UNIVERSITY OF EXETER

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-01

Autistic people generally have lower levels of independence, employment, and quality of life than their non-autistic counterparts. There have been widespread calls to address these imbalances, both from major inter-government organisations (e.g., the UN, NHS, WHO) and community-based advocacy groups. While improvements in these areas can often be achieved through environmental modifications, barriers can arise when autistic people find certain skills difficult to learn or perform. A prominent example here is driving: indeed, studies have shown that autistic people often experience wide-ranging challenges when driving a car and that they are less likely to obtain a license than their neurotypical peers. These skill-related difficulties are strongly linked with reduced personal independence and restricted access to social and/or employment resources. This project will extend my ESRC-funded PhD and subsequent postdoctoral work to address these challenges, by building new evidence-based support tools that enhance driving abilities in autistic people. To achieve our objectives, the research will build upon three core pillars: 1) Immersive Technologies. Extended Reality (XR) can create highly realistic yet controlled driving simulations that allow learners to practice in an immersive and safe way. Our research suggests that XR can be a particularly promising tool for autistic people, as it can provide engaging learning experiences that are sensitive to diverse individual needs. The proposed work will advance these findings, by researching how XR simulations can be best designed to support autistic people. In collaboration with industry specialists, we will develop a novel, open-source XR application that can enhance autistic driving abilities. 2) Participatory Action Approach. The project will be directly guided by stakeholders from the wider autistic community. Here neurodivergent people will not just be involved as 'subjects', but will meaningfully shape our research aims, methodologies, and conclusions in a series of co-creative workshops and 'idea generation' activities. By interactively working alongside academics, industry specialists and service providers, stakeholders will help co-design the XR tool and decide how it can be effectively applied to meet the needs of neurodivergent individuals and drive positive social change. 3) Neuromotor Science. Research suggests that autistic people process sensory information fundamentally differently from non-autistic people when performing motor tasks. These inherent differences could relate to wide-ranging neuropsychological atypicalities and can explain why autistic people find it challenging to learn practical skills like driving. My PhD shed light on why 'sensorimotor' abilities differ in autistic people and how practical skills could be improved in future learning programmes. Specifically, my results suggested that practitioners should make uncertain and volatile sensory environments feel more predictable during learning. We have since developed novel adaptive XR software, which automatically adjusts simulation features based on real-time user data. The proposed project will incorporate these state-of-the-art adaptive capabilities into a bespoke driving application, so that levels of predictability can be tailored according to a person's unique learning response. Once these co-creative research developments have been completed, we will conduct an experimental trial that evaluates the validity, feasibility, and initial efficacy of our XR driving tool in autistic populations. The study will use mixed-methods analyses that are based on an established scientific framework for simulation training. The data will provide an empirical, pre-implementation assessment for the XR tool and will be shared with academics, industry specialists, policymakers, and community groups. It will also provide a crucial foundation for my long-term research ambitions.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-01

Protein molecules are nanoscale machines that support almost all life processes. My research aims to understand how proteins change their structure in order to sense their environment and to catalyse chemical reactions. Knowledge of these biophysical rules will enable us to engineer proteins as biotechnology tools and medicines and will underpin the discovery of important new classes of drugs that are safer and less toxic than current chemotherapy. The processes of life are dynamic - it is change on a molecular level that enables us to grow and move, but also to become ill and treat disease. Just as the shape and posture of our body can determine our readiness to perform a task, the structure and conformation of a protein molecule can determine its function or activity. Humans make over 20,000 unique proteins and each of these needs to move in order to function - often undergoing dramatic changes in shape with no clear mechanism to link these to the environmental triggers. Crucially, it is the ability for proteins to reconfigure dynamically and rapidly that underpins many critical activities in biology, disease and medicine. However, we are currently limited to study proteins, including many important enzymes, at high resolution in space or time - but not both. Static structural models have contributed to major advances, such as in gene editing technology. This structural information is also critically important for drug discovery, accurately guiding design and optimisation efforts. These are major new applications that rely on precisely controlling dynamic changes in protein structure. These aims - and our understanding of fundamental biology - will be greatly advanced by bridging high resolution information in both time and space. We now have a unique opportunity to make measurements of the structural perturbations in large enzymes both with high structural resolution (per amino acid building block) and high temporal resolution (per millisecond). A vast number of naturally occurring proteins across all of life employ allostery to regulate biological processes in response to their changing environment, notably the archetypal allosteric enzyme, glycogen phosphorylase. With our prototype instrumentation, we have provided a quantitative description of the intra-molecular regulation in the archetypal allosteric enzyme, glycogen phosphorylase. To observe changes in structure during the processes of enzyme regulation, we then created a novel method: non-equilibrium hydrogen/deuterium-exchange mass spectrometry (neHDX-MS). This resolved unexpected transient structural changes at near-amino acid resolution that occur during allosteric activation of glycogen phosphorylase, revealing that a short section - just 1% of the protein - dynamically reconfigures to facilitate activation of the enzyme. Excitingly, these changes are absent when the protein is measured in the inactive or active states, hence they went unnoticed for decades in this extensively studied enzyme. Our new method represents a straightforward way to identify transient protein dynamics that occur during almost any allosteric process. Therefore, we are now focused on its application to gene editing enzymes to identify currently hidden features that critically enable their regulation and catalytic function. We will then screen changes made to these highly focused locations in an effort to optimise properties critical to their use as biotechnology tools, such as specificity and efficiency. This research programme brings together expertise in building novel experimental methods, cutting edge data science approaches, development of new software tools and a direct relevance to fundamental biology and applications in biotechnology and drug discovery.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-01

The function of colourful patterns on butterfly wings has been the subject of intense speculation and research ever since the days of Darwin and Wallace. However, existing adaptive theories fail to explain the patterns in the majority of species where there is no evidence of toxicity, mimicry, sexual signalling, or thermal factors. High-contrast markings in other contexts are thought to provide protection for moving animals through motion dazzle, with research typically focused on zebra stripes. This mechanism is thought to interfere with a predator's estimation of a target's speed and/or direction to deflect attacks, but evidence for motion dazzle effects in nature has been mixed. We believe that the high-contrast markings on butterfly wings create powerful motion confusion effects in predators. The comparatively slow frequency of butterfly wingbeats appears to match the visual abilities of typical avian predators that have considerably faster acting vision than humans. Moreover, high-speed video and preliminary data reveal that the deformation of butterfly wings in free-flight combines with their wing patterns to enhance motion confusion effects at some points in the wingbeat cycle, while reducing true-motion signals at other points. Taken together, our modelling suggests that butterflies can trick predators into mistaking them for moving in the opposite direction to their true heading. This represents a step change in our understanding of butterfly wing patterning, and suggests that motion confusion effects are not an uncommon strategy found in a limited number of striped animals, but are a major anti-predator defence mechanism that has been overlooked for centuries in one of the most charismatic and heavily researched insect groups. We plan to demonstrate this using a range of novel techniques that rely on motion-vision modelling, high-speed 3D capture of free-flight dynamics, 3D simulations, genetic algorithms, and psychophysical experimentation. Work package (WP) 1 will take high-speed video recordings of free-flying butterflies, and segment these into distinct pattern colours. Once segmented, we can superimpose these flights over different backgrounds and alter the appearance of specific colour patches to determine how specific colouration types affect motion confusion models. WP2 will determine how taxonomically widespread motion confusion patterns are across European butterflies, and whether strategies vary in tandem with flight characteristics. This will use images of over 400 butterfly species and simulate each in flight using 3D rendering and flight data from WP1. The wing patterns in some butterfly taxa are created through known genetic and developmental pathways that could either limit the adaptive potential of the markings for motion confusion, or could create patterns that fit our motion confusion hypothesis by coincidence. WP3 will therefore use genetic algorithms together with 3D flight simulations and visual modelling to generate patterns that are optimised to create maximal motion confusion effects. This will show that motion confusion alone is sufficient to explain butterfly wing patterning independently of real-world limitations. WP4 will validate our visual modelling using psychophysics experiments. Motion vision is thought to be highly conserved among vertebrates, so we will use carefully calibrated display equipment free from spatio-temporal interference effects to test whether humans are affected by butterfly motion confusion effects in a manner predicted by our modelling. Taken together our work will provide the significant body of evidence from multiple independent sources to identify a critically overlooked anti-predator defence strategy. The results will impact significant areas of research in visual ecology, butterfly evolutionary and developmental work, and wider society such as virtual reality/simulation, defence and gaming sectors.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-01

The Digitally Enabled Circular Healthcare Innovation (DECHI) Research Programme is a ground-breaking initiative uniting leading interdisciplinary research expertise from the Universities of Exeter, Sheffield, and Cambridge. Collaborating with a vast network of stakeholders including manufacturers, practitioners, innovators and policymakers from across the Healthcare Sector, DECHI will investigate how advances in digital technologies and approaches can accelerate the transition to a more sustainable and resilient healthcare system of the future through the adoption of circular innovation The Circular Economy (CE) is a systems framework that decouples resources from economic growth. Reports highlight the potential of circular innovation, reducing, recovering, reusing, repairing, and remanufacturing assets to achieve a 45% reduction in emissions. In healthcare, studies demonstrate environmental impact reductions of up to 60% and financial savings of up to 50% through the reuse, repair, and remanufacture of medical devices. Yet, such studies are scarce, and a notable absence of data and accessible tools hinders the quantification, validation and adoption of circular innovation benefits. Additionally, understanding the system-level requisites, such as behaviour change, business models, and policy adjustments, remains limited, resulting in slow and disjointed implementation of circular innovation within healthcare. DECHI proposes that the development and application of digital approaches, encompassing data analytics, simulation and modelling techniques, and advancements in digital technologies including sensorization, enhanced sterilisation and asset tracking, presents a pioneering pathway to expedite circular innovation adoption within the MedTech sector. The objectives of DECHI are therefore to: Develop a taxonomy-led data search, pooling and analysis methodology, across a diverse range of product use cases to quantify and visualise the environmental, economic and social benefits of circular innovation in the transition towards a net zero healthcare system, Use advances in sensorisation, simulation and optimisation, from across sectors, to identify and demonstrate the optimal circular intervention to prolong the life of MedTech devices and retain and reuse critical materials within healthcare, Identify and analyse how advances in digital technology can accelerate the adoption of circular innovation processes and influence the development of more environmentally sustainable and circular healthcare technologies of the future, Define and model the system-level enablers, including policy, regulation, behaviour change and business models, required to scale and amplify the adoption of a digitally enabled circular healthcare system. Through collaborative knowledge creation, tool development, and use case generation with a diverse range of industrial, policy and academic project partners, DECHI aims to revolutionize the healthcare sector. Anticipated impacts include heightened knowledge and adoption of digitally enabled circular innovation, informed policy and regulations supporting circularity, reduced environmental impact of MedTech device use, an increase in the number of MedTech devices that are designed for circularity, and an overall boost in the resilience of UK MedTech supply. DECHI is poised to reshape the future of healthcare through digitally enabled circular innovation.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-01

One important way we can mitigate the climate disaster is through reducing meat consumption, which contributes 57% of all food production emissions. This dietary change has added benefits in terms of public health and is aligned with UK policy around food and climate. Despite this, uptake of plant-based diets has so far been slow. Encouraging dietary change in adulthood is a difficult task due to powerful psychological processes that scaffold meat eating. The proposed project will examine children's and adolescents' thinking about eating animals. There are important reasons to begin such examinations in childhood. First, this is the period in which dietary preferences are formed. Second, recent research has shown that children value animal lives as much as they value human lives and see eating animals as less morally acceptable than adults do. This contrasts with most adults who categorise some animals as 'food' and less deserving of moral concern. However, how these moral judgments about animals change across childhood and how these judgments relate to thinking about eating animals is not yet well understood. This is a key piece of evidence that is required to design educational interventions targeted at the point in development at which they will be most effective. Without this foundational longitudinal work, educational interventions are less likely to deliver impactful change. The project will follow two cohorts of children from 6-years-old through to 15-years-old, with participants completing a survey once per year over four years. Using this survey, I will test a proposed model that will for the first time allow us to understand how our moral judgments about animals change across childhood in relation to factual knowledge of what we eat. First, I will examine children's knowledge of food systems - that is, their understanding that food comes from animals. Second, I will examine whether this is related to children categorising farmed animals more as "pets" or as "food". Following this, I will measure outcomes that may support eating animals. These will include speciesism, which is the idea that a living being's moral worth depends on what species it belongs to. Adults generally see humans and pets as having more moral value than farmed animals. The survey will measure whether children think similarly and at what age. Finally, I will measure different examples of thinking about animals including children's evaluations of how "okay" it is to eat them. Relatedly, I will ask children why they think it is "okay" or "not okay" to eat said animals. Together, these measures will reveal a more complete picture of how knowledge about food production changes over development, how this knowledge is related to categorising animals as "food" rather than "pets", and whether this relates to evaluations of eating these animals. Using this evidence, I will work with my existing partners in food education (experts from charities and schools) to consider practical applications. I will work with these practitioners to co-design lesson plans that tackle issues related to food systems, animal welfare and climate education. The findings will be essential in guiding how these lesson plans are designed and can complement existing food-based education in schools and serve as the first step towards future research to design effective educational interventions focused on sustainable diets.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-01

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) are emerging as powerful tools for sustainable environmental monitoring, playing a vital role in comprehending the diverse effects of climate change on ecosystems. The integration of state of the art techniques such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) with UAV technology has introduced innovative pathways for various environmental applications. However, their full potential remains to be explored. ACCELERATE proposes the development of a fertile inter-disciplinary and inter-sectoral ecosystem that aims to radically contribute towards enhancing UAV technology to enable the sustainable environmental management. The specific objectives of the project are to: a) Create a continuously updated ecosystem with UAV datasets suitable for environmental studies and climate change impact assessment; b) promote methodological advances in the field of UAVs technology, by exploiting the unique capabilities of those data with state-of-the-art techniques; and c) establish clear guidelines and homogenized protocols for the characterization of the exploitation of UAVs in specific application domains. Experimental analysis will also be carried to showcase the practical use of the project outputs via four carefully selected and innovative Use Cases, that will serve as Key Performance Indicators of the project. ACCELERATE brings together enthusiastic staff from academia and industry via a series of carefully-designed secondments, establishing a unique fertile collaborative research and innovation environment to promote pioneering research in environmental and socioeconomic studies and implementation within urban, natural and agricultural environments. A strong inter-sectoral experienced research team of 17 partners from 9 countries, of 9 academic and 8 industrial partners coming from Greece (2), Romania (3), Italy (2), Cyprus (1), United Kingdom (5), North Macedonia (1), France (1), Germany (1) and Portugal (1) constitute the project’s Consortium.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-01

The Digital Innovation and Circular Economy (DICE) Network+ aims to drive a transformative shift in the sustainability and circularity of digital and communication technologies. Our vision leverages the digital revolution to foster a circular economy across sectors and value chains, adopting a "network of networks" approach for interdisciplinary collaboration, research, and technological innovation. DICE focuses on overcoming challenges such as the lack of circular economy principles in digital technology design and manufacture, and the poor understanding and coordination of digital advancements in supporting the transition towards a UK circular economy. Our network comprises 11 investigators, from engineering, materials science and social sciences and a wide range of partners, including universities, industry stakeholders, and public bodies. It aims to benefit stakeholders through the co-creation of innovative solutions, fostering knowledge exchange, supporting projects that promote digitally enabled circular economy adoption and guidance on future policy making and industrial decision making. The approach centres around interdisciplinary collaboration, leveraging our extensive existing networks (over £160m of funding since 2020) for maximum impact, and a structured programme of network engagement under the four pillars of Insight and Evidence, Inclusive Community, Capacity Building and Knowledge Exchange, and Research Impact and Legacy. DICE's activities include mapping exercises, webinars, annual showcases, co-creation workshops, knowledge exchange placements, feasibility studies, and demonstrator projects, culminating in the development of a 10-year vision and roadmap towards a digitally enabled CE to guide future policy making, industrial decision making, investment and technological development.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-01

A key challenge facing academic researchers as well as archive and heritage specialists is how to address historical forms of erasure and marginalisation while fostering connections between communities. Debates about inclusive heritage and diverse representation raise thorny questions about how we can engage in meaningful ways with contentious historical sources while making space for underrepresented voices and perspectives. 100 Years of The Well of Loneliness (100Years) turns to the most famous banned novel in LGBTQ+ history to address these problems. Published and censored as obscene in the UK in 1928, Radclyffe Hall's The Well of Loneliness has, over the last 100 years, offered support and affirmation as well as education and understanding to generations of LGBTQ+ as well as heterosexual and cisgender readers across the world. Despite its status as the so-called 'Lesbian Bible', the novel has also alienated, offended, shocked, and divided audiences and continues to inspire debates about its politics, value, and place within the literary canon and the LGBTQ+ archive. The 2028 centenary of the novel's publication and ban offers a vital opportunity to capture its rich reception history and use it as a springboard for developing much-needed methods of engagement that can bring together different perspectives to facilitate dialogue, learning, and understanding. 100Years will grapple with the ways in which LGBTQ+ voices have been censored and silenced whilst acknowledging how a canonical novel like The Well has itself alienated, excluded, and divided readers. To explore these important yet fraught histories, the project will use a range of research methods (including oral history, reception studies, archival research, translation studies, visual culture studies, and engaged research) and foster new collaborations to test different forms of creative and engagement practice. Through pioneering transnational archival research, the creation of a substantial oral history archive, and in-depth engagement with diverse communities, the project will produce the first ever reception history of The Well. It will build upon this research and create conversation among academic researchers, creative practitioners, and archive and heritage specialists, including at The National Archives and Bishopsgate Institute in London, and at the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas in Austin. These collaborations will provide vital opportunities to develop creative practices and engagement methods that can facilitate conversations about controversial and contentious histories, value different points of view, and promote understanding, solidarity, learning, and connection among different audiences. The project's research findings will be shared with academic beneficiaries through major academic open-access publications, including an edited volume, a monograph, and six journal articles. The project's insights into engagement practice will be disseminated through a heritage toolkit, co-produced with The National Archives, and a knowledge exchange event aimed at heritage, archive, and museum specialists. Through a public-facing website, a new short film by renowned filmmaker Campbell X, and a series of public showcases, displays, workshops and events, 100Years will create a powerful legacy to engage, educate, and connect wider publics, including LGBTQ+ audiences as well as individuals with interests in histories of censorship and literary culture.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-01

Previous research has highlighted concerning levels of poor mental and physical health (including elevated levels of depression, anxiety, pain and injury) among both men and women living and/or working on farms within England and Wales. The underlying drivers of health outcomes within the agricultural community are, however, poorly understood, particularly in the case of farm women, who have rarely formed the focus of health-related research in the UK but who are likely to face a range of both gender- and farming-specific challenges. This project will significantly deepen understanding about the complex psychosocial, cultural and familial processes that influence farm women's health and well-being across the life-course, as well as offering vital insights into help-seeking behaviour and the usefulness of different forms of support. It will also pilot an innovative, creative approach to fostering positive well-being within this social group. The core objectives are as follows: Evidence suggests that significant numbers of women in UK agriculture suffer from poor mental health but the reasons underlying high/low well-being are poorly understood. We will gain detailed insight into the farming- and/or gender-specific stressors and issues associated with current levels of health and well-being among farm women. Gendered roles, identities and intergenerational living arrangements within the traditionally patriarchal context of family farming uniquely shape the home-work-family environment for many farm women in various ways throughout their lives. We will investigate how different dimensions of farming cultures and environments are entwined with women's interpretations and experiences of high/low well-being at different stages of life, especially during key periods of transition. Understanding women's well-being holistically requires attending to the interlinkages between physical and mental health, particularly in relation to interpretations and experiences of women's bodies in farm work and life. We will explore the ways in which women experience and understand their health through, and in relation to, their bodies, with a focus on how this may change across the life-course, during periods of high stress or trauma, and in relation to their reproductive lives. Effective health support for the farming community needs to be tailored to their specific needs and women's health requires specific attention within this. We will work with farm women and farm support practitioners to i) deepen understanding into farm women's help-seeking behaviours and use of formal and informal support systems and ii) pilot an innovative, creative intervention to foster positive well-being. The project will be co-led by experienced researchers from the Centre for Rural Policy Research at the University of Exeter and the Farming Community Network (FCN), a farm support charity. It will benefit from the expert guidance of an advisory board, consisting of representatives from farming mental health organisations (DPJ Foundation; Farmerados), a social group championing women in agriculture (Women's Ag Group), an NHS Foundation Trust, and two senior academics with expertise in psychology, human geography and gender. The research findings will directly influence the work of FCN, offering them deeper insights into the challenges farm women face and how their health needs can best be met through tailored support. Other farming charities, as well as healthcare professionals, policymakers, interested parties within agriculture, and academics working in relevant fields, will also benefit from this enhanced understanding and evidence base. Research users will be engaged throughout the project and findings communicated through a range of written, visual and verbal outputs.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2024 · 2024-12

Maintaining cutting-edge research facilities and specialised technical support are central to the University of Exeter's strategy for providing an infrastructure which underpins world-leading (4*) research. Exeter has invested heavily in academic appointments and research facilities to increase the volume and quality of EPSRC facing research. The items of equipment requested in this proposal were selected via a strategic process for maintaining, upgrading and replacing key research assets that our EPSRC funded academics rely upon, and collectively increase our capability in undertaking research in key EPSRC themes and areas.    Our strategy for the allocation of funds was to run an open call for expressions of interest based on the criteria provided by EPSRC: Underpinning multi-user equipment; Invest to save; and equipment to benefit ECRs and doctoral activities. The scale of the institutional award, £350k, allowed us to consider a breadth of proposals with a broad user base. The opportunity was made available to our full EPSRC-facing community. A specially convened panel, following an internal call selected 4 items of equipment that will support a broad range of users, underpin science of national importance and that fits with the strategic direction of the host departments. The selected items are: E01: LPKF ProtoLaser H4 (to be managed by Project Co-Lead Professor Hibbins, Department of Physics and Astronomy) E02: FT-IR Mapping Microscope (to be managed by Project Co-Lead Professor Oana Ghita, Department of Engineering) E03: 2PP MicroFAB 3D printer (to be managed by Project Co-Leads Dr Calum Williams, Department of Engineering and Dr Ulrike Bauer, Department of Biosciences) E04: Reactive Ion PVD system (to be managed by Project Co-Lead Professor Saverio Russo, Department of Physics and Astronomy).      

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2024 · 2024-12

The temperature dependence of microbial respiration remains one of the largest uncertainties in the response of the carbon cycle to climate change. Over short timescales, metabolic rates increase exponentially with temperature. A temperature-induced increase in microbial respiration will lead to an increase in the flux of carbon into the atmosphere, which may lead to more warming, resulting in a positive feedback. However, studies from multiple ecosystem types, have shown a decrease in the temperature sensitivity of community respiration under long-term warming. A dampened response of respiration to temperature would reduce or remove the positive feedback and current anthropogenic emissions would lead to less warming. The underlying ecological and evolutionary mechanisms that contribute to a dampening of the temperature sensitivity of microbial respiration are still up for debate and no consensus has been reached on their relative importance, hindering efforts to capture this important phenomenon in predictive models. The aim of the MICROADAPT project is to determine how rapid evolution and species sorting shape the temperature dependence of microbial community respiration using an array of innovative experiments with a microbial model system. In synergy with the experimental data, we develop novel mathematical theory that capture the ecological and evolutionary mechanisms that shape the emergent temperature response of microbial metabolism.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2024 · 2024-12

Air pollution is a significant global concern causing an estimated 4.2 million deaths annually due to diseases related to poor air quality. Climate change is exacerbating air quality issues and posing unprecedented challenges to the existing air quality monitoring systems, which mainly utilize sparse and expensive terrestrial stations and satellites, leading to limited accuracy and flexibility. To address these challenges, REFINE aims to form an international, multidisciplinary, and cross-sectoral consortium with world-leading researchers to create a novel real-time fine-grained air quality monitoring system empowered by advanced technologies in Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), Artificial Intelligence (AI), and Wireless Networking. Specifically, REFINE will pioneer research and innovations (R&I) on ground-breaking technologies including: 1) a robust and scalable system architecture for aerial-terrestrial air quality monitoring; 2) intelligent and efficient multi-UAV cooperation strategies for dynamic and flexible area coverage; 3) ultra-resilient and secure aerial-terrestrial networking schemes for reliable and efficient data transmission; 4) lightweight and robust AI methods for accurate and real-time air quality analysis. REFINE will establish a long-term cross-disciplinary and cross-sectoral knowledge-sharing platform with competent and complementary expertise in Computer Science, Environmental Science, and Communication Engineering. The researchers involved will be trained through substantial R&I actions and well-planned networking activities at both European and global levels to enrich their skills and enhance their career perspectives. REFINE will significantly contribute to achieving the EU's zero-pollution ambition and enhancing European competitiveness, through transforming the current air quality monitoring systems into a new generation, which is able to provide real-time intelligent monitoring of vast rural areas with higher precision and efficiency.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2024 · 2024-11

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) a growing global crisis, posing a significant threat to human and animal health. Approximately one million deaths a year are directly attributed to drug-resistant bacterial infections with a further four million deaths associated with resistant infections every year. To address this challenge, we are excited to announce our ground breaking research project aimed at understanding and addressing the complex drivers of multi-drug resistance (MDR) across the One Health continuum. AMR is the process by which microorganisms such as bacteria and fungi adapt to survive and flourish in the presence of drugs used to treat infections. Bacteria can become resistant through random changes in their DNA (mutation) which enables their survival during antibiotic treatment. Of more concern is the fact that they can acquire foreign pieces of DNA (genes) through a process known as horizontal gene transfer, which allow bacteria to acquire resistance to multiple antibiotics in one step. AMR is not new, it has evolved in microbial populations in the environment over millions or billions of years to counteract antimicrobials naturally produced by fungi and bacteria, and these resistance mechanisms can move from harmless environmental bacteria to human pathogens. Globally, more antibiotics are used in intensive livestock farming than in clinical medicine and there is a strong association between antibiotic use in farming and resistance in animal gut microbiomes. This link between AMR in humans, animals and the environment has led to ideas around One Health, which acknowledges that to understand human health a broader consideration of animal and environmental systems is necessary. Although we know there is an association between AMR across One Health sectors, the relative importance of bacteria living in the environmental and livestock (ie. their microbiomes) and their role in emergence of resistance in human pathogens is poorly understood. Much like COVID-19 emerged from a wildlife reservoir, there are vast AMR reservoirs in animal and environmental microbiomes, and we need to understand the process that amplify these and lead to emergence in human pathogens. We will apply new state of the art computational analyses to DNA sequence data from human, animal and environmental microbiomes in the UK and China, to determine which resistance mechanisms are actively evolving in different settings. This will be combined with novel machine learning and computational approaches to predict MDR in pathogens and bacterial populations allowing drivers of resistance to be quantified. We will use experimental evolution models to determine causal relationships between antibiotic use and development of resistance, including hypothesis testing informed by our analyses and replicating antibiotic use in clinical medicine, livestock production and antibiotic residues introduced to the environment by pollution. This data will be used to develop a new risk assessment framework, that for the first time will include data on evolutionary dynamics of resistance genes across One Health microbiomes. Our novel approach will be tested in a proof of principle case study on human wastewater microbiomes in the UK and China allowing socio-economic, demographic, genetic, evolutionary and environmental drivers to be considered simultaneously. We will also develop low-cost diagnostic tools for detection of key MDR markers. Outputs will be communicated at national and supranational level through the unrivalled networks of team members in China, the UK and organisations such as the WHO and UN.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2024 · 2024-11

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

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2024 · 2024-09

The fungus Cryptococcus neoformans is responsible for approximately 200,000 human deaths each year. C.neoformans lives in the environment but possesses a remarkable capacity to adapt to a variety of environments, including different hosts. Upon entering the human respiratory system, C.neoformans is able to adapt to the new conditions and can even evade immune system defences. From the primary infection in the lungs, it spreads to the central nervous system, leading to meningitis. Cryptococcal meningitis is difficult to treat, mortality is high, and therapy is often limited by the efficacy and availability of drugs. Understanding how C. neoformans adapts and survives within the host is crucial for finding new and improved treatments. The success of C.neoformans lies in its adaptability - its ability to change its behaviour (i.e. its 'phenotype') - to survive the harsh conditions within the host. A key strategy enabling adaptability involves "chromatin". Chromatin packages the DNA, which carries the instructions for cells, named "genes". Making "chromatin modifications" alters the packaging, thereby altering how and when the instructions are used and which affects fungal behaviour and ability to adapt. In C.neoformans, removing certain specific chromatin components significantly reduces its ability to cause disease, suggesting that the associated chromatin modifications are involved in adaptation of the fungus to its host. However, we know little about the chromatin changes that normally happen during infection and how they influence the behaviour of the fungus. In this proposal, I will utilise my expertise with C.neoformans chromatin to investigate three key aims: 1) Understanding chromatin changes during infection: I will investigate how chromatin modifications change when the fungus infects a host. Chromatin changes can impact which genes are turned on or off, influencing the ability of the fungus to survive and cause disease. Comparing fungi that can or cannot make these specific chromatin changes will reveal the roles such modifications play in fungal infection. 2) Understanding the role of irreversible chromatin changes: Most chromatin modifications are reversible to allow specific genes to be activated or repressed when necessary. However, my previous work unexpectedly showed that some stably inherited chromatin modifications important for C.neoformans survival in the host are unable to be re-made once removed. The same may be true for several different chromatin modifications, potentially exposing an Achilles' heel for C.neoformans. I will investigate the hypothesis that removing these modifications by treating the fungus with specific drugs will permanently remove such modifications and thereby inhibit the ability of C.neoformans to infect the host. This strategy could provide an alternative route to develop treatments that for fungal infections, that would be less prone to the development of resistance. 3) Explore the role of chromatin modification in evolution of drug resistance: Inside the host, C.neoformans can also change its DNA content or double the amount of specific genes, which can lead to drug resistance. I will investigate how chromatin modifications influence the ability to change DNA content, providing insights into how the fungus adapts to the host and how drug resistance develops. By investigating the underexplored area of chromatin regulation during infection, my research will bring new insights into how C.neoformans adapts to the host environment and causes disease. This knowledge will inform the development of novel antifungal strategies to better combat fungal infections.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2024 · 2024-09

Acquired Brain Injury (ABI) is a leading cause of disability in children, as recognised by the World Health Organisation (1). Children with ABI often have ongoing difficulties that can significantly impact on their educational engagement, including fatigue, difficulties processing information, impaired memory, difficulties with organisation and planning, reduced concentration, impulsivity, and hyperactivity (2, 3). This fellowship aims to understand long term educational outcomes for children following an ABI, and how forms of educational support can improve these outcomes. We will subsequently develop guidance for schools to improve awareness. Cross-sectional evidence indicates that children with traumatic brain injuries are vulnerable to long-term academic difficulties, when compared to both healthy controls and children with orthopaedic injury (2). The consequences of ABI can affect academic performance (4), school absences (5, 6), peer group exclusion and bullying (7), and school exclusion, which can contribute to a 'school-to-prison pipeline' (8). All of these factors can significantly influence health-related quality of life (9). Despite this emerging evidence, there are significant gaps in understanding outcomes for children with ABI within schools, which this project will address. To our knowledge, no large-scale prospective study has been conducted in the UK that tracks educational outcomes after ABI. In 2019, an American study examined discrepancies between hospital data for ABI, and the numbers of students receiving special educational support at school (10), with only 33% of children whose hospital presentations indicated a moderate-severe ABI (likely to lead to ongoing difficulties) found to be receiving special educational support. While no such large-scale study of educational support has been conducted in England, recent policy analysis indicate similar challenges within our systems. Most notably, the All Party Parliamentary Group for ABI report, 'Time for Change' (3), highlighted the chronic lack of understanding amongst education professionals about ABI, the common lack of awareness within schools of a child's prior injury, and the associated difficulties in identifying the specific educational support needed (11). This fellowship will meet these gaps in evidence: Provide the most robust estimation in the UK to date as to how many children are presenting at hospital with an ABI. Track how ABI impacts on outcomes in education, including attainment, school exclusion, and persistent absence. Identify the frequency of SEN provision after ABI and elucidate what categories of support children with ABI in England receive. Consider how different forms of support (e.g. classification of SEN, time after injury) influence educational outcomes. Explore pre-injury demographic profiles, as it is known that gender (12), socio-economic status (13), and care status (14) influence both prevalence of and outcomes after brain injury. Assess whether these demographic profiles elucidate sub-populations of children with ABI who are not identified for SEN support. I will also map variation in support and outcomes by geography and school type. I will do this using the ECHILD dataset, which links health and education records for children in England. We will use a prospective longitudinal cohort design. Throughout the project, I will work collaboratively with the UK Acquired Brain Injury Forum (UKABIF) and the National ABI in Learning and Education Syndicate (NABLES) to ensure our research speaks to the experiences of those affected by ABI, as well as the realities of educational settings and SEN support. We will co-create impactful resources for education professionals based on our findings.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2024 · 2024-09

Critical Minerals are the raw materials and enablers of the transition to Net Zero, and essential ingredients of all digital technologies and advanced manufacturing. Lithium, tin, tungsten, cobalt, rare earths and other critical and strategic metals and minerals make the green economy work. The International Energy Agency estimates that up to 40x more lithium and seven times more rare earths may be needed by 2040 than is presently produced each year.  Southwest England is the leading UK region for potential production of critical minerals, with six active exploration and development companies, a history of metals mining that led the world and some 70 service and equipment companies (predominantly SMEs and microbusiness) with a global client base.  Development of the sector is recognised as a unique opportunity for economic development in the region. Each new mine will employ 200 – 350 staff, in high-value jobs that are much needed, and each job will create as many as five times the number of indirect jobs. There are several challenges to be overcome to speed up the development of critical minerals production. They include both technical innovations for the new types of mineral deposits now being explored and making sure that projects have strong partnerships with the local community; result in biodiversity net gain, and make an attractive proposition for investors, especially for the sustainable investment sector looking to invest in the green economy. The content of our Centre is informed by the 12 principles of UN Resource Management System as a framework to consider commercialisation combined with the ESG and circular economy actions needed to ensure real sustainable development and attract investment. This Centre has been created in partnership with SW England businesses, local government and other organisations who have committed considerable time and resources to the proposed research and innovation. The activities of the Centre will help to implement the UK critical minerals strategy by accelerating commercialisation of projects for domestic production of critical minerals, and expanding the associated industry cluster that is already operating worldwide to enhance mineral production. It forms the core of a wider academic-industry University of Exeter initiative to form a Critical Minerals Centre of Excellence. The Centre builds on a wide and substantial body of international and regional research at Camborne School of Mines (CSM) and well-established collaborations  with the Business School on circular economy. It brings new transdisciplinary, world-leading, applied research in ecology, sustainable investment, social studies and politics to benefit innovation in Southwest England.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2024 · 2024-09

The ESRC funding opens a space for me to actively publicise the central argument of my PhD which is that empathy needs to be understood as affective and embodied for a more ethical, relational understanding of the world. If empathy is achieved, then it extends empathy beyond the human to include other living entities. This is needed because, empathy is on the decline between humans (Global Risk Report, 2019), and yet it is essential for being able to understand differences (of both each other and other living entities), so that collaborative action can be taken effectively towards the climate crisis whilst considering the needs of all living entities and how they all relate. Consequently, I argue that to teach this, usual ways of thinking about education need to be disrupted because typically, curriculum is designed to place humans at the top of the hierarchy of life, which has led to violence towards the planet. Therefore, this funding will offer me the opportunity to create a platform for me to publish papers from my thesis and to collate my research into a pedagogical design which incorporates transdisciplinarity and creativity with teaching tools to create ruptions in education. This can then be used to set up a transdisciplinary community learning garden that offers teaching and learning across generations to prepare for an uncertain future through collaborative and collective action. Furthermore, the fellowship will allow me to remain part of a well-regarded institution that will support me and provide me with a professional platform from which to springboard. Three publications will be produced within the fellowship, one of which will be presented at a conference in Australia that will further establish my work within a field who are equally striving towards socio-economic justice. Alongside this, research will be conducted into designing a new pedagogy and teaching tools that provide the theoretical argument about why empathy should be seen as affective and embodied, gives examples of how to create spaces for affective, embodied empathy to emerge, and offers an argument for working in a transdisciplinary way. Research will also be conducted on the creation of a transdisciplinary learning community garden. The garden will be built in partnership with the local community, community organisations as well as students and teachers from diverse backgrounds who attend these places. The aim is to create vibrant spaces where learning takes place between us as humans and more-than-human, food is grown and eaten, histories are shared, and a deep appreciation of the environment takes place so that an understanding of how all living things are related occurs. My research shows that when this happens, ethical action takes place. The fellowship will offer time to publish, apply for funds to create a learning toolbox for CPD courses to disseminate to new communities, so that this pedagogy reaches further and allows others to create their own gardens and actions.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2024 · 2024-09

There is growing recognition amongst the media, policy makers and medical researchers that menstrual health is a critical issue for women and society. Heavy menstrual bleeding (HMB) and menstrual pain (MP) can have a significant negative impact on financial, social, physical, and mental wellbeing, and individuals with HMB/MP are at an elevated risk of depressive symptoms. Identifying the causes of, treating, and managing HMB/MP is a global health priority, but research and clinical practice are lagging behind public awareness and there are substantial knowledge gaps. This project addresses gaps in this under-recognised, under-resourced and under-researched area of clinical need by bringing together the only cohort studies globally that have collected HMB and MP data. By harnessing existing, rich, longitudinal, and genetic data from these cohorts, we will provide evidence to inform better ways to predict, prevent and manage HMB/MP and reduce negative relationships with depressive symptoms over the life course.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2024 · 2024-09

Vision: The Net+ Centre is able to pivot resources to address emerging needs or to respond to climate-related events (e.g. extreme weather). It becomes a self-sustaining, world-leading research centre beyond the funding lifetime, generating and evaluating net-positive solutions to the challenges climate change poses to our environment and health. The Centre for Net Positive Health and Climate Solutions (Net+ Centre) is a national focus for research, networking and capacity building. It identifies 'net-positive' for health solutions, reducing the negative impacts of climate change while maximising the co-benefits of interventions, and provides the basis for furthering scientific advances, policy advice and innovation. An integrated interdisciplinary team of academics, analysts, other professionals and publics with experience across research, policy and practice deliver a programme of research, education and co-creation that places the UK at the forefront of both knowledge generation and mobilisation to respond to emerging threats and opportunities. Addressing the challenge: The Net+ Centre is framed around four interconnected themes:- Conceptualise risks and opportunities. This involves horizon scanning of emerging threats and complex systems analysis to identify opportunities for policy action. Task forces are convened to discuss issues of critical importance. Understand health and environmental impacts of mitigation and adaptation. This includes examining strategies for resilience in urban environments, green and blue infrastructure and food systems. Evaluate solutions. This involves development of models and tools to aid decision making, including considering the business case for action. Build capacity and engagement. This involves creating a community of practice, drawing on a range of knowledges to co-create solutions and building capacity at all levels to understand the challenges we face. Core members: The Net+ Centre brings together the resources and skills of the University of Exeter, the UK Health Security Agency, Forest Research, the National Trust, the Met Office and other partner organisations to create spaces for interdisciplinary and multisectoral working on health and climate change linkages across the UK. With expertise cutting across a range of disciplines from classics to economics, from climate modelling to epidemiology, anthropology to geography, data science to public health, the Net+ Centre is uniquely placed to deliver innovative, impactful research. Community of practice: Partnering with diverse organisations across the public, private and not-for-profit sectors, the Net+ Centre is grounded in working with a wide range of communities across the UK to co-produce net-positive solutions. A programme of engagement cuts across its activities, which involves creating and maintaining dialogue with a range of different publics, including those of different ages (such as schools and older people) and in different locales (for example, coastal communities) ensuring that a range of knowledges and values are captured, guide its work and approach, and are leveraged as part of generating solutions.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2024 · 2024-09

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

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2024 · 2024-09

Delivering sustainability transitions in diverse places across the UK entails changes in how we live and work across diverse issues such as land use planning and management, food and diet, energy production, transport and mobility and achieving net zero policy goals. The changes associated with sustainability transitions can be perceived in terms of winners and losers, incumbents and change-leaders, and often act as loci of disagreement, contestation over values and judgements about what is fair or just; for example, the recent controversy on the so-called '15-minute city' and debates about political intervention and freedom associated transport measures in Oxford. These 'flashpoints' are relevant not only to the places in which they emerge, but also for debate and policy action on delivering sustainable places nationally. Such flashpoints raise important issues about how common sustainability transitions are governed at different geographic scales, the ways in which past conflicts shape present-day contestation and the types and levels of engagement promoted and experienced by different interest groups. Accordingly, we need to understand what makes for a flashpoint issue on sustainable living: how such issues emerge, how they are framed, and how changes to governing sustainable living can promote ways of working with communities that promote participation and the co-production of solutions. The Governing Sustainable Future (GSF) project aims to examine how we can build new ways of understanding and acting on place-based sustainability contestations that address the local and non-local causes of conflict. GSF brings together a unique collaboration of social scientists and regional (Devon, UK) partners, who have a long history of working together, along with national partners, to address this question through novel and established social science and participatory approaches that are alert to questions of power and social difference. These collaborative relations underpin the research programme, embedding Co-production, Equality Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) and Sustainability principles in our research practice. GSF addresses four overarching aims associated work packages, that reflect our theoretical approach to identifying, analysing and intervening in sustainable policy conflicts: To develop an approach that helps us to understand local and non-local causes of conflicts that emerge in a particular place but also have connections to other places and evolve over time. To present new ways of thinking about places and relations between places that can help to unlock new solutions to sustainably policy conflicts. To develop innovative collaborative and participatory methods for responding to place-based sustainability conflicts (in Devon, UK) and apply to policy challenges on the ground. To generate new understandings of how participatory processes can support public and stakeholder engagement with the local and non-local causes of place-based sustainability conflicts, and progress action on just transitions in the UK. A core principle of GSF will be to make clear connections between insights from regional experience and recommendations for national policy and practice. Our team includes leading experts in discursive and participatory research methods, theories of place and sustainable transitions, environmental policy and politics, environmental controversy, and just transitions, plus key regional policy and practice organisations. Team members play a leading role in other major UKRI investments into sustainable living. The University of Exeter will provide match-fund support, which reflect considerable research synergies and institutional commitment to applying knowledge from this project. Together we will co-produce timely policy insights for achieving equitable and sustainable places.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2024 · 2024-09

By the end of the nineteenth century, textile mills were ubiquitous in industrial regions throughout the Global North. While the wider cultural, economic and political implications of these mills have led directly to the establishment of the history of design as a discipline, to date there has been little to no attention paid to their diasporic communities, and how migrant experiences shaped practices of modern interior design. By focusing on the regional working-class cities of Bradford, Paterson and Bad Vöslau, this project, led by Dr Sabrina Rahman (University of Exeter), will uncover the relationship between vernacular and global interior design. Situated within the fields of design history, social history and diaspora studies, the research and its associated development and engagement activities deploy an intersectional approach in order to consider how new approaches to vernacular design developed through processes of migration and acculturation. The project draws on the fellow's experiences of community-engaged, movement-based embodied research in a range of academic and curatorial contexts, based on accessible, creative movement practices in a supportive environment. It will allow her to develop her profile as a leader in facilitating new methodologies that bring together academic and wider public communities. This will be the focus of a series of on-site meetings in West Yorkshire, Northern New Jersey and Lower Austria, as well as the delivery of three site-specific workshops that will feature accessible activities centred around a multisensory experience of everyday life in the diaspora. These will be co-delivered by the fellow and three movement-based practitioners with intimate local knowledge of the diasporic cultures and histories that emerged from the context of working in textile mills. What connects South Asian diaspora communities in West Yorkshire to the Italian and Jewish diasporas of Northern New Jersey, and the Eastern European and Balkan communities of Lower Austria? How do the historical working environments in industrial textile mills relate to the design of everyday life in these multiple diasporas, ranging from homes to local cultural centres, restaurants and shops? How can practices of community engagement today empower members of these diasporas to craft meaningful histories that do not exist within design archives and institutionalised narratives of migrant and economic history, but rather privilege lived experience and alternative ways of knowing, doing and being? The fellowship seeks to nuance recent developments in the decolonisation of research in design across the disciplines-whether it be the study of social design in addressing minoritised histories and perspectives, or the application of design thinking as a path towards more equitable collaboration across communities. The risk with these more widespread interests in decolonial design processes is that the narratives continue to be shaped and thereby colonised by dominant voices. "Diaspora by Design: Migration, Mills and Interiors" thereby seeks to offer alternative practices and narratives in addressing fundamental issues in the field of design history. It does so by focusing on an engagement with participants belonging to distinctive diasporas, who have been working through their own practices of interior design in relation to the legacy of labour in industrial textile mills, in order to express collective approaches to lived experience that have not yet been formally documented. This project will offer a platform for these stories to be told in an empowered manner, through oral, textual and visual means, whilst forming the basis of an embodied methodology for the benefit of an interdisciplinary and international group of researchers.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2024 · 2024-09

The Parliamentary Thematic Research Lead on Health, will be embedded in the UK Parliament, working alongside parliamentary staff. This lead role will bring the research perspective to work carried out by select committees, libraries and Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology (POST). The role will include leading horizon scanning and futures work and supporting parliamentary staff to take a strategic approach to planning their work programmes, including supporting the development of committee Areas of Research Interest. The Thematic Research Lead will identify upcoming needs for Parliamentary Academic Fellows and opportunities for co-production of briefings between academics and Parliamentary staff. They will connect and expand their networks (including research, learned societies and industry) to support parliamentary activities and will liaise with those in the Government CSA Network team. This will enhance engagement with those working in research to policy, fostering collaboration and knowledge exchange.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2024 · 2024-08

Thousands of women have contributed to shaping British filmmaking, and its vibrant history, but their creative contributions are largely absent from public knowledge of that history, because evidence documenting their work is often buried and invisible in major film-related archives and museums. Our project will transform the understanding of women's creative contributions to the history of British filmmaking, demonstrating what can be learned by making their work easier to find in film-related archives, and more visible in film museums. We aim to open up women's film history and we understand the term 'filmmaker' inclusively, widening the term to include and value women's screen work in a range of production roles beyond the category of director or producer. Working with the major film-related collections in the UK - the British Film Institute and the Bill Douglas Cinema Museum - our project will progress through dialogue between professional archivists, curators and film scholars. Together we will think about how the cataloguing and description of film-related collections can be modified to amplify the discoverability of women filmmakers and their work. Our team will also innovate in curation, developing exciting new ways to visualise the creativity of women filmmakers and we will spotlight untold stories of their careers in physical museum exhibitions, and in digital formats. Through interviewing we will learn from women filmmakers about how they work, using this valuable knowledge to augment catalogue descriptions, and to animate our physical and digital curation. We will also seek to better understand the context in which archivists and curators work and the challenges they face in the screen heritage sector through undertaking a series of interviews. Our project has regional, national and international partners: the Exeter Phoenix Media Centre; the Wessex Sound and Film Archive, Winchester; the Taliesin Arts Centre, Swansea, Wales; the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Margaret Herrick Library, Los Angeles, and the Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research, University of Wisconsin, Madison. Sharing our research with these partners will enable us to more fully understand the common challenges of making women's screen work visible to a range of audiences, and allow us to take our insights in the UK context to impact work in screen heritage internationally.