University of Leeds

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2026 · 2026-09

Creative Bridges brings together academic expertise and industry partnerships developed in Media, Communication, Creative and Cultural Industries, Design, Performance, Immersive Technologies and Interdisciplinary Methodologies at the Universities of Leeds and Warwick. Together with our partners in screen, gaming and immersive media, we will build on our strengths to develop a cohort of 30 PhD students, focused on inclusive and sustainable futures for screen industries, the places they operate, the people who work in them and the audiences they produce for. We will operationalise the civic university as a new Yorkshire-Midlands doctoral training alliance, connecting the distinctive creative energy observable in our regions, bridging existing corridors and clusters, to create a flexible research environment of diverse partnerships on a strong university research base. In aligning our Arts and Humanities-led research and development (R&D) with the Creative Industries Sector Vision (2023) – building on research informed by business schools, sociology, geography, water and earth sciences, ecology, engineering and computing – we have identified areas of research potential and skills gaps for doctoral training. A lack of diversity in the workforce and slow progress in achieving environmental sustainability are defining challenges. Often addressed in disparate ways which diffuses the creative energy and resources available to tackle them, they are rarely researched together and may compete for attention. Our partners are of different sizes, scales and types representing long-standing corporations (BBC, ITV), global-to-mid-size innovators (EA Games/Codemasters, Rebellion games), smaller agile SMEs (Reflex Arc and Just Add Water), a creative economy intermediary (SAIL) and a regulator (OFCOM). The diverse scope of interests represented in our consortium re-amplifies the challenges that brings them together. These partners will play leading roles in the cohort training elements and are central to the objectives: steering the programme over its lifetime, contributing to new communities of practice and providing placements. The collaboration across two key regions will offer a fresh iteration to creative economy research framed by metaphors of ‘cities and the creative class’ (Florida 2003), ‘creative clusters’ (NESTA 2010) ‘creative hubs’ (Pratt, 2021), ‘creative spill overs’ (Frontier Economics 2023) and ‘creative corridors’ (ACE, Creative PEC, RSA 2023). Spanning ‘creative bridges’, our PhD students will connect academic and industry perspectives through challenge- and practice-led research. They will address the need for connected knowledge, skills and workflows for screen, gaming and immersive industries. The research produced will bridge gaps between physical and virtual, people and policies, public service media and platforms, theory and practice, storytelling and data, creativity and AI, all of which are fundamental to issues of diversity and sustainability. Therefore, the objectives are to nurture a new generation of researcher-practitioners; build co-supervision across regions; support diversity and sustainability as inter-related challenges for the creative economy; redefine the Arts and Humanities PhD experience; develop skills and techniques for doctoral students based on experiential learning; and finally, to create a legacy programme of training pathways in sustainability and diversity research. The Creative Bridges consortium will aim to bring about wholesale, systemic transformation over the next decade, by invigorating the skills base of individuals entering, or already within the screen, gaming and immersive media sectors through an innovative programme. We will generate significant outcomes and impact for society and the economy by addressing open and common challenges in partnership with industry who bring diverse perspectives and solutions.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2026 · 2026-09

The universe is chemically complex. Around 330 molecules have been observed in space with 45 new molecules detected in just the past three years, many of which are exotic and contain a variety of functional groups, some akin to those appearing in living systems. The observations are made by modern telescopes, using a single dish or array of dishes on the ground, or by space-borne telescopes. These molecules are synthesised from smaller building blocks, either on the surface of grains or in the gas-phase. In this project we will focus on carbon rich molecules which have been discovered by these telescopes in the last 5 years, with the overall aim of understanding how they are formed under the extreme conditions encountered in space. Currently these molecules have no known/studied formation rates and are thus not present in current astrochemical networks which attempt to explain their chemistry. In this project we will investigate the gas-phase chemistry of these newly detected carbon-rich species by determining the rates of nine key reactions that have been proposed for their formation, using a combination of laboratory measurements and calculations using quantum theory. The new data set of kinetic parameters for these reactions will be exploited using a state-of-the-art astrochemical model employing the most recent release of the UMIST Database for Astrochemistry. It is crucial to determine the kinetic data, which consist of rate coefficients which are an inherent measure of how quickly a reaction proceeds, under relevant conditions found in interstellar and circumstellar environments, which can reach as low as 10 degrees above absolute zero (10 K). In the laboratory we will use an established apparatus, consisting of a Laval nozzle which is able to generate a uniform flow of gas at temperatures as low as 24 K, and which has a proven track record of determining the kinetics of many reactions of molecules observed in space under relevant conditions. Reactive species (small carbon-based species such as carbon atoms) will be generated by pulsed lasers in the uniform flow, and monitored in real time using laser-spectroscopic methods as they react with larger, more stable carbon-rich molecules added to the flow, and which are proposed to increase the length of the carbon chain. We will experimentally determine the kinetics over a range of temperatures, and will also quantify the formation of hydrogen atoms, again using lasers, that are expected to form from these reactions. To interpret the kinetic data, and to predict behaviour at temperatures outside the range achievable in the laboratory, we will perform complementary theoretical calculations using quantum mechanics to determine kinetic parameters, including the identity and yield of all of the products which may form. The new laboratory and theoretical kinetic data will then be used within a detailed gas-grain astrochemical model which has been established at Leeds, to provide predictions of the abundance of carbon rich molecules for comparison with telescope observations. In this way we can quantify the impact of the newly studied reactions on these molecules. Although it is challenging to study kinetics at very low temperatures, we have chosen reactions to study which should be fast at the very low temperatures found in space, either by analogy with reactions of other carbon-based species or via theoretical estimates which suggest a barrierless process. Hence we are confident it will succeed.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2026 · 2026-09

Cosmic rays are one of the main constituents of the universe and are important for the structure of galaxies. The majority of galactic cosmic rays are believed to be created by the high Mach number shocks of supernova remnants, though much of the microphysics remains unknown. Colliding wind binaries (CWBs) may contribute at roughly the 1% level, but could be more significant.  CWBs are ideal laboratories to study the physics of high Mach number shocks and particle acceleration, because the conditions at the shocks are constrained from the stellar and binary parameters. They are also an ideal tool for investigating the effect of shock obliquity on diffusive shock acceleration (DSA), a topic that remains greatly debated in the community. CWBs have long been studied via their non-thermal radio emission, which can be spatially resolved and show orbital variability. Non-thermal X-ray and gamma-ray emission has been much more difficult to detect, but great advances have occured in the last 10 years, with clear detections of a number of systems, some of which show strong orbital variability. Gamma-ray emission from the supermassive system Eta Carinae extends up to 1 TeV. Matching the multi-wavelength emission with theoretical predictions from modelling work can constrain the particle acceleration efficiency. Unfortunately, current theoretical calculations are mostly based on geometrical models that do not properly treat the hydrodynamics and place the shocks in the wrong location. To address these issues, we will make high-resolution 3D MHD simulations of CWBs that account for orbital motion, wind radiative driving (including inhibition/braking effects), and cooling of the shocked plasma. We will then (1) specify the non-thermal proton, electron and magnetic field energy densities at the shocks, and solve the cosmic ray transport equation with diffusion, advection and cooling terms, (2) treat the turbulent magnetic field separately to the uniform field, and (3) couple together the thermal and non-thermal particles with a local value for the effective ratio of specific heats. Our new simulations will first be applied to the Apep system. Radio maps at 2.3 GHz show a simple bow-shaped structure, confirming its origin as a wind-collision region. Because the stars are roughly face-on and well separated, and the wind absorption is negligible at this frequency, it is the perfect system for investigating the spatial variation of the non-thermal electrons and the magnetic field in the wind-wind collision. We will run our model images through CASA to compare against the real data and determine whether there is an obliquity dependence to the diffusive shock acceleration efficiency. We will also model Eta Carinae. We will make the first 3D MHD simulation of this system, with particle acceleration and the turbulent magnetic field included using the approach described. We will determine the nature of the 0.1-10 GeV emission, which remains contentious with both leptonic and hadronic scenarios favoured. We will directly determine how quickly the winds mix downstream, as a current geometric model requires an ad-hoc mixing length of 10-20 au to match the high energy gamma-ray emission. This research will significantly advance our understanding of CWBs including their contribution to galactic CRs, and will provide constraints on (or evidence for) the dependence of DSA on shock obliquity, thus having a broad impact on key topics in modern astronomy.  

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2026 · 2026-08

The aim of this fellowship renewal programme is to further advance decision-support systems for sharing resources in Smart Cities in a more sustainable and democratic way, informed by the recent advances and risks of artificial intelligence (AI). My fellowship will further explore new pathways to impact, while consolidating my leadership profile on trustworthy distributed intelligence as an emerging transformative paradigm. Smart City commons exhibit unprecedented complexity and uncertainties: transport systems integrate electric, shared and autonomous vehicles that require reliable computing infrastructures to operate, while distributed energy resources highly penetrate energy systems. How can we plan and manage Smart City commons in a sustainable and socially responsible way to tackle long-standing problems such as traffic jams, or blackouts? Failing to digitally coordinate collective decisions promptly and at large-scale has tremendous economic, social and environmental impact. Coordinated decisions require a digital (r)evolution, a new paradigm on where we decide, how we decide and what we decide. So far, my fellowship programme has made a breakthrough on upgrading democracies by creating, testing and advocating for fairer voting methods. The novel participatory budgeting campaign in Aarau, Switzerland (Stadtidee) has been a milestone to transform policy via a more bottom-up, inclusive and proportional distribution of public funding. I have also unraveled the diversity of impact creation by voting outcomes reached via fairer voting methods, with invaluable insights on how grassroot infrastructural investments can meet net zero targets. I also demonstrated how fairer voting methods can constitute a democratic safeguard to emerging biases and risks by the use of AI in collective decision-making processes. Meanwhile, I also contributed novel AI solutions for managing the complex operations of Smart City commons, for instance, traffic monitoring, smart mobility optimization and last-mile delivery, with environmental and economic impact on lowering operational costs and carbon emissions. Moving forward, this fellowship renewal will tackle the following objectives: (i) Develop a universal theory of trustworthy distributed intelligence of human-artificial nature, supported by a portfolio of novel human-centered learning mechanisms.  (ii) Design scalable, strongly-coupled deliberation and collective decision-making processes supported by AI that yield fair, legitimate and sustainable decision outcomes with short and long-term impact.  (iii) Demonstrate the impact of trustworthy distributed intelligence on empowering Smart City commons to be more sustainable and democratic.  I will also explore new pathways to environmental, economic and policy impact by piloting in real world: (i) Solutions for multi-drone smart mobility. (ii) Fairer decision-making methods to distribute research funding. (iii) Self-governance mechanisms for energy communities. The success of this ambitious fellowship relies on a systematic and rigorous methodology on the interface of computer and social science, complemented by multi-faceted pathways to impact supported by prominent global partnerships. With a commons-based inter-disciplinary approach to planning, operating and governing Smart Cities, supported by trustworthy human-artificial intelligence, I envision transforming social innovations for more sustainable and democratic cities.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2026 · 2026-05

The chemical composition of Earth’s core underpins the fundamental processes that shape our planet. It determines the physical properties of the deep interior, setting the melting temperature that defines the boundary between the solid inner and liquid outer core. It governs thermal and electrical conductivity of the core, which control the geodynamo that generates Earth’s magnetic field, shielding the planet from the solar wind for the past 4.5 billion years. The flux of volatile elements between the core, mantle and atmosphere over the same time period depends on the abundance of these elements in the core. However, the exact composition of the core remains unknown. Traditional approaches to constraining core chemistry fall into two categories: models of planetary formation and seismological observations of the present-day core. However, these methods leave large uncertainties and render us unable to confidently describe the core or its influence on the whole Earth system. I have identified two novel constraints that bridge these traditional approaches and offer the first chance to fully describe the thermal and chemical evolution of the deep Earth. First, I have demonstrated that small differences in the evolution of core composition can produce strongly contrasting behaviours in the dynamics of Earth's core, which are testable through observations. Second, I have shown that many proposed core compositions are inconsistent with the onset of inner core freezing and that viable compositions will provide the most stringent constraint on core chemistry to date. These new constraints define a path to understanding the chemistry and evolution of the deep Earth for the first time. However, existing descriptions of evolving core composition cannot describe multiple reactions simultaneously, an essential detail, and the exact mechanism responsible for inner core nucleation and freezing remains elusive. In this project, I will develop a new thermodynamic description of how multiple elements are simultaneously dissolved into the core from the overlying silicate mantle. This model will use advanced machine learning techniques, grounded in physical laws, to leverage a broad dataset of existing calculations and experiments, and describe the evolution of core chemistry in new detail and precision. In addition, I will use molecular dynamics simulations to identify the mechanism and chemistry responsible for the initiation of inner core freezing. By combining both of these key components of core evolution into a thermal evolution framework for the deep Earth, I will track the core’s changing composition over time—integrating constraints from planetary accretion, explaining the onset of inner core freezing, and aligning with present-day seismological observations. The framework produced in this project will describe the energetic and chemical fluxes of the deep Earth through time. The present-day state of the core will be revealed in new detail, improving the underpinnings of geodynamo models used to assess the threat of space weather events to power and communications networks. The past energetics of the core will be resolved, including the power available to driving the geodynamo,  elucidating the paleomagnetic record, and the power available to mantle convection. Describing chemical fluxes between the core and mantle through time will inform the global cycling of volatile elements, providing the basis for more accurate models of atmospheric evolution and the emergence of habitable conditions. This framework will also be applicable to other terrestrial planets including exoplanets.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2026 · 2026-03

The Reconfigurable, Robotic & Responsive Reactors for Accelerated Processes with Intensified Development (R4PID) project aims to transform chemical process development by integrating dynamic reconfigurable reactors, automation, and machine learning to create a highly flexible, continuous flow chemistry platform capable of optimising manufacturing with a 100-fold reduction in material cost and without human intervention. Currently, chemical synthesis, particularly in the pharmaceutical sector, faces challenges due to the complexity of reactions, difficulties in real-time monitoring, and the need to optimise multiple variables. R4PID seeks to overcome these barriers by developing autonomously reconfigurable flow reactors that can dynamically adjust their configurations to overcome the limitations in current flow reactor and high throughput experimental systems. The project will utilise automated liquid handling systems to generate highly controlled reaction slugs, that are passed into trapped reactors, enabling the collection of high-quality process data but using much smaller volumes than current technology. This will facilitate the parallel optimisation of reactions at a small scale, significantly reducing the time and resources required for process development enabling teams of researchers to use the same platform. R4PID aims to bridge the gap between drug discovery and manufacturing by establishing a digitally integrated, microvolume platform that can provide scalable process optimisation. This platform will generate data from machine learning optimisation in a continuous feedback loop, thereby reducing experimental labour and material costs. Advanced machine learning models will be developed to predict optimal synthesis conditions, enhance the throughput of optimisation campaigns, and inform the optimisation of manufacturing processes. The project has wide applications across the pharmaceutical, fine chemicals, and agrochemical industries. It will create sustainable routes to complex molecules, accelerate drug development, and bolster the UK’s global competitiveness in digital chemistry. Early career researchers will receive training in automation, synthesis, and machine learning, benefiting both academia and industry. Industrial partners such as AstraZeneca and ChemAI will directly benefit, with broader dissemination to academic and industrial sectors. The national importance of this project lies in its potential to strengthen the UK’s pharmaceutical manufacturing sector by accelerating drug development, reducing waste, and contributing to the achievement of net-zero targets by exploring a much wider parameter space than is possible with current restraints. The Work Packages (WPs) include: 1. Parallelised optimisation of reactions using chemical processors, a novel stopped flow microreactor system, focusing on optimising manufacturing processes with minimal material 2. Development of a telescoped chemical processor system for multi-step reaction optimisation, allowing independent control of reaction residence times. 3. Autonomous evaluation of different reactor technologies, such as continuous stirred-tank reactors (CSTRs) and vortex reactors, to optimise mixing and reaction outcomes across diverse chemistries. 4. Manufacturing demonstration of processes developed using this micro mol system to enable large scale production in collaboration with AstraZeneca and ChemAI.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2026 · 2026-03

ShIFT will transform how we include solidified sheets of magma (intrusions) in computational models used to predict subsurface fluid flow through rocks. Such models are crucial to exploring for and managing groundwater and geothermal resources, and suitable geological storage sites in many areas worldwide. By driving a step-change in the predictive capability of subsurface fluid flow models, ShIFT will reduce risks, costs, and waste of these activities, ensuring a sustainable impact in keeping people prosperous, safe, and secure. Understanding how fluids move through and are stored in rocks is critical to the energy transition and several UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). Over 50% of people rely on groundwater for domestic use. Future-proofing groundwater supply requires securing new and sustainably managing resources (SDG 6). Subsurface fluids also drive geothermal systems and affect the safety of underground storage sites for gas, captured CO2, and radioactive waste (SDG 7, 13). Predicting subsurface fluid flow is thus key to many Earth Science disciplines and industries. Computational models that capture an areas subsurface geology and simulate its control on fluid flow are crucial to this prediction. Interconnected networks of ancient, igneous sheet intrusions transect the subsurface in many areas. Currently we model sheet intrusions as simple, continuous, planar structures that restrict fluid flow. However, most sheet intrusions comprise multiple segments, often separated by slithers of host rock; these slithers can act as bridges for fluids to flow across. Segment geometry also controls the: (1) formation of fractures within sheet intrusions, which fluids can flow through; and (2) local damage and heating that alters the physical properties of adjacent host rock and positively or negatively impacts fluid flow. To properly input sheet intrusions into fluid flow models we need to capture their segmentation and incorporate their internal fracturing and local host rock changes. Yet we often lack the subsurface data to fully describe sheet intrusion networks, or their effect on the host rock. To solve this issue, ShIFT will develop predictive methods to estimate these from limited subsurface data by: Measuring sheet intrusion segment geometries and the distribution of host material changes observed in outcrop, seismic reflection data, and physical models. Collecting samples and using laboratory experiments to measure their fluid flow properties. Using microscope techniques to examine the grain-scale changes that enhance or restrict fluid flow and identify their underlying causes; this knowledge is essential for the prediction of changes at a range of depths and temperatures. We will analyse sheet intrusions with different compositions, sizes, and host rock types. With these data we will establish empirical equations that relate aspects of sheet intrusion geometry (e.g., length and thickness) and associated host rock changes. These relationships will enable us to estimate segment shape and size, as well as changes to rock properties, from limited knowledge of an areas sheet intrusions and host rock lithology. ShIFT will use this information to build novel Finite Element numerical models that capture sheet intrusion segmentation and host rock complexity. We will create synthetic but realistic models that simulate the effect of sheet intrusions on fluid flow in different geological scenarios. Our work will enable a step-change in fluid flow modelling, leading to improvements in the exploration for and management of groundwater and geothermal resources, and storage sites for clean gas, CO2, and radioactive waste.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2026 · 2026-03

Atmospheric methane (CH4) is the second most important anthropogenically produced greenhouse gas after carbon dioxide, contributing to global warming. Global concentrations of CH4 continue to rise, however we do not fully understand the global variations in concentrations due to uncertainties in the drivers of its sources and sinks. CH4 has a global warming potential 82 times higher than carbon dioxide (CO2) on a 20-year timescale and record-breaking atmospheric increases in concentrations observed in 2020 and 2021 highlight the urgency in improving our understanding of changes in CH4 in our atmosphere. CH4 has a mixture of natural and anthropogenic sources, these include wetlands, biomass burning, landfills and gas production. The main sink of CH4, the hydroxyl radical (OH), contributes to large uncertainties in the CH4 budget. Recent studies on the large rise of CH4 concentrations in 2020 have highlighted the influence of other atmospheric species on OH concentration and in turn, its impact on the lifetime of CH4. For example, during lockdown the decrease in NOx (NO and NO2), which contributes to air pollution, reduced OH concentrations which then increased the lifetime of CH4. This adds further complexity to understanding the role of OH on global concentrations of CH4. OH has a short lifetime in the atmosphere (~1s) and is very challenging to measure. Global OH concentrations have previously been estimated using concentrations of methyl chloroform as a proxy, however its near-removal from the atmosphere due to the Montreal Protocol means that is becoming a less viable method.  Therefore, it is time for new methods to be developed to constrain OH. In this fellowship, I will provide the first long-term global tropospheric OH concentration estimates that have been optimised by combining machine learning techniques with satellite data of nitrogen dioxide (NO2), carbon monoxide (CO), ozone (O3) and formaldehyde (CH2O), and a state-of-the-art chemical transport model (CTM), TOMCAT. Using this method will not only provide global gap-free tropospheric concentrations of OH but will include tropospheric concentrations of NO2, CO, O3 and CH2O. Advances in understanding of trends in tropospheric composition, particularly in relation to OH will improve model simulations of atmospheric CH4 and reduce uncertainties in its main sink. The research will take advantage of this new OH dataset to investigate recent changes in CH4 concentrations and understand the role air quality has had on its atmospheric lifetime. I will conduct a comprehensive long-term study to analyse global trends in atmospheric CH4, while also focusing on specific case studies, including the years 2020 and 2021. The study will adapt to current trends in CH4 due to the rapidly evolving nature of this research field. This fellowship will not only deepen our understanding of atmospheric CH4 but also contribute to research in tropospheric composition, climate science, and inform European environmental policy-making through stakeholder engagement with the European Commission.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2026 · 2026-03

In recent years, scholars from ethnomusicology, folkloristics, anthropology and other disciplines have critiqued the UNESCO paradigm of intangible cultural heritage safeguarding as leading to dispossession and reifying once-dynamic traditions. These critiques have become even important during the grant period, as the United Kingdom has just formally signed the UNESCO Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2024. In response, “cultural sustainability” has emerged as a promising alternative through promoting a holistic and dynamic approach to intangible cultural traditions. In the first stage of the FLF, I have worked with Tibetan communities in China to develop new approaches to cultural sustainability. In this process, I have isolated the role of community sustainability, and the efforts of individual culture brokers as essential in ensuring the vitality of different cultural practices, while also leading a series of community workshops aimed at introducing cultural sustainability theory and new digital technologies for cultural preservation and transmission to culture workers in China. With renewal funding, I will extend this research to see how lessons from China’s robust legal and administrative framework for recognising and managing intangible cultural heritage and how perspectives on cultural sustainability can shape future heritage interventions both in China, and in the United Kingdom, as it navigates its own obligations under the UNESCO Convention. During the renewal period, then, my primary goals are: 1) Improving Tibetan cultural vitality both inside China and within its global diaspora communities, 2) refining new methods for encouraging cultural sustainability through collaboration, digital technologies, and adding participatory action research, 3) understanding the question of cultural sustainability as it relates to diasporic and exile communities, 4) Better theorising the role of individual agents and their efforts in supporting cultural sustainability, 5) creating online and offline resources for communities in China, and beyond to document, preserve, and transmit intangible cultural tradition, and 6) introducing both the theoretical and methodological approaches pioneered in this project to policy makers in China, the UK, and UNESCO. To accomplish this, I anticipate engaging in four main activities. First, participatory action research with Tibetan tradition bearers in China will test new methods for providing valuable, culturally- and contextually appropriate support for the documentation, transmission, and spread of intangible cultural traditions. Second, collaborations with the Tibetan diaspora community, will co-develop impactful interventions in cultural transmission for Tibetan and other diasporic communities in the UK and the West, whilst also helping to advance theorisation of cultural sustainability in diasporic contexts. Third, the creation of English, Chinese, and Tibetan language written and video content to support training needs and sharing findings of diverse communities, and finally in linking with both national and international policy bodies, we aim to use our findings to shape broader understandings of cultural sustainability. In sum, through continuing to pioneer the theorisation of cultural sustainability, and developing methods for its meaningful implementation, this project will continue to see this research team established as a global leader in an increasingly important field of research, while achieving meaningful impact into the presents and futures of minoritised communities in China, the UK, and around the globe, and the intangible cultural traditions they maintain.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2026 · 2026-03

The Amazon rainforest, the most biodiverse ecosystem on Earth, plays a crucial role in global climate regulation. Within this vast landscape, large meandering rivers and seasonally flooded forests are iconic ecosystems, where people, plants, and animals are adapted to flooding seasonality and their survival depends on the regularity of this rhythmic pulse. However, climate change is altering these patterns, bringing more frequent extreme floods, droughts, and heatwaves. These changes threaten wetland tree species from both sides - demanding resistance to longer floods as well as extreme droughts.  Understanding the physiological mechanisms driving tree responses to climatic extremes across different wetland forest types at large spatial scale is essential to predicting the future of Amazonian flooded forests, their biodiversity, and their role in carbon cycling. Our knowledge of the physiology of these ecosystems is currently restricted to a handful local studies, therefore our research question is: How does the sensitivity to extreme drought and flooding across different types of Amazonian flooded forests modulate Amazon forest resilience and carbon cycling at basin-wide scale? My main aims are to: Aim 1) Build the first large-scale dataset of tree physiological traits that determine water and thermal stress resistance across Amazonian wetland forests, spanning the full range of flooding and nutrient conditions. Aim 2) Identify the ecophysiological mechanisms that allow trees to survive extreme hydrological and climatic stress, revealing how different wetland forests may cope with climate change. Aim 3) Assess the consequences for biodiversity, forest demography, and carbon cycling, determining whether these forests are resilient to increasing environmental extremes or at risk of collapse. To achieve this, we will integrate cutting-edge approaches, including tree physiology measurements, 3D laser scanning, and long-term forest monitoring across the Amazon basin. With this integrative frame-work we will upscale tree nano-structures to ecosystem level, predicting for the first time the impact of changes in climate across all types of Amazonian flooded forests and if these ecosystems may cope or collapse under increasingly changing conditions. This research will generate an unprecedented dataset, delivering major contributions to tropical forest ecology and climate resilience science. Beyond academia, the findings have direct practical applications. Understanding which tree species are most resilient to climate stress can, for example, inform forest restoration efforts, helping select species that can withstand future conditions. But my findings will not just benefit science - through my partnership with the Mamirauá Institute I also have a strong pathway to inform climatic risk assessment and support the practices and decisions of local communities, conservation managers, and policymakers. Furthermore, through my ongoing partnership with the National Geographic Society and Instituto Serrapilheira (Brazil) I have clear and strong  pathways to reach a vast global public, promoting and supporting the development of some approaches for climate change adaptation and conservation of Amazonia and other tropical biomes.  

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2026 · 2026-03

This proposal builds upon my recent discovery of an entirely new type of molecular organisation within liquids—known as ferroelectric nematic phases. These new phases combine the electrical properties of crystalline solids with the fluidity and ease of processing of a liquid; this unique combination of properties could revolutionise materials technology, offering innovative solutions to critical global challenges, such as consumer electronics, non-mechanical heating/cooling, high performance sensors, advanced polymers and so on. My UKRI Future Leader Fellowship renewal aims to answer fundamental scientific questions about how these new liquid-crystal materials form and behave. By combining the design and synthesis of new molecules with advanced experimental techniques and computational modelling, I will uncover the underlying rules that determine how molecular shape controls the elasticity, structure, and overall performance of these materials. A core objective of this work is to establish general principles for predicting and controlling the bulk properties of liquid crystals from molecular-level design so that we can obtain materials capable of operating at and below ambient temperatures. Achieving this will dramatically accelerate the development and understanding of materials these fascinating materials, and will allow us to move from exploring their fundamental properties to assessing their use in targeted applications.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2026 · 2026-03

Liver disease and liver cancer together cause ~2.5% of deaths annually in England, with a projected rise of liver cancer by 6% from 2025 to 2040 in the UK. Long-term damage to the liver (e.g. Cirrhosis and liver cancer) is treated by surgical removal of parts of the liver or transplant. Laparoscopic (keyhole) and robotic liver resections are pivotal in modern surgery, offering minimally invasive options for removing unhealthy liver parts while preserving function with faster healing. Due to a lack of tactile feedback, liver opacity, and the limitation in the accessibility of interpretable pre-operative 3D MRI/CT scans during the surgery, surgeons need to memorise and interpret the complex liver structures and associated abnormalities throughout, making the surgical procedure longer and technically difficult. I propose developing a real-time augmented reality (AR) system using an advanced data-driven method that will automatically overlap liver segments, functional structures, blood vessels and optimal liver margins from pre-operative scans onto the laparoscopic scene. I will address current unmet clinical needs by enhancing the visualisation, enabling faster and optimal functional organ-preserving liver surgery, leading to improved patient safety and recovery. I will address current gaps in existing algorithms, such as the lack of real-time performance and algorithmic robustness. I have co-designed the project with surgeons, patients, and industry.  I will develop a novel framework comprising the following: 1) Extraction of 3D models with eight liver segments and other information such as vessel map and tumour. 2) Intraoperative ultrasound segmentation of major liver landmarks. 3) Mapping of the pre-operative anatomy and key landmarks overlaid onto the liver during surgery. 4) Real-time dynamic navigation using vision and sensor-based system design for improved robustness. I will also develop protocols for achieving standardised multimodal data for robust AR-based systems in liver surgery. Algorithmic validation is a key challenge in current research, so I propose cross-linking the validation designs to infer the accuracy and reliability of each. Building upon my prior work on the segmentation of liver segments, I will develop a novel multi-class 3D segmentation method for tumour, ligament, and optimal resection margins. To fuse the 2D liver image with the extracted 3D maps from MRI/CT scans, I will explore a neural radiance field (NeRF) technique, which aims to reconstruct 3D representations from 2D images. However, I will design NeRF with a displacement estimation algorithm to tackle liver plasticity. After reconstruction, the 3D liver shape will be used to register with the 3D liver model, which will then be projected, and a fast differential rendering technique will be applied to obtain the final 2D-3D fusion. An array of sensors will provide a vision-sensor setup that will be assessed and iterated with the industrial partner on the project. This invention will compensate for failures in vision-based systems and allow faster realignment of pre-operative maps onto the liver during surgery.  I will use data from 360 patients over 36 months, overcoming the limited data problem. The primary endpoint is to obtain a reprojection error of less than 1mm (currently over 30mm) and real-time performance. This will be assessed using 20% of the collected data. The secondary endpoint is to determine the usability of the AR technology in the clinic by surgeons, including a scoring system that will evaluate easy-to-use and rendering time for visualisation using the developed framework.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2026 · 2026-02

Proteoglycans (PGs) and glycosaminoglycans (GAGs) play important functions in biomedical science, such as cell signalling, wound healing, infections and inflammation, molecular diffusion and synaptic connections. Their dysregulation is linked to multiple diseases including cancer, arthritis, cardiovascular conditions, and neurodegeneration, making them key targets for research and potential new treatments. Despite their importance, PG and GAG research faces challenges due to the lack of functional and structural analytical methods due to their high molecular heterogeneity, and limited labelling techniques. The UK has made significant advancements in this area in recent years, such as methods for analysing GAG-protein interactions using label-free techniques, and machine learning for disaccharide composition analysis. However, the geographical separation of these resources in different UK institutions has limited accessibility and collaboration.   Here, we propose to build a network uniting PG/GAG scientists into the UK Proteoglycans and Glycosaminoglycan (UK-P/G) Academy. This virtual academy will foster knowledge sharing, enhance collaboration, provide access to cutting-edge facilities, and nurture the next generation of glycoscientists. Our vision is to create a one-stop platform, the UK-P/G Academy, for knowledge and skill sharing, as well as strategic development, to strengthen the UK’s leadership in PG and GAG research. It will also attract scientists from other fields and stakeholders, including biotech and pharma companies, ensuring a sustainable and robust research community dedicated to scientific excellence. The specific aims to achieve our vision are: Aim 1. Create a platform for the sharing of knowledge and skills in PG/GAG technology and biology, Aim 2. Foster collaboration through joint pump-priming projects, Aim 3. Nurture the next generation of scientists to democratise PG/GAG research, Aim 4. Develop a strategic plan to maintain and grow the UK’s leading position in PG/GAG research beyond the duration of the project.   UK has a long tradition of excellence in glycoscience research. Globally, we are within the top three position in terms of publication outputs in the area of PG and GAG, after the USA and Japan, two countries with a strong tradition of dedicated funding resources for the glycosciences.   Through the organisation of network events and technology transfer workshops, support for secondments, pump-priming and summer projects, presentation and travel awards, the development of resources sharing platform, mentorship schemes, and half-yearly discussion forums for strategic directions, we anticipate that the UK-P/G Academy will develop excellent glycoscientists at all career stages, provide an inclusive environment to bring together diverse groups of researchers and other stakeholders, and enable sharing of knowledge and creation across the research community, which will ultimately strengthen the lead of UK in this research area.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2026 · 2026-02

This project investigates the language learning of deaf1 and hard-of-hearing (DHH) children growing up in multilingual migrant contexts and examines ways of capturing individual multilingual repertoires and repertoire development that are sensitive to the influences of these contexts.To date, multilingualism research has prioritised non-immigrant hearing households and families with high language choice and agency. The resulting knowledge base, which neglects marginalised populations, has led to a potentially skewed understanding of multiple language use, choice and development, with consequences both for the understanding of the experience of multilingualism and for practical decisions for support and education. We address these gaps by focusing on the multilingual experience of one such marginalised population: DHH children growing up in multilingual migrant contexts of the UK and Germany. We examine children’s multilingual language experience and development through an interdisciplinary lens combining sociolinguistics, psycholinguistics and linguistic ethnography to allow for a comprehensive understanding of multilingual development in these populations over a timeframe of one year. Our research agenda poses the central question: How do young deaf and hard-of-hearing migrant children experience language as a social practice, and how do contextual factors in different geographical and social spaces of migration influence their language use and repertoire? We will collect rich contextual data and then test and evaluate methodologies to analyse linguistic repertoires and communication of DHH children in migrant contexts. Information on how individual and contextual factors shape language development and use in the early stages of formal education will inform the development of a research framework that is sufficiently nuanced to capture linguistic repertoires in this and other underrepresented groups. The transnational focus, leveraging Britain’s established institutional support for multilingual children and Germany’s recent high migration, will result in (1) an analysis and explanation of the contexts of language development for DHH migrant children, (2) the expansion of scientific knowledge on multilingual linguistic repertoires in diverse contexts, (3) the development of informed guidelines for researching, assessing and explaining language use and development in marginalised communities, and (4) the development of practical guidelines for sustainable linguistic support for DHH migrant children across Europe, contributing to informed policy development. The sustainability of these outcomes will be facilitated by a participatory approach involving children, families, support networks, and educational institutions, as well as the inclusion of DHH and hearing researchers and educators in project design, data analysis and dissemination.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2026 · 2026-01

My doctoral research explores the life and practice of American artist, educator and Roman Catholic nun Corita Kent with a particular focus on interreligious exchange.  Central to my thesis is the investigation of Kent’s experience of living and working in Los Angeles during the 1960s, which greatly inflected her artistic output as well as her spiritual sensibility.  A fellowship at the Huntington Library will provide essential material for an innovative investigation into Corita’s involvement with the Inter-Religious Committee of the Los Angeles Goals project.  Intended to provide a religious perspective to the development of urban planning, the Committee became an influential and, at times, controversial grouping within the wider Goals project.  Corita’s artwork was utilised in publicity materials and reports for the Inter-religious Committee, but to what extent did she contribute to and share its bold vision of urban planning in Los Angeles? The Huntington Library not only holds material crucial to the development of my thesis, but is also close to the locale at the centre of my research. As an institution dedicated to recording the history of Southern California, the Huntington provides valuable opportunities for knowledge exchange, collaboration and learning lessons from the past.  This fellowship will make an indispensable contribution to my project by offering access to essential research materials as well as access to the expertise of Huntington staff.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2026 · 2026-01

The cell is a microscopic chemical reactor, in which thousands of cellular processes run simultaneously in a highly crowded environment.  These processes all must be tightly regulated or this can result in the disruption of important cellular functions and can lead to disease. To study cells in health and disease, scientists manipulate these cellular processes and one way this can be achieved is via the delivery of proteins and DNAs into cells. Conventional methods of delivering molecules into cells have significant limitations as they often damage the cell, have little control of when the molecules enter the cell and crucially no information on how many molecules are actually delivered. These drawbacks can be overcome with nanoinjection, a method we have developed.  Nanoinjection uses fine needles fitted with electrodes, known as nanopipettes, to deliver molecules into cells.  The small size of the nanopipette relative to the cell means the cell is not harmed by the injection, and molecule delivery only starts when triggered by applying a small voltage to the nanopipette. The key feature of the nanopipette is the small size of the pore at its tip, which is only a bit larger than the molecules it delivers. Crucially when a molecule passes through the pore it changes the current we measure through the nanopipette’s tip, a blip. Therefore, count the number of blips and you know how many molecules are delivered, something other methods can’t do. In this project we will use nanoinjection to deliver alpha-synuclein into cells. This protein has an important role in Parkinson’s disease, where it clumps together to form various aggregates. These aggregates vary in size and shape, some are small doughnut shaped structures and others are long fibres. Understanding which of these is responsible for making nerve cells sick and die is a key question in Parkinson’s disease. In this project we will inject known numbers of different alpha-synuclein aggregates into nerve cells and look at the cell’s response. We will look at this at different levels, at the level of the cell to see if it gets sick or dies, at the level of gene expression to see if key cellular processes are changed and, using electron microscopy to look at the cell interior at very high magnification to see which compartments in the cell are disrupted.  Collectively, these different approaches will then tell us which alpha-synuclein aggregates are damaging to the cell and crucially how many of each aggregate are required to make the cells sick. Whilst this project focuses on alpha-synuclein, it will also demonstrate that nanoinjection can be used to deliver molecules into cells to study cellular processes. We therefore see many different applications for nanoinjection, for example looking at protein aggregates linked to other diseases such as Alzheimer's. Likewise, nanoinjection could be used to study viral infection, by injecting viruses into cells and then studying how the virus hijacks cells in order to replicate and how the cells try to stop the infection.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2026 · 2026-01

Ras is an oncogene, frequently mutated in cancers, where it drives cell growth and signalling. SOS1 and SOS2 are key proteins that activate Ras by enabling it to switch from an inactive to an active state, even when Ras is acting as an oncogene. While these two proteins share similarities, most research has focused on SOS1, leaving the function of SOS2 much less understood. This gap in our knowledge limits our understanding of how Ras activity is regulated in normal and disease states. Our project aims to address this by investigating how SOS1 and SOS2 function and regulate Ras activation. By uncovering the differences and similarities between these proteins, we will gain new insights into Ras-driven cellular processes and identify potential strategies to target Ras activity in diseases. Specifically, we will: Study the active regions of SOS1 and SOS2 (SOScat): Using biochemical assays and advanced structural biology techniques, we will examine how these regions interact with different Ras variants, including those with disease-causing mutations. This will help us understand how SOS1 and SOS2 activate Ras and identify isoform-specific mechanisms. Use Affimers as research tools: Affimers are small, engineered proteins we have developed to block the activity of SOS1 and SOS2. These Affimers effectively inhibit Ras activation and downstream signalling in cells. We will use them to study the distinct roles of SOS1 and SOS2 in cells and visualize their interactions with Ras using high-resolution imaging methods. Link molecular findings to cellular function: By combining biochemical tests, cell-based experiments, and cutting-edge imaging techniques, we will investigate how SOS1 and SOS2 are regulated over time and in different locations within cells. This project builds on our expertise in structural biology, cell biology, imaging and the development of Affimers as research tools. We have already visualised SOS-Affimer complexes, demonstrated the ability of Affimers to block Ras signalling in cells, and used these tools for imaging and structural studies. By uncovering the mechanisms of SOS1- and SOS2-specific regulation of Ras, this research will fill a critical gap in our understanding of Ras activation. The tools and knowledge will provide a foundation for better understanding basic cellular signalling and biology and support efforts to develop new therapies targeting Ras-driven diseases.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-12

Is the granting of legal rights to rivers an effective way to address Brazil’s river crisis? Since 2018, the Brazilian Rights of Nature (RoN) movement has secured legal rights for several rivers and water bodies across Brazil. The global RoN movement advocates for the recognition of non-human beings and parts of nature (rivers, forests and mountains) as legal persons. Based on an interdisciplinary approach that will unite historians, political economists, human geographers, legal scholars, and international relations scholars, the project will critically explore to what extent the RoN movement can confront the status quo view of rivers as commodities and establish a novel paradigm inspired by kinship practices. A kin-centric understanding sees rivers as kin-like persons and part of an ecological family intimately intertwined with our own health. This kin-centric understanding of rivers can inspire new river governance models to improve legal and political protections for rivers, their ecosystems and riverine communities in Brazil and worldwide, including the UK. The project will analyse the RoN movement’s efforts in advocating for river rights; map kin-centric understandings of rivers among RoN movement members and riverine communities; explore historical riverkinship ideas to illustrate the loss of riverine communities’ river rights and identities over time; and develop a kin-centric rights framework to support activists and policymakers in implementing and enforcing river rights. To develop this framework, the project will combine the methods of participatory and historical cartography and focus on four emblematic case studies in four different Brazilian states where rivers and water bodies have been granted legal rights for the first time in Brazilian history. Brazil’s large rivers and ecosystems, not least the Amazon River Basin, are fundamental in regulating the South American and global climate. But Brazil’s rivers are under threat. Devastating droughts and rivers with record-low water levels are the ‘new normal’. Many river basins are heavily polluted by toxic mining activities and industrial agriculture, which have resulted in devastating ecological disasters, destroying indigenous and riverine communities’ livelihoods, wrecking ecosystems and pushing many animal species closer to extinction. A growing body of literature regards the modern understanding of rivers as commodities to be exploited for material gain as the root of the world’s river crisis. This dominant understanding of rivers emerged in the past few centuries in Europe. During the colonial era, this principle influenced river governance in Brazil and across the world, establishing the prevailing technocratic and economic understanding of rivers – and marginalising centuries-old kin-centric traditions of river rights. Over the past fifteen years, RoN movements across the world have actively challenged this dominant paradigm. To strengthen the environmental protection of rivers, these movements have embedded kinship ideas, based on indigenous and other riverine communities’ kin-centric relationship with rivers, in the politico-legal systems of contemporary societies. In Brazil, similar legal and political activities are underway. Yet, there is a pressing need for critical and interdisciplinary in-depth research on the historical evolution, the current implementation and future potential of these activities in effectively promoting socio-environmental protections of rivers and riverine communities. With our external partners (the São Paulo-based NGO MAPAS and the global environmental activist network Guardians Worldwide), this project will develop specific policy guidance and online training materials for policymakers, lawyers, activists, indigenous and other community leaders on how to contest entrenched power relationships and enforce river rights.  

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-12

The decades-long fight against human malaria is entering a new phase, one that the WHO advocates will require targeted interventions tuned to the way the disease is transmitted locally, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa where most infections still occur. Malaria is a climate-sensitive vector-borne disease; the environment plays a key role, especially via the distribution and timing of water suitable for mosquito breeding in relation to where people live. But this relationship is complex and largely omitted from planning by Ministries of Health. This is a key gap in the face of challenges to malaria control in some habitats and from climate change. We aim to solve this globally important problem using the latest advances in climate science, hydrological modelling, and satellite remote sensing to produce new surface water maps that can be readily incorporated into malaria transmission models and combined with routine clinical data. To do so we will need to ‘push the frontiers’ of the science and work across disciplines, but this offers the potential for a new generation of environmental risk mapping for bespoke village-scale malaria control over large areas, as required by public health planners. This will be an important scientific contribution to achieve the mid-century goal of malaria elimination.   While national strategic plans recognise the critical importance of water for malaria transmission, water is represented in extremely basic ways such as by rainfall totals or distance to a river. We argue that more advanced hydrological methods should be incorporated in such strategies. Surface water availability is a key control on the malaria transmission cycle, as water bodies are the larval habitat for the Anopheles mosquito vectors that transmit the malaria parasite. Without surface water, there would be no malaria. However, malaria models typically use only rainfall to estimate malaria transmission suitability and bypass hydrology altogether. Infiltration, evaporation and water flow through rivers are important controls on surface water. By embedding hydrology within malaria transmission models, we can improve process understanding and identify dynamic patterns of malaria transmission, assisting in the targeting of malaria interventions, for example by identifying larval habitats for optimised larviciding campaigns or predicting the changing malaria burden in response to El Niño or climatic changes.   Working with our established collaborations at the Ministry of Health in Zambia, our interdisciplinary team is uniquely placed to deliver this important advance. Specifically, we will drive a new generation of surface water models with rainfall from high-resolution climate models. We will test our model estimates of present-day surface water against new satellite surface water mapping methods that can now correctly identify submerged vegetation. Potential Anopheles breeding habitats derived from these water maps will be input into an existing malaria transmission model to estimate monthly transmission rates. We will also test ‘lighter-touch’ approaches using less computationally intense methods that can be more readily included in malaria control strategies. Finally, we will validate model outputs with malaria incidence data from hundreds of health facilities across Zambia.   The risk mapping arising from this work is designed to be readily incorporated into health information systems used widely in Africa and LMICs globally and will inform malaria control strategies beyond Zambia. It will provide robust process-based estimates of both the environmental controls on present day malaria burden and how these might change in future, with impact directed at national malaria elimination strategies.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-12

KSHV is an oncogenic virus required for the development of Kaposi's sarcoma (KS) and several lymphoproliferative diseases. KS is the most common adult HIV-associated cancer and amongst the most common childhood cancers in sub-Saharan Africa. There are no specific KSHV antivirals or vaccines, therefore it is essential to study the molecular mechanisms which regulate KSHV replication to fully understand KSHV pathogenesis. Here we highlight a novel role of long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) in KSHV biology. LncRNAs are critical regulators of gene expression, playing key roles in KSHV persistence, immune evasion and lytic replication. Until recently, lncRNAs were thought to function solely by their RNA sequence and structure, however, we provide exciting data showing that KSHV induces the translation of small open reading frames (smORFs) within cytoplasmic-localised lncRNAs, producing micropeptides. ORFquant analysis of Ribo-seq datasets highlight significant ribosome occupancy and translation of novel smORFs in cellular lncRNAs during KSHV lytic replication. This is reinforced using polysome profiling, showing lncRNAs associate with translating ribosomes and FLAG-tagged mini-reporter constructs containing the novel smORFs, which are expressed in various subcellular localisations. Importantly, micropeptide overexpression enhances KSHV lytic replication and infectious virion production. Together, these data suggest that KSHV induces the translation of micropeptides from lncRNAs, enhancing KSHV lytic replication. These findings provide a unique opportunity to assess how lncRNA-mediated translation of micropeptides is regulated during infection and how micropeptide function impacts virus replication and/or the host response. We therefore now wish to exploit these findings and our scientific objectives are underpinned by the following defined stages: We have prioritised 10 micropeptides for detailed characterisation. We will firstly examine their temporal expression and subcellular localisation during the course of KSHV lytic replication, utilising CRISPR/Cas9 tagging approaches and the generation of specific Affimers-binding reagents to the prioritised micropeptides. Our preliminary analysis suggests that micropeptide overexpression can enhance KSHV lytic replication. However, to definitely discriminate between the role of the parental lncRNA and translated micropeptide, we will generate CRISPR/Cas9 mutants which either (i) specifically disrupt the start codon of the lncRNA-smORF, (ii) create a frameshift near the start codon or (iii) inactivate lncRNA function at the genomic level. This will confirm that the micropeptides are the functional unit of the translated lncRNA. We will characterise the role of the prioritised micropeptides in KSHV lytic replication by mapping their protein interactions, assessing the impact of their expression on host and viral gene expression and providing mechanistic insights based on their subcellular localisation. Our preliminary analysis highlights an enrichment in the m6A status of the translated lncRNA during KSHV lytic replication. We will therefore assess the role of m6A methylation in the translational efficiency of lncRNAs during infection, by identifying the m6A reader proteins which bind the m6A-enriched lncRNAs and investigate their role in recruitment of KSHV-induced specialised ribosomes.   Together, these scientific objectives will determine how KSHV manipulates host cell lncRNA translation to enhance its own replication and provide a better understanding of how micropetides regulate virus replication. This may provide new strategies for therapeutic intervention of an important human pathogen. The project will have wide implications by providing valuable information on the diverse biological functions of micropeptides, impacting our understanding of their role in cell and developmental processes. This will be essential in understanding how lncRNA translation and micropeptide dysregulation contributes to disease.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-12

Clouds play a vital role in weather and climate by affecting precipitation and the Earth’s energy balance, but long-term observation of clouds is highly limited thanks to their challenging dynamic nature. This project pioneers a groundbreaking drone-based method for cloud observation, enabling previously implausible long-term, in-situ cloud measurements. The approach overcomes key constraints of existing methods: poor representativeness of infrequent aircraft campaigns, limited accuracy of satellite retrievals, and loss of instrumentation with balloon launches. Combined with extensive modelling and a plethora of other observations, I will use the new dataset to elucidate how cloud properties affect our weather, and enhance our understanding of how clouds interact with radiation and climate. Observations and weather forecasting are valuable to society. A recent World Bank / Met Office report estimated that an improved global weather observation network could bring benefits of over $5 billion annually. Meanwhile, long-term observations are key for identifying climate trends. Drone technology is on the cusp of revolutionising atmospheric sciences through its flexibility and ease of scalability for use in observation networks. This fellowship will position me at the forefront of drone-based cloud measurement. The approach I propose combines an existing miniaturised cloud microphysics instrument with a commercial drone, creating the first vertically profiling drone capable of routine cloud droplet measurements up to 2 km. With an 18-month observation period at the new University of Leeds Atmospheric Observatory, including an intensive 3-month campaign with additional instruments, my team will produce a first-of-its-kind dataset for atmospheric research. I will achieve impact within the project lifetime by two key routes. Firstly, I will improve UK weather forecasting through using the Met Office numerical weather model in direct collaboration with their cloud microphysical lead. Secondly, drone measurement will be timed with overpasses from the new state-of-the-art satellite, EarthCARE, to produce a dataset at the forefront of cloud observation. I will use the dataset to work with international projects and provide a unique contribution to collaborative discoveries with the new satellite. Now is the time for this fellowship. The application of drones for weather observation has gained sufficient momentum that the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) is coordinating a demonstration campaign in 2024. Their aim is to evaluate the potential for drones to contribute to weather observation networks. Our UK-based industry partner, Menapia, is a key participant. WMO ambitions do not include cloud observation because there is no established technology capable of routine drone measurement of clouds. With the significant investment from this fellowship, I can fill this gap. And by establishing a drone capable of cloud droplet measurement, I can leverage the latest developments in the Met Office model which now simulates droplet number. The fellowship would enable me to forge and strengthen relationships with both industry and academic partners and lead activities to achieve both innovation and research objectives. The fellowship would provide me with a tool that will help address major challenges in weather forecasting and climate projections and, with continued development, will remain relevant throughout my professional life. My expertise in atmospheric modelling, established collaboration with the UK Met Office, and extensive experience in climate science will be instrumental in realising the impact of my innovative observational approach and making breakthroughs beneficial to society.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-11

What is this network about? The HESTIA Network (Home Environment Solutions through Technology and Innovation for All) aims to create a new approach to home design and upgrades, integrating existing and emerging building technologies to make buildings healthy for all people, and for the environment by reducing carbon emissions. Who are we? HESTIA is a team of interdisciplinary researchers from leading UK universities, spanning engineering and architecture, environmental and atmospheric sciences, human health and the social sciences. We work closely with government and housing organisations that manage housing provision, regulation, and design, and with communities most affected by unhealthy homes to ensure that HESTIA helps to improve health for all. Why focus on housing? Many millions of homes in the UK are being built, and upgraded with a focus on improving energy efficiency to reduce carbon emissions. This is typically achieved through improving building thermal insulation and airtightness to prevent heat loss. However, minimal attention is paid at the moment to what this means for the health and wellbeing of the people living in them. Housing is a key factor that determines people's health because people spend more than two thirds of their time indoors at home, and current evidence suggests that deprived communities tend to suffer from poorer quality housing. While energy efficiency upgrades can improve health and reduce health inequalities through, for example, tackling the ongoing fuel poverty crisis, high levels of building thermal insulation and air tightness can worsen the quality of our indoor environments if not implemented properly. For example, they can increase exposure to harmful indoor air pollutants, damp and mould, and make indoor temperatures uncomfortable in the summer. In turn, this can worsen mental and physical health, and health inequalities. Many new and established technologies are currently being installed into homes alongside building insulation to make them more energy efficient, such as smart meters that monitor energy use, and replacing gas boilers with heat pumps. At the same time, new technological devices such as low-cost air quality sensors and air cleaners are increasingly being used in homes to make them better for human health. The HESTIA Network will address how these technologies can work together to both improve environmental health through reducing carbon emissions while improving physical and mental health and reducing health inequalities. What will the HESTIA network do? The HESTIA Network will focus on: Building community: We will build a community across academic disciplines, policy, industry, and the general public through a series of in person and online activities. We will share research, best practice, and lived-experience to create a forum to guide policy, practice, and research on housing to ensure health and equity are central considerations. Developing research potential: Working with our full range of network members, we will roadmap research and innovation priorities, and fund feasibility studies to understand the role that different engineering interventions and technologies can play in home environments to improve human and environmental health for everyone. Promoting future leaders: We will prioritise researchers in the early stage of their careers to develop future leaders who are equipped to work across different academic disciplines and sectors, as well as with the general public, to co-design and deliver housing solutions in an equitable way.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-11

Augmented and virtual reality (AR VR) technologies are continuing to grow in popularity and demand. They have proven invaluable in entertainment, education, healthcare, engineering and many other industries. Exemplars of these technologies are already integrated in our daily lives from mobile phone apps to car windscreen displays. The market for immersive technologies is projected to grow exponentially in the next five to ten years. Increasingly, new capabilities including specialist sensors, artificial intelligence, health monitors etc. are being added to the AR VR products. As society embrace immersive technologies, the electronics hardware industry is yet to catch up with the user demand and massive advancements in AR VR software sector. The goal for the hardware industry is to deliver high performing socially acceptable AR VR devices at reasonable prices for the consumer market.  However, there are several challenges to overcome. It is extremely difficult to satisfy all of the technical and ergonomic specifications of AR VR products and the current technologies have significant trade-offs. The solution requires bespoke device designs, improved fabrication processes and breakthrough in materials science. This prosperity partnership addresses the challenges in AR VR products through a cohesive research programme by inventing new materials and novel device architectures and developing components that meet the specifications of the AR VR industry. The partnership will create a wide range of new understanding and tools that bring technical solutions to AR VR devices. We will use liquid crystals and related technologies to do this. There are clear challenges that require fundamental research in material design, surface optics development and novel designs in combination optics. We will apply a holistic multi-disciplinary approach that involves material science, physics, chemistry, and engineering, informed by molecular simulation, optical modelling and machine learning. Liquid crystals are already an integral part flat panel displays. They are remarkable optical materials with tuneable optical anisotropy or birefringence, optical transparency, high sensitivity to electric, light and thermal fields. Therefore, they could be a key enabler for the AR VR market and this partnership will harness that potential. The know-how developed through this partnership will pave the way to comfortable, low powered, high performance device components for AR VR where the benefits will enable the immersive technologies to become as ubiquitous as smartphones. The partnership contributes to addressing key UK societal challenges and current and future economy as the materials and understanding developed will be relevant to sectors including healthcare, net zero, digitisation and data etc. The development of new materials, novel devices and fabrication methodologies will provide an excellent platform for a number of applications, which would allow the industries to adapt more reliable, and energy efficient techniques and hence contribute to a safer environment and better quality of life in the society.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-10

The global alcohol industry generates vast amounts of organic waste, much of which is underutilised or disposed of in ways that contribute to environmental degradation. Tequila production alone results in over 600,000 tons of bagasse and more than 1.5 million liters of vinasses annually. Regulatory pressures are increasing, with stricter waste reduction targets and promoting sustainable resource management. At the same time, agriculture faces mounting challenges due to soil degradation and declining soil fertility. With a growing focus on sustainability, there is therefore an urgent need to repurpose alcohol industry byproducts to provide both economic and environmental benefits. Our project seeks to transform alcohol industry waste from a disposal burden into a valuable resource. Specifically, we aim to: Investigate the potential of organic soil amendments derived from alcohol production waste (eg. biochar, compost) Address knowledge gaps related to the impact of different waste types on soil health and their suitability for diverse climates and agricultural systems. Identify industry-specific barriers to adopting waste valorisation practices. Develop scalable, practical solutions for integrating these materials into sustainable agriculture. Our project will strengthen international cooperation in sustainable resource management, fostering a circular economy approach that transcends borders by bringing together experts from the United Kingdom, Mexico, New Zealand, and Spain including representatives from leading global alcohol industries. The UK has a strong foundation in soil science and sustainable agriculture, while our international partners bring expertise in alcohol production, waste management, and climate-specific agricultural practices. Through knowledge exchange, and co-produced experimental trials, we will establish a multidisciplinary research framework integrating waste characterisation, biochar and composting technologies, microbial ecology, life cycle analysis, and sustainable business models. We will conduct cross-regional assessments using experimentally derived data to optimise waste valorisation for different environmental conditions. To maximise the impact of our findings we have secured support from industry stakeholders—including tequila (Mexican Chamber of the Tequila Industry), beer (BrewDog), cider (Grupo Trabanco), and wine (Hawkes Bay) producers—to align research outcomes with industry needs and sustainability goals; facilitating knowledge transfer through workshops, joint publications, and industry engagement activities to strengthen long-term collaboration. By initiating this collaborative research, we aim to bridge the gap between waste generation and sustainable agricultural application to create lasting impact. Economically, industry will benefit from lower waste disposal costs and the opportunity to diversify their revenue streams through innovative valorisation pathways. Agricultural productivity stands to improve, with biochar and compost enriching soil health, increasing crop yields, and reducing dependence on synthetic fertilisers. Repurposing alcohol industry waste will also help mitigate greenhouse gas emissions that result from decomposition of waste materials while also curbing pollution caused by traditional waste disposal methods. Our research has the potential to drive industry-wide transformation by developing scalable models for waste valorisation that can inform regulatory policies and encourage sustainable practices on a broader scale. The alcohol industry is at a critical juncture where sustainable waste management must become a priority. Our international collaboration leverages cutting-edge research, industry partnerships, and regional expertise to turn waste into opportunity. By unlocking the full potential of waste valorisation, we aim to drive a paradigm shift toward a more sustainable, profitable, and environmentally conscious alcohol production sector.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-10

Structural biology has undergone a revolution in its power with fundamental techniques such as cryoEM and X-ray crystallography revealing higher resolution detail on increasingly more complex targets. In parallel, programs such as alpha-fold now produce ever more accurate computational predictions of protein structure. Whilst these all provide important details on protein structure that underpins our fundamental understanding of biology and drive the development of new therapeutics they are typically a “snapshot” and lack “temporal” resolution that informs on the mechanistic steps of a protein or protein complex. Time-resolved approaches bring the temporal resolution to structural biology by typically triggering a reaction and then stopping the reaction along its pathway before completion to understand the mechanism of action and associated conformational change. One such method, time-resolved cryoEM, permits the trapping of large conformational changes in proteins and is a rapidly growing field.  This proposal will use and develop time-resolved cryoEM to trap the molecular motor myosin-5, and other members of the myosin family, in a series of different states to provide a step change in our understanding of how the myosin motor functions. This is key to understanding how myosin motors perform a range of functions in eukaryotes, unlocking why certain mutations can cause disease, such as early onset cardiac disease, and how small molecules modulate function. This will be done through three specific objectives: Objective 1 will build on our structure of the primed acto-myosin-5 structure (where the motor is primed ready to move across its actin track and was trapped in ~10 milliseconds) to improve the resolution and allow us to look at the details of how the ATP fuel for the motor is utilised. We collected our original data in 2020 and we will take advantage of improvements in technology and our increased experience of undertaking time-resolved experiments to improve resolution. Objective 2 will solve the structure of a previously unknown state where the myosin-5 motor is bound to its track and ATP. After binding ATP myosin-5 dissociates from its track in less than one millisecond and therefore a new system for time-resolved EM that can go ~10 times faster than previous approaches will be developed. Objective 3 will look at different molecular motors of the myosin super family (myosin-2 and -6) to understand how conserved the mechanism of action of myosin-5 is over the wider family so we can start to understand the “rules of life” for this important motor superfamily and not just one specific member. These objectives are based on strong pilot data that show we can achieve each step, our ability to produce the protein required, and our experience with time-resolved methodologies. The unique nature of which make us uniquely placed to conduct this important research. Moreover, the expanding nature of the time-resolved field means that expertise are urgently sought within the UK workplace. We will mentor and train the postdoctoral researcher to become a leader in this field and run a workshop to train the wider community, alongside presenting our technology at regular EM training events internal and external to Leeds.  Beyond the academic arena we will liase with industry on both methodology expansion and possible equipment licensing and our public engagement activities will ensure the work reaches a wide audience.