UNIVERSITY OF EXETER

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2024 · 2024-08

Otoliths are calcium carbonate structures biomineralized in the inner ear of fish, and are used for balance and hearing. Otoliths grow continuously throughout the fish's life, forming continuous rings that can be aged much like trees. Today, fishery managers count otolith rings to estimate age, which is then incorporated into age-structured models to estimate wild fish populations. Fishery managers then use these otolith-reliant models to set catch limits to sustainably regulate fisheries and prevent overfishing. Many scientists also analyze the isotopic and elemental signatures of otoliths to gather historical environmental and metabolic factors such as temperature, diet, and salinity as experienced by the fish. Thus, the otolith is an invaluable tool for ecology, migratory biology, conservation, paleobiology, and fishery research. Despite its importance, our mechanistic understanding of otolith biomineralization remains poor. Furthermore, climate change will affect otoliths: ocean warming and acidification accelerate biomineralization, while hypoxia reduces it. This lack of mechanistic knowledge threatens the accuracy of otolith-reliant models, and by extension fisheries management under future climate change. Thus, there is an urgent need to develop foundational understanding on how the inner ear biomineralizes the otolith, its annual rings, and its elemental signatures. This proposal brings together Drs. Garfield Kwan, Rod Wilson, and Clive Trueman (secondment), who collectively have the world-leading expertise and state-of-the-art facilities in fish physiology, inner ear cell biology, and biogeochemistry necessary to investigate the ion-transport pathways responsible for otolith responses to warming, acidification, hypoxia, and feeding. This knowledge is critical to understanding how fish otoliths respond to future climate scenarios, and safeguard modern otolith-reliant tools, coastal economies, fisheries, and food security for communities around the world.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2024 · 2024-08

As environments change rapidly across the globe, we need to understand the mechanisms driving disease transmission in climate and human-impacted landscapes to mitigate the negative effects of wildlife disease for animals, humans and wider environments. To do this, we need to know how the landscape affects wildlife movement so we can identify disease spread dynamics. We need to understand how wildlife genetic resistance to diseases affects disease spread across landscapes so we can identify measures to mitigate the negative effects of wildlife disease. And we need to know how the distribution of wildlife and their diseases will change under climate change so we can predict the risk of future disease spread. This project will develop a framework for predicting the effects of diseases on wildlife populations, distribution and evolution that accounts for the effects of landscapes, animal movement, adaptation and climate change. We will apply our framework to a key bat fungal disease system, white-nose syndrome, that has decimated North American bat populations for the past two decades. We will analyse information about bat genetic makeup and fungal diseases to understand how the landscape affects wildlife movement and the distribution of diseases. We will identify genetic responses of bats to fungal infection to model how wildlife resistance or tolerance to disease affects the spread of diseases across landscapes. We will identify genetic responses of bats to climate and their effects on suitable conditions for bats to predict how the distribution of bats and their diseases will change under climate change. We will sample bats from caves across climatic and disease exposure gradients in eastern USA, from northern states, where white nose syndrome is well established, to Texas, representing the expanding frontline of the disease. We will collect non-lethal paired bat and fungal disease samples to link the genetic makeup of individual bats to their disease state. We will focus on three bat species that show different responses to infection. We will sequence the genomes of the bats to identify barriers to connectivity between caves, adaptive responses to fungal infection, climate adaptations and vulnerability to climate change. We will apply our framework to model the effects of landscape and movement on the spread of diseases and bat adaptations and the impacts of climate change on the distribution of bats and the diseases they carry. We will provide disease risk maps and field-based estimates of disease resistance and climate adaptations that offer immediate predictive solutions for white nose syndrome in North America bats. We will develop a flexible model that can be widely applied to other wildlife disease systems across the world. This project will advance our understanding of the genetic basis of fungal disease resistance in bats and the impacts of fungal diseases and climate change on bat populations. More generally, this project will advance our understanding of disease systems, impacts of the landscape on wildlife movement and fitness and the interactions between risk of disease exposure and the genetic makeup of individual animals. Our new modelling framework can simulate range-wide population changes, range shift and evolution of wildlife carriers of diseases, driven by both changing climate and disease-associated selection. The UK team will be involved in all aspects of the project, leading on the genomic data generation and analysis, providing key expertise in both bat and fungal ecology and genomics.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2024 · 2024-08

This project investigates how German-language artists, scientists and writers (1860s-1930s) mobilised knowledge about non-human animals and their natural environment to create new ideas about the place of LGBTQ+ people in a fair society. In the 1920s, the famous German-Jewish sexologist Magnus Hirschfeld used butterfly experiments as evidence in attempts to decriminalise homosexuality. At the same time, the controversial writer Hanns Heinz Ewers rejected bourgeois sexual morality from the vantage point of ants. These texts were the first to fall victim to the infamous Nazi book burnings of 1933, because they presented radical action and practice about gender politics, from the decriminalisation of homosexuality to the recognition of transgender subjects. They were by no means non-tendentious: they questioned respectability and morality, but were often entangled with racist and antisemitic ideas about what German society should look like and who it should in-or exclude. Importantly, as I argue in this project, artists, scientists and writers were able to discuss sexual politics in complex and highly politicised ways by drawing on knowledge about non-human worlds. The organisation of the natural world, from reproduction to social structures, inspired complex and contradictory models for human society. Today, this entanglement of gender politics and environmental practice is highly topical and politicised. Right-wing populist movements, from Meloni's Brothers of Italy to the Alternative for Germany, reject gender and environmental politics as part and parcel of progressive politics. At the same time, Kew Gardens, the world's largest botanical garden, currently celebrates 'the diversity and beauty of plants' in its major exhibition Queer Nature. As divisive as it can be uniting, the entanglement of queerness and nature is fuelling urgent social and political debates. My project investigates how a unique and turbulent moment in German history can inform and inspire our thinking today about gender politics, species loss and the politicisation of climate change, and how we need to think these together to articulate fair and just models for a future on our planet. It does so by (1) unearthing new and unseen archival material, from Ewers' seductive spiders to Kurt Finkenrath's 'hermaphroditic' slugs, to outline how artists, scientists and writers articulated and debated models of just societies by drawing knowledge from non-human worlds. (2) My expertise in languages, cultures and societies with focus on the history of German sexuality will enable me to develop a cross-cultural perspective on the role of the non-human for sexual politics and make this accessible to an Anglophone public. (3) I will collaborate with cutting-edge artists (writers, comedians, dancers) and LGBTQ+ community organisations (hiking club, pole dance studio, artist studio) to generate critical-creative methods for co-producing research with LGBTQ+ publics, which are under-represented in environmental scholarship and engagement. The project will have wide impact and benefits by catalysing my career as an expert in critical-creative practice that transforms research in modern languages and cultures; by accelerating careers of artists through involvement in the co-production of research; and by empowering partner organisations and communities to become vocal about gender and environmental politics.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2024 · 2024-08

Artificial Intelligence of Things (AIoT) has been attracting significant research attention worldwide owing to its great potential in boosting the promising AI-based innovations to support emerging smart applications, such as intelligent manufacturing, autonomous driving, and smart city. To handle massive volumes of data and process computation-intensive AI algorithms, edge computing has emerged as a key building block to empower AIoT. The lifecycle of computational task management in AIoT consists of task offloading decision, task transmission, and task execution. To tackle these challenges, this project aims to create a suite of novel theories and approaches of task management towards achieving reliable and efficient edge computing for AIoT systems. To this end, I will firstly develop an original parallelism- and dependency- aware offloading decision scheme to find the fine-grained tasks with maximised parallelism and minimised dependency, such that more effective task workloads can be offloaded with less energy consumption. I will then propose a novel task transfer protocol that adopts a lightweight cross-access link prediction scheme based on the noise patterns. Finally, an opportunistic task allocation scheme will be designed, which allocates each task to multiple opportunistic and redundant edge servers for achieving the minimum delay for task execution. A holistic AIoT testbed and open-access software will be implemented for performance evaluation and demonstration of the proposed task management approaches. The research outcomes will contribute to Europe's competitiveness and growth in the promising AIoT area. Well-planned training activities will equip me with new skills and competences to enhance my creative and innovative potential and promote my career prospects. Open science practices as well as planned communication, dissemination, and exploitation activities will reach out to society at large and make the research results visible to citizens.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2024 · 2024-08

Averting environmental crises and conserving biodiversity are grave societal challenges that require fundamental shifts in how we engage with the natural world. Despite increasingly widespread desire for change, the relationship between humans and nature is unprecedentedly dysfunctional. Through pioneering interdisciplinary collaborations between art, ecological science, social science and philosophy, our research aims to provide tools to reconceptualise our relationship with the nonhuman world. Pollinators globally are in precipitous decline, despite providing critical ecosystem services. Pollinator Pathmaker (PP) is an award-winning living artwork that addresses the pollinator crisis by algorithmically generating planting designs optimised for pollinator diversity, rather than using human garden design principles. We will use PP as a model system to explore: (1) how living artworks can conserve pollinator diversity in limited and fragmented urban green spaces; and (2) how these artworks empower publics to engage in nature-positive actions. To address these questions experimentally, we will engage the public in applied ecological research through their creating, planting, caretaking and monitoring of a local network of micro living 'DIY artworks' designed by PP, and study the process, data produced, and outcomes of this engagement. Specifically, our objectives are to: (O1) improve biodiversity of insect pollinators in residential garden settings; and (O2) transform human-nature interactions by enabling publics to engage in evidence-based disruptive methods for biodiversity conservation. These will both be informed by and inform (O3) philosophical analysis of the considerations central to PP pollinator conservation. To achieve these objectives, our project forges connections between ecological network theory, biodiversity conservation, citizen science, algorithm-based living artwork, and a fundamental re-evaluation of the role of humans in managing urban nature. We will employ an experimental approach in a Cornish village in the UK embedded in an agricultural landscape. Participants will measure the DIY artworks' ecological impact on plant-pollinator communities. The data for plant-pollinator networks will be collected through citizen science and scientific monitoring, linking up study participants and creating a 'networked human community'. The sociological research components will make use of overlapping concepts of networks and communities across disciplines to study the value in nature and how value is thought of in the context of multiple species, including our own. By using interviews, digital diaries, multispecies methods and discussion groups to explore participants' experiences of converting their gardens into networked sites of biodiversity, the sociological component will examine the impacts of gardeners' individual and collective caring for living artworks through acting as citizen scientists. Reflections on fundamental philosophical questions— such as: How should we think about the relations of humans to nature in modern urban societies? What is a garden? Given that gardens are bearers of value, who or what derives value from gardens? To what extent should we think of aesthetics as merely subjective, or as reflecting something more objective or instrumental?—will be integrated throughout and will inform new approaches to designing for nature and biodiversity conservation. Holistically, the research will contribute to iteration of PP as participatory conservation method as it spreads internationally. Through this process, we will (1) contribute to novel conservation methods; (2) inform 'environmental createch'; (3) shift the focus of art and technology to nonhuman species; (4) challenge traditional human-centred philosophical perspectives; and (5) demonstrate the necessity of interdisciplinarity for innovation both within disciplines and holistically to benefit both human and nonhuman worlds.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2024 · 2024-08

Of all the animals to have been domesticated, few influenced human societies as much as the horse (Equus caballus). Horse domestication revolutionized mobility and transformed the organization of past human populations. Although it is considered as a milestone in human history, the early phases of horse domestication and uses are however challenging to reconstruct. HERDS ("Horse Domestication and Early Husbandry in Central Asian Steppes: Bone Remains to Document Uses and Breeding Practices in Pastoral Societies") will investigate early horse husbandry in Kazakhstan. It will focus on the Eneolithic Botai Culture, where horse husbandry has first been attested, and on ensuing Bronze Age pastoral societies which sees the progressive development of equestrianism. The aim will be to better understand the role of horses in these cultures and evaluate the extent to which they have been physically impacted by human management. In that respect, archaeological bones represent the best surviving direct testimony of the morphofunctional characteristics of past animals. The analyses will be carried out on horse remains coming from a wide range of archaeological sites from the Mesolithic to the Late Bronze Age. Cutting-edge approaches will be used to characterize bone outer and inner structure. Estimates of muscle performance and bone biomechanical properties will also be computed to infer the functional traits of these early domestic horses. The knowledge of the fellow in horse functional anatomy perfectly complements the strong expertise of the supervisor in equine archaeology from Central Asia. HERDS will allow to gain insight into how horses were exploited and selected in early pastoral societies, and how early husbandry strategies and equestrian technologies have impacted their biological features. Conversely, it will provide meaningful data concerning how its domestication contributed to shape pastoral societies in transforming their mobility, trade and warfare practices.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2024 · 2024-07

Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) is a transformative imaging method that has been blazing the trail of biological discovery research since its inception in the first half of the 20th century. Unparalleled by any other analytical technique, TEM allows researchers to delve into the sub-cellular realm and examine tissues, cells, organelles, viruses, and macromolecular structures in exquisite detail. As such, TEM has been, and continues to be, essential to gaining ground-breaking and scale-spanning insights into the fundamental mechanisms that govern life. At the University of Exeter (UoE), the life science community's demand for TEM is rapidly increasing, surpassing the capabilities of our current equipment. Recent technological strides in TEM have significantly enhanced microscope stability, versatility, throughput, and resolution—attributes where our existing equipment now falls short. Our two outdated TEMs are also incompatible with the latest advancements in software and automation, preventing us from harnessing the full potential of emerging techniques such as correlative light and electron microscopy (CLEM). We are applying for a new cryo-capable TEM in line with BBSRC's Transformative Technologies priority. A state-of-the-art microscope with enhanced capabilities is both a significant technological advance and an imperative investment, to drive forwards our research capabilities and to remain competitive at the cutting edge of life science research. This new equipment will allow us to tackle complex biological questions in a broader range of systems, facilitating impactful research outputs and cross-disciplinary collaborations, high-level training, and support of a diverse and highly skilled scientific community in Exeter and beyond. As our understanding of cellular and molecular processes continues to evolve at pace, the demand for advanced TEM capabilities has become increasingly critical. We have the following 3 objectives: To expand our TEM infrastructure significantly and develop capability to meet the growing community demand. To modernise our ageing TEM infrastructure and generate a more efficient and sustainable workflow. To foster scientific collaboration within Exeter, the GW4 university alliance, internationally and with industrial partners, facilitating research advances across key BBSRC priority areas. To meet these objectives, and with the full and enthusiastic support from the University of Exeter and our GW4 partners, the lead PI has assembled a diverse team of individuals at different career stages with strong track records in their respective disciplines. Each team member contributes a unique skillset and expertise, fostering a collaborative and supportive environment with the potential to drive significant innovation and research advances. We also propose more efficient and sustainable ways to support local and national infrastructure and outline detailed training plans for ECRs and technical professionals who stand to benefit significantly from this strategic investment.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2024 · 2024-07

Climate change and antimicrobial resistance (AMR) are complex challenges that pose significant threats to society. The triple planetary crisis of climate change, pollution and impacts on biodiversity, highlighted by the UN, are likely to impact AMR emergence and transmission. It is essential to account for the social, cultural and physical environments of AMR, including the impacts of climate change. Increasing temperatures and changing patterns of rainfall will affect AMR evolution and transmission, patterns of migration, and will change food production, land use and freshwater use. Conversely, antimicrobials may impact microbial geochemical cycling, such as nitrogen cycling in soils and methane production in ruminant microbiomes. These interactions raise the intriguing possibility that a bidirectional relationship exists between climate change and AMR. The Climate AMR Network (CLIMAR) will examine the relationship between climate change and AMR via a Planetary Health framework that examines AMR in terms of planetary boundaries within which humans and ecosystems can continue to develop and thrive. Network themes will include climate change, novel chemical and biological entities (including antimicrobials and AMR bacteria), impacts on microbial biodiversity, land system changes and freshwater use, all of which have mechanistic links with AMR. This Planetary Health framing builds on the One Health approach (which interweaves the health of humans, non-human animals and environments) by adding additional layers of mechanistic understanding, urgency, social dimensions and intergenerational justice, whilst also providing a transdisciplinary framework based on five Planetary Health pillars: (1) interconnection within Nature, (2) the Anthropocene and health, (3) equity and social justice, (4) movement building and systems change, and (5) systems thinking and complexity. These five Pillars will inform our activities including white paper production and research projects by focusing on key knowledge gaps in AMR, climate change and their intersection. These objectives will be informed by an initial systems mapping exercise that will identify the relationships between climate change and AMR, facilitating calibration of network objectives and incorporating input from members joining post-award. It will be necessary to ensure that CLIMAR network activities complement, rather than replicate, planned activities in all other funded networks. We aim to integrate this consideration into this network's activities from its inception. Additionally, professional communications expertise in combination with specialisation in policy development will ensure real impact and change results from network activities. Bringing a Planetary Health perspective to AMR, with a specific focus on interactions with climate change, provides an opportunity to develop AMR narratives beyond a One Health framing. The latter recognises the linkages between "human health", "animal health" and "environmental health" but does not fully convey the fundamental contribution of planetary processes or social determinants, encapsulated by the planetary boundaries and transdisciplinary pillars, to the mental models that facilitate reasoning and decision making. If we aspire to achieve transdisciplinary solutions and interventions, and to reduce AMR infections whilst promoting drug discovery and innovation of alternatives to stay one step ahead of AMR, we need evidence to support decision making as well as compelling narratives to facilitate understanding and encourage action; recognising that solutions may be found in domains that are traditionally outside the interests of AMR researchers.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2024 · 2024-07

Access to cutting edge equipment and facilities is essential to attracting and retaining world class researchers and enabling them to carry out research at the leading edge of Biosciences. In this application we seek funding for an Illumina Novaseq X sequencer, a state-of-the-art instrument that can perform ultra-high-throughput sequencing of DNA and RNA samples. This sequencer will enable us to generate the data to address complex genomic questions from understanding the nature and evolution of plant, animal and microbial genomes and how they function, to applying the knowledge to solve some of the critical challenges of food security and health, through to biotechnology. The depth and accuracy of this sequencer will constitute a step change in our research capacity across a wide range of fields and contribute to accelerating world class research and impact for the Exeter research community, our regional partners, and across our world-wide networks. Our aims and objectives are to use the NovaSeq X sequencer to: Generate high-quality genomic data for large-scale projects that require fast turnaround times and low costs per sample; Explore novel applications and methods that leverage the increased throughput and accuracy of the NovaSeq X sequencer; Collaborate with other researchers and (inter)national institutions to share data and resources and advance the field of bioscience. The potential applications and benefits of our proposed work are numerous. For example, we will be able to: Identify genetic variants and traits that affect plants and animals related to productivity, health, and resilience, contributing to food security; Characterize the diversity and function of prokaryotic and eukaryotic communities in different environments and their interactions with eukaryotic organisms driven by of one health principles; Understand the molecular mechanisms and evolution of complex biological systems and their responses to developmental and environmental changes; Develop new biotechnological tools and products based on genomic information. The NovaSeq X sequencer is the most powerful and sustainable sequencing system available, with the ability to sequence, as an example, more than 20,000 whole human genomes per year at a cost of $200 per genome. It uses XLEAP-SBS chemistry, which delivers improved reagent stability, faster run times, and increased data quality. The NovaSeq X sequencer also features breakthrough sustainability advancements and cost-effective sequencing economics. Acquiring the NovaSeq X sequencer will cause a step change in our our research capabilities and impact by allowing the rapid generation of the large and complex data sets needed to answer the most pressing questions in Biosciences today.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2024 · 2024-07

The evolutionary origin of variation in animal behaviour continues to both fascinate and frustrate biologists. Despite decades of research, we still lack a comprehensive understanding of the mechanisms that sometimes promote variation among individuals, populations and species, but can also limit diversity and constrain divergence. Here we propose a study of guppies, a small freshwater fish from Trinidad, to investigate how, when and why the structure of behavioural variation changes across populations. Our study is 'comparative' - we will investigate patterns of behavioural variation arising from evolutionary divergence among multiple wild populations of guppies. It will also be 'multi-level' - we seek to understand patterns of similarity and difference among populations, but because natural selection happens among individuals within populations, to achieve this requires studying variation among individuals and genotypes. How two populations that have become separated evolve ('microevolution') and diverge ('macroevolution') does not only depend on natural selection, but also on the way in which genetic factors contribute to behavioural differences among individuals. Moreover, gene frequencies change over time even in the absence of natural selection - so just how much microevolutionary change and macroevolutionary divergence is the result of 'neutral' evolution? We will focus on 'boldness', an aspect of behaviour that can be broadly understood as describing an individual's response to risky conditions in the environment. The set of populations we will study have evolved in environments differing in predation regime, which is thought to be an important source of selection on boldness. We will combine large scale behavioural data collection in the laboratory, with experiments to manipulate perceived predation risk, and both statistical genetic and genomic methods. Comparing the structure of behavioural variation across populations of known evolutionary relationships to each other (or 'phylogeny') will allow us to robustly test hypotheses for the evolutionary factors maintaining shy-bold variation within populations, and driving differences among populations. By combining uniquely comprehensive genomic and behavioural data, we will test the extent to which differences in behaviour between populations arise from selection versus 'neutral' evolution of the underlying genetics that is expected even if behaviours are not under selection. They will also let us probe the genetic 'building blocks' of behavioural variation, providing valuable new insights into the links between genotype and behaviour.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2024 · 2024-07

My research concerns a fungus, Zymoseptoria tritici (Zt), which attacks wheat plants, causing a disease known as Septoria tritici blotch (STB). STB costs the UK around £300 Million per year in lost wheat yields and in the cost of the fungicide used on the crops. Worse, the fungus is developing resistance to the fungicides available to treat it. This means that we need new methods to control the infection. To develop new ways to control Zt, it is necessary to gain a full understanding of the ways in which the fungus interacts with the wheat plant, and how that interaction can be affected by environmental conditions. In previous work, I showed that some isolates of Zt can grow on the leaf surface for around ten days before invading. The amount and duration of leaf surface growth varies between fungal isolates, and also when the same isolate infects different wheat varieties. Most plant pathogenic fungi, by contrast, can't obtain enough nutrients on the leaf surface to survive for more than 24 h. My FLF research programme aimed to determine the importance of this leaf surface growth phase for Zt, whether it is related to disease severity, and how inter-isolate differences in epiphytic growth are encoded in the genome. To understand fungal survival on the leaf surface, my project also aimed to determine what nutrients the fungus is using during this period, and how it interacts with other leaf surface microbes. My team and I are currently describing the epiphytic phenotypes of over 60 GFP-tagged isolates across a panel of wheat cultivars with varying degrees of resistance. We are linking these data to the genotypes and metabolite uptake profiles of the isolates to build a complete picture of the mechanisms underpinning surface survival. We have identified previously undescribed behaviours in Zt, including the ability to form biofilms. We have also carried out extensive field sampling, and are studying the interactions between Zt and other leaf surface microbes. During the next phase of the project, I will focus on three objectives: First, I will create reporter strains to visualise differences in nutrient uptake between isolates with different epiphytic phenotypes. The genes used to create these reporter strains will be based on the information gathered in the project so far, concerning the genetic and metabolic differences underlying epiphytic phenotypes. The reporters will allow us to visualise, in real time, how different isolates respond to changes in leaf surface nutrient availability due to, for e.g., fertilisation or pollen deposition. I will use this information to propose changes in fungicide/fertiliser application regimes that will optimise disease control. Secondly, I have shown that Zt can form biofilms, which have greater resistance to stresses such as drying, high temperature, and fungicides than do non-biofilm cells. I will determine whether and when biofilm formation occurs under field conditions and whether biofilms alter the outcome of fungicide treatment or survival of the pathogen during, for example, a heatwave. This work will help to develop weather-sensitive fungicide regimes and maximise fungicide efficacy, thus minimising the risk of further fungicide resistance emerging. Thirdly, I will explore options arising from our work to develop biocontrol of Zt. I will search our field-collected epiphyte library for organisms linked to increased/decreased disease in our related field data. I will then conduct experiments to see whether those linked to low disease are viable as biocontrol agents or, conversely, whether those linked to increased disease can be controlled, for example by working with Exeter's Citizen Phage Library to find phages that infect them. These three objectives will provide significant increases in our understanding of Zt infection biology and ecology alongside novel disease control mechanisms, which can then be tested in collaboration with our agricultural partners.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2024 · 2024-06

The role of law for the economy is to provide the framework that makes markets function. When the logic of markets changes - how does the law follow up? Three jurisdictions - Germany, the United Kingdom and the European Union - are introducing new and ambitious regimes to tame the power of digital gatekeepers, i.e. companies such as Alphabet (Google), Amazon, Meta (Facebook) or Apple. While motivated by similar normative goals, Germany, the UK and the EU take different approaches to implement these goals. In our research project "Shaping Competition in the Digital Age (SCiDA)" we will accompany the regulatory initiatives from the beginning and aim to answer three fundamental questions: 1. Documenting Change: How do the new rules in the different jurisdictions work in practice? 2. Diagnosing Progress: What proves effective for reaching the goals of the new rules? 3. Developing Concepts: What are elements of the new normative and institutional framework for safeguarding competition in the digital age?

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2024 · 2024-06

Our bodies are made up of trillions of cells, each of which contains an array of specialised compartments, known as organelles. Each type of organelle has its own important job to do, but must also cooperate with other types of organelles to form an integrated network that keeps cells alive and healthy. Efficient inter-organelle teamwork is particularly critical in the brain, where the unique properties and functions of nerve cells (neurons) place extra demands on organelles. Indeed, dysfunctional organelle cooperation has been implicated in many neurological and neurodegenerative diseases, which are a major socio-economic burden in the UK and beyond. One way organelles within a network 'talk' to each other is by sharing information, signals and resources at points of physical contact called 'membrane contact sites'. Orchestrated cooperation between organelles at membrane contact sites is vital for cell function and survival. Despite this, how most organelles communicate at contact sites, and for what purposes, is still unclear. Because we do not yet understand this, we do not know which processes are compromised during disease, or how to correct these using medical treatment. This research project seeks to identify and characterise the machinery that mediates organelle communication, and reveal the cellular processes that benefit from this cooperation. This knowledge will significantly advance our understanding of cell biology and provide new insights into how detrimental changes in organelle communication cause disease, and might one day be targeted for new treatments. Given the immense social cost of declining brain function in ageing populations, my research will focus on nerve cells, where my aim is to explain: the mechanisms and functions of inter-organelle communication within nerve cells how faulty organelle communication leads to disease how organelle communication can be therapeutically targeted to improve nerve cell health I will use my existing expertise to concentrate on two organelles, namely peroxisomes and mitochondria. Peroxisomes act as factories within the cell, making and breaking-down important cellular molecules, while mitochondria are 'power-houses' that generate most of the cell's energy. Both are essential for cell survival and play crucial roles in healthy brain function, with inherited defects in either organelle causing devastating diseases that are frequently associated with neurological decline. Peroxisomes and mitochondria are closely linked because they act in concert to 1) process fat molecules within the cell and 2) control levels of potentially harmful 'free-radical' molecules that can damage cellular components. Peroxisome-mitochondria communication appears to be particularly important in the brain since nerve cells contain more peroxisome-mitochondria contacts than other cell types. Despite this, membrane contact sites between peroxisomes and mitochondria, their roles in nerve cell function, and their contribution to disease, are poorly understood. I will use my expertise in a variety of cutting-edge cell biology, microscopy and large-scale screening techniques to address three specific objectives: How do mitochondria and peroxisomes physically interact? What is the function of peroxisome-mitochondria communication in nerve cells? Can modulating peroxisome-mitochondria communication improve nerve cell health? The insights generated will fundamentally advance our understanding of organelle communication in health and disease, and inform future studies on other crucial organelle interactions. Furthermore, in conjunction with my collaborators in the pharmaceutical industry, this knowledge will ultimately drive the development of treatments that improve nerve cell health in a variety of diseases where these processes are dysregulated.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2024 · 2024-06

Biocultural heritage - the physical remains of ancient humans, animals, plants and landscapes, as well as material and visual culture - is an important resource. It represents tangible evidence for human interactions with the natural world, biodiversity, food systems, human-animal-environmental health, and exploitation of organic raw materials. As such, there is a growing recognition that interdisciplinary studies of biocultural heritage can help address modern global challenges, all of which are fundamentally cultural with deep histories. Yet biocultural heritage is a finite resource and one that is under threat. At the landscape scale, climate change is endangering heritage sites. Museum collections are being impacted by the curation crisis, which is seeing materials refused accession or deaccessioned without record. But there is also a significant threat to biocultural heritage from the research practices of scientists themselves. Advances in archaeological science are seeing increasing quantities of material targeted for destructive analyses (e.g. aDNA, proteomics, isotopes, radiocarbon dating, organic residue analysis, and histology). Whilst such individual analyses generate transformative results, our networks and research partners (including national institutions, museum curators, archives, community archaeology groups and commercial units) have raised ethical issues associated with the destruction of biocultural heritage. They have highlighted the overwhelming need for: 1) specimens to be preserved by 3D record; 2) scans to be made available for future analyses; 3) data from destructive analysis to be linked to 3D records in a way that is accessible to curators and broader research communities both in the UK and abroad. The last is particularly important to ensure that materials are not repeatedly sampled by different research groups and so that independent lines of evidence can be brought together. To address these issues of collections preservation, storage and accessibility the Biocultural HIVE will: Upgrade our existing physical archive space to better accommodate our own nationally important biocultural collections and provide appropriate environmentally controlled temporary storage for materials being analysed by our CResCa-funded digital imaging facility, SHArD-3D. 2. Create a new laboratory space so that researchers can access, and have space to study, our permanent and temporary collections. 3. Collate and standardise the large quantities of 3D and analytical data from our SHArD-3D collaborations and international UKRI, Wellcome Trust and ERC projects. 4. Use the data generated by point 3) to create and test an open-access, continuously updateable, digital repository (rather than closed-dataset repositories e.g. Archaeology Data Service) for the curation and sharing of digital 3D files and other analytical results. 5. Drawing on expertise from the UKRI funded GLAM-E we will embed ethical data practices into our digital platforms and co-create appropriate open-access policies with our partners. 6. Employ a Database Manager to 1) liaise with stakeholders and 2) populate and maintain the repository with the ultimate intention of migrating it to the RICHeS Digital Research Service at Daresbury, so that it is sustainable beyond the life of the project. This resource will benefit the heritage science community and provide researchers with the ability to deposit, update, and access collections/data on an unprecedented scale. Beyond this it will create a new research platform for data mining, the application of deep-learning technologies, and ensure we are delivering world-leading heritage science.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2024 · 2024-06

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 · 2024-06

The global oceans act as a sponge, soaking up significant amounts of the excess heat and carbon that have been added to the atmosphere due to human activity. Our oceans therefore play a key role in buffering the magnitude of climate change. However, the future storage capacity of the ocean sponge is uncertain, alongside the distribution of nutrients and oxygen, key ingredients for a healthy marine ecosystem. To address these uncertainties, we need to better understand how the oceans flow deep below the surface layers - in particular current flows that span scales of tens of metres to hundreds of kilometers, otherwise known as submesoscales. Submesoscale currents matter because they provide a pathway to harness energy from the winds and tides and use it to stir and mix different water masses around the globe, along with the heat, carbon and nutrients that they carry. Despite their importance, little is known about ocean submesoscales because of their intermediate size and intermittent nature. This means they are both difficult to capture in nature or model with computers. In this project, my team will conduct a pioneering experiment that will capture for the first time the full range of current flows that exist beneath the surface ocean layers, alongside the mixing and stirring that they generate. A targeted sea-going programme using active acoustics will sample the ocean at unprecedented resolutions (two orders of magnitude better than other techniques) and fully capture submesoscale currents. Similar to how bats echo-locate, a ship at the surface releases sound pulses into the water and records reflections from water layers. Acoustic measurements will be combined for the first time with cutting-edge robotics, vessel-mounted and moored instrumentation. In parallel, state-of-the-art model simulations will be both validated and improved using our new ocean observation data. The result will be the most realistic representation of the sub-surface ocean to date. The simulations will be used to quantify submesoscale initiation, ubiquity and interactions, and assess their role in driving energy and property exchanges in the global ocean. The experiment will take place at a global hotspot of ocean activity: the Brazil-Malvinas Confluence off the coast of Argentina. Here sub-tropical waters from the Atlantic collide with polar waters from the Southern Ocean. Water mass exchanges at this confluence, which are likely driven by submesoscale currents, play a key role in the distribution of heat, salt, carbon and life sustaining nutrients and oxygen throughout the global oceans. By revealing interior ocean dynamics in unparalleled detail at the Brazil-Malvinas Confluence, COSSMoSS will shed light on a significant missing piece of the scientific ocean puzzle helping us to better understand our future biosphere and climate.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2024 · 2024-06

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.