the UK to meet CO2e emissions requirements. Measures adopted must maximise physical/mental health co-benefits, but this has not been the case historically. Replacing petrol with diesel cars to reduce CO2e emissions led to poorer air quality and health outcomes; such mistakes must be avoided in future. Potential health benefits of some forms of low-carbon transport, including increased physical activity and cleaner air, are beyond doubt. However, mental health/wellbeing benefits are less clearly evidenced; and some forms of low-carbon travel are being promoted without full consideration of health implications (for example, increased particulate emissions and weight/acceleration of electric cars). Health impacts and inequalities might also arise from societal/economic trends and policy measures to reduce the need to travel, for example through remote (home)working. Also, attempts by planners, engineers, public health experts and government to promote health-beneficial forms of transport have had mixed success; for example, cycle networks and Low Traffic Neighbourhoods (LTNs) have been blocked or resisted. Echoing the November 2023 Lancet Pathfinder Commission report "Pathways to a healthy net-zero future", the Healthy Low-carbon Transport Hub (HLTH) aims at "full integration of health co-benefits and equity considerations into the delivery of the Paris Climate Agreement" for transport and the associated built environment. HLTH will focus on (i) modifying transport decarbonisation interventions to maximise health co-benefits and (ii) developing co-creation processes with policymakers and the public to enhance decarbonisation intervention acceptability and effectiveness. Our principal objectives are to: develop a transdisciplinary conceptual framework of evidence for potential and realised health co-benefits and disbenefits of transport decarbonisation measures across the Avoid-Reduce-Improve spectrum identify barriers, incentives and accelerants to implementing healthy low-carbon transport schemes develop transdisciplinary assessment frameworks with appraisal/evaluation metrics, to accelerate the adoption, implementation and success of healthy low-carbon travel schemes propose and evaluate new pathways towards maximising health co-benefits and reducing health inequalities associated with low-carbon transport interventions.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-02

This project addresses the urgent need for sustainable energy solutions by enhancing photoelectrochemical (PEC) water-splitting technologies, which convert solar energy into storable hydrogen fuel. With the increasing global focus on mitigating climate change, the development of efficient, renewable energy technologies is paramount. PEC water splitting, a process that uses sunlight to produce hydrogen, presents a promising pathway to this goal. Our initiative centres on improving the efficiency of hematite-based PEC devices through innovative heterostructures incorporating two-dimensional (2D) transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs), such as SnS2, MoS2, SnSe2, and MoSe2. Hematite has long been studied for its potential in solar-driven water splitting due to its strong visible light absorption and favourable theoretical solar-to-hydrogen (STH) conversion efficiency. However, its practical application has been limited by issues such as poor electrical conductivity, slow charge transport, and high recombination rates of electron-hole pairs. By integrating hematite with 2D TMDCs, we aim to overcome these challenges, enhancing the material’s performance through improved charge transfer, reduced recombination losses, and optimised band alignment. This approach promises to boost STH conversion efficiency and achieve the 10% benchmark set for practical applications, making a significant contribution to the development of scalable, clean energy solutions. The project not only advances scientific knowledge but also brings substantial benefits to researchers and institutions in Africa. The collaboration between UK and African institutions facilitates access to cutting-edge facilities and expertise in the UK, which are critical for the successful implementation of this research. African researchers will have the opportunity to train on advanced characterisation tools and gain hands-on experience with state-of-the-art PEC technologies. This exposure is invaluable for building their technical skills and enhancing their research capabilities. Moreover, the project fosters networking and collaborative opportunities between African and UK researchers, promoting the exchange of knowledge and ideas. This international collaboration helps to strengthen research networks, opening doors for future partnerships and joint ventures. African institutions will benefit from the establishment of sustainable partnerships and the development of local expertise in advanced energy technologies. Additionally, the project includes outreach and dissemination activities, which will raise awareness and engage various stakeholders, including the public and industry players. These activities will not only highlight the advancements in PEC technology but also showcase the contributions of African researchers to global scientific progress. In summary, this project is poised to make significant strides in improving PEC water-splitting efficiency, with the added advantage of enhancing research capacity and collaboration between African and UK institutions. By addressing key challenges in renewable energy technology and providing valuable training and networking opportunities, the project aims to contribute to the global transition to clean energy while strengthening the scientific community in Africa.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-02

Antarctica's freshwater influences local and global ocean dynamics, by affecting water density and the distribution of heat. However, because of Antarctica's remote location and multiple freshwater sources, the balance between freshwater and salt - the freshwater budget - remains poorly understood. FRESH (The Origins, Characteristics, and Processes of Antarctic FRESHwater) aims to address this knowledge gap by creating the first observation-based, time-varying freshwater budget in the Ross Sea. The Ross Sea features the largest Antarctic ice shelf and has been shown to significantly contribute to local and global ocean dynamics. Here, the freshwater budget is influenced by glacial meltwater, ocean advection, sea ice, and precipitation. Limited observational evidence suggests that glacial meltwater dominates the Ross Sea's freshwater budget on decadal scales, with sea ice playing a role on annual scales. By tracking water masses and their freshwater sources, quantifying the magnitude and variability of freshwater components, and comparing historical measurements, FRESH will test this hypothesis. Specifically, our project will combine physical, chemical, and dynamical seawater measurements collected since the 1970s, new observations of extreme and ambient water mass properties, and innovative techniques to measure ocean transport and diagnose freshwater sources. Led by an early career scientist at the University of Southampton, our team will leverage a new partnership between the United Kingdom, Italy, and New Zealand to achieve a new understanding of the Antarctica's freshwater budget.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-02

This research focusses on digital accessibility education in technical disciplines and the digital workforce, to ensure an inclusive digital society that meets the requirements of disabled and older people. Despite advances in digital disability rights, older and disabled people remain amongst the most digitally disenfranchised groups. COVID-19 has intensified the need for accessible services and tools, with society now reliant on digital platforms for societal participation. However, despite the social cost of exclusion, and a trajectory of growing demand, we still lack a detailed understanding of the teaching and learning characteristics of accessibility education and how digital accessibility can be effectively taught and scaled. My Fellowship addresses this urgent issue, continuing an ambitious programme of research. It remains uniquely positioned to generate evidence-rich insights for academic and workforce education at a time of critical need. To date, Teaching Accessibility in the Digital Skill Set has delivered a detailed account of the pedagogies of accessibility education, and how digital accessibility can be effectively taught in workplace and higher education settings, with a particular focus on explicit and implicit teaching approaches, learning theories and values that characterise teaching at a community level. The study has established key dimensions of disciplinary pedagogic content knowledge. However, major challenges remain. There are disconnects between industry and education, pedagogic culture is nascent, and there is still a reliance on individualised self-directed learning as the primary learning mechanism across the field. In view of these findings, the current project proposes an ambitious renewal of the research that extends the focus from teaching, to learning across the careers life-course, and strategically addresses Artificial Intelligence (AI) and its' impact on digital accessibility as a learning ecology. The research will: 1) Establish a new body of knowledge to enhance the teaching and learning competencies of digital accessibility educators and professionals. 2) Broaden engagement with evidence-based pedagogy among accessibility professionals to create new learning and teaching networks. 3) Understand the impact of AI on accessibility education. 4) Continue to establish digital accessibility education as a research field. The research is articulated through three Work Packages (WPs). WP1 investigates learner journeys in digital accessibility across the career life-course, inclusive of workplace and university settings. WP2 delivers an in-depth understanding of the role of online communities of practice for peer-learning in developing and scaling accessibility expertise. WP3 scopes the impact of Artificial Intelligence on teacher and learner perceptions of, and approaches to, accessibility skills development, curricula and pedagogy. This is done to discover how AI is influencing the accessibility skills and capacity discourses of the tech sector, and to consider how professional approaches to AI and accessibility are in turn shaping the teaching in higher education. Impact will be via: 1) Knowledge exchange and co-production, collaborating with stakeholders and potential research users; (2) wider accessibility community engagement, inclusive of disabled people's organisations (3) Creating a platform for future research through high profile international networks and events. This work also connects accessibility with advances in pedagogic research in inclusion, disability studies and related disciplines. It benefits from being based in the Centre for Research in Inclusion, a centre of excellence in pedagogic research, and continues to capitalise on accessibility expertise and the Web Science Institute at the University of Southampton, and links to the World Wide Web Consortium.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-01

The answers to many of society's most pressing problems sit at the interface between life and inorganic materials. For example, the world's largest bioconstructions, coral reefs, are built by tiny organisms that form a calcium carbonate skeleton; particles with a diameter many times smaller than the width of a human hair cause disease in those living in polluted areas; while plants grow and exchange nutrients with both the minerals and microbes in soil. The challenges related to these interactions, for instance, how coral reefs and the communities that depend on them will fare in a hotter and more acidic ocean, how intensive farming practices deplete the soil carbon reservoir, and why tiny pollution particles cause disease, requires us to form a mechanistic understanding of the chemical interactions that take place between these biological and inorganic components. However, this is extremely challenging because the techniques required to prepare the hard versus soft parts for analysis typically destroy or damage the other. For instance, organic material is removed before a coral skeleton is chemically analysed, conversely, preserving the complexity of soil or cell structure for imaging requires fixation in chemically disruptive resin. Cryo-fixation overcomes many of these preparation issues by freezing the sample in place, however cryo-SEM detection systems are only capable of analysing a limited range of high concentration elements. Therefore, current analytical approaches force us to choose between analysing either the soft or hard parts of a system of interest, when both, and the interface between them, are required for a process-based understanding. The proposed asset builds on recent technological advances to provide a novel solution to this discipline-spanning problem. We will couple cryogenic preparation procedures, which instantly lock-in the minute details of the relationship between biological and inorganic components, with both a cryo-equipped SEM, for high resolution imaging, and cryo-laser ablation, capable of precise, low concentration (sub-parts-per-million), chemical imaging. Using a correlative workflow, this will be the first laboratory facility in the world capable of mapping low concentration chemical data onto high-resolution cryo-images, crucially, while maintaining complex composite samples intact. We will initially use the facility to mechanistically understand: 1) how marine organisms form their shells and skeletons, critical to our ability to understand their role in future carbon cycle changes, their resilience, and to assess their reliability as archives of palaeoclimate change; 2) why certain sources and types of particulate pollution are more damaging than others, by spatially linking particle composition to tissue damage and disease; and 3) how carbon and nutrient exchange between plants, minerals, and microbes in soil will respond to environmental change. Together, these topics cover the two largest carbon pools on Earth's surface (ocean and soil) and a key cause of disease. However, the novelty and timeliness of the facility means that it has much broader application. In our preliminary assessment of the community's needs, we identified 30 interested groups/researchers from seven disciplines, spanning the Earth and environmental sciences, biology, geography, biomedicine, and materials science. These researchers identified novel directions in the study of diverse samples, from polymers to tube worms, and lake sediments to microbes. As such, the proposed asset clearly addresses an urgent research need across communities in the Earth and environmental sciences and will result in step-changes in a host of societally-crucial, policy-relevant research questions at the interface of inorganic-biological systems.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-01

The contemporary world is built on sand. A crucial component of the vital goods we rely on, from cement for construction to the glass and silicon chips which allow you to read this sentence, the world's insatiable thirst for sand - it is now the second most consumed natural resource after water - fuels a ~$2.25B global industry. Moreover, global demand for sand is expected to double in the next few decades. While it is an essential commodity, sand's high value and relative ease of extraction has in many locations, particularly sensitive river systems, fuelled rampant exploitation, criminal activity and a lack of oversight and control. Over exploitation of river sand has seen resources dwindle in rapidly growing areas, resulting in a global market wherein developing nations extract sand for richer ones at growing social-environmental costs. The complexity of sand as a commodity means there is a major research gap around the social-environmental impacts of the global sand trade. Despite its strategic importance, end-to-end oversight of the sand commodity chain is lacking. Sand is visible at key points along the chain: during extraction, in storage and in use, but much of the journey and the environmental, social, and economic impacts in between are invisible. A key issue is that sand extraction and use cross-cuts across disciplines as it moves along this chain. The absence of an interdisciplinary approach to sand means that a whole-system understanding of the costs, benefits and trade-offs involved has therefore, until now, been lacking. HIDDEN SAND brings together river sciences, engineering, human geography, geohumanities, practice-based art, and digital methodologies to develop a new way of undertaking interdisciplinary research within a novel Digital Twin environment. A Digital Twin is a virtual replica of the physical world that can move between scales and enable monitoring, simulation, and analysis. Critically, our Digital Twin provides a means to visualise the previously hidden networks, commodity chains and impacts that characterise sand extraction. By connecting the diverse methods used to interpret currently unseen sand identities, our Digital Twin will capture all the relevant physical, social, economic, cultural and emotional components of the system. Moreover, it will be developed in a participatory manner, in part being constructed by community members sharing their insights about sand extraction and trading and the impacts on their lives and surroundings. As such HIDDEN SAND's Digital Twin will afford a means to revolutionise the study of sand extraction by placing transdisciplinary collaboration at its heart, while simultaneously offering a means to amplify local voices within an inclusive digital environment framework. Our project focuses on the Cambodian Mekong, at once one of the world's most ecologically important, yet intensively sand-mined rivers in the world. The impacts of sand mining on physical and ecological river functioning there are still not fully understood and neither have the impacts of sand extraction on local communities, potential labour rights abuses and displacement of local populations been addressed. Economically sand is undervalued, although by how much, when tensioned off against the physical and socioecological damage it causes, is unknown. The participatory nature of our Digital Twin framework means that HIDDEN SAND will address these urgent questions by lending voice to community members who have experienced how their environment, livelihoods, cultural practices, and overall well-being have been impacted by the sand trade.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-01

The Award will be used to add most value in terms of research excellence and to enhance research quality, opportunity and impact.  It aligns with our institutional strategy to maximise research output and impact from capital investment by promoting a culture of resource sharing internally and externally with other universities and industry partners. A portfolio of equipment has been identified through an inclusive selection process, as key strategic priority for the University.  The award will be used to procure core equipment and invest to save activities in addition to planned capital equipment investments at the institutional level. It will enhance research infrastructure for engineering and physical sciences that is supported by highly qualified technical staff. The primary beneficiaries for this investment will be researchers at the University of Southampton including PhD students, early career researchers and established research groups, and external partners in academia and industry.  It is expected it will lead to new understanding, discoveries and applications that will deliver significant academic and commercial impact.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-01

We all live our day-to-day lives in a state of climate crisis. In scientific and policy contexts, the language of ‘climate crisis’ was originally used to warn of the severity of future impacts of a rapidly warming planet. Now it is used to describe a current state of affairs. We board planes and plough fields, we commute, we work, we collect water and build houses, we care for our children, we fall asleep, we wake up in a climate crisis. This project uses a humanities-approach-to-law to locate the idea of ‘home’ at the centre of a novel, intimate, and experiential understanding of crisis. This project engages with the idea of climate crisis as one that is unfolding inside our homes. In centring the idea of ‘home’, we examine the ways in which the climate crisis is lived and felt at home and we examine what home means in a state of climate crisis, in which one can be unhomed and rehomed, rendered homeless in one’s home, and homesick in one’s homeland. This approach offers a radical shift in understanding of the climate crisis from that normally seen in legal and policy contexts, where the intimate dimensions of the climate crisis are often overlooked. Legal understandings of crisis tend to overlook the interconnected and overlapping nature of crises, their complex temporalities, their histories, and the fact that crises are personal and manifest in intimate spaces. By engaging in humanities-based approaches to law, we develop a novel and perspective-shifting understanding of the climate crisis in law. Using home as a lens through which to understand the climate crisis, allows us to better understand the ways in which the crisis is intimate, shaped by gender, location, community, age, disability, sexuality, and how we know and live in our homes. This perspective allows us to better see how limited legal understandings of home can create and exacerbate damaging experiences of crisis. The project is a collaboration between researchers based in Norway, Denmark, Ireland and the United Kingdom, working with partners in South Africa, Canada and a global environmental law charity. Through this collaboration, we are developing novel arts and humanities based approaches to address law’s otherwise conceptually limited resources, and to enable legal systems to recognize the meanings of home that accommodate the breadth what is being changed, lost and damaged in climate crisis. The researchers adopt an arts and humanities approach, rooted in theatre, literature, and Indigenous practice to enable the creative aspect of law, that might otherwise remain outside the normal jurisdiction of legal thought. The project objectives are to reveal diverse understandings of home and the ways it is constructed, deconstructed, and reconstructed in the context of the climate crisis. Home in Crisis will develop new understandings of the climate crisis, its impacts, and how those ought to be addressed within and beyond law and its systems.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-01

The way animals gather food is important for their survival. Feeding structures like jaws, teeth, and beaks come in a variety of shapes, sizes, and ways of working. How well these feeding structures work (their performance) can affect how animals adapt and survive in changing environments. However, scientists don't fully understand how the performance of these structures has evolved over time and how this influences their long-term evolution and ecology. To study this, the researchers will use sea urchins, which have a variety of feeding structures, an excellent fossil record, and a well-documented family tree. This will help to understand how changes in the feeding structures enable animals to adapt and diversify over time. The researchers plan to create a publicly accessible online database of 3D digital scans of all known sea urchins, both living and extinct. The database will also include information on where and when these animals lived, and their environments. The researchers will also use this data to develop educational materials that help teachers understand evolution and teach it effectively. This will be one of the largest 3D databases for any group of animals and will be useful for future studies on evolution, conservation, and education. Despite their known importance, precisely how the evolution of feeding structure morphology is influenced by functional performance, and how performance influences macroevolutionary and macroecological patterns in deep time remains unclear. The researchers will build a comprehensive 3D dataset of echinoid feeding morphologies of all living and fossil genera paired with global occurrences and environmental context to address the following hypotheses: the diversification of echinoid feeding morphology fits a model of adaptive evolution; deep time evolution of feeding structure morphology is regulated by performance; differences in performance explain differential morphological diversification and ecological expansion on geological timescales.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-01

Protein motion enables function, with celebrated examples being the oar-like stroke of myosin during muscle contraction, ATP synthase rotation and the valving of ligand-gated ion channels. However, we know almost nothing about how the majority of proteins move and how this contributes to function. This knowledge gap represents an enormous arena for discovery and opportunity to advance biotechnology and develop new drugs. Examples include the development of new gene editing tools and drugs able to bias protein dynamics toward health. Protein structural dynamics can be investigated using Hydrogen/Deuterium eXchange (HDX), a technique which is rapidly gaining popularity in UK and global bioscience. HDX involves mixing protein with deuterium for defined periods of seconds to hours, then mixing to preserve incorporated deuterium into the protein backbone, followed by analysis using mass spectrometry (MS) or nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR). Incorporation rates are used to determine protein structure and dynamics. Currently, however, exchange technology is too slow to observe highly dynamic regions, regions thought to play pivotal roles governing shape-mediated protein function. To observe these behaviours we need methods providing single millisecond or even microsecond incubations, 10,000-fold faster than conventional methods (10 seconds minimum). To achieve fast HDX, processing in wells is replaced with flow in capillaries or microchannels. Methods using turbulent flow require large protein quantities and cannot achieve single millisecond incubations. Microfluidics in various guises has been explored with each having different failings; uncontrolled incubation times, slow mixing, inability to quench, complex, costly and unreliable fabrication. To address these shortcomings, we propose a new concept based on advanced flow structuring principles to achieve ultrafast microfluidic HDX. Simulations predict precision time control with microsecond resolution. A device cloning strategy will be used for technology sharing with Jonathan Phillips (Exeter) and Derek Wilson (Toronto), the world-leaders in fast HDX-MS. An open hardware approach will enable adoption in other labs, expanding the market in readiness for commercialisation. As proof of concept, the technology will be validated using calmodulin, a protein with well-characterised dynamics and Ca2+-triggered shape-change. The discovery potential will then be test-driven using S100A9, a protein involved in fibril formation leading to neurodegeneration. Millisecond-scale structural transitions are as yet uncharted, but are thought to initiate a fibril competent state. In summary, we propose to develop, validate, explore and share an ultrafast microfluidic HDX prototype to transform the scale and reach of discovery in the science of protein structural dynamics.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-01

SOUNDSCALE is an ambitious research project aimed at transforming urban planning in smart cities through the innovative use of Distributed Acoustic Sensing (DAS) technologies, leveraing legacy optical fibre cables that lie unused underground or undersea. DAS is currently used to sense vibration/sounds in its surroundings to detect events like earthquakes or monitor oil rigs. Recently, it has been proposed as a cheap and effective alternative to other monitoring systems in urban environments, such as to monitor traffic, crowds, buildings' integrity, and transportation networks in general, which could influence how cities are planned in the future. However, there are important concerns around how this technology develops such as data privacy, AI ethics, equitable technology access, sustainability, climate impact, inequality, and citizen participation in decision-making processes. In an age where technological advancements rapidly alter the urban landscape, there is a growing disconnect between citizens, policymakers and these transformative changes. The vision of SOUNDSCALE is to enable cities to become truly 'smart' by integrating citizens directly into the development and implementation of emerging technologies, so that they can prioritise and anticipate issues before it is too late to change the direction of research and development. This approach not only aims to mitigate potential ethical, privacy, and accessibility issues but also to ensure that technology deployment is sustainable, inclusive, and beneficial to all segments of society. To realise this vision, SOUNDSCALE adopts an interdisciplinary research strategy, integrating insights from the physical sciences, political science, human geography, humanities, environmental sciences, arts-based research, computer science and public health, intertwined with an ambitious knowledge exchange and engagement strategy. The project will be divided into three phases. In Phase 1, a diverse citizen panel from London and Southampton will be convened to identify research priorities based on learning about the technology's opportunities and risks. These cities have an extensive optical fibre network connected through the National Dark Fibre Facility (NDFF), which will be used to obtain preliminary measurements of 'the sound of the cites'. Phase 2 involves interdisciplinary workshops to translate these priorities into actionable research areas, fostering innovative methodologies and novel interdisciplinary knowledge. Phase 3 focuses on synthesising findings for impact with policymakers and the public, ensuring that the research benefits are tangible and aligned with societal needs. SOUNDSCALE emphasises the importance of co-creation with non-academics, including practitioners, activists, artists, policymakers, and citizens. This collaborative philosophy is designed to produce research that is not only academically rigorous but also socially relevant and responsive to the needs and concerns of the wider community. Through this process, SOUNDSCALE seeks to create interdisciplinary research projects involving researchers from different disciplines to tackle problems like: disentangling urban background noise from dynamic events, exploring the link between noise exposure and public health across sections of society, developing ethical frameworks for DAS deployment or examining how DAS can redefine urban spaces and influence social inequalities and surveillance. Our knowledge exchange and engagement strategy is innovative, featuring a citizen panel, policy activities, artistic exhibitions, an art- and activism-led grant program, and a sustained digital and local presence. By partnering with a wide range of stakeholders, including universities, research centres, art galleries, industry partners, and city councils, SOUNDSCALE aims to ensure that its findings and technologies are widely disseminated and adopted, leading to more inclusive, equitable, and smart urban development.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2024 · 2024-12

This proposal identifies accessories to be added to the NCS state-of-the-art equipment base to provide entirely new capabilities to then be delivered widely as a service. This technique development and delivery aligns primarily to the Core Equipment 'underpinning multi-user equipment' theme, but also includes some 'invest to save' items that will ensure ageing components are replaced and the service will continue to operate at a high level of availability. Coupled with established routes to supporting and enabling ECRs and doctoral students, the NCS squarely addresses the objectives of this call. The NCS is ideally suited to maximising the benefits and beneficiaries of Core Equipment investment, being an advanced facility with a national reach and an established, coordinated approach to maintaining and expanding its user base. It is a world-leader with a track record of pioneering developments that have been widely adopted or incorporated into instrumentation to benefit the whole community. The NRF model provides access mechanisms, expert support, monitoring, governance and a sustainable operating model to ensure that this investment will be fully realised to its maximum potential. The main items, cryogenic and air-free sample holders for electron diffraction, are identified as accessories to develop and support key experiments on an electron diffractometer recently funded via the EPSRC Strategic Equipment scheme and being operated as part of the NCS. Core Equipment investment therefore leverages this position to pioneer entirely new capabilities. The desire for these capabilities has been assessed via recent community consultation exercises, and consideration as part of the formal governance and review procedures of the NCS. The unique position and reach of the NCS in the community will enable maximisation of the number of beneficiaries of this equipment through its core business, advanced methods and technique development work - it is the logical (and one of the only possible) place to conduct this pioneering technical development work. The large established user base reaches through to PhD students and ECRs, all of whom have opportunity for skills training provided with this equipment. In conclusion, with the ability to continue to sustain the high level of service provision, the NCS can also add significant value to this investment through well-established routes and clearly identified pathways to impact. These are not only through its established user community, but also by reaching out to many new users and to the global community, particularly via partnerships with key industry and instrument manufacturers.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2024 · 2024-12

In this proposal we aim to develop photonic materials in which novel types of structuring are exploited as a resource to control light absorption and thermal emission. This will deliver future generations of solar-thermal absorbers, with ultra-high optical absorption, low-thermal losses and high-temperature stability. World demand for energy is projected to more than double by the end of the century and identifying adequate supplies of non-polluting energy is set to become one of humanity's top priorities. Solar energy provides a persuasive approach to the challenge of identifying clean, abundant sources which are readily available energy for the future, however, still, the cumulative solar photovoltaic capacity is currently only a small fraction the global power output. Recent advances in theoretical, computational, and nano-fabrication capabilities have allowed unprecedented manipulation of the nanoscale structures controlling solar capture, conversion, and storage. we are no longer restricted to well-defined periodic structures. Instead, we plan to exploit complex systems made of apparently random patterns, which when suitably designed, can lead to performances superior to those offered by conventional photonic systems. The proposed project will focus on the development of hyperuniform disordered metasurfaces, a novel class of photonic structures in which structural correlations are accurately controlled. Discovered in 2009, these new materials have already attracted considerable attention as they combine the robust properties of periodic systems with the flexibility of disordered ones. We will explore the properties of hyperuniform media with the aim of achieving ultimate control over the absorption of solar radiation and emission of thermal radiation, with the goal to create highly efficient frequency-selective solar-thermal absorbing materials. This research proposed will enhance UK's capabilities in disordered photonic materials and high temperature solar absorbers and will have direct impact on more efficient and cost-effective solar power generation. The advanced optical capabilities to be enabled by our research will support the constant exponential growth of novel photonic technologies in the UK.

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

This Japan-UK collaboration will establish a novel heterogeneous material integrated MEMS/NEMS-Photonics platform for highly-secured ICT hardware, reducing energy consumption significantly. The lead applicant Tokyo Tech team have strong expertise on Si photonics and material integration technology, while Southampton can provide the state-of-the-art MEMS, NEMS and Metasurface technologies. Starting from the development of individual MEMS/NEMS-integrated photonics components, novel photonic integrated circuits (PICs) for secure communication will be demonstrated. The laboratory-level development will be combined with large-scale wafer process with industrial-level uniformity and spatial resolution by using the pilot 300-mm semiconductor process line available in collaboration with AIST. Metasurface-empowered optical cryptography scheme with reconfigurable functionality will be demonstrated for the first time on chip, taking semiconductor photonics technology to the next level. The project will also contribute to new development of tunable single photon source, leading to the improvement of quantum random number generators that is a key module for quantum secure communication. The ambition of the project is to initiate a new research field of on-chip optical secure communication and consequently take semiconductor research to the next level, with translation to industry in Japan and the UK.  

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

Flooding is the deadliest and most costly natural hazard on the planet, affecting societies across the globe. Nearly one billion people are exposed to the risk of flooding in their lifetimes and around 300 million are impacted by floods in any given year. The impacts on individuals and societies are extreme: each year there are over 6,000 fatalities and economic losses exceed US$60 billion. These problems will become much worse in the future. There is now clear consensus that climate change will, in many parts of the globe, cause substantial increases in the frequency of occurrence of extreme rainfall events, which in turn will generate increases in peak flood flows and therefore flood vast areas of land. Meanwhile, societal exposure to this hazard is compounded still further as a result of population growth and encroachment of people and key infrastructure onto floodplains. Faced with this pressing challenge, reliable tools are required to predict how flood hazard and exposure will change in the future. Existing state-of-the-art Global Flood Models (GFMs) are used to simulate the probability of flooding across the Earth, but unfortunately they are highly constrained by two fundamental limitations. First, current GFMs represent the topography and roughness of river channels and floodplains in highly simplified ways, and their relatively low resolution inadequately represents the natural connectivity between channels and floodplains. This restricts severely their ability to predict flood inundation extent and frequency, how it varies in space, and how it depends on flood magnitude. The second limitation is that current GFMs treat rivers and their floodplains essentially as 'static pipes' that remain unchanged over time. In reality, river channels evolve through processes of erosion and sedimentation, driven by the impacts of diverse environmental changes (e.g., climate and land use change, dam construction), and leading to changes in channel flow conveyance capacity and floodplain connectivity. Until GFMs are able to account for these changes they will remain fundamentally unsuitable for predicting the evolution of future flood hazard, understanding its underlying causes, or quantifying associated uncertainties. To address these issues we will develop an entirely new generation of Global Flood Models by: (i) using Big Data sets and novel methods to enhance substantially their representation of channel and floodplain morphology and roughness, thereby making GFMs more morphologically aware; (ii) including new approaches to representing the evolution of channel morphology and channel-floodplain connectivity; and (iii) combining these developments with tools for projecting changes in catchment flow and sediment supply regimes over the 21st century. These advances will enable us to deliver new understanding on how the feedbacks between climate, hydrology, and channel morphodynamics drive changes in flood conveyance and future flooding. Moreover, we will also connect our next generation GFM with innovative population models that are based on the integration of satellite, survey, cell phone and census data. We will apply the coupled model system under a range of future climate, environmental and societal change scenarios, enabling us to fully interrogate and assess the extent to which people are exposed, and dynamically respond, to evolving flood hazard and risk. Overall, the project will deliver a fundamental change in the quantification, mapping and prediction of the interactions between channel-floodplain morphology and connectivity, and flood hazard across the world's river basins. We will share models and data on open source platforms. Project outcomes will be embedded with scientists, global numerical modelling groups, policy-makers, humanitarian agencies, river basin stakeholders, communities prone to regular or extreme flooding, the general public and school children.