UNIVERSITY OF EXETER

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-06

The aim of the project is to develop sustainable citizen-led science and international collaborations to address the pressing issue of declining water availability, access, and useability in glacierized catchments in the Chilean Andes. Glacier retreat threatens the quantity and quality of water resources for human populations and ecosystems in glacierised catchments worldwide (Huss and Hock, 2018; Milner et al. 2017). To understand the influence of glacier retreat on the availability and quality of water resources, it is essential to study not only changes in glacial water storage and run-off, but also how complex social interactions affect access to, and use of, glacier-fed water supplies. For example, there are a variety of demands on the water supply in glacierised catchments, such as from water-intensive high-mountain mining activities, and intensive agriculture. A community-led approach is required to address these challenges - something that currently is lacking in glaciological research (Carey et al., 2017; Carey et al., 2022, Drenkhan et al., 2022). Our project will provide this necessary research by creating participatory mapping workshops, socio-environmental analysis coproduced by diverse stakeholders (e.g., communities, scientists, and policy specialists) and an interactive digital landscape platform, all of which will be accompanied by the initial design of a grassroot monitoring system.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-06

Accurate modelling of the solar atmosphere is essential for understanding the energy flow and build-up that underpins the heating of the solar chromosphere and corona, and drives eruptions and flares. To achieve this a model needs to be able to capture the fundamental physical, radiative and ionisation states of the vastly different atmospheric layers of the Sun and the complex coupling between them. No model exists with the capability to accurately capture all the key processes of the different parts of the atmosphere, but one is necessary to understand the cutting-edge observations produced by new facilities and provide the much needed step-change in our understanding of how the solar atmosphere works. We propose to develop a software framework (the Solar Atmospheric Modelling Suite - SAMS) with world-leading physics capabilities designed to maintain the UK’s solar physics community at the forefront of international research and enable full exploitation of next-generation observations and Exascale computing. We will develop SAMS with a modular structure allowing users to include all atmospheric layers or a subset of layers, e.g. the chromosphere and corona, running time-dependent non-LTE radiative transfer MHD simulations as either complex 3D models or faster 1D models with a clear pipeline from input, through simulation to observable. The code will be made available to the community as Open Source under the permissive Apache 2 licence through a GitHub repository with detailed physics-based documentation to promote ease of use.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-06

In the development of wearable and flexible electronics, the demanding requirements for ultrathin, lightweight, and textile interfaced wearable sensor systems create challenges in power supply and in designs for low power operation. To date, most portable and wearable electronic devices are powered by conventional electrochemical Li-ion batteries, which are extremely restricted in their lifetime, sustainable operation, and environmental issues. There is a need to develop manufacturing processes that easily translate from prototyping to production and back whenever there is a need for customizing the technology. There is also a need for materials that would enable these technologies to be scaled up so that they became real products rather than prototypes or proofs-of-concept. TENG-NISPW will address cutting-edge research in material science, engineering, and physics, which will rely on the realization of TENG based on conductive nanomaterial inks. TENG-NISPW will take advantage of the precision with which 2D-TMDCs can be tailored by ink routes, and from the versatility with which their surface functionalities can further influence their electrical properties. This project has the ambition to transform the scenario of wearable energy technologies by developing a conceptually new class of high performance TENG. This breakthrough will exploit an unexplored synergy of 2D-TMDCs and device design drawing on flexible substrates. In particular, this proposal explores for the first time the combination of (i) novel fabrication methods with (ii) conceptually innovative functionalization and (iii) unprecedented device geometries. We will exploit solution-processable routes to deposit 2DTMDCs and surface engineering to further influence their electrical properties.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-06

Discrimination and social inequalities continue to pervade the workplace. Despite investing “diversity-improving solutions” (e.g. diversity or unconscious bias trainings), most organisations have made little progress towards actually improving diversity and inclusion (D&I), including senior leadership representation or closing gender and ethnicity gaps in promotions, hiring or pay. Although recognition of these problems is growing, businesses struggle to find solutions to level the playing field. At the same time, tough economic conditions and stagnant economic growth have put additional pressure on organisations, which likely hinder (rather than help) the creation of inclusive working environments. Shareholders are demanding ever greater investment returns, leading to more intense—sometimes toxic—working conditions, resulting in an underperforming workforce. While most organisations realise that pressure rarely inspires more productivity, few new ideas have been found to improve conditions and productivity. In a world full of complex societal and economic issues, how can organisations address both social inequality and productivity challenges? It is time we use a systematic, scientific approach to find out what actually works. Not only do these challenges call for new creative ideas individually: there is good reason to believe that organisations with a more diverse, inclusive workforce may be well-placed for improved profitability. Organisations displaying more corporate responsibility are more likely to attract and retain top talent, and well-led diverse teams can outperform homogeneous teams; but, conversely, poorly-managed diversity measures can reveal fault-lines and lead to conflict. However, little is known about how to actually improve D&I and productivity outcomes in real organisations. This is where my project comes in. Through the UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship, my vision is to create more diverse, inclusive and productive workplaces. To achieve this vision, building on the success of the first four years of my FLF project, I will work in partnership with organisations to identify problems and co-create interventions aimed at improving D&I and productivity. This project leverages the latest insights from economics, psychology and management to inform the design and co-creation process of new interventions that will be tested in large-scale randomised controlled trials in UK and multinational organisations. Randomised controlled trials are a powerful way to measure the causal effect of what works. In an RCT, some employees are randomly assigned to receive the new intervention (treatment), while others continue to operate under the status quo (control). At the end of the study, the difference in outcomes between treatment and control groups reveals whether the intervention made a difference. This type of research goes beyond the study of surveys which have looked at correlations: instead, the interventions are directly implemented in the organisation, which allows me to study real-world, longer-term outcomes, including hiring, promotion, and productivity of disadvantaged groups. Successful interventions will be shared with the organisation and publicly, leading to a better working knowledge of how we create more fairness and productivity in the workplace. This kind of research thrives through collaboration and co-creation with pioneering organisations. I have been working with large firms and governments, including Unilever, Ericsson, Phoenix Group and the New South Wales Government, as well as social-purpose companies, start-ups and consultancies, including MoreThanNow, Nesta, and the Behavioural Insights Team. In sum, my research rigorously tests co-created interventions in organisations to improve outcomes of disadvantaged groups and promote more productivity across organisations, contributing to fairer and more productive workplaces.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-05

Despite the headlines of the ‘near death of the (Christian) religion’ in the aftermath of the 2021 Census for England and Wales, almost two thirds of British adults still identify with a religious community, participate in religious activity, and/or hold religious beliefs. For example, over 1 in 5 adult Britons self-identify as ‘Anglican’, equating to just over 15 million people, comparable to the number of votes cast for the Conservative Party in the 2019 general election. In short, the presence of religion among the British population is far from trivial. Moreover, an emergent literature shows that these religious characteristics continue to resonate with the political identities, attitudes and behaviours of British voters: religious affiliation by shaping which political party individuals identify with and vote for; religious practice by influencing ideological values and preferences on issues such as EU membership; and religious belief by affecting social values, such as tolerance for migration. Despite all this, religion has long been out of focus of political science research, leading to a lack of useful and usable data and a deficit of understanding in how religion continues to influence British politics. This project puts religion back into the foreground of political science research and enhances our capacity for its analysis with new, much-needed data and methods. We rectify the shortage of usable data by developing the first dataset of individual and constituency level religious data in Britain by combining the individual data from the British Election Study (BES), Understanding Society (USoc) and ESRC/JSPS Covid-19 Study with aggregate level and spatial data from the 2021 Census, places of worship and faith schools for new constituency boundaries. The design of this dataset and the subsequent analyses are informed by a ground-breaking approach to conceptualising and measuring religious influences – both at an individual and community/contextual level, i.e., by introducing four dimensions of religion – identification, practice, belief and community. These innovations and the wealth of secondary survey and spatial data enable robust and comprehensive multi-level analyses of the relationship between all dimensions of religion and voter behaviour and party support in the 2024/25 general election. These substantive and methodological insights will build a new research agenda for the study of religion and British electoral politics in future elections, while taking advantage of cutting-edge data analysis and data linkage techniques. This project and its outputs will be of great value for future research into the contextual role of religions in other aspects of political and social life as well, such as social capital, health and crime. With support from the project’s Advisory Board, they will be disseminated to academic and non-academic audiences, including the House of Commons Library, think tanks (e.g., Theos), educational bodies (e.g., David Ross Education Trust), polling companies, political parties, faith groups and other organisations (such as Humanists UK).

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-04

The project aims to identify how the neuropeptide galanin regulates the physiology and adaptation of pancreatic islets under healthy and diabetic states. Hormones released from pancreatic islets (including insulin from beta cells and glucagon from alpha cells) are critical for maintaining glucose homeostasis and losing this regulation leads to diabetes and its many co-morbidities. The loss of functional beta cell mass is a hallmark of both type 1 and type 2 diabetes. Harnessing the endogenous beta cell pool to slow the progression or reverse the disease would require treatment strategies to (1) expand beta cell mass, (2) increase beta cell function, and (3) prevent beta cell death. Various neural signals have demonstrated the ability to promote organ development and coordinate complex organ function. While galanin signalling has been implicated in islet hormone release in mammalian models, the cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying endogenous galanin control of islet homeostasis remains understudied. These fundamental studies require the use of live animal models where galanin signalling can be tightly controlled and islet biology can be dynamically studied. By taking advantage of the zebrafish, we will optogenetically manipulate pancreatic galanin nerves and investigate how altering galanin signalling impacts islet physiology and beta cell regeneration with precision on physiological time scales in a living animal. In our complementary investigation of galanin nerve remodelling in human pancreas samples from non-diabetic and diabetic donors, we will assess the translatability of our findings to humans. Understanding how galanin controls islet biology and identifying how galanin nerves are perturbed in diabetes may lead to new therapeutic approaches to preserving the functionality of residual islet cells and expanding the beta cell pool in diabetes.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-04

Mining is needed to produce the goods, infrastructure, and jobs that modern societies depend upon, as well as the metals and materials to facilitate the global transition to net zero carbon emissions. Enormous volumes of waste, known as tailings, are generated from industrial mining because the valuable commodities form only a small proportion of the extracted ore. Typically, tailings are wet slurries composed of particles and water that are commonly stored behind dammed impoundments known as tailings storage facilities (TSF) that are intended to hold them indefinitely. Tailings dams failure (TDF) occur repeatedly due to earthquakes, overtopping and weak foundations, among other mechanisms. Such failures can extend 10-100s km downstream with severe environmental, health and financial consequences. With the global surge in demand for critical minerals and metals, and a corresponding dramatic increase in mining, there is an urgent need to understand the spread of material downstream from tailings dam failures and the rate at which the environment recovers from this contamination, including after remediation, in order to improve prevention and response planning. This is especially pressing in heavily mined regions of the Andes, such as in Chile with over 800 TSF, where earthquakes and an increasing frequency of extreme rainfall events from climate change may present severe risks to many of these 'evermore' structures. Such an event occured on June 13th 2024 at a mine in the Chilean Andes, where extreme rainfall triggered the partial collapse of a TSF in a large copper mine complex, causing an unknown volume of tailings to be spilled downstream. This presents a short window of opportunity in which to measure contamination flows from an ongoing breach before repairs scheduled for December 2024, and to calibrate the river contamination recovery rates and spread from TDF and non-failed TSF in the watershed. While measurements are available from catastrophic failures, such as the Brazilian Brumhadinho disaster in 2019, partial failures such as the current emergency in Chile are more frequent and potentially a more widespread threat to the Andean environment. This ongoing incident is, we believe, typical of the increasing chronic threat to these structures from climate change, with severe and accumulating contamination affecting communities, agriculture, and ecosystems downstream. This event provides a unique opportunity to conduct geomorphological-geochemical-mineralogical data to establish the recovery and trajectory dynamics of rivers and floodplan sediment contamination caused by TSF failures in these kind of environments. By working with Chilean partners we aim to provide new data and analysis to guide improvements in responsible mining practices.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-04

Through collaboration with Nairobi-based literary organisations Saseni! and Book Bunk, and University of Nairobi, this project will produce a new account of and approach to Nairobi’s literary and publishing histories from 1963 to 1978. The research will locate and analyse the exchanges which forged, connected and sustained new arts spaces and literary initiatives – from the physical spaces of Chemchemi, Paa Ya Paa and Jonathan Kariara’s house to the textual spaces of the Modern African Library and magazines Joe, Zuka and Ghala – which established Nairobi as a creative and intellectual centre across this period. While scholars (Adima, Gikandi, Nyairo, Ogude, Ouma, Wanjiru, Wanjala) have highlighted the significance of these spaces and publications to literary culture in East Africa, this is the first sustained study to connect and draw attention to their role in shaping the production of African fiction in English over this period and beyond. Through an emphasis on working from Nairobi ‘as a locus of enunciation’ (Ndlovu-Gatsheni), this research aims to disrupt the dominance of literary texts published from the global North in the teaching and study of African novels and short stories from the 1960s/70s. The project is also designed to enhance the work of Saseni! and Book Bunk by rooting their engagement with writers, readers and library users more strongly within histories of literary and cultural exchange in Nairobi and East Africa. The objectives of this research are threefold: Through a series of public events and oral history interviews, alongside research in public and personal archives, the project will work to document key literary events, publications and exchanges that established Nairobi as a creative and intellectual centre across the 60s/70s. Working collaboratively with Saseni! and Book Bunk, we will design and produce innovative digital resources utilising this research (including podcasts, interview footage, correspondence, newsletters, photographs, event flyers, covers and contents lists). These resources will be promoted to researchers and to Book Bunk’s key demographic of library users aged 16-35, as well as becoming a foundational reference point for Saseni!’s creative writing workshops. Through work with Godwin Siundu to co-organise a 2-day conference and writing workshop at University of Nairobi, the project will enable wider scholarly dialogue, alongside training in publishing studies methodologies, supporting the work of analysing and tracing connections between African writing and literary initiatives established in East Africa between 1963-78. This will lead to the development of special issues of Eastern African Literary and Cultural Studies and Research in African Literatures co-edited with Saseni!’s Director Billy Kahora and Siundu. Through work on the PI’s second single-authored monograph and with a Nairobi-based contemporary artist, the project will innovate through spatially and textually locating the Nairobi-based exchanges – both personal and institutional – which produced African literary fiction in the 60s/70s. Building on the PI’s previous research on contemporary pan-African publishing networks, the project will develop a critical model of literary and publishing networks which can expand the modes through which Nairobi’s literary history is valued and complicate narratives of decolonisation and African literature.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-03

MACLOUD will utilise state-of-the-art multi-scale modelling to assess the potential of several marine cloud brightening (MCB) strategies and scenarios. MCB strategies frequently propose aerosolising sea-water through powerful sprayers on ocean-going ships. The resulting sea-salt aerosol can act to enhance the brightness of clouds leading to a reflection of an additional amount of sunlight back out to space and an associated cooling of the planet. It has been postulated that MCB could therefore play a role in combatting climate change caused by increased anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases. However, the impact of aerosols in cloud brightening is shrouded with considerable uncertainties. The sea-salt aerosol produced by sprayers would need to create particles that are smaller than 1/1000th of a mm. Under high atmospheric humidity, these aerosol can 'activate' into cloud droplets. If MCB sprayers create more aerosols then a greater number of small cloud droplets form. This can reduce the amount of drizzle from clouds which can lead to the clouds lasting for longer. Increases in marine cloud brightness or cloud amount lead to a cooling of the planet, but are particularly effective at cooling the sea-surface directly beneath them. This can lead to local, regional, and at sufficient magnitude, global  changes in atmospheric and oceanic circulation patterns. To develop a fundamental understanding of the impacts of MCB therefore requires a range of models. They must be able to capture: the evolution of the aerosol spray via coagulation, evaporation, and deposition between the sprayer and any cloud the detailed sub-micron processes of activation of the aerosol within cloud the representation of the turbulent environment of clouds including entrainment, detrainment, evaporation, rain-out Larger-scale updrafts and down drafts that are important in the self-organisation of cloud-decks Regional responses in temperature Teleconnections via large scale dynamical feedbacks   One model cannot do all of this. We propose utilising a comprehensive suite of parcel-models and box-models over effective domains of order metres, through large-eddy-simulations and limited area models with domains of order hundreds or thousands of km, right through to global scale weather and climate models. By confronting and improving the large scale global climate models with cloud-resolving models that have themselves been confronted by parcel-models capable of modelling sub-micron processes we will develop a true traceable multi-scale capability for MCB modelling. We recognise that there are a range of future climate scenarios that are possible depending on the range of mitigation measures that are put in place by society. We choose to utilise so-called shared socio-economic pathways (SSPs) that are widely used by policy-makers as our baseline climate scenarios. We adopt the United Nations COP21 target of maintaining global mean climate well below a warming of 2 degrees Celsius as compared to pre-industrial conditions; this is widely accepted as being 1.5degrees Celsius. We propose modelling MCB across a range of deployment strategies and scenarios in both high resolution cloud-resolving models and global climate models. We will investigate the time of implementation, how and when MCB is phased-out, the altitude of the injection, the scheme representing aerosol activation etc. We will vary the pattern of the MCB deployment which will have a very strong influence in inducing very different teleconnections. Case studies such as how MCB might help or hinder key components of the Earth system such as the Amazon, crops and sea-ice will be investigated.      

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-03

More than 90% of genetic variants associated with human disease lie in poorly understood parts of our genome. These regions do not directly code for proteins, and are therefore termed 'non-coding'. Instead, they regulate when, where and how much of each protein is produced by coding genes. For the first time, the complete genetic sequences, medical records, and extensive health data of over 1 million people are becoming available. We now therefore have the ability to identify functionally impactful regions in the non-coding genome for common diseases like obesity and Type 2 diabetes (T2D). However, it is extremely challenging computationally and methodologically to analyse data on 1,000,000 complete whole genomes. Interpretation is also a substantial challenge. Despite these challenges, my preliminary work demonstrates the huge potential for discovery. In 200,000 individuals in UK Biobank we identified rare non-coding variants in a switch for a gene called HMGA1 that means people are up to 5cm taller. Further, by analysing levels of 1,500 proteins in the blood, we have demonstrated that there are thousands of impactful non-coding variants in these genetic switches. Circulating protein levels provide an excellent way to test our approach to analysing the non-coding genome because they are the primary product of genes, and so directly impacted by nearby non-coding genetic variants. This project will build on my initial work by developing our whole genome sequence analysis framework to make it efficient, cost-effective and publically available. By first expanding my analysis to 3,000 circulating protein levels, I will (i) develop computational and methodological frameworks for performing efficient, low-cost whole-genome sequencing analysis. Analysis of circulating protein levels will provide insight into the most relevant annotations, most powerful statistical methods, and characterise the spectrum of non-coding variant effects on common human traits. These insights will enable me to apply my framework to BMI (body mass index) and T2D, analysing up to 1 million individuals with diverse ancestries from the largest studies in the world with whole-genome data (UK Biobank, All of Us & TOPMed). My foscus on metabolic traits aligns with Exeter as a centre for world-leading diabetes research, whilst allowing me to apply my own expertise, in order to (ii) fine-map common genetic variants to causal genes and (iii) identify novel and functionally-important non-coding elements. Discoveries I make for T2D and BMI have the potential to lead to novel drug targets, improve patient quality of life and improve precision medicine. I will release an open-source pipeline for cloud-based whole-genome analysis, and provide a template for analysis of the non-coding genome, which will provide unique insight into human disease, and guide efforts to understand the biological function of genetic variation.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-03

We can see through a glass of water, so why can't we see through fog? After all, fog is nothing more than small droplets of water hanging in the air. Unlike a glass of water where light is only reflected from the outer edges, each droplet of fog has its own edge that reflects some light. As there are a colossal number of these droplets, so there are a colossal number of reflections. This is why we can't see through fog: the transmitted light becomes horribly scrambled as it reflects these innumerable times. The huddled bunch of light rays that make up the image of a distant object has little chance of remaining intact after encountering fog! This phenomenon occurs not just in fog, but also in a wide range of materials, including biological tissue, colloidal suspensions like milk, frosted glass, and even as light propagates through optical fibres. These are all "complex media" that are opaque because they muddle up the distribution of light. Such complex media are crucially different from something like black paint where light is absorbed, turned into heat, and lost forever. So, a natural question arises: if we can't see through complex media because they scramble light, can we unscramble what comes out? The answer to this question is yes, provided we can measure everything about the light wave emerging from the material, for a known set of different input waves. The state-of-the-art in this research field can undo the light scrambling due to a complex static medium. That is, in the special case where the configuration of the material is frozen in time, there are recently developed techniques for inverting the effect of the material and reproducing the light wave that entered it, before it became muddled. These advances already promise an enormous leap forward: from non-invasive biomedical microscopy (literally "seeing into a human body") to robust optical communications in highly scattering environments. So, we might be able to see through a cloud of fog using current knowledge, provided the water droplets don't move! We can see the obvious downside of what has been done so far is its restriction to static situations: in real life things do move. Our research will develop techniques that begin to surmount this obstruction, enabling the inversion of propagation through complex dynamic media. We have very recent preliminary work that shows it is possible to theoretically and experimentally find special light waves that avoid regions where a complex medium is most rapidly changing - and instead take the most slowly changing pathway through the medium. We have shown how this can be achieved without any knowledge of where these faster or slower moving regions are. We have also shown that - in principle - combinations of these special light waves could be unscrambled using existing approaches - transmitting images or data through only the most slowly moving parts of the medium. In our proposal, we aim to fully develop this new methodology, discover its advantages and limitations, and, with support from our industrial partners, optimize it for applications. As the research progresses, we shall also push into the regime of ultra-fast dynamic media (so-called time-varying metamaterials), where these wave front shaping ideas may have important applications in, for example, communications, but as yet have barely been considered.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-03

Visual imagery is fundamental to everyday functioning. It enables us, for example, to visualize the face of a loved one many miles away or to imagine the Northern Lights on a beautiful summer's night. Furthermore, imagery is typically thought to be a core component for many important everyday activities such as recollecting memories from the past or imagining future events. Imagery is also considered important for navigating around our environment, making moral judgements and for creative problem solving to give just a few examples. Despite its importance, it has become increasingly clear that some people have a complete absence of visual imagery although it is only recently that this phenomenon, now known as aphantasia, has been recognised. This lack of attention is surprising given that around 4% of the population are estimated to have aphantasia and means that the condition is currently poorly understood. Our work indicates that people with aphantasia have normal levels of intelligence and general cognitive functioning but less detailed memories from the past and a profound deficit at imagining future events. Nevertheless, there is currently little work investigating whether an absence of imagery impacts other important everyday tasks. Greater understanding of this would not only help to characterise aphantasia better but more generally provide new insight into the extent to which visual imagery really is important for everyday functioning, a question that has received intense debate over recent decades. The neural underpinnings of aphantasia are also currently poorly understood. We have provided preliminary evidence that the visual imagery brain network functions differently in people with aphantasia but a more comprehensive investigation is needed. In this project, we will recruit 64 people with aphantasia and compare them with 64 controls who have normal levels of imagery. Groups will be matched on age and gender. Participants will complete a set of imagery questionnaires to establish their visual imagery deficits and to assess whether problems extend to other imagery domains (e.g. smell or sound). Participants will then complete a series of tasks important for everyday functioning that have not been systematically investigated in aphantasia. This will include tests of spatial navigation, problem solving, moral judgements and social and emotional reasoning. We will also investigate whether transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), which modulates brain activity, can elicit imagery in people with aphantasia and whether any such effects extend to improved performance on future imagination. Lastly, we will use brain imaging to understand better the neural basis of aphantasia. This will include measuring brain activity whilst participants recollect memories from the past and mentally rotate objects - activities that typically require mental imagery. We will also measure whether there are differences in brain regions and how these measures are associated with performance on the other tasks we will administer. In summary, this project aims to provide the most comprehensive examination to date of aphantasia, including whether: 1) it affects important functions where visual imagery is typically involved; 2) improved imagery in aphantasia can be elicited through tDCS; 3) there are any brain differences in aphantasics. This project should benefit people with aphantasia who are keen to understand more about the condition as well as, in the medium-term, help optimise alternative strategies for completing tasks, for example in educational settings, where imagery is important, and additionally potentially inform future treatments.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-03

Across the world, metabolic disease is a leading cause of ill-health and death. Alterations in blood sugar (glucose) control are a key feature of many metabolic diseases, including type-2 diabetes (T2D), which impacts >3.4 million people in the UK. Studies in mice and rats have been fundamental for advancing understanding the biological basis of metabolic disease and are critical for drug development, including the recent high-profile medicines like semaglutide (Ozempic/Wegovy) for the treatment of obesity and T2D. An oral glucose tolerance test (oGTT) is a routinely used medical test for diagnosis of T2D. A GTT measures the ability of a person (or animal) to clear excess glucose from their blood, in a specified period, after a large bolus treatment. In contrast to humans when glucose is drunk voluntarily, oral gavage and (more commonly) intraperitoneal injection are typically used to administer the glucose bolus in the mouse GTT. Although used less frequently, the former is the more physiologically relevant as it integrates the digestive tract, including associated release of key hormones. However, oral gavage is also not without its limitations: gavaging glucose straight into the stomach bypasses potentially critical early glucose-sensing via the mouth, it is highly invasive for the animals and requires significant investigator skill to perform correctly. We are committed to refining the mouse oGTT, making it more representative of the human test, improving animal welfare and investigator experience. Mission: To make voluntary oral consumption via micropipette-guided dosing/administration (MDA) the field standard glucose dosing method for mouse GTT. In 2022 we received funding via the NC3Rs Skills, knowledge and transfer scheme to refine mouse oGTT to make it more like the human test and improve animal experience through validation of a simple non-invasive MDA method to replace oral gavage. We have successfully created and validated a MDA-oGTT protocol where mice voluntarily drink the glucose and experimentally confirmed is as effective as oral gavage as a dosing method while being much less stressful for the mice. This method has independently been verified by a research facility in the USA. A paper on our findings is openly available online. Through our ongoing programme of outreach activities, we have developed additional partnerships that underpin this application. Building on this success, the goal of the proposed work is to further refine mouse MDA-oGTT for both animal and investigator experience. We will incorporate handling-free habituation methods developed by Prof Robinson of the University of Bristol (“developer”) through prior NC3Rs funding (objective 1). This should reduce the mouse habituation time needed, which we have identified as a barrier to wider adoption of our MDA-oGTT approach. A comprehensive programme of dissemination and outreach activities (objective 2) will be conducted, including partnerships with a diverse world-leading international “end-user group” who will provide external experimental validation in a variety of contexts, including pregnancy-associated diabetes which is currently poorly understood. A database search revealed that GTTs have been used in 5,617 published medical research studies, 149 in 2023. We estimate that if 50% of the studies from 2023 adopted our more refined method, then this would have improved the experience of 2,384 mice worldwide. As such, our refinement has potential wide-ranging impact.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-03

Intercellular communication is fundamental to the functionality of all multicellular organisms. This complex process underpins embryonic development, allowing a fertilised egg to differentiate into a whole organism and facilitating adult tissues in their response and adaptation to injury. Cellular signalling mechanisms involve the transmission of molecular signals that orchestrate transcriptional and behavioural changes in recipient cells. Traditional paradigms suggest that signalling ligands are secreted by source cells and diffuse through the extracellular space to bind receptors on target cells. Although such a mechanism can explain some signalling processes, it fails to explain how specific cells in a progenitor population can be targeted or a precise temporal regulation of signalling can be achieved. Emerging evidence has started to change our understanding of dissemination mechanisms, revealing the existence of cytonemes for cell-to-cell communication. These actin-based cellular threads extend from the signalling cell, enabling precise targeting by delivering molecular signals with high specificity and efficiency over multiple cell diameters to the receiving cell. In a further unexpected twist, we find that cytonemes also transfer pre-formed and active ligand-receptor complexes to target cells to uncouple the endogenous presence of receptors and to increase the signal-to-noise ratio. Neural crest (NC) is an essential cell population in vertebrates that gives rise to, for example, skin pigment cells, peripheral nervous system (PNS), and facial bones. The formation of NC in embryogenesis is characterised by the induction and subsequent migration of a multipotent cell population from the dorsal margin of the neural tube. This process is orchestrated by a sophisticated interplay of external cues and transcriptional networks, which guide the NC cells through their multipotent journey, enabling them to adopt all the diverse cellular fates. The external cues provided by the Wnt signalling family play pivotal roles at multiple stages in the specification and differentiation of NC cells. For instance, Wnt signalling is crucial for the induction of NC identity and ensures that these cells respond to local environmental cues, directing their migration and proliferation. Wnt signalling is then crucial for NC cells to differentiate into pigment-producing melanocytes at the expense of PNS neurons. However, our knowledge about the spatio-temporal control of Wnt signalling during NC specification is fragmented. How can specific cells in this highly migratory population be activated, whereas their neighbouring cells are not? In parallel, the expression of appropriate Wnt receptors in these NC cells is lacking, leaving the mystery of how these cells can respond to the signal. Our recent breakthroughs allow us to explain this conundrum. We hypothesise that dorsal neural tube cells form cytonemes that are essential for transporting the Wnt signal to a subset of NC cells. We further propose that these cytonemes transmit pre-formed and active Wnt ligand-receptor complexes to activate the signalling in a short, well-controlled time window in specific NC cells during migration. To test the hypothesis, we will employ high- and super-resolution in vivo imaging to describe the transport of Wnt signalling components from the Wnt-producing cells of the dorsal midbrain to the Wnt-receiving NC progenitors and signal activation herein. We will use state-of-the-art genetics to establish how cytoneme-mediated signalling allows NC cells to adopt precise and reproducible fates in living zebrafish larvae. Overall, the findings of this project will shift our conceptual framework of precise spatial and temporal precision of cell signalling in vivo.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-03

Recent progress in quantum technologies is underpinning significant advances across many sectors including defence, healthcare, and communication. At the same time, several challenges emerge as scientists strive to manipulate quantum states for signal enhancement, noise reduction, and ultimately quantum computing. A paradigmatic example is the recent demonstration of noise mitigation on a 127-qubit chip, but this has highlighted the limitations of coherence time, gate fidelity, and error suppression, as well as the challenge of connecting large numbers of physically separate qubits. Therefore, whilst improvements on established technologies remain crucial for scaling them up, the search for alternative routes towards quantum computing remains a most promising pathway towards useful quantum supremacy. Quantum Information with Mechanical Systems (QuIMS) explores the potential of mechanical resonators as a novel computing platform, both in support of existing qubit technologies (e.g., for quantum memories) and as a stand-alone qubit technology. To this end, we will build mechanical resonators with ultra-high coherence times that are manipulated with extreme precision by means of light fields. In this opto-mechanical system, we will attempt for the first time to embed several qubits in a single mechanical resonator, removing the need for cumbersome connecting wires that impedes, for instance, spin qubit devices. These mechanical qubits are expected to offer exciting opportunities to implement multi-qubit gates directly on a single resonator, which can greatly suppress the main sources of errors encountered in current platforms. The core novelty on which QuIMS leverages is the quadratic opto-mechanical coupling, which is needed for mechanical quantum computing but has so far been out of reach. We will design new devices that exploit symmetry and phononic crystals to suppress detrimental contributions such as heating of the mechanical resonators. We will work with graphene and carbon nanotubes that are uniquely suited to achieve the quadratic regime owing to their extremely low mass and strong interaction with radio-frequency light. The synergy of our complementary state-of-the-art facilities and of experimental and theoretical expertise at the Universities of Exeter and Lancaster are ideally suited to nurture the ambitious aims of this proposal. Upon demonstrating the quadratic opto-mechanical interaction, in collaboration with project partners including the National Quantum Computing Centre, we will explore the potential of our devices for applications such as signal enhancement, noise reduction, mechanical signal processing, filtering, and transduction. Hence, we will benchmark the performance of our opto-mechanical quantum systems against that of other known platforms such as superconducting, photonic, Rydberg and ion devices. Finally, we will investigate how our platforms can be combined with existing technologies, to be employed, e.g., as highly coherent memories (due to the extreme quality factors attainable by mechanical resonators).

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-03

The Elections Centre holds the most comprehensive database of local election results in Britain, containing more than 1.4 million candidates and spanning 125 years. Our resources have been used in hundreds of academic papers and we have received funding from UKRI, think tanks and charities. We help the media, businesses, councils and third sector organisations gain accessible, evidence-based and data-driven insights into local areas. We are expanding beyond our existing partnerships to create impact at scale in new areas.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-03

EMPOWER provides educational materials on pelvic floor health for women, and exercise support resources. Empower helps women of all ages and backgrounds prioritise their pelvic health. Our evidence-based training, and resources dispel myths that leaking is normal. With health and fitness providers, industry, and researchers we widen access to effective interventions that prevent and treat common pelvic floor conditions. We empower women to undertake pelvic floor exercises to improve their health and quality of life. What is the problem you are trying to solve and for whom? Urinary incontinence affects 3-5 million UK women across all age groups; about 40% of older women have pelvic organ prolapse. Both conditions impact well-being, incurring substantial costs for women, health services, and environment. Pelvic floor muscle exercises (PFME) can prevent these conditions, yet many healthcare providers lack knowledge and skills to support women. Women lack confidence about what to do. Our training empowers health providers and women to confidently improve pelvic floor health.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-02

The environmental emergency is exacerbating longstanding global inequalities, disproportionately effecting frontline Indigenous communities. This is a continuation of the ecological and social devastation wrought by colonisation, that left a legacy of racialized social and climate injustice. The way environments sustain and inform cultures and heritage is often undervalued. The recent commitment to align laws in Canada and Aotearoa New Zealand with the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP 2007) creates a unique and powerful opportunity to reconceptualise and enact Indigenous-led change: affirming Indigenous communities' rights to protect and maintain culture, heritage, governance, territories, and local ecosystems. As engaged, action-based research, the FLF will tackle complex challenges facing specific communities and support Indigenous community-led decision-making on local priorities around ecological and cultural stewardship in BC Canada and Aotearoa New Zealand to help inform systemic change in cultural heritage and environmental management in each country.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-02

Artificial nighttime lighting is a profound anthropogenic pressure on the natural environment. This growing area of international research has focused almost exclusively on emissions from static light sources, such as those from urban streetlights. Meanwhile, virtually nothing is known about the ecological impacts of mobile sources of lighting, most significantly those arising from vehicle headlights. This is despite convincing reasons suggesting the ecological pressure they cause is very different, far more pervasive, and significant. Specifically, compared to streetlights, headlight emissions are: (i) emitted along virtually all of the 36 million km of roads worldwide, significantly expanding their area of influence; (ii) emitted as horizontally projected beams that travel further at higher intensities; and (iii) experienced by organisms as irregularly timed pulses that may cause major perturbations in visual systems and behaviour. We will push the frontiers by determining the nature and extent of impacts on insect vision systems - and consequently their orientation and flight behaviour - caused by light emissions from vehicle headlights. First, we will use modelling and field measurements to characterise the spread of headlight emissions. Second, laboratory experiments will determine associated impacts on animal visual adaptation, orientation and flight behaviour. Finally, these findings will be used to establish current and future spatio-temporal variation in ecological impacts of vehicle headlights. This research has important implications for policy and regulation, because vehicle headlights are increasing in intensity and spectra that may be more ecologically harmful, and there is projected doubling of global traffic levels and 60% growth in global road length by 2050.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-02

Our vision is to establish a UK-wide hub facilitating the transition to an environmentally sustainable healthcare system by bringing together healthcare leaders, industry partners, and academics across various disciplines to address the challenge of decarbonising health and social care pathways (HSCPs). Through a deployable toolkit, we aim to develop and implement carbon and other pollutant reduction plans across different HSCPs, leading to measurable reductions both during and after the funding period of the grant. We define a "patient journey" as a specific segment of a health and social care pathway, focusing on areas with high potential for carbon reduction, such as community or primary care settings for mental health and secondary care settings for orthopaedic surgery. Our toolkit builds upon previous works on reducing carbon emissions and pharmaceutical pollution by co-applicants from the Getting It Right First Time (GIRFT) program, the Pharma Pollution Hub at the University of Exeter, and the One Health Breakthrough Partnership in Scotland. The toolkit involves mapping current carbon emissions and other pollutants, proposing emission reduction plans, and predicting their impact on environmental sustainability, financial aspects, patient health outcomes, efficiency, equity, and stakeholder acceptability. An iterative process involving stakeholders will refine and finalize the emissions reduction plans, followed by an implementation phase with regular monitoring and reporting. Our approach aligns with the "One Health" and "Planetary Health" concepts, considering the interconnectedness of human and natural systems to achieve health equity and environmental sustainability. By embedding environmental impact assessment into healthcare decision-making and research processes, our toolkit aims to foster a culture of environmental sustainability within the NHS. Structured into three complementary work programmes, our Hub focuses on (1) low-emission interventions in community and primary mental healthcare, (2) rapid assessment and implementation in clinical areas like urology and trauma & orthopaedics, and (3) incorporating environmental sustainability measures into clinical trials. Cross-cutting themes in (1) methods, (2) policy & geography, and (3) PPIE ensure coordination across work programmes, enhancing communication and transdisciplinary collaboration. Our team employs a diverse range of quantitative and qualitative methodologies to address the differential impacts on patients, NHS staff, and other stakeholders, promoting equality, diversity, and inclusion. The Hub's deliverables include frameworks for clinical and environmental impact assessments, rapid evidence acquisition, evaluation of environmental impact assessment data, development of delivery guidance, contextual factors to implementation, and national audit framework for ongoing monitoring of sustainability metrics. These outputs aim to support decarbonisation efforts across health and social care, improve population health, and minimize unintended consequences. Over the funding period, we aim to refine the toolkit, develop expertise, and establish a self-sustaining centre of excellence for environmentally sustainable healthcare innovation. Beyond the funding period, the Hub will support decarbonisation efforts, facilitate green clinical research, adapt frameworks for international health systems, and build capacity across health and social care. Our approach provides a comprehensive framework for analysing carbon emissions and other pollutants' impact on health and social care pathways, contributing to improved healthcare delivery, leaner services, increased industry engagement, streamlined care pathways, and adaptable findings for international healthcare systems.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-02

Depression is a mental health disorder that affects a large portion of the global population, being the second largest contributor to a decrease in healthy life expectancy. Depression is characterised by a clinically significant form of psychological suffering that leads to significant impairment in someone's functionality, reduced quality of life and, in severe cases, can lead to death due to the risk of suicide. However, according to the World Health Organization, only a quarter of individuals suffering from mental health disorders receive proper care. Advances in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Natural Language Processing (NLP) research have been developed to a level that can be used for proposing computational solutions that assist in the detection and intervention in mental health conditions. AI and NLP based solutions that aid in the identification of signs of depression can be useful both in individual treatment and in making public policy decisions. Similarly, solutions that offer autonomous, ethical, reliable, controlled, and engaging intervention, in real time, can help mitigate the damage caused by depression. This project works on proposing and developing AI and NLP based solutions for the detection and intervention of mental health conditions that can have a broader reach and allow mental health support to individuals and populations that would not otherwise have access to it. Furthermore, as social determinants are frequently mentioned as risk factors for mental health conditions, this project also aims at furthering the understanding about them in two contexts (Brazil and the United Kingdom). This project aims to address scientific challenges that are still present and very relevant in this context: (i) dealing with more abstract language (such as figurative language) commonly used in mental health self-narratives, and (ii) outputting personalised interventions suitable for an individual's context.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-02

Real-time multimedia service optimization in the Internet-of-Vehicles (IoV) has attracted significant interest from both academia and industry due to the constantly increasing demands on vehicular multimedia applications such as real-time navigation, high-definition maps, and 360-degree video for auxiliary driving. The future IoV is envisioned to incorporate caching, computation, and communications (3C) resources to handle real-time multimedia transmission effectively and to create a safe, effective, and comfortable driving environment. However, the prediction, caching and delivery of streaming media contents confront significant obstacles, given the high mobility of vehicles, intermittent information transmission, high dynamics of content requests, and complexity of working scenarios. To address these challenges, this project aims to seamlessly synergize the benefits of vehicular communication protocols and Machine Learning technology in order to maximize the 3C resource utilization, enhance the Quality-of-Service, and protect user privacy. First, a robust 3C resource integration mechanism empowered by edge intelligence with a unified assessment model will be proposed to optimize real-time vehicular multimedia services. Second, a privacy-preserving federated multi-modal learning approach will be developed to analyze the spatial-temporal connection between vehicle trajectory and service requests and create a reliable traffic prediction model. Third, a hierarchical Deep Reinforcement Learning based decision-making method will be developed to construct an adaptive multimedia transmission control model that can simultaneously optimize the 3C resource allocation as well as the selection of transmission bitrate and reconstruction resolution. The outcomes of this project will produce cutting-edge theoretical and technical advancements that will aid in technical advancement, standardization, and market application of automakers and mobile communication service providers.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-02

Neurons are specialised cells in our body that have long extensions (called axons) allowing them to form connections (called synapses) with other neurons, leading to the establishment of neuronal circuits. The main function of these circuits is to conduct signals that coordinate our bodily functions, thoughts, sensations, and perceptions of the world. Hence, changes in the way neurons are wired during development can lead to neurodevelopmental disorders such as autism spectrum disorder, intellectual disability, and Schizophrenia. Moreover, failure to properly maintain synapses throughout life often results in neurodegenerative conditions such as Alzheimer's and motor neuron disease. An essential requirement for any cell, including neurons, is to produce new proteins that are required for virtually all cell functions. Proteins are made up of long chains of amino acids linked together, and they are responsible for carrying out many crucial biological processes. Proteins come from the genetic information stored in the DNA. This information is transcribed into messenger RNA (mRNA), which is then translated into a chain of amino acids, forming a protein. Traditionally, it was believed that mRNAs were produced and processed in the cell nucleus and that fully processed mRNA molecules were transported from the nucleus to the cytoplasm for translation into proteins. However, recent research has revealed that mRNA processing can also take place in axons. This phenomenon is known as "local mRNA processing" or "axon mRNA processing". For instance, some mRNA molecules are transported from the cell body (where the nucleus is located) to the axon that can be millimetres or even centimetres away from the RNA-producing nucleus. Once mRNA molecules reach the axon, they can be locally translated into proteins. Local mRNA processing in axons plays a crucial role in neuronal connectivity and homeostasis by regulating axon growth and maintenance, respectively. Dysfunctions of local mRNA processing are known to play a fundamental role in the pathogenesis of many neurological conditions, however, how mRNA processing is regulated locally in axons remains a fundamental open question. Spliceosome proteins form a complex molecular machine responsible for processing mRNAs in the nucleus. These proteins work together in a highly coordinated manner to accurately identify splice sites, catalyse the removal of introns (non-coding regions) from pre-messenger RNA (pre-mRNA), and join exons (coding regions) to form mature mRNA. This process is essential to produce mature mRNAs that can be translated into functional proteins. Surprisingly, many spliceosome proteins can also be detected in axons and synapses, often far away from the mRNA producing nucleus. One such protein is SNRNP70, unexpectedly found to localise in motor neuron axons. Intriguingly, this extra-nuclear pool of SNRNP70 was shown to be functionally active, regulating motor connectivity. However, we know only very little about which axonal mRNA targets SNRNP70 binds to and what cellular processes these mRNAs control. Importantly, we don't know how local mRNA processing is regulated by SNRNP70 to control neuronal connectivity. In this research proposal, we will use a unique set of genetic tools to identify the mRNAs regulated by the axonal activities of SNRNP70. By using computational tools, we will also obtain a global picture of the precise SNRNP70 binding sites within the mRNA targets and determine the effects SNRNP70 depletion from axons has on mRNA metabolism. We will assess the physiological roles of SNRNP70 by performing imaging in the translucent zebrafish larval system or using neurons that grow outside the body in a culture dish. This project will provide new and significant insights into the regulation of axonal mRNA processing and enable us to better understand how axonal homeostasis and neuronal connectivity are influenced by local mRNA processing events.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-02

UPGRADE seeks to broaden the research scope of the involved teams, focusing on tackling key challenges in geotechnical and geoenvironmental engineering. Specifically, it aims to pioneer innovative solutions for repurposing waste geomaterials generated by construction and mining industries worldwide. Waste geomaterials represents half of the waste volume generated in EU. These waste geomaterials generally exhibit poor engineering characteristics that prevent their direct use at construction/mining sites. However, if adequately treated, they could represent an excellent resource for construction purposes with significant money saving and reduction in the environmental footprint, thus contributing to the establishment of a circular handling/management of geomaterials. To achieve this, UPGRADE will develop protocols, software and tools to improve the engineering characteristics of waste geomaterials, and to guarantee the performance level over the service life of geostructures built from waste geomaterials considering site-specific conditions. The fundamental concern of UPGRADE is to promote strategies for sustainable use of waste geomaterials generated by geoengineering activities, and to determine how to turn a waste geomaterial into a durable material, with a positive revenue stream. The originality of UPGRADE's approach is that not only it draws expertise on the environment and geotechnics, but also in computer sciences, geochemistry, analytical chemistry, natural resources exploitation, and in the circulatory economy. We intend to form a multidisciplinary consortium composed of 10 academic and 5 industrial beneficiaries and 6 Third Country partners which aim to address this problem. UPGRADE will create an international, interdisciplinary and intersectoral network of creative and innovative researchers and practising engineers ready to face geotechnical and geoenvironmental engineering challenges which arise in the vanguard of technological innovation.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-02

Geological disasters have become one of the most significant environmental threats, creating risks to human life and economic development. It is therefore imperative to conduct fine-grained precise disaster monitoring and early warning to guide disaster prevention and emergency rescue strategies, which can greatly contribute to saving lives, reducing economic losses, and safeguarding communities. However, several critical challenges, including inefficient multi-dimensional geological environment remote sensing (GERS) data fusion, low generalization of data-driven AI models, and inconclusive disaster evolution patterns, remarkably limit the precise identification and warning of geological disasters from GERS data. To address these challenges, this project will comprehensively integrate multi-modal GERS data and cutting-edge AI technologies to create an innovative knowledge-driven disaster identification and evolution associative analysis methodology with high accuracy, interpretability and reliability. Specifically, 1) a novel multi-modal GERS data fusion method will be developed to effectively ensemble remote sensing images and monitoring data to obtain high-precision fused data; 2) An original knowledge-driven interpretation scheme will be designed to combine the spatial relationships and domain expert knowledge of geological environment in order to improve the precision and generalization of disaster and geological context identification; 3) A disaster evolution analysis mechanism will be developed to recognize the evolution process of typical geological disasters and warn early disaster signs; 4) A creative knowledge-driven method with high accuracy, interpretability and reliability will be developed for disaster identification and evolution analysis. This project will revolutionize the way disasters are predicted and monitored, which empowers more swift responses to the geological threats, significantly reducing the devastation caused by geological disasters.