University of Cambridge

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-01

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 · 2025-01

Abstract: Aqueous organic Redox flow batteries (AORFBs) have the potential to emerge as a cost-effective and sustainable alternative to conventional lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) and vanadium redox-flow batteries (VRFBs). The decoupling of energy and power density, makes them unique, which is critical for energy distribution. The tunability of redox properties due to their structural diversity and designability makes them suitable for desired energy storage systems. Various redox mediators such as quinone, anthraquinone, viologens, alloxazine and 2,2,6,6-tetramethylpiperidin-1-yl)oxyl (TEMPO) have been studied for gaining insights to their redox chemistry. Phenazine based derivatives have recently emerged as promising redox mediators due to high solubility. Phenazine based 7,8-dihydroxyphenazine-2-sulfonic acid (DHPS) and isomeric analogues of dihydroxy phenazines (1,4-DHP and 1-6 DHP) as anolytes has showed excellent volumetric capacity and stable cycling, with very low capacity fade. Despite of these benefits, understanding of their redox chemistry is limited and unclear due to poor resolution, sensitivity and sparse sampling based on ex-situ 1D 1H NMR. The proposed research will use a multi-scale approach to fully understand the reaction chemistry of three phenazine based, DHPS and 1,4-DHP and 1,6-DHP, anolytes. Real-time Ultrafast (UF) 2D NMR in combination with 1D 1H NMR will be performed sequentially by pumping the anolyte from externally placed RFB through NMR probe. UF experiments will be performed ex-situ for gaining sensitivity, and resolution for correlation with online data. A miniaturized RFB will be designed and used for operando measurements by placing the cell inside NMR probe to perform localized 1D and 2D NMR to study redox mechanisms near the electrode. In summary, this proposed research will provide an exclusive understanding of the redox chemistry for improving and designing economic, environmental friendly and sustainable Phenazine based AORFB systems.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-01

Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI; brain injury resulting from a physical force) is the most common cause of death in young adults, leads to more disability in our society than diseases like stroke or Alzheimer's, and costs the UK around £15 billion per year. Although there is little that can reduce the initial damage caused by the physical blow, we know that other factors occurring after the initial injury can cause extra brain damage, worsening people's recovery. This additional brain damage is called "secondary injury". A significant cause of this secondary injury is excessive inflammation in the brain. In the same way that other body parts become red and swollen when injured (inflammation), so does the brain. No medications to reduce inflammation are currently used in TBI, even though this cause of secondary injury could (in principle) be treated by anti-inflammatory drugs used in other diseases. A big hurdle in treating brain inflammation is that many medicines cannot get into the brain, as they are too large to pass through the barrier which protects the brain (the blood-brain barrier [BBB]), significantly reducing the number of potential treatment options. However, we know that inflammation occurring elsewhere in the body, happening for example as the result of injuries to other body parts or infections (which are common in patients with TBI), can indirectly cause brain inflammation. This happens because some inflammation chemicals are small enough to cross the BBB from the body and into the brain. So, if we reduce inflammation elsewhere in the body, we can prevent this flow of inflammation chemicals into the brain, reducing brain inflammation and in turn preventing secondary brain injury. In this study, we will treat patients admitted with TBI to our intensive care unit (ICU) with a medicine called Tocilizumab (tocilizumab), a powerful anti-inflammatory which is usually used in rheumatoid arthritis. Tocilizumab has also recently been shown to be effective in treating severe COVID-19 by reducing the bad effects of inflammation, showing that it can be used safely in critically ill patients. We will begin by giving tocilizumab to five patients who have tubes which drain cerebrospinal fluid from their brain (a treatment used for some TBI patients); this will give us preliminary information on the effects on inflammation in the body in the context of TBI and whether tocilizumab enters the brain directly (which we think it will not given the size of the molecule). Then, so that we can better understand the effects of tocilizumab in patients TBI, we will recruit 50 participants and give either tocilizumab or a salt-water placebo, so that we can compare the two groups. The main effect we are looking for is a reduction of brain inflammation in patients treated with tocilizumab. As part of normal care in our ICU, patients have brain monitors which measure whether their brains have enough blood and nutrients, and we can use these same monitors to measure inflammation. We will also take blood samples to see whether tocilizumab reduces brain injury by using blood tests which can detect the level of ongoing brain injury.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2024 · 2024-12

X-ray based imaging is one of the greatest technical innovations of the 20th century, becoming the most prevalent imaging modality in modern medicine. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that over 3.6 billion diagnostic X-ray examinations are performed annually, underscoring the global reliance on radiological techniques in healthcare. Despite their critical role, X-rays are classified as a carcinogen by the WHO’s Agency for Research on Cancer, with repeated exposure posing significant health risks. Consequently, safe acquisition of X-ray images necessitates maximizing image quality within a tolerable radiation exposure limit for patients. Current X-ray imaging technologies are fundamentally constrained by the limitations of existing X-ray detectors. Mainstream detector technologies are nearing their sensitivity limits. As a result, the quality of acquired images is often suboptimal, and the radiation doses are higher than technologically necessary. These technological limitations significantly impact healthcare, particularly in early disease detection and expanding screening programs. High dose rates in applications such as computed tomography (CT) hinder their ability to be implemented in widespread screening initiatives. The demand for routine diagnostic scans, such as CT scans, has surged by 68% between 2014 and 2023, a trend expected to continue with aging populations and demand for increased preventative healthcare imaging. Emerging technologies such as photon counting detectors (PCD) are currently entering the CT market and are set to replace existing detector technologies. PCDs offer vastly improved spatial resolution and lower X-ray doses, increasing opportunities for widespread preventative screening programs and earlier disease detection through improved image quality. However, the high cost and complex production requirements of current active layer materials utilised for PCD are limiting their ubiquitous adoption. Therefore, to enhance the efficiency of medical imaging and enable broader preventative screening programs and earlier disease detection, a new PCD technology is needed. This technology must be affordable, scalable, and capable of providing superior image quality while reducing patient radiation exposure. At the University of Cambridge’s Optoelectronic Materials and Device Spectroscopy group, led by Professor Sam Stranks (Project Lead), our team, including Dr. Hayden Salway (Researcher Co-Lead, Research Associate), is developing a next-generation PCD utilizing the exceptional optoelectronic and X-ray detector properties of halide perovskites. We are also working closely with leading specialists in the detector and readout electronic development from the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory who will support this project with their expertise and measurement facilities. Our team has successfully demonstrated the capabilities of halide perovskites for PCD in single pixel form and pioneered novel methodologies to fabricate the first multi-pixel perovskite PCD. These materials have superior properties to leading commercial alternatives, such as Cadmium Zinc Telluride (CZT) and Cadmium Telluride (CdTe). Prepared through simple solution processing methods at low temperatures, we combine the highest quality perovskite crystals with unique interlayers and electrode designs to fabricate state-of-the-art perovskite PCDs, offering a cost-effective, high performance and modular alternative to outcompete existing PCDs. This project will expand testing of our initial multi-pixel perovskite PCD prototype, optimising device performance and reproducibility whilst scaling up fabrication to larger area detectors. We seek by the end of the project to establish this technology as a leading detector, ready for significant future investment and commercialisation through our recent spin-off company from the University of Cambridge, Clarity Sensors Limited.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2024 · 2024-12

Due to the increasing penetration of renewable energy and the urgent need set out by our society to achieve net zero targets, there has been an increase in the prominence of DC microgrids. These are relevant in many important applications such as renewable energy parks, autonomous microgrids to facilitate integration of renewable energy sources, data centres, satellites as well as emerging applications such as electric ships and aircrafts. Despite the improved efficiency DC microgrids can provide there are various challenges associated with their operation that need to be addressed. In particular, due to the intermittency of renewable energy and the need for a stable operation under various network configurations, plug-and-play operation is an important property that needs to be maintained. This is, however, a highly non-trivial property to achieve that lies outside more conventional control design approaches. As part of research carried out in the ERC grant HetScaleNet novel methodologies for achieving a plug-and-play operation in DC microgrids have been proposed with significantly reduced conservatism. Our aim with this proof of concept grant is to take these results to the next level in terms of their impact and exploitation. In particular, we will aim to validate these novel approaches via advanced case studies and disseminate those to stakeholders in industry. This will have a long term impact in the energy sector, allowing to realize such microgrids with a plug-and-play operation that will facilitate the efficient integration of renewable energy and the achievement of net zero targets.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2024 · 2024-12

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is the most common inflammatory disease of the brain, affecting more than 130,000 people in the UK alone. One of the most prevalent and debilitating symptoms of MS is cognitive impairment, which affects attention and memory. During their lifetime, more than half of people with MS will experience an accelerated ageing of the brain and develop disabling cognitive deficits, whose causes have yet to be fully elucidated. One of the possible drivers of brain damage and ageing in MS is the malfunctioning of microglia, the immune cells that reside in the brain and spinal cord. Normally, microglia function as the brain's clean-up crew by removing damaged cells and fine-tuning the activity of nerve cells (or neurons). However, recent data has shown that in MS, microglia become chronically overactive because of the way they produce and consume energy (i.e., their metabolism). This overactivity contributes to a persistent state of inflammation that may impede the correct functioning of neurons and their connections. With this research fellowship, I aim to test the hypothesis that specific metabolic pathways in microglia affect how these cells respond to and modulate the activity of surrounding neurons. By understanding how different microglial metabolic states affect brain functions, we will be able to develop new strategies to combat cognitive decline in MS and possibly other brain disorders. In this fellowship, I will focus on three key objectives: 1. Identify metabolic regulators of microglial activation. I will use a mouse model of MS-like disease to identify the metabolic factors that influence microglial activation in adult and aged mice. To do so, I will use a combination of brain imaging and pathological analysis to investigate how microglial and neuronal activation change in different brain regions during chronic inflammation. I will then study how microglial metabolism is correlated to changes in the functional connections between neurons and related cognitive dysfunction. 2. Understand the effects of modifying microglial metabolism to modulate neuronal functions. I will use 2D and 3D human cellular models to understand how manipulating precise metabolic pathways in microglia affects the function of human neurons grown with microglia in a dish. I will study metabolic pathways that I previously discovered in microglia, as well as new metabolic targets identified during the prior objective. This setup will establish a direct link between microglial metabolism and its effect on neuronal functionality. 3. Develop strategies to target microglial metabolism and slow cognitive decline. Based on the combined findings from the first two objectives, I will identify precise metabolic targets to modulate microglial activation in vivo. My goal will be to find new ways to reprogram microglia from their chronic, overactive, inflammatory state to acquire protective functions that will sustain proper neuronal fitness and slow down cognitive decline. While the journey toward effective treatments for cognitive impairment is still long, this research fellowship represents a novel step forward in our understanding of the mechanisms involved. By investigating the relationship between microglial metabolism and neurons, we may be able to develop drugs and interventions that can reduce chronic inflammation in the brain and protect its delicate functioning. Importantly, findings from this research will have broad applicability to other neurodegenerative diseases that are characterised by chronic inflammation and cognitive decline, such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2024 · 2024-12

The global supply chain for semiconductor devices is founded on highly specialised and centralised manufacturing facilities. The result is an over-dependence on a handful of companies which may be in geopolitically unstable areas, a high cost for custom designs, and large barriers for innovation. A new decentralised manufacturing paradigm is needed using novel tools to enable low-cost point-of-use microelectronics manufacturing and rapid custom electronics manufacturing. Ideally, such a paradigm will allow the unimpeded heterogeneous integration of emerging quantum and semiconductor materials from the lab directly into real world electronic systems with enhanced performance and unique functionalities, facilitating innovation and industry uptake of novel materials. Manufacturing electronics is conventionally a top-down process where a semiconductor wafer is etched into transistor channels, and modified through the addition of dopants or dielectrics. There, the size and location of each device is defined deterministically. Nevertheless, many novel competing or complementary electronic materials, including quantum materials and novel semiconductor nanostructures, are grown bottom-up by nucleation or deposition processes that are inherently non-deterministic. While the performance of these materials can be extraordinary and enabling for applications in information and communication technologies and quantum technologies, positional accuracy is sacrificed, which is a challenge for traditional deterministic manufacturing methods. Efforts to deterministically define quantum and nanostructures are on-going, but yield remains low. An effectively perfect (100%) yield could be achieved if, instead of a top-down deterministic manufacturing approach, we used an adaptive approach that could select, address and connect the best performing randomly located elements (quantum structures, nanostructures, etc.) into functional systems. By combining computer vision-guided automated microscopy, dynamic circuit design, and advanced optical lithography into a desktop tool, our proposed technique will be used to rapidly manufacture custom electronic and photonic circuits. It will allow the unimpeded integration of new materials from the lab directly to real-world (opto)electronic, photonic and quantum device applications with enhanced performance and unique functionalities, enhancing innovation globally.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2024 · 2024-12

This project investigates novel approaches towards explainable and ethical artificial intelligence (AI) in law. We will develop the first application that ethically predicts and explains decisions of the UK Employment Tribunal (UKET). In doing so, we will explore innovative ways of integrating legal arguments into machine learning and natural language processing. The project has a strong ethical component focussing on the content and communication of outcome predictions and their explanations. We aim to advance the frontiers of the ethical use of AI in legal dispute resolution and improve access to justice. The project addresses the challenge of integrating explainability into legal judgement prediction with a focus on the UK Employment Tribunal. Past efforts in judgement prediction have prioritised statistical models and, more recently, neural networks and large-scale pretrained language models, without providing explanations. To enhance reliability and credibility, this project will use artificial intelligence to produce clear explanations in addition to case outcome predictions. In law, explainability is imperative to ensure accountability and uphold due process. Explanations allow individuals to comprehend and challenge decisions that significantly impact their lives. The ethical aspect of this project investigates the largely unexplored issue of the content and style that machine-generated outcome explanations should take. It starts with two questions: Which values should such explanations be measured against? Should such explanations just mimic the types of reasons judges usually give in judgments or are other types of explanations preferable? The potential values involved are likely to include (i) equal treatment under the law, (ii) procedural fairness and due process, (iii) transparency in legal substance and process, (iv) judicial, legislative and administrative efficiency and (v) ensuring that legal results arise from law, principle and facts rather than social status or power. The project will also engage with the tension between the prediction of outcomes in real courts and the fact that such real courts are potentially susceptible to bias and mistakes. The applications and benefits of this project are extensive. The prediction and explanation application that we will develop has strong potential to make legal decision-making more accessible to the general public. It can empower potential claimants and respondents to make informed decisions and better prepare for court proceedings. Knowing court outcomes and their reasons also puts citizens and businesses in a better position to amicably solve their conflicts, since they will better know the law as understood by the courts. Ultimately, our project enhances the transparency of law and the legal process and, thus, contributes to access to justice. At the same time, we will advance the boundaries of the ethical use of artificial intelligence in law.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2024 · 2024-12

This project will build skills and expertise in the UK that will ensure that UKRI Digital Research Infrastructure capital investments in high-performance computing (HPC) meet user (research) needs, across the UKRI remit, and that investments provide value-for-money. Outcomes will include a new and sustainable community of benchmarking experts, and an open-source living UKRI benchmark suite, both of which can be drawn upon to maximise the value of UKRI investments in HPC and to reach across communities. HPC underpins an ever-growing range of research disciplines and industrial R&D, and is a driver of economic growth. Investments in HPC systems are amongst the largest capital investments made by UKRI and are now core research infrastructure. Tier 0 and Tier 1 HPC systems (internationally leading and national level systems, respectively) are highly complex and bespoke, with each system having its own performance characteristics. Building an HPC system involves the selection and integration of a range of cutting-edge hardware and software technologies; from a system specification it is not possible to precisely predict performance for specific applications or workflows. Benchmarking is the element in a procurement where the fitness of a HPC system for its intended research uses is assessed by actual tests. It ensures that a system can be used for its intended purpose, measures (and scores) performance in a competitive procurement and is used for acceptance testing of high-value HPC assets. Good benchmarking drives value-for-money in procurements. However, UK investment in benchmarking for HPC is small by international standards. Good benchmarking depends on highly skilled Digital Research Infrastructure professionals. This project brings together a pan-UKRI team, spanning all research councils, to engage with the community on identifying benchmarks that capture their requirements. It will build a strong and skilled community of Digital Research Infrastructure professionals who will support the definition, creation and ongoing maintenance of benchmarks for an open-source living UKRI benchmark suite. It will be possible to call on these skilled professionals, and use the developed benchmark suite, to support world-leading benchmarking for future UKRI procurements.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2024 · 2024-11

Currently, more than 40% of children living in low- and middle income countries (LAMICs) risk not meeting developmental milestones by the age of 5 years, mainly due to poverty and health factors. Early positive and nurturing parent-child relationships have been shown to help children overcome these challenges, warranting research attention towards understanding how to best support the development of these relationships. However, few measures exist that have been shown to reliably capture aspects of the parent-child relationship quality in ways that are culturally valid. Even fewer studies using such measures have involved longitudinal, large-scale study designs that allow for more robust findings to inform intervention approaches relating to parent-child relationships. This is especially crucial in vulnerable communities such as refugee populations, who often face unique sets of challenges due to socio-political factors. During my PhD, I used a novel online observational tool to assess the parent child relationship quality in two nationwide samples of families with young children in England and Hong Kong. Within a larger study, I analzyed these observations alongside data garnered from different informants and time points, successfully identifying aspects of parent and child characteristics that were associated with positive interactions, such as parent psychological wellbeing and children's self-regulation abilities. Building on the skills and knowledge gained from my PhD, I plan to extend the impact and scope of this work during this fellowship by integrating this knowledge into a future longitudinal, cohort-design study involving refugee populations in Malaysia. As such: This fellowship would allow me to join the Children of the 2020s group, which is the first longitudinal, birth cohort study in England in twenty years. Within the team, I will expand on the skills I obtained during my PhD by gaining knowledge and training in longitudinal, cohort design study management. I further aim to draw on the expertise of three leading research groups to support the development of the skills necessary to run an innovate longitudinal study in Malaysia. These professional networks would also allow me to establish myself as an emerging researcher in the field of global child development. The fellowship would also support a site visit to a leading Malaysian university, during which I will engage in discussion relating to establishing a cohort study within refugee populations with local stakeholders and researchers. This will strengthen my foundational relationships with relevant communities by building trust and establishing initial relationships. I also plan to support the production of a toolkit on the implementation of parent-child observational paradigms in these unique settings. I plan to use the fellowship to disseminate my prior research within the academic community through the publication of papers and attendance of conferences. Beyond the academic community, this fellowship will allow me to communicate aspects of my research highlighting the role of parents and children in contributing to a positive caregiver-child relationship to families. To achieve this, I will co-organize a conference within the host research institution that will bring together interdisciplinary insights on global child development and family research, with a public engagement element. Altogether, this fellowship is an ideal stepping stone for me to integrate my existing research with the foundations for future work to further the field of global child development research.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2024 · 2024-11

Long-term infections and inflammatory conditions are complex host-pathogen responses that are often poorly understood because of the multi-scale nature of the response and numerous physical and biological factors that are involved. Building experimental and conceptual frameworks is necessary to gain a predictive understanding of such complex systems and to link the local interactions and responses to overall emergent behaviour. This approach, which requires an interdisciplinary effort, has the potential to offer unprecedented insights at the life sciences/physics interface. Here we propose to study chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS) as a model of such an approach. CRS is defined as an inflammation of the nose and paranasal sinuses present for more than 12 weeks and affecting 5-12% of the general population. CRS not only significantly reduces the quality of life of patients but also incurs very high healthcare costs. Pathogenesis of CRS is attributed to a combination of multiple 'biological' and 'physical' factors, i.e. the multifactorial aetiology results from a dysfunctional interaction between various environmental factors and the host immune system. Furthermore, bacterial growth is a significant factor in CRS, but its precise role has been difficult to elucidate. The "system" we propose to study consists of bacterial communities in their host environment, i.e. models of the host sinus cavity, characterised by the shape and geometry, the mucosal response of the innate immune cells, linked to the chemokine expression and inflammatory response against the infection, and the role of goblet and ciliated epithelial cells that constantly generate and displace a mucus lining, ordinarily an effective defence against microbial infections. The host sinus microenvironment is such a unique combination of dynamic physical, chemical and biological factors that understanding it requires a multi-disciplinary approach. With a clinician in the team, our conceptual and experimental approaches to understanding this system will aid in treating CRS. We also expect that many results obtained here will be applicable to a wide variety of other complex living systems, where flow, microbes and host response interact, e.g. gut, lungs or urinary tract. As microbes occupy every exposed surface of their host multi-cellular organisms, this approach can help pave the way for an interdisciplinary understanding of one of the most important interactions in all of biology.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2024 · 2024-11

Myeloid neoplasms (MN) affect ~10 per 100,000 individuals per year and remain lethal to the majority. Most cases of MN arise from the clonal expansion of an HSC and its progeny driven by MN-associated somatic mutations; a condition known as Clonal Hematopoiesis (CH) and develop many decades after the initial mutational event. DNMT3A is one of the most frequently mutated genes in CH, and its mutations have been identified in ~30% of patients with de novo AML. The Lymphocytic Antigen 75 (LY75) gene was identified as a novel locus implicated in CH-driven AML and encodes a macrophage mannose receptor of C-type lectin. Two missense coding polymorphisms (rs78446341 (P1247L) and rs147820690 (G525E)) in LY75 were associated with reduced incidence of DNMT3A-CH. Here, we will investigate the role of LY75 in DNMT3A-CH to develop approaches that inhibit clonal expansion and, by extension, stop progression to AML and other MNs. We will study hematopoietic-specific function of LY75 and the consequences of the two missense variants on the bone marrow hematopoietic and stromal cells compartments, including at the single cell level, to determine their impact on cellular abundance, differentiation trajectories and cell fate decisions, whilst linking these to changes in gene expression. Moreover, we will study the impact of these polymorphisms on the LY75 protein structure, to explore how they affect protein function potentially by altering binding of the ligand, and how these changes may be associated with reduced incidence of Clonal Hematopoiesis of Indeterminate Potential (CHIP). The implementation of the PAUSE-AML project will bring transformative change in myeloid cancer management, by shifting the emphasis from treatment towards prevention to delay disease onset, by understanding the linked processes of clonal expansion and leukemic progression and by defining potential therapeutic approaches.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2024 · 2024-11

Type 2 diabetes is a growing health concern globally, and is associated with a range of complications and increased risk of other diseases such as cardiovascular disease. Therefore, understanding more about the progression to type 2 diabetes and developing new treatments or prevention strategies is a high research priority. Type 2 diabetes has a complex aetiology, initially involving insulin resistance, a state where tissues like muscle no longer respond properly to the hormone insulin, and subsequently impaired production/release of insulin from the pancreas. Insulin plays an important role in controlling blood glucose and dysregulation of these processes results in higher-than-normal blood glucose levels, and eventually type 2 diabetes. This proposal focuses on understanding more about insulin resistance, with a long-term aim of finding new drug targets to improve insulin responses in people with type 2 diabetes, or to mitigate progression to type 2 diabetes. Insulin lowers blood glucose by targeting a range of tissues; in muscle and fat tissues insulin stimulates glucose uptake into these tissues. We do not have a complete understanding of how insulin controls glucose uptake into muscle and fat cells, nor do we understand why insulin-stimulated glucose uptake is impaired in insulin resistance. As a result, we currently do not have treatments that target insulin-stimulated glucose uptake to improve insulin sensitivity. Our previous work used a combination of human genetics and laboratory models to find a series of genes that were not previously known to regulate insulin-stimulated glucose uptake. These genes may represent completely novel ways to target insulin-stimulated glucose uptake to overcome insulin resistance. In this proposal, we aim to build on this work using a range of experimental models, and human genetics, to explore how these genes work and whether they also regulate insulin responses in tissues. This will include answering the following questions: 1. How do prioritised genes-of-interest regulate insulin-stimulated glucose transport? 2. Do these genes also play a role in glucose disposal in muscle in mouse models? 3. Does natural genetic variation in these genes in humans play a role controlling blood glucose and in other diseases? Alongside these aims, we will also undertake additional discovery genetics analyses in humans to more comprehensively map regions of DNA that regulate insulin responses, and further expand our list of genes-of-interest. New genes identified using this approach are also potential candidates for future research into treatments for type 2 diabetes, and will warrant future investigation when building on this programme of work, beyond this proposal. If successful, we will generate new insights into the regulation of insulin-stimulated glucose uptake, a critical process in whole body glucose homeostasis. Further we will highlight novel potentially actionable drug targets to overcome muscle and fat insulin resistance, which is currently an unmet clinical need, providing the prospect of novel treatment avenues for this increasingly prevalent condition.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2024 · 2024-11

Biological soft solids are remarkable active systems, sustaining complex functions such as motion, digestion, and even consciousness itself. Conversely, engineered soft solids, like rubbers and gels, typically serve lifeless functions such as dampers, cushions, and seals. A grand challenge for engineering and material science is to bridge this gap. How do we bring our engineered soft solids to life? Accordingly, this project develops engineering soft solids that can move and morph. Our working is enabled by a new class of materials called liquid crystal elastomers (LCEs). These are soft rubber-band like solids, but at a molecular level they are built out of tiny rigid rods, and all these rods point in the same direction. If the LCE is heated or illuminated, it contracts along this alignment direction, just like a muscle contracts along its fiber direction. The contraction is dramatically large, reversible, and can be used to exert a substantial pulling force. The core of this project is thus to take this exciting new material, and put it to use in shape-shifting devices. To do so, we have formed a dedicated mechanical engineering group to design, simulate, fabricate and test LCE machines. An area of particular excitement is that LCEs can be fabricated with the molecular alignment following almost any desired spatial pattern, which, on heating produces a corresponding pattern of contraction and hence a complex shape change. For example, we can programme an LCE disk to form into a conical shell or a dome. Such patterned shape changes recall how patterns of muscular contraction produce locomotion, and patterns of growth sculpt developing organs. The resulting programmed LCE samples can also conduct sophisticated mechanical tasks - e.g. the cone can lift - blurring the distinction between a material and a machine. During the initial stage, we have used this approach to study LCE lifters, pumps, irises and grabbers. Our work involved fundamental questions about designing alignment patterns for particular functions, and mechanical analysis of how the resultant machines. This has required the development of new software for predicting how LCEs morph, and new techniques for making samples via 3D printing. A key feature of the renewal is the adoption of a new mechanical programming technique for making patterned LCEs. This technique enables us to create much more complex shape changes, such as a disk forming into a face. We will deploy it to fabricate and test smart LCE layers, that will gain dramatic patterns of topography when they are heated/cooled. This device architecture will enable us to create a range of smart morphing surfaces, including one with switchable braille pixels for a haptic display, one with switchable golf-ball like dimples for switchable aerodynamic lift, and one with switchable roughness for lotus-like water repellence. These new LCEs also have remarkably complicated behavior when they are deformed. The alignment direction can rotate within the LCE, often spontaneously forming a complex microstructural pattern, and leading to an unexpectedly soft mechanical response. Our second focus will be to combine experiment and theory to understand these patterns, and develop software that can predict how such LCEs will deform when they are used in machines. Finally, we will develop a next generation of LCE machines. Currently, our machines lift or grab in response to a global temperature change; in practice, in an oven. However, we will establish strategies for applying the heat or light locally within the LCE structures, allowing different parts to move in different ways. We will also monitor how these machines move in real time, allowing feedback between stimulus and result. Combining better control and feedback will be a step change in sophistication, enabling complex manipulation of objects/fluids and guided locomotion, and bringing us ever closer to soft machines that look alive.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2024 · 2024-11

The purpose of this project is to document a critically endangered language—Sri Lanka Portuguese (SLP)—among Afrodescent communities in north-western Sri Lanka. In particular, we will focus on documenting and analysing manja, the only remaining linguistic and cultural expression of African heritage for these communities; in the words of the speakers themselves 'Poverty is our plight and manja is our only inheritance'. We will strive to give visibility to their only inheritance through careful documentation combining state-of-the-art theorising with the ethnographic method. Whilst the Creole language is still spoken in Sri Lanka as a mother-tongue by those who identify with the Portuguese and claim to be of Portuguese descent, amongst the Kaffirs (a Sri Lanka ethnic group which is partially descendant from 16th C. Portuguese traders and enslaved Bantu people) the language is now only encapsulated in the lyrics of their chant-like songs called manja. Manja is the only remaining African (possibly Mozambican) heritage of these communities. Crucially, however, manja is absent from the (post-)colonial narratives. Cultural praxis in manja has been a strictly in-group activity until a former Sri-Lanka President brought the community in Sirambiyadiya to perform in a cultural festival in 1993. Over recent years, the community has gained some traction due to the interest in scattered African diasporas. Despite SLP being the native language for generations of Kaffirs, currently the only speaker left is 90-years old and she has nobody to speak SLP with since everyone else has shifted to Sinhala (an Indo-Aryan language and language of instruction at school)—the other major language of the island being Tamil (which is Dravidian). Consequently, manja and its 'precious' words and structures from African languages such as Emakhuwa, possibly CiYao, and Kiswahili are also under threat of extinction. If we do not act now we shall forever miss the opportunity to understand language formation in this liminal space of the Global South where the language of the colonisers (Portuguese), the African languages (from the Nampula area) and the indigenous Sri Lanka languages came into contact. Although a fair deal is known about the former and the latter, records of an African presence are sparse. Our project through an in-depth analysis of the manjas and wide-scoping synthesis combining fieldwork data with data mined from archives will be couched within socio-acquisitionally appropriate scenarios. The end-result would be a plausible reconstruction of the formation of Afro-Sri Lanka Portuguese. In doing so, we will test cue-based historical reconstruction and refine our approach to language contact modelling. Moreover, we will be paving the way to understanding differences/similarities between the emergence of Creoles of the Indian Ocean versus the Atlantic Ocean, on the one hand; and how identity is reinforced through manja, on the other; thus feeding into discussion about Global South, Postcolonial/Decolonial Theory, Migration Studies, and International Slavery Studies. Most importantly, however, we will be empowering speakers to continue performing manjas and enacting their mixed and multiple identities which will yield important psycho-social and cognitive benefits for the local, national and transnational societies.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2024 · 2024-11

SENSE promotes the collaboration among European, American and Brazilian researchers involved in the most important research projects in the field of neutrino physics. The observation of neutrino oscillations is the first direct evidence of physics beyond the Standard Model and their existence can have cosmological implications. Are neutrinos partly responsible for the existence of our matter dominated Universe for example? The current experimental landscape established a picture consistent with the mixing of three neutrino flavours with three mass eigenstates and small mass differences. However, recent experimental anomalies suggest the existence of sterile neutrino states (which do not interact with ordinary matter apart from neutrinos) and could help to explain how neutrinos get their mass as well as being candidates for dark matter and other complex theoretical particles. Neutrino oscillations offer a gateway into other possible deviations from the Standard Model. In [articular in the lepton sector including Charged Lepton Flavour Violation. The FNAL Short-Baseline Neutrino (SBN) program is based on three almost identical liquid argon Time Projection Chambers located along the Booster Neutrino Beam offers a compelling opportunity to resolve the anomalies and perform the most sensitive search for sterile neutrinos at the eV mass scale through appearance and disappearance oscillation searches. MicroBooNE, ICARUS and SBND will search for the oscillation signal by comparing the neutrino event spectra measured at different distances from the source. The FNAL SBN program is a major step towards the global effort of the neutrino physics community in realising the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE) which will provide fundamental contribution to the determination of neutrino mass ordering, measurement of CP violation (which if non zero could mean neutrinos are at least in part responsible for the matter anti-matter asymmetry of the Universe), precision tests of the three-flavour oscillation paradigm using long-baseline flavour transition, search for nucleon decay and study of the burst of neutrinos from core-collapse supernova in the framework of multi-messenger astronomy. SENSE researchers have provided major contributions to the SBN and DUNE projects and will take leading roles in the commissioning of the detectors, data taking and analysis. These endeavours foster the development of cutting-edge technologies with spin-offs outside particle physics.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2024 · 2024-11

The proposed project aims to improve the process of collecting, categorising, and analysing historical occupational data, as well as making it possible to integrate existing historical occupational data with modern classification systems. Digital data on occupations are only available for the period covering last four to five decades. Without data that covers longer periods, it is impossible to understand the impact of long-term social and economic processes such as industrialisation, slow-evolving environmental factors, or, conversely, infrequent events like pandemics, sudden economic shocks or policy changes by comparing them to other economies or previous occurrences. This project aims to fill this gap in the data landscape by focusing on data from over 20 countries spanning multiple centuries. We plan to develop a revised coding scheme that is specially designed to make historical occupational data compatible with 16 globally accepted occupational and industrial coding schemes to offer the most comprehensive view of employment trends over time. The project is based on the world's largest dataset of historical occupational data created by the Cambridge Group for the History of Population and Social Structure (CAMPOP) and affiliated international research groups over several decades. To promote the use of this extensive dataset, a web-based tool was created for data conversion between the various coding schemes. Building on this, we will incorporate machine learning algorithms to permit the rapid and precise labelling of historical occupations through our interface. The data will be publicly available, enabling a wide range of applications, including innovative visualisation and analysis. Moreover, the project extends the EU ESCO coding scheme to include historical occupational data from 28 languages. We will also develop multilingual occupational descriptors (a textual description of what each occupation consisted of) that will allow us and others to understand changes in the nature of work much more precisely. The tool, data, methodology, and outreach material created will benefit a broad range of researchers in social sciences, educators at the secondary and tertiary levels, data-driven policymakers, and the general public. The project is backed by an experienced team at CAMPOP, and will be developed in collaboration with the European Commission, the Warwick Institute for Employment Research, and the University of Southern Denmark.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2024 · 2024-11

The C4 crop maize is a global food, feedstock and bioenergy crop with a world-wide production volume of 1.09 billion metric tons. Crop species with the C4 photosynthetic pathway circumvent some of the inefficiencies of the Calvin-Benson-Bassham cycle by concentrating carbon dioxide around its central enzyme Rubisco. The physiological advantages of C4 species, such as high efficiencies of photosynthetic light, water and nitrogen use, have allowed several of these species to become agriculturally relevant crops or weeds, and to dominate many of the open landscape biomes across warmer regions. They also form the rationale for attempts to improve productivity of C3 crops such as rice, by installing C4 biochemistry and anatomy. However, crops originating from the tropics and sub-tropics are often sensitive to chilling temperatures, in particular in combination with exposure to light which gives rise to chilling-induced photoinhibition, i.e. prolonged inactivation of the photosynthetic apparatus. Maize was domesticated by ancient farmers in Mexico approximately 9000 years ago and is one of the most susceptible crops to chilling-induced photoinhibition amongst those grown in temperate regions. As a result, maize yields at higher latitudes are limited by a relatively short growing season and maize is sensitive to yield losses due to early and late season cold snaps and poor early season establishment of sufficient leaf area to efficiently capture light and compete with weeds. This project aims to improve chilling tolerance in maize. We have previously developed detailed knowledge of how variation at specific genomic locations between contrasting maize lines is correlated with chilling tolerance. In addition, we identified transcriptional networks controlling tolerance to chilling and developed novel tools to assess gene transcription responses to chilling stress across two important leaf tissue types. We now aim to use this scientific progress to both increase our fundamental understanding of maize chilling tolerance, as well as enhance the applicability of our previous findings in maize breeding programs. To do so, crosses between maize lines carrying contrasting haplotypes for the most promising QTL will be used to study the mode of action (dominant, recessive, etc). In addition, sensitive and tolerant maize lines will be crossed to a common tester line to evaluate the gene regulatory networks in response to chilling stress in a hybrid background. Finally, gene regulatory networks in response to chilling will be studied in the two contrasting photosynthetic cell types in maize, bundle sheath cells and mesophyll cells, using newly developed maize lines that allow specific analysis of gene transcript abundance in these cell types.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2024 · 2024-11

Silicon Carbide is the true “wonder” material for power electronics. Its exceptional field strength (10x that of Silicon) and high thermal conductivity (3x that of Silicon and 3.5x that of Gallium Nitride) make it ideal for high voltage (over 600V) and high power (over 1kW) applications, such as inverters for electric vehicles, wind and photovoltaic converters, and power supplies for AI data centres. Moreover, the CO2 savings enabled by Silicon Carbide are projected to be an order of magnitude higher than those provided by the most advanced Silicon technologies. Furthermore, at 1.2 kV rating and above, Silicon Carbide is superior to other promising wide bandgap materials such as GaN. However, despite its impressive market traction with an annual growth rate exceeding 30%, one major issue remains unsolved: the very poor carrier mobility (e.g. 20 cm2/Vs) in the modulated channel at the oxide/SiC interface. This value is 50x lower than in an equivalent Silicon device, negating to some extent the advantages of MOS-based Silicon Carbide devices and hampering its outstanding potential in power electronics. It is the aim of this project to study in greater depth this interface using innovative techniques based on electron microscopy, propose novel techniques to enhance the mobility by 5x at the oxide/SiC interface and experimentally demonstrate disruptive device concepts in Silicon Carbide such as high voltage FinFETs which use quantum effects to increase the mobility by a factor of 10x.  The proposed Japan-UK consortium is highly complementary and very well equipped to undertake this work.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2024 · 2024-11

Globally, human-induced climate change and biodiversity loss threaten ecosystem function and the services the biosphere provides for humans. Forests are carbon-dense ecosystems and are home to the majority of terrestrial biodiversity, so are crucial tools to mitigate adverse impacts. Indeed, many countries, including many in Europe, have ambitious policies to restore and replant forests to restore carbon and habitats. However, forests are themselves threatened by climate change and biodiversity loss, so understanding and predicting their future in the face of global change is a priority. In order to understand how forests are changing, and how they will change in the future, we need large monitoring networks collecting data, to embrace new measurement techniques, to fuse data from multiple sources, and to create robust, data-driven, predictive models. Traditional forest data is severely limited in both its spatiotemporal coverage and what it can measure, and whilst existing ecological models are tailored to such data, these focus on the small scale and cannot predict the future of forests at large enough scales to help understand the impacts of climate change. New approaches are needed. This fellowship will use cutting-edge remote sensing data and modern data science techniques to generate new understanding of current and future forest functioning. Active and passive remote sensors, including terrestrial and drone laser scanning and structure from motion photogrammetry, are able to capture the full three-dimensional structure of a forest to sub-cm scale within three-dimensional point clouds. This fellowship will collect and collate such data from tens of thousands of trees across hundreds of forest plots in Europe, creating a massive new dataset of tree and forest structure. Such data are extremely complex to analyse, and the project will use specially developed and tailored deep learning techniques to extract ecological information from noisy point clouds. Some plots that have already been measured will be re-measured, to capture three dimensional tree growth and forest structural change. The fellowship will analyse these data to determine how trees and forests are structured across Europe, and how their three-dimensional structure affects and is affected by their productivity, carbon storage, and the diversity of both the trees and other species living in forests. New insights into how biodiversity is related to three-dimensional structure will bring help develop approaches to co-monitoring biodiversity and biomass, crucial for demonstrating the value of ecosystems towards tackling both climate change and biodiversity loss. Using newly developed software, the fellowship will scale local, single-measurement plot-scale information to continental scale and continuous monitoring by fusing ground and Earth Observation (satellite) data. Using deep learning to link the structural and diversity information from hundreds of thousands of plot locations across Europe with the spectral properties measured by satellite sensors, the fellowship will bring new understanding on how forests are structured and how they are changing across Europe. Finally, using findings from all parts of the fellowship, a new modelling framework which can predict ecological change on the ground at local scale but which can ingest satellite data will be developed. This data-driven approach will enable robust and updatable predictions of climate change impacts on forest diversity and dynamics across Europe. It will be constructed to be flexible to incorporate future data streams, so informing inform climate change mitigation policy across the continent.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2024 · 2024-10

Averting dangerous consequences of climate change and transitioning to societies that use our natural resources sustainably is one of the most existential challenges currently facing humanity. At the technological level, advanced energy materials are needed not only to sustain incremental advances in existing zero-carbon energy technologies, but also to address open technology challenges requiring disruptive breakthroughs. New, emerging classes of energy materials, such as perovskite semiconductors and organic/biologically inspired materials for solar energy harvesting and photovoltaics, or advanced electrode materials for batteries offer great opportunities for achieving higher performance, lower cost and better environmental sustainability than existing energy materials. However, many aspects of their operation remain poorly understood. This is related to their relatively disordered, non-single crystalline microstructures, with complex interfaces that are critical for device operation, and the presence of weakly, non-covalently bonded, functional groups and molecular units. This makes the materials mechanically soft and the dynamics of lattice vibrations has a strong effect on the charge carriers and electronic excitations. However, their performance is surprisingly tolerant to such static and dynamic disorder, which opens a wide space for materials exploration as we apparently do not always need structural perfection. This centre-to-centre collaboration brings together a team of energy materials researchers at the Universities of Cambridge and Oxford supported by the VETSOFT EPSRC programme grant with a world-leading group of researchers at Princeton University's Andlinger Centre for Energy and the Environment. Both centres have internationally leading, interdisciplinary teams with a broad spectrum of complementary techniques and scientific capabilities that can be applied and shared across traditional boundaries associated with different materials systems and/or applications. By not working in traditional silos, powerful synergies can be achieved. This is at the heart of the VETSOFT programme grant, which brings together researchers working in soft functional energy materials for diverse applications in photovoltaics, photocatalysis, thermal energy harvesting and energy storage. A similar philosophy also underpins Princeton's Andlinger Centre, which has available a largely complementary set of capabilities. The proposed centre-to-centre collaboration aims to achieve a deeper atomistic understanding and control of important physical processes in soft functional energy materials, in turn driving tangible enhancements in energy materials performance and new device concepts. We have identified three grand research challenges (RCs) for which there is a high added value from the collaboration between the two centres and for which complementary scientific capabilities and methodologies available at the two centres are needed. The centre-to-centre collaboration will allow us to tackle these in a more effective way than any of the participating groups could on their own. The first two RCs address scientific bottlenecks that are holding back the application of perovskite semiconductors in solar cells and of electrode materials for batteries: We will develop approaches for controlled doping of metal halide perovskite semiconductors and new battery anode materials based on niobium tungsten oxides capable of fast charging. The third one aims to achieve a deeper, fundamental understanding of energy transfer processes in biological energy harvesting. The proposed centre-to-centre collaboration will also provide a vehicle for encouraging other, exploratory research projects in advanced energy materials between groups at the two centres, that will lead to a sustained, effective partnership between the two centres outlasting the 4-year funding period of the proposed project.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2024 · 2024-10

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 · 2024-09

People's social lives are integral to their criminal careers. The fact that social relationships and experiences are important for understanding people's crime involvement is well established (e.g., Kornhauser 1978; Laub & Sampson 2003; Wikström et al. 2012), but how is far less well understood. Empirical evidence tells us the picture is complex, involving personal and social characteristics, shaped by immediate factors and more stable long-term drivers. Few empirical studies can capture this complexity, due to the challenges of collecting detailed multilevel longitudinal data, and a lack of effective theoretical framing to guide that collection productively. The proposed study, the Peterborough Adolescent to Adult Development Study: PADS+ Phase 3 is designed to address these challenges. It will provide an extensive in-depth contemporary examination of the role of people's social lives in crime, and the role of crime in people's social lives, by extending the Peterborough Adolescent and Young Adult Development Study (PADS+) into adulthood. PADS+ is an ESRC-funded longitudinal study of a population sample now entering their mid-thirties who grew up in the UK and for whom detailed data has been collected regarding their social lives and crime through adolescence and into early adulthood (ages 12-24). PADS+ Phase 3 will capitalize on and extend (1) rich data from Phase 1 (adolescence, ages 12-17) and Phase 2 (young adulthood, ages 19-24), including data from parent and participant surveys, space-time budgets, event calendars, and official records (see Wikström et al. 2012); (2) refined and augmented theoretical guidance from Situational Action Theory (SAT), an integrative explanation of crime bridging the gaps between individual and environmental, micro and macro, developmental and situational levels, which has been widely tested and supported in international contexts (e.g., Pauwels et al. 2018); (3) enhanced research methods and analytical techniques building on innovations in experimentation and modelling interactions (e.g., Kennedy 2023; Wikström et al. 2024); and (4) established dialogues with practitioners and policy-makers to translate implications of SAT and findings from PADS+ into recommendations and practices that promote effective crime prevention. The proposed Phase 3 (adulthood, ages 34+) will explore how the trajectories of participants' social lives, personal development, and criminal careers change as they settle into adulthood, and analyse drivers of and solutions to crime involvement across the life course. The findings will be translated into practical guidance and used to develop accessible resources (1) in collaboration with practitioners to support crime prevention efforts, with an ultimate goal to add to the evidence-base of what works; and (2) for researchers to facilitate theory-driven empirical research, with an ultimate goal of adding to the knowledge-base of why and how it works. Key aims for PADS+ Phase 3: Adulthood Advancing knowledge: To contribute theoretically and empirically to understanding how differences between people and their experiences from adolescence to adulthood shape and are shaped by their social lives and criminal careers. Capacity building: To contribute to theory-driven empirical research into the causes of crime by developing accessible resources for researchers to apply an analytic approach, test SAT and/or utilize PADS+ data. Translating knowledge into practice: To contribute to policy and practice by developing constructive and accessible resources in the context of existing guidance and practice and through collaboration with policy-makers and practitioners to support crime prevention efforts within key social institutions (e.g., families, schools, workplaces, communities).

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2024 · 2024-09

Civil infrastructure is the key to unlocking net zero. To achieve the ambitious UK targets of net zero by 2050, we require innovative approaches to design, construction, and operation that prioritise energy efficiency, renewable resources, and low-carbon materials. Meeting net zero carbon emissions will require not only significant investment and planning, but also a radical shift in how we approach the design and management of our civil infrastructure. Reliable low carbon infrastructure sector solutions that meet real user needs are essential to ensure a smooth and safe transition to a net zero future. To address these challenges, the UK must develop highly skilled infrastructure professionals who can champion this urgent, complex, interconnected and cross-disciplinary transition to net zero infrastructure. This EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Future Infrastructure and Built Environment: Unlocking Net Zero (FIBE3 CDT) aims to lead this transformation by co-developing and co-delivering an inspirational doctoral training programme with industry partners. FIBE3 will focus on meeting the user needs of the construction and infrastructure sector in its pursuit of net zero. Our goal is to equip emerging talents from diverse academic and social backgrounds with the skills, knowledge and qualities to engineer the infrastructure needed to unlock net zero, including technological, environmental, economic, social and demographic challenges. Achievable outcomes will include a dynamic roadmap for the infrastructure that unlocks net zero, cohort-based doctoral student training with immersive industry experience, a CDT which is firmly embedded within existing net zero research initiatives, and expanded networks and outward-facing education. These outcomes will be centred around four thematic enablers: (1) existing and disruptive/new technologies, (2) radical circularity and whole life approach, (3) AI-driven digitalisation and data, and (4) risk-based systems thinking and connectivity. FIBE3 doctoral students will be trained to unlock net zero by evolving the MRes year to include intimate industry engagement through the novel introduction of a fourth dimension to our successful 'T-shaped' training model and designing the PhD with regular outward-facing deliverables. We have leveraged industry-borne ideas to align theory and practice, streamline business and research needs, and provide both academic-led and industry-led training activities. Cohort-based training in technical, commercial, transferable and personal skills will be provided for our graduates to become skilled professionals and leaders in delivering net zero infrastructure. FIBE3's alignment with real industry needs is backed by a 31 strong consortium, including owners, consultants, contractors, technology providers and knowledge transfer partners, who actively seek engagement for solutions and will support the CDT with substantial cash (£2.56M) and in-kind (£8.88M) contributions. At Cambridge, the FIBE3 CDT will be embedded within an inspirational research and training environment, a culture of academic excellence and within a department with strategic cross-cutting research themes that have net zero ambitions at their core. This is exemplified by Cambridge's portfolio of over £60M current aligned research grant funding and our internationally renowned centres and initiatives including the Digital Roads of the Future Initiative, the Centre for Smart Infrastructure and Construction, Cambridge Zero and Cambridge Centres for Climate Repair and Carbon Credits, as well as our strong partnerships with UK universities and leading academic centres across the globe. Our proposed vision, training structure and deliverables are exciting and challenging; we are confident that we have the right team to deliver a highly successful FIBE3 CDT and to continue to develop outstanding PhD graduates who will be net zero infrastructure champions of the future.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2024 · 2024-09

In today's multicultural world, we are witnessing a revalorisation of previously marginalised knowledge. Academic literature, international organizations like the UN, and the general public increasingly acknowledge the important role of the traditional knowledge of indigenous people worldwide. Following the internationally recognized rights of Self-determination and Sovereignty established by the 1989 Convention 169 of the International Labour Organization, Latin American nations are improving educational equality in a key policy domain: the creation of new "intercultural" universities. Such institutions have mushroomed in Amazonia, which stands out as the world's region with the largest indigenous population and the greatest ethnic diversity, and its native people are deemed the bearers of unique kinds of knowledge. In Peruvian Amazonia - a region with no less than 51 different ethnic groups - public intercultural universities represent a milestone in the history of indigenous rights. They aim to empower young Amerindians through higher education and incorporate their indigenous knowledge into academic education. I conducted 33 months of doctoral research within these new intercultural universities in the Peruvian Amazonian metropolis of Pucallpa. My ethnographic research explored the realities of the higher intercultural educational project experienced by urban Amazonian youth. This is the first long-term ethnographic study of indigenous university students, as thus far they have remained largely overlooked in anthropology. The premise of my research is that intercultural educational policies are a fruitful avenue in the struggle for the empowerment of indigenous people, but that implementing a more culturally equal educational system requires a nuanced understanding of individual and collective behaviours, educational and life trajectories, and wellbeing outcomes of this under-researched group. Through my research, it has emerged that Amazonian youth are often invested, by their families and society at large, with the two frequently competing moral duties to carry on their elders' cultural heritage and become urban and global professionals. My thesis analyses both the emancipatory and burdensome aspects of intercultural ideology and its relationship to contemporary identity politics, showing how it can exacerbate the polarization between indigenous people and "mestizos" (mixed, non-indigenous). This dichotomy unfolds through processes of ethnic marking and the exaltation of traditional knowledge as a category that indexes the societal value of indigenous ancestry. Foregrounding this strong link between ethnicity and knowledge, I developed an original analytical framework - epistemic ethnicity - to make sense of higher intercultural education's impact on the life projects, worldviews, identity, and ethnic belonging of young Amazonians. As an ESRC Fellow, I will consolidate my PhD through academic publications and maximise its impact beyond academia. My main scholarly outcomes will be a monograph and two research papers, which will broaden the interdisciplinary breadth of my work by engaging more with Education studies. As many of my doctoral research interlocutors have graduated and are starting to serve as intercultural teachers all over Peru, I plan to carry out a collaborative educational policy workshop with them. We will produce a research-informed and collaboratively devised policy brief on the equity and inclusivity of intercultural higher education and submit it to relevant regional and national policymakers. Moreover, given that my research bears global significance for culturally inclusive teaching, I plan to expand the impact of my theoretical approach, given its potential to advance Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion in higher education beyond Latin America, starting from the United Kingdom.