University of Leeds

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-10

THE PROBLEM: “Imagine reaching the final chapter of your life, where every meal feels like the punishment (shapeless, tasteless, and stripped of dignity). This is the daily reality for thousands of older British adults on texture-modified foods (TMFs)”. PRINTFOODSUK asks: what if food could be safe, nutritious and joyful again? Malnutrition should not be, but is, a very real and current problem among older British adults, affecting approximately 1.3 million people over the age of 65. In 2023, 55% of care home residents were identified as at risk (up sharply from 35% in 2015). The causes are multifactorial, including age-related decline, chronic illness, polypharmacy, and notably, dysphagia (swallowing difficulties). Dysphagia necessitates TMFs, which are often nutrient-poor, visually unappealing and linked to reduced intake and micronutrient deficiencies. TMFs are typically served as “shapeless blobs” or “ice cream scoops”, despite the critical role of visual appeal in stimulating appetite. This transition from regular to TMFs is strongly linked to decreased appetite, malnutrition, micronutrient deficiency, cognitive decline, bone fractures and hospitalisations. THE SOLUTION: PRINTFOODSUK brings together multidisciplinary team of experts in biosciences and social sciences to address malnutrition and nutritional deficiencies among older adults in UK, through the development of micronutrient loaded 3D printed TMF products. It aims to (I) develop 3D-TMF products containing essential micronutrients using 3D food printing technology to ensure product safety, palatability, nutrient bioavailability and compliance with International Dysphagia Diet Standardisation Initiative (IDDSI) guidelines; and (II) conduct real-world evaluation of the developed products in care home settings; assessing feasibility, acceptability and clinical impact to generate evidence supporting product efficacy and facilitating market adoption. Expected outcomes are the translation of this innovation into commercialisation and will improve quality of life and economic burdens associated with healthcare costs, long-term caregiving and nutritional deficiencies among older adults. Nutraceutical industry could benefit financially by 3D food production.  

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-09

Alexander the Great’s twelve years of conquest, which took him from Macedon to the Punjab, have long been recognised as among the most disruptive periods in human history. On the one hand, Alexander’s campaigns led to significant destruction, not least of the Achaemenid Empire. On the other they brought about a period of intense interaction between Graeco-Macedonian and local cultures, known to modern scholars as the Hellenistic period. Scholarly attention has remained focused on Alexander the ruler and his campaigns, and only fitfully on the communities he encountered. Scholars have privileged literary sources produced centuries after Alexander’s death, with little attention paid to changes in the contemporary material culture. This project will ask how these dramatic political and cultural changes brought about by the campaigns of Alexander can be seen in the material culture of the period, using objects to study the changes felt in everyday life. The findings will contribute to an original reassessment of the period for both public and scholarly audiences, enhancing the British Museum’s collections, redisplay, and contributing to the narrative of a major exhibition on Alexander and the Hellenistic World in 2030. It will provide a unique opportunity for the student to become an expert in the material culture of this period. Because of the breadth of objects required, this project could only be undertaken at the British Museum and will be a showcase of the unique richness of the collections and the ability of material culture to tell important stories from the ancient world.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-09

The Yorkshire Policing-Academic Centre of Excellence (TYP-ACE) will mobilise the best research and innovation evidence across the universities of Leeds and York to improve public trust and confidence in policing, enhance community safety and reduce harm. It aims to equip police and partners with the science and innovation insights and knowledge to drive forward a culture change in policing, whereby preventative and problem-solving approaches are embedded as central to the police mission. TYP-ACE will build upon the expertise, engagement platforms and existing partnerships with policing stakeholders within the ESRC Vulnerability and Policing Futures Research Centre (hosted by Leeds and York). Additionally, it will harness rigorous research evidence, as well as methodological and analytical capabilities of both universities. It will provide national and international leadership in crime prevention, public trust in policing, analytics and climate change. In these fields, it will play a decisive role in advancing and improving policing by generating, synthesising and making accessible the best evidence available. Leeds and York are global research-intensive institutions with considerable relevant specialist expertise. TYP-ACE will provide national leadership in research and innovation on: crime prevention - by understanding the value of prevention initiatives and fostering safe public spaces; public trust - by exploring the forces that influence trust and confidence in policing; analytics - by considering the opportunities and challenges of administrative and other large datasets for policing; and climate change - by understanding the impacts of climate change on policing and community safety as well as the role of police in climate mitigation and adaptation.  TYP-ACE will enable policing to build resilience and prepare for future challenges, including workforce and training needs, and advance understanding of what works, where, for whom, and under what circumstances by drawing upon a variety of high-quality social science and data analytic methods. TYP-ACE will foster ways in which science, technology and innovation can be mobilised to address the drivers and vulnerabilities associated with victimisation, reduce offending, and lessen demands for policing through evidence-based, whole-system approaches. It will pay particular attention to understanding public perceptions, beliefs and concerns about the application of science and technology and the extent to which innovations and technologies are considered legitimate, fair and ethical. Improving public awareness and understanding of science and innovation will be central to the work of TYP-ACE, in that public trust and confidence is fundamental to effective policing. Through engagement with policing partners and national networks, TYP-ACE will synthesise research evidence to draw accessible insights that can lead to actionable knowledge and change at scale. TYP-ACE will adopt a values-led approach to policing-academic engagement that revolves around core principles of integrity, inclusivity, collaboration, openness, solution-focus, responsible innovation, independence and reciprocity. It will foreground co-production, interdisciplinarity and impact with an emphasis on generating, translating and applying knowledge to transform frontline policing in ways that enhance community safety. It will deploy its resources and flexible fund to support the following activities: engagement workshops; new research projects; evidence syntheses; tool development and testing; knowledge exchange workshops; people mobility and exchange; and PhD placements. Each activity will bring policing stakeholders together with academics both with subject matter expertise and with appropriate methodological and analytic skills to co-design the questions, approach and desired outcomes. Collectively, they will deliver new tools, applications and tangible benefits for policing and crime prevention.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-09

Over the last six years multiple United Nations resolutions have called for governments to develop Rehabilitation and Reintegration (R&R) programmes targeted at violent extremists – advocating their crucial role in preventing terrorism and reoffending (UNOCT, 2024). As programmes expand globally, an emerging problem centres on how to build public support for them and how to overcome community opposition through more transparent communications and community engagement (e.g. Blair et al 2022). A lack of public support can undermine R&R efforts and cause a backlash (Clubb and Tapley 2018). However, it is unclear what shapes public views of R&R programmes. Moreover, the effect of different communication strategies is unknown, in particular, the key role of transparent communications in shaping public support for and trust in such programmes. This project will provide an evidence base to inform R&R communications strategies, through which public support and trust can be built. The research will examine to what extent exposure to more information about a policy - policy transparency - increases support and trust in R&R programmes. A widespread but untested assumption informing current R&R communication strategies is that greater transparency can increase public support and trust in these programmes (e.g. Briggs 2010). Conversely, research in communications studies indicates strongly that transparency has the opposite effect, reducing support and trust in public policy areas such as R&R programmes (e.g. de Fine Licht 2014a). Other studies have identified that credible messengers and messages that signal an offender’s redemption builds support (e.g. Godefroight and Langer 2023), yet the effects of messenger and message have been conflated (Clubb et al 2024a). The intellectual and empirical challenge the project will address, therefore, is to provide a comprehensive evidence base to understand the determinants of public support for R&R, and the extent to which existing communications strategies have a positive effect on public support for R&R programmes. This project will conduct a series of survey experiments in three case study countries – Nigeria, the UK and the US – to collect data on the effect of different forms of communications on building support and trust in R&R programmes. The cases have been selected as they are key locations for different types of R&R programmes, enabling theory testing that can make the findings generalisable and contribute to research in other disciplines. The project will be the first to explore public support for the reintegration of individuals exiting violent extremism inside and outside their respective judicial systems. Furthermore, we will conduct a Delphi study with leading R&R practitioners as part of our impact strategy – Delphi surveys are a well-established method for identifying perceptions of best practices among practitioners and to facilitate policy change (Makhmutov 2021). The proposed data collection is substantial but feasible because it builds upon the research team members’ previous work in this area, leveraging their long-established network of practitioners. The project will deliver three academic publications targeted at high impact (i.e. Q1) journals to make a significant contribution to literature in international politics, communications studies and criminology. The Delphi study will support practitioner engagement and deliver a report on best-practices. A Community Engagement Toolkit informed by the research and co-produced with practitioners will be developed to support R&R communications strategies. The Toolkit will be delivered in a training workshop for practitioners, targeting United Nations agencies and key international practitioners.      

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-09

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

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-09

The scale and pace of transformation required to mitigate climate change is a huge challenge. Addressing this challenge requires social change – a change in social norms, behavioural change, a change in shared future visions, and a change in political decision-making. For climate mitigation missions to be successful – such as achieving net zero by 2050 – societies need to rally behind necessary but, often in the short-term at least, unpopular policies. This challenge is exacerbated by increasing polarisation and declining trust in politics across countries. This fellowship extension will build on insights gained during the first phase of the research which demonstrated the transformational potential that climate movements can have in affecting social and political change and the potential of moral norms for accelerating climate action. But the research also showed how climate change threat can lead to dysfunctional responses that block solutions and increase a sense of division and paralysis. This fellowship extension will focus on increasing understanding of how the competing dynamics of accelerating climate action on the one hand and dysfunctional responses on the other can interact, and what conditions could lead to increasing the prevalence of climate action in society. For this purpose, the most recent methodological advances in social science research will be utilised, namely using generative-AI to create realistic models of social change dynamics. Data collected during the first phase of the fellowship, complemented with new follow-up and survey data to be collected during the extension phase, will help to fine-tune these models and increase their validity. Moreover, the research will take a deeper look into political institutions and how changes in norms that can drive wider social change can take hold in these institutions thereby triggering processes of political change. Here the focus will be on the European Parliament, making use of open data available on discussions, decisions and processes in this institution, as well as gathering data on the influence of links between the institution and various external actors, such as industry and civil society. This data will be complemented with data from expert interviews with EU policy makers. Furthermore, this extension will go beyond the individual level by investigating the role that communities, including disadvantaged communities, can play in driving forward normative and social change. The extended fellowship will involve working collaboratively with the Kirklees City Council and the third sector organisation Hope for the Future, as well as local community groups to run a visioning and bottom-up deliberation engagement, while collecting data on this engagement. In this context we will also explore the potential of generative-AI tools for visioning (image-generating AI) and informed deliberation of climate policies within communities (text-generating AI). The insights from this research will advance social science research and understanding of social change processes. The research will also have strong potential to inform climate policy by producing important findings on how best to mobilise population support, and by revealing how climate activism can go beyond raising awareness of an issue by creating alliances that can successfully drive positive social change.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-09

As ‘the Nation’s Mantlepiece’ (Conlin), the National Gallery (NG) has been a dominant presence in the interface between art and diverse publics for 200 years. Behind this profile, the NG has developed extensive collaborations with ‘The People’s Galleries’ (Waterfield), the wide range of regional public art galleries in Britain. Whilst drawing on its status as the UK’s original ‘National Gallery’ and its international connections, the NG has shared its collection and expertise in various ways particularly from the 1920s, episodes which highlight the important mediatory role the NG has played in the development of Britain’s public art galleries. However, this centre-periphery model obscures the multifaceted and complex changing dialogue between the NG and regional public art museums. This PhD explores the history of these collaborations during a defining 60-year period, building on research by Giles Waterfield and Christopher Whitehead which focused on an earlier timeframe. It seeks to understand better the NG’s positioning as a key national node in a network of collaborations as well as how resulting collaborative initiatives and impulses generated through its regional networks of ‘Civic Art Museums’ have, in turn, helped shape the NG’s own practices and programming. The project will utilise understudied primary resources at the NG and key regional partners, as well as interviews with retired museum professionals involved in key collaborations in the past. By surfacing the benefits and challenges of significant historic collaborations it hopes the findings may inform and benefit future NG collaborations and other partnerships between UK regional museums.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-09

Is pain research being done in the wrong place? Pain-sensing neurons have tiny endings/fibres in the skin and organs to allow the body to sense painful stimuli. On a molecular level, it is the presence of different proteins (receptors) in these endings that allow harmful events to be converted into electrical signals enabling us to ultimately feel pain. However, rather than using pain-sensing neuron endings to understand how pain signalling occurs, other areas of these neurons are routinely used instead. There are obvious issues with this as there are differences in size, shape and location of the different parts of the pain-sensing neuron. For example, in humans, there can be approximately one metre between where injury occurs at the skin of the finger to the spine, where the other parts of the neuron are located. Therefore, does it make sense to use these other areas as an accurate representation of what happens at the site of injury? These issues must be addressed and ideally, pain-sensing nerve endings need to be used to study pain. If this can be established, it would revolutionise how pain research is done. When tissue damage occurs, so-called ‘inflammatory mediators’ are released from the site of injury and activate the receptors at the nerve endings, ultimately leading to a heightened sense of pain sensation with the associated redness and swelling. This ‘inflammatory’ response is important for effective healing to occur therefore, it is crucial to understand inflammatory pain signalling (IPS) from a molecular point of view. Ca2+ signalling is well understood as part of the IPS process; it is important for producing increased pain signals to be maintained and aid the healing process. Delving deeper into IPS, neurons have vital Ca2+ stores that release Ca2+ after pain receptor activation. It is evident that inflammatory nerve responses rely heavily on these Ca2+ stores, therefore, just as a car would need to be refueled to continue to drive, the replenishment of Ca2+ stores is critical for efficient and sustained Ca2+ release during inflammation or injury. Two proteins, STIM1 and Orai1, are known to perform refilling of Ca2+ stores. When Ca2+ is released from these stores, the reduction in Ca2+ levels leads to STIM1 and Orai1 physically interacting. The subsequent complex formed allows Ca2+ entry into the cell from the outside environment. This Ca2+ is then taken up into the stores and refilling is completed. STIM1 and Orai1 are known to be involved with IPS; by disrupting this complex, pain signals can be reduced. Additionally, activity of these proteins is increased in animal models of chronic pain, thereby suggesting a role in these types of conditions. However, this process is not understood in the pain-sensing nerve endings. Therefore, as part of this fellowship I will investigate the following objectives: Identifying Ca2+ stores in the nerve endings and understanding where STIM1/Orai1 are found relative to these stores Show that active Ca2+ refilling in the nerve ending occurs Investigating a scaffolding protein (Extended Synaptotagmin-1), known to allow STIM1-Orai1 interaction, in the nerve endings. Taken together, this fellowship will allow me to understand how refilling in the nerve endings occurs; such fundamental understanding will underpin future translational research to provide new therapeutic and avenues to treat inflammatory pain conditions and provide me with a foundation to further my independent career.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-09

Water scarcity and the depletion of global phosphorus and potassium reserves within 100 years pose two of the largest threats to meeting the future food demands of a growing population. In response to this challenge, many countries have adopted a circular approach to agriculture which involves the use of sanitation to meet agricultural nutrient and irrigation demands. The reuse of resources such as treated wastewater and sludges is now a common practice in many countries, especially in arid and semi-arid areas where agricultural production is reliant on limited freshwater supplies. However, emerging contaminants can pass through wastewater treatment plants and contaminate the wastewater and sludges providing a pathway for these chemicals to inadvertently enter the environment. Furthermore, in rural areas and in countries with limited wastewater infrastructure, wastewater is commonly used as a source of irrigation following little- to no treatment prior to reuse. This is of particular concern as untreated wastewater typically contains higher loads of emerging contaminants such as pharmaceuticals and personal care products. Our previous work has demonstrated that pharmaceuticals can persist in soils with the potential to be taken up and accumulate in plants, which presents a risk to ecosystem and human health. Pharmaceuticals are biologically active chemicals and their presence in agricultural systems could result in undesired toxic effects for plant, soil and human health. Our scientific understanding of human health risks following the consumption of contaminated produce is particularly scarce and largely based on acceptable daily intake calculations which neglect to account for potential effects on a biological level, including the development of antimicrobial resistance. The proposed programme of research for the second phase of the Fellowship aims to fill these knowledge gaps by uniting scientific expertise to reveal fundamental biological insights with respect to ecosystem and human health impacts following wastewater reuse, with a particular focus on exposure scenarios with minimal wastewater infrastructure. The specific objectives will: Quantify ECs in partially treated wastewater used for irrigation, soil, and crops   2. Elucidate the composition and function of microbial communities in water, soil, and crops 3. Assess the presence and diversity of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) and their carriers 4. Characterise and model a baseline human health exposure scenario, and evaluate potential impacts on the gut microbiome following the consumption of contaminated crops Delivery of the objectives will be achieved using a combination of modelling, lab experiments and a spatio-temporal field monitoring campaign. Specifically, an established wastewater irrigation system in Mexico will be used as a basis to elucidate the contribution of partially treated wastewater to contaminant loads in agricultural systems. Mexico is a major consumer of human use chemicals such as pharmaceuticals, and faces severe contaminant-linked challenges due to inadequate wastewater treatment. There is an urgent need to establish the global risks of emerging contaminants such as pharmaceuticals in agricultural systems where wastewater is likely to be used without prior treatment. Outputs of this research will provide effective evidence for use by non-academic end users (e.g. environmental regulators, water industry, agricultural sector), guiding wastewater reuse policies to ensure the potential risks from contaminants are mitigated for whilst maximising sustainable reuse.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-09

There is a pressing need for the history of science to refocus on aspects of women’s historical scientific work that have hitherto been overlooked or disregarded, including their active management of scientific collections and scientific legacies both within and extending beyond their own families. These activities – preserving, organizing, cataloguing, pruning, and publishing from collections they were often involved in creating – required considerable skill and expertise.  Moreover, they were consequential for both public and even specialist understanding of the sciences. This research project is designed to explore the role of such women in the shaping of the natural sciences and their legacies between the late nineteenth and mid twentieth centuries. The Darwin archive, mostly held at Cambridge University Library, contains extensive evidence of such work.  However, despite the ‘Darwin industry’ (founded by Charles’s granddaughter Nora Barlow), little attention has been paid to the significant contributions of numerous Darwin family women in shaping its heritage. Similar collections are spread across East Anglian museums, both within and beyond Cambridge, including the Jane Saul Collection at the University Museum of Zoology and the Henslow family papers at the Ipswich Museum. Drawing on several of these collections, this project will build connections, offering a wide-ranging comparative study of women’s engagement with both objects and manuscripts.  It will significantly extend our understanding of the nature of women’s work in science, and of scientific practices more generally, offering a substantially new methodology for unearthing the hidden role of women in scientific collections.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-09

The current climate crisis has raised pressing questions concerning the public authority and credibility of science, the persistence of misinformation, and the role of new media.  This project throws that cluster of questions into historical relief, taking a “long view” of public scepticism concerning atmospheric sciences.  In particular, it focuses on the way in which scientists sought to reconfigure one of the nineteenth century’s most successful media, the almanac, replacing astrological lore with the latest meteorological science.  By examining this history for the first time, the project will reveal the role of scientists’ interaction with a powerful communication medium in the battle to establish the controversial new science of weather prediction, shedding light on issues of contemporary as well as historical relevance. The project builds on a uniquely strong research focus at the Centre for History and Philosophy of Science, University of Leeds, and at the Royal Society of London, relating to science in nineteenth-century periodicals in combination with the history of meteorology.  It is also built on an exceptional set of archival resources relating to the behind-the-scenes processes by which scientists sought to engage the public.  The research will focus especially on two ground-breaking almanacs – the British Almanac (1828–1914) and the Illustrated London Almanack (1845–95) – in which scientists were heavily involved, and for which extensive scientific archives survive, notably at the Royal Society but also at other institutions. Focusing on the key period of innovation between the 1820s and the 1860s, the project will seek to understand the issues involved in securing authority for Victorian scientific weather prediction in the context of the previously little-studied astrological almanacs and examining the significance of their international circulation.  The research will involve analysing the editorial and data-gathering processes, the almanacs themselves (including through digital techniques), but also the public response.  The resulting study will have wide relevance for historians of science and of periodicals but will also offer an important reference point for contemporary science communicators and sociologists.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-09

Context:  Historically structural biology experiments have been conducted on proteins ‘grown’ in the lab and although they provided some key insights in understanding molecular mechanisms and for developing leads to therapeutic development, it has become clear that the structure and activity of proteins is influenced by their native cellular context. Therefore, it is essential that moving forwards we study these systems in tissue. To this end we have in the past year published the first structure of a protein within human brain. Challenge: In 2022, dementia and cerebrovascular disease were the first and third most prevalent causes of death in the UK, respectively (ONS). The neurovascular unit that forms the blood brain barrier (BBB) is a strictly controlled gateway mediating entry of essential nutrients and the removal of waste and toxins, including ß-amyloid. The BBB is a particular challenge for pharmaceuticals targeted to the brain because it also limits the uptake of therapeutics.  For example, the MHRA and FDA recently approved an Alzheimer’s disease (AD) immunotherapy for which less than 1% of the dose crosses the BBB. This increases cost and likely contributes to unwanted inflammation at the BBB that can result in fatal side-effects of the treatment. Cerebral amyloid angiopathy (CAA) is an incurable disease in which amyloid accumulates at the BBB and is also a co-pathology in ~50% of AD cases, likely increasing the risk of therapeutic side effects. Aims: This project will use multiple imaging modalities (cryoEM/cryoET, cryoFIB-SEM ‘mill and view’ and cryo-fluorescence) to determine molecular structure, 3D molecular architecture, and cellular-resolution tissue maps of the neurovascular unit in human brain tissue (postmortem and living donor): Determine the first in-tissue structure of vascular amyloid. The first 3D molecular architecture and cellular-resolution model of the neurovascular unit in postmortem vascular disease and living donor fresh brain tissue. Obtain the first in-tissue cryoET molecular architecture of vascular amyloid engaged with an Alzheimer’s disease immunotherapeutic. Potential applications and impacts: Knowledge of the in-tissue structure of vascular amyloid could contribute to the long-term effort to develop vascular amyloid-specific ligands for diagnostics (eg. CAA-specific PET ligands) and/or therapeutics to prevent cerebral amyloid angiopathy. What is the impact of a structural model of the neurovascular unit bridging both molecular and cellular length-scales in human brain? Being able to relate directly the structure of proteins, their molecular architecture within 3D cellular resolution tissue maps of vascular disease will impact our understanding CAA and AD. Since BBB permissiveness is a major challenge in treating many other neurological diseases, including brain tumours and mental health, this structural blueprint will likely aid the design of therapeutics that must cross the BBB and drug delivery technologies that are currently in development. More broadly, this discovery project will further develop physical/structural technology imaging across space (patients to molecules) and time (from health to disease) to accelerate our understanding of disease and the development of immunotherapeutics.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-09

Context: Earth’s magnetic field shields our planet from harmful solar radiation, protecting our atmosphere in which life has thrived, and sheltering modern electrical infrastructure such as satellites and power grids from space weather. Yet our planetary magnetic shield has a dent, or low intensity zone, called the south Atlantic anomaly (SAA), a vast area of space currently between South Africa and Chile, in which spacecraft in low-Earth orbit are exposed to damaging radiation. The SAA is currently growing and deepening, which might have major implications for the sustainability of satellites, underpinning diverse technologies such as weather forecasting, navigation, communication, television, banking transactions and internet provision. The origin of the SAA lies deep within Earth’s liquid outer core, where a churning ball of liquid metal generates the Earth’s global magnetic field through a process termed the geodynamo. However, due to severe computational challenges, current numerical models of this geodynamo cannot faithfully describe the correct conditions of the core, a situation that is unlikely to change in the foreseeable future. Major gaps are left in our understanding of how the global magnetic field is created, which means that we cannot predict the future of the SAA and the associated environment at low-Earth orbit. The challenge: The challenge is to develop a new type of model of Earth’s dynamo, leveraging recent advances in observational data and data-driven machine learning methods. These models will obey all the appropriate physics while matching high resolution satellite data, providing an unprecedented opportunity to image the dynamics inside the core. Data from the recently launched MSS-1 spacecraft provide a unique opportunity to map and, based on the new models, predict the environment within the SAA. Aims and objectives: We aim to: Create new maps of the SAA from space using the data from MSS-1. Create new models of Earth’s core that explain the dynamics of SAA and how the geodynamo operates in the present-day. Predict the future structure of the global field, including the SAA and its associated space weather hazard. Potential applications and benefits: Our new models will answer fundamental questions about the deep-Earth. For the first time, we will be able to identify how the geodynamo operates, why we have a SAA and whether it might have occurred in the past. Furthermore, our models will allow us to gain new insights into the planetary evolution of Earth, such as constraining the thermo-chemical structure of the deep mantle and how global magnetic reversals occur. More broadly, because the fundamental physics is thought to be the same in all planetary dynamos, our new understanding for the Earth will directly inform the interpretation of magnetic fields in other planets. Better forecasts of the global magnetic field will improve the magnetic field orientation and navigation models embedded in billions of mobile devices worldwide via Google and Apple Maps. Predictions of the near-Earth space environment will inform satellite operators and designers about the risk from the south Atlantic anomaly. This has the potential to be globally impactful in view of current plans to launch up to another 100,000 satellites in the next decade (Zhang et al., 2022), mainly in large, interconnected but poorly shielded satellite constellations such as Starlink (SpaceX).  These constellations will all be in low-Earth orbit, and at risk from space weather.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-08

Rheology is the study of the mechanical properties (viscosity, viscoelasticity etc.) of flowing fluids. Every large manufacturer that develops new foods, cosmetics, surgical implants, paints, glues, oils, drilling muds or other engineering fluids, has a rheology lab where they measure “constitutive relations” (shear stress as a function of strain rate) and other quantities. [20] Non-Newtonian fluids in continuous shear flow are routinely developed in commercial rheology laboratories. They are an example of non-equilibrium steady states, for which there is no rigorous microscopically-based mathematical theory [1] and no non-trivial, microscopic-physics-based models have been solved analytically. Rheology is a huge commercial and academic discipline. Unlike equilibrium thermodynamics, where the static properties of substances are calculated and understood via the rigorous unifying formalism of statistical mechanics, rheology has no equivalent rigorous formalism. Instead, it relies on ad hoc approximations and intuition to develop a separate mathematical model of each distinct material of commercial interest. This situation is problematic, as it hinders the development of new medicinal and commercial fluids. As an example, equilibrium statistical mechanics has proven that the critical point of water (or other fluids), where its liquid and vapour states merge, must share its properties (its “critical exponents”) with the Curie point of magnetic materials, where ferromagnetism merges with paramagnetism. Hence, the exactly solved magnetic models that are the cornerstone of statistical mechanics (the Ising model and the XY model [34–37]) inform our wider understanding of all substances at equilibrium. No equivalently profound insights are attainable for rheological properties because statistical mechanics does not apply to flowing systems and we currently have no equivalent framework for them. [1] We propose an intensive period of research, working on a potentially tractable, physically valid microscopic model exhibiting non-equilibrium phase transitions in continuous shear flow, which could establish the standard model for statistical mechanics of rheology. We aim to analyse the sheared state of the simple model fluid and derive large-scale principles from the micro-scale dynamics. It will be the first microscopically-based analytical calculation for a physically valid system exhibiting non-equilibrium phase transitions in continuous shear flow (the standard situation for commercial labs developing non-equilibrium fluids). It will be a springboard for further research.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-08

Context The UK Government’s net zero strategy predicts a 60% increase in electricity demand due to the switching of energy supply modes from fossil fuel to electricity in major sectors including transport. Transport is currently the largest emitting sector, accounting for 29.1% in 2023 and decarbonizing all forms of transport is a national key priority. Railway is a cleaner transport mode, and the UK’s largest electricity consumer (~4 TWh p.a. ~1.2% of UK total). The railway's decarbonisation ambitions to phase out diesel trains by 2040 will result in a major increase in electricity demand (~ 2TWh), requiring up to £30 billion investment to electrify/decarbonize ~15,000 single track kilometre (stk) rail. The challenge the project addresses Transport electrification requires extensive updates of both the power and transport networks, which are extremely expensive and time-consuming to deploy, e.g. rail electrification costs £1~2.5m per stk, while the current lead times for critical new carbon projects to connect to the power grid are now over 15 years, and investment in transmission capacity is falling behind deployment, leading to >£1Bn cost of managing constraints. For example, in 2021, it was reported that 7TWh electricity including 2.3 TWh wind power was curtailed at a costing £1.5billion. Aims and objectives To address the dual challenges of electricity curtailment due to congestion and increased electricity demand from transport electrification in a whole system approach, this project aims to exploit the commercial application of the Networked Energy Hubs concept integrating technologies developed by Project lead in previous EPSRC projects (EP/L001063/1, EP/R030243/1 and EP/P004636/1), transforming the inflexible transport energy demands into flexible loads, absorbing excessive electricity during the night which otherwise will be curtailed to power trains and potentially road haulage in the daytime. The energy hubs are modular microgrid solutions that integrate battery storage and local renewable generation, interfacing with both the power grid and traction power supply network for trains. When they are networked and controlled via a communication network, they form virtual power plants to provide aggregated flexibility and ancillary services to the power grid, including wind power curtailment reduction, demand flexibility service, and frequency and voltage services. The project has 6 coherent work-packages to achieve the following objectives: Develop a stakeholder network and engage with key stakeholders to scope commercial applications of the networked energy hub technology (WP1). Identify use cases for railway and road electrification and decarbonization (WP2). Conduct desktop feasibility study including data analysis and initial design (WP3). Conduct simulation studies and hardware-in-loop experimental validation (WP4). Assess the technological transferability, including off-shelf solutions, communication infrastructure, and cyber security issues (WP5). Conduct coast benefit analysis and project dissemination (WP6). Potential applications and benefits The project will first explore applications to the GB railway network in decarbonizing ~15,000 stk non-electrified routes, avoid constructing overhead line for at least 3,000 stk track in rural areas which can instead be served by battery trains that are powered by ~500 networked energy hubs, saving > £3billion CAPEX.  The aggregated battery storage in these networked hubs would be c. 2GWh, which can be used to absorb excessive electricity at night and power trains by day, reducing curtailment costs by c. £16m per year. The same technology can also be scaled and applied to TfL underground, electric roads, and EV charging stations in cities and along the strategic road network.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-08

This proposal tackles problems at the core of one of the biggest uncertainties in our climate models – the properties of low-level clouds over the Southern Ocean and the extent to which they buffer warming from increased CO2. Clouds over the Southern Ocean frequently occur well below 0°C and are therefore composed of a mixture of supercooled water and ice.  The balance between water and ice is key to defining their interaction with incoming and outgoing radiation as well as their lifetime, yet this balance is poorly represented by current models. The presence of ice-nucleating particles leads to the removal of liquid water from clouds and a transition from a cloudy, high-albedo state to a blue sky, low-albedo state where the dark ocean surface is exposed. Our knowledge of the enigmatic particles that trigger ice formation in clouds is very poor for much of the globe, not least the Southern Ocean (SO). Ice-nucleating particles (INPs) are thought to be made up of a combination of biogenic material associated with sea spray and sporadic injections of terrestrial aerosol. However, current datasets lack the time resolution required to resolve the temporal variability or are only from short term campaigns focused on the summer. Consequently, we have a limited confidence in our models, and they fail to represent INP concentrations and their variability. The objectives of IceSO are to: Define the seasonal cycle of INP concentrations over the Southern Ocean by making the first high-time resolution INP measurements over 18 months at the well-established Kennaook/Cape Grim observatory using our newly developed and unique PINE instrument. Develop a global INP model that is informed by and constrained to the new and partner INP measurements within the Met Office Unified Model (UM), providing a three-dimensional distribution of INP over the SO throughout the full seasonal cycle and, because we link it to sources, will respond to changing land use and emission fluxes in simulations of possible future warmer worlds. Quantify how the new INP knowledge reduces biases in Southern Ocean mixed-phase clouds and explore feedbacks, achieved by collaborating with the CAPE-K project and through more-realistic and observationally constrained simulations of the Met Office Unified Model. IceSO is made possible by the invention of PINE. This is a mobile cloud chamber that we recently developed together with Karlsruhe Institute of Technology designed for autonomous quantification of INP over the full range of mixed-phase cloud temperatures. This development represents a step-change in our ability to make INP measurements and opens the possibility for long-term autonomous sampling of INP. The Kennaook/Cape Grim Baseline Air Pollution Station (40°S, 144°E) provides a perfect site for quantification of INP in the SO region, being situated at the latitude band of greatest low-cloud feedback on Earth. This station has a wide clean air sector representative of the wider SO and is also influenced by continental air masses bringing mineral dust and potentially other INP types. We have timed IceSO to coincide with the US funded CAPE-K project (U.S. Dept. of Energy) that will provide complementary measurements of cloud properties alongside the long running aerosol measurements. This will produce an unprecedented high-time resolution, long-term full seasonal cycle of the INP concentrations in the SO that will allow us to address the unacceptably high uncertainty in Southern Ocean cloud feedbacks.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-08

Structural biology, the branch of the life sciences that deals with characterization of 3D-structures of proteins and other biomolecules, is currently undergoing a rapid transformation. The “resolution revolution” in cryo-electron microscopy (EM) enabled a step-change in understanding complex structures, such as membrane proteins in native lipid environments and fibril structures of amyloid protein. By providing molecular snapshots with intricate detail, structural biology methods have thus greatly accelerated our mechanistic understanding of protein function – their internal movements (conformational changes) in response to external stimuli and their interactions with other proteins, DNA/RNA, lipids and glycans. These insights are key for understanding cellular function in health and disease and form the basis for the rational design of therapies. Recent advances in experimental methodology have been paralleled by innovations in computational modelling and structure prediction using e.g., Alphafold. Nevertheless, structural approaches usually regard the sample in isolation, without the context of its complex, diverse and often crowded cellular environment. Few methods exist to study molecules directly in cells (“in-situ structural biology”), notably super-resolution microscopy and electron tomography (ET). As exciting and powerful these methods are, they usually require labelling or “carving-out” of molecules, hence targeting specific features of interest. Structural-MS methods on the other hand are uniquely capable of identifying many different proteins and their modifications in complex and heterogeneous samples, while also providing information on conformations and interactions under certain circumstances. Here we propose to develop and test a novel approach for in-situ structural biology based on fragmentation patterns in secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) – a high-resolution imaging method in surface science which we apply to biological questions such as amyloid aggregation in vivo. Mass spectrometry-based imaging can already scan across tissues to map distributions of small molecules, lipids and peptides; but we postulate now that SIMS can extend this approach to larger and insoluble structures such as proteins and amyloid fibrils in their native state and at subcellular resolution. Rather than releasing these biomolecules whole from tissue via e.g. liquid extraction, we will exploit their fragmentation patterns and how they correlate with the native 3D-structure. Using a combination of spectral interpretation and clustering, differential analysis and A.I. approaches, we can distinguish different structural features, characterize conformations and attempt to derive 3D-structures de-novo from experimental data and computational modelling. Native SIMS-imaging addresses key challenges of in-situ biology, a current frontier of structural molecular biology, with the ability to obtain unbiased molecular profiles of whole tissue sections at high spatial resolution while also providing footprints of native structures. We will develop this approach using reference proteins in defined conformational and oligomeric states and evaluate the ability of SIMS to detect ligand binding. We will then use this strategy to study amyloid aggregation in tissue samples, map hotspots of aggregation and identify fibril isomorphs by their distinct fragment patterns, but also investigate the micro-environment around plaques – thus complementing high-resolution cryo-ET structures of A-beta and tau fibrils recently obtained by project partner René Frank (Leeds). Native SIMS-imaging, based on structural interpretation of fragmentation patterns, will have wide applications in pharmaceutical research, medicine and biomaterials development. It promises to transform capabilities in medical imaging by investigating molecular structures directly in tissues and providing corresponding chemical context, to the benefit of human health.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-08

This is a proposal in model theory, a branch of mathematical logic which investigates  objects of mathematics such as graphs and groups in terms of expressibility in formal logical languages. The focus of the project is on `definable sets' (solution sets of formulas of first order logic), especially in finite structures. The proposal has connections to combinatorics and to group representation theory. A famous 1954 paper of Lang and Weil gives estimates for the number of solutions in a finite field of a system of polynomials over the field. This was generalised by Chatzidakis, van den Dries and Macintyre (1992) to solutions in finite fields of arbitrary logical formulas. Their theorem became the motivating example of an `asymptotic class' of finite structures in any first order language, a concept introduced by  Elwes, Macpherson and Steinhorn around 2007-8. The latter was enriched to the much broader and more flexible framework of `multidimensional asymptotic class' (m.a.c.) of finite structures, with wide-ranging examples, in a recent preprint of Anscombe, Macpherson, Steinhorn and Wolf. There is a stronger notion of multidimensional exact class (m.e.c.) where sizes of solution sets are given exactly. Just as the Elwes-Macpherson-Steinhorn work yielded  a notion of infinite `measurable’ structure, with examples arising from  asymptotic classes via the model-theoretic ultraproduct construction, there are notions of `generalized measurable’ and `ring-measurable’ infinite structure, whereby definable sets are assigned values in an ordered `measuring semiring' or ring. Examples are given by ultraproducts of m.a.c.s and m.e.c.s respectively. There is an interesting  interplay between properties of the m.a.c./m.e.c and  of the ultraproduct. The above work has opened  three new directions  for exploration in this project. We aim for initial results in each direction, opening up their potential. First, existence problems about m.e.c.s with specified  ultraproducts lead to natural questions about combinatorial regularity properties, akin to conditions arising with the Weisfeiler-Leman algorithm; the latter is important for example for algorithms which verify whether two finite graphs are isomorphic. Lachlan in the 1980s developed a beautiful description of finite structures (in a finite relational language) which are `homogeneous’; we will explore whether Lachlan’s structure theory  can be developed just under combinatorial regularity conditions, without  symmetry/homogeneity assumptions. (`Regularity' of a graph -- the property that all vertices have the same number of neighbours -- is an example of a (weak) combinatorial regularity property; it is implied by the much stronger symmetry condition that the automorphism group is vertex-transitive.) Second, motivated  by  representation theory, Harman, Snowden and coauthors have developed a rich theory around measures on omega-categorical structures and on their automorphism groups (which are `oligomorphic' groups) and we will investigate several possible connections of their work to generalised measurable structures; in particular whether certain vector space structures endowed with multilinear forms with `linear oligomorphic’ automorphism groups are generalized measurable and have other good model-theoretic and group-theoretic properties. Third, Evans and later Marimon have recently shown that the 2008 Macpherson-Steinhorn notion of measurable structure has strong model-theoretic consequences (higher amalgamation). We will explore the model-theoretic content of generalized and ring measurability (e.g. n-amalgamation, and generalised stability conditions) under natural assumptions on the measuring semiring or ring. Furthermore, recent work of Chevalier and Hrushovski shows that measurability has interesting consequences related to piecewise-interpretable Hilbert spaces, and we will explore this under the much more flexible setting of generalised measurability.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-08

All rocks in the subsurface are fractured to some extent. Fractures form in response to stress and chemical change and provide important fluid pathways (or storage sites), and sometimes barriers, trapping fluids such as water and mineral-rich fluids. Fracture-filling cements precipitated from these fluids play a crucial role in propping these fractures open and recording the physical-chemical conditions at which the fracture opened and grew. As societies and economies gear up to achieve Net Zero, we urgently need to expand subsurface exploration and production. Therefore, fractured, shallow crustal rocks are expected to play a central part in the Energy Transition. To develop and manage geological resources in fractured rocks safely and cost-effectively, we must be able to predict the pattern of fractures at depth since they fundamentally control fluid flow. Despite a rigorous understanding of rock behaviour under stress, and how fractures conduct fluids, our ability to quantitatively predict subsurface fracture patterns remains poor. This is because fracture prediction has been overwhelmingly dominated by mechanical and geometrical models that are based on the central concept of a critical stress or rock strength measured in ‘fast’ laboratory tests for rock failing in tension or shear. However, we know that, in nature and in the laboratory, rocks fail in the presence of chemically active fluids at stresses significantly below these critical levels; thus, our knowledge base necessary to model subsurface fracture networks remains incomplete. To address the challenge of fracture prediction for the Energy Transition, this proposal seeks to couple the mechanical and geometrical evolution of fractures with the chemical evolution of the fluids contained within fractures. OpenFrac will develop a new fundamental model to quantify the evolution of opening mode fractures – such as economically important joints and veins – through the diagenetic evolution of sedimentary rocks. We will measure the growth of single sub-critical fractures in sandstone and limestone as a function of the chemical composition of pore water, temperature, and pressure. Our new understanding of the physico-chemical processes of sub-critical fracture in rocks will provide parameters for numerical models designed to explore the evolution of more complex patterns of multiple fractures in space and time. We will test and apply our predictive model of fracture pattern development in two case studies of direct relevance to the Energy Transition. Firstly, we will compare model predictions against fracture patterns mapped at different scales in selected sandstones around West Yorkshire (UK). These rocks comprise the target reservoirs for a pilot geothermal study underway at the University of Leeds campus. Eight boreholes on University of Leeds campus have been drilled, cored, and instrumented to provide data on the subsurface behaviour of these rocks. Our second case study is the limestones of the Peak District in Derbyshire (UK). This formation underlies vast areas of current UK heat demand and has the potential to deliver sustainable and secure geothermal energy. This project will generate an improved fundamental understanding of how fracture patterns are coupled to diagenesis, with predictions of fracture distributions in the subsurface underpinned by a physico-chemical model. We will deliver our results through open source code and open access data, readily extensible by other researchers working on different rocks, in partnership with our Stakeholder Advisory Board to deliver impact for the clean Energy Transition.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-08

Context: The Universities of Leeds and Manchester have a rich collective history of pioneering research in electronic, photonic, and quantum materials. Through the Henry Royce Institute, the National Graphene Institute, the Bragg Centre for Materials Research and the Photon Science Institute, we deliver significant research leadership, infrastructure and capability open to, and accessed by, the UK academic and industrial communities.  Demand for access to our growth and fabrication facilities is substantial and continues to increase as a result of our internationally leading ultrapure implanted silicon, topological insulator, 2D heterostructured, and magnetic materials programmes.  This has led to an urgent need to establish aligned capabilities in high-frequency and very low temperature characterisation to underpin the growth, study and exploitation of next-generation advanced materials. Challenges Addressed: Low temperature characterisation (particularly <1K) is essential for investigating quantum coherence and entanglement in development of new quantum materials and technology architectures, and for exploring superconductivity, magnetism, and topology in new materials.  Obtaining data on device and materials performance with sufficient timeliness that it can beneficially be fed back into simultaneous development and optimisation programmes is a critical challenge.  This requires capacity in measurement systems that are integrated into the materials growth, implantation, and device fabrication capability.  It is the purpose of Hi-CaLM to establish this capacity. Aims and Objectives: Our aim is to establish a regionally distributed, accessible, dilution refrigerator facility across the Universities of Manchester and Leeds with complementary high-frequency capabilities.  Manchester will focus on megahertz-to-gigahertz frequencies, and Leeds on the gigahertz-to-terahertz range.  Each of these requires a different experimental configuration and so cannot be achieved in a single system.  The combined facility will strongly enhance the UK capacity for millikelvin high frequency studies of electronic, photonic and quantum materials, both supporting and leading to collaborations with UK academic and industrial users.  Our specific objectives are: To establish a joint open-access facility, building sovereign capacity and capability in the interlinked fields of Quantum Materials, Quantum Devices, and Quantum Metrology. To provide an internationally unique one-stop-shop facility for the measurement of electronic and photonic materials and devices, capable of applying dc to terahertz frequency signals to samples held at millikelvin temperatures. To deliver the facility as a national capability, ensuring inclusive access that mitigates barriers which might otherwise lead to bias or exclusion of specific user groups. To validate the facility with proof-of-principle experiments in a range of application areas, ensuring its long-term sustainability through TRAC recoveries and the future research it will underpin. Potential Applications and Benefits: An extensive group of external users are already engaged with our current facilities and will access Hi-CaLM.  Manchester and Leeds are uniquely placed to provide this facility jointly to the UK community owing to substantial (~£150M) investments at both Universities underpinning our growth, implantation, and processing facilities. It is now imperative to provide enough low-temperature measurement capacity to capitalise upon this.  The two systems together will address a breadth of research ranging from the fundamental understanding and application of new materials systems, to the design, development and implementation of new computing architectures and quantum devices.  The work directly enabled will span from studies of qubits in implanted semiconductors, building needed sovereign-capability in their measurement, to the spin-dynamics in magnetic/spintronic devices, key to future low-energy computing architectures, and to the fundamental investigation of “twistronics” in modified graphene.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-08

Each year the world loses enough forest trees to fill Portugal. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), around 420 million hectares of forests disappeared between 1990 and 2020, exacerbating climate change and biodiversity loss, and jeopardizing the livelihoods of indigenous communities. Realizing the importance of protecting the world's forests and minimizing the risk of deforestation, a number of international agreements including the Glasgow Leaders' Declaration on Forest and Land Use (2021), and the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (2022), set out an ambitious goal to halt and reverse forest loss and land degradation by 2030 and the inclusion of Indigenous Peoples (IPs) and Indigenous Knowledge Systems (IKS) are identified as critical to achieving the goals of halting and reversing forest loss. Studies show that while IKS have a wide range of positive impacts on people and ecosystems, they often remain marginalized and misframed as inferior to modern science, and are rapidly eroding. Collaborating with the University of Leeds, UK, the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), and the Indigenous Peoples Observatory Network (IPON) the proposed project aims to strengthen IKS by facilitating knowledge transfer between different Indigenous communities and co-creating generalizable insights to bridge the gap between IKS, science, and policies to halt and reverse forest loss and degradation. In line with the European Commission's Responsible Research and Innovation framework that stresses 'design science with and for society, this project will set up a Virtual Living Lab together with IPs, scientists, and decision-makers. Findings from this project will contribute to the goals of global initiatives to halt and reverse forest loss as well as the European Commissions 2019 Communication, to step up the actions to restore the world's forests while respecting rights, culture, and the knowledge of Indigenous communities.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-08

Context. Scientific simulations play a crucial role in many fields, from engineering to physics, from biology to medicine. The ever-increasing scale of computational problems demands ever more powerful supercomputers. To remain sustainable while delivering their record-breaking performance, modern supercomputers rely heavily on accelerators – specialized hardware designed to achieve peak performance in specific tasks. A computer can only use limited precision. When the result of a mathematical operation cannot be represented exactly with the limited precision available, the computer will round it, introducing a tiny error. Nowadays, numerical simulations involve trillions of individual operations, and these rounding errors can quickly accumulate over the course of a computation, easily contaminating the final result. This is especially true for accelerators, as they use extremely low precision, which in turn magnifies rounding errors. Challenge. Bridging the gap between high-performance, low-precision hardware and the high-accuracy requirements of scientific computing is a timely challenge that can be tackled by developing mixed-precision methods. These methods strategically combine low- and high-precision computations to solve scientific problems as accurately – but more efficiently – than existing alternatives, which typically use high precision throughout. Mixed-precision algorithms have been developed for a few numerical linear algebra problems, where they have been shown to improve performance and lower carbon footprint. Krylov subspace methods underpin a significant portion of the workload of modern supercomputers. These methods are used to solve large, linear eigenvalue problems and to compute the action of a matrix function on a vector – two operations that are crucial in physics and engineering simulations, as well as in numerical weather and climate prediction. Currently, Krylov subspace methods assume that high precision is used throughout, and, therefore, are unable to exploit low-precision accelerators. This makes current implementations inefficient and unsustainable. Aims and objectives. The goal of this project is to design and implement robust, reliable, and scalable mixed-precision Krylov subspace methods for eigenvalue problems and matrix functions. We will develop a precision-aware error analysis of the Arnoldi iteration, the key component of any Krylov subspace methods. This analysis will guide the design of our new mixed-precision algorithms We will work with our partners to maximise the impact of the project. We will implement the new algorithms as part of two well-established high-performance computing libraries: the Software for Linear Algebra Targeting Exascale (SLATE) and the Scalable Library for Eigenvalue Problem Computations (SLEPc). We will work with the core developers of these libraries, to ensure that our algorithms become available to the user community without requiring major changes to existing code. We will also contribute to the development of a fully functional numerical weather prediction model capable of using mixed precision and, therefore, of fully exploiting modern supercomputers. Applications and benefits. Krylov methods are a crucial tool in density functional theory, lattice quantum chromodynamics, and numerical weather prediction, to name a few. More generally, they play a key role in methods for the numerical integration of partial differential equations, and they are at the heart of a sizeable portion of the workload of modern supercomputers. This project will allow existing codes to make full use of modern, energy-efficient hardware and therefore run on current and future supercomputers. This will result in faster and more energy-efficient runs, and will allow researchers to tackle ever larger problems, accelerating the pace of scientific discovery.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-08

We’ve all been feeling the heat recently, but do older individuals feel it more? The climate is warming, both in average temperatures but also increases in extremes of temperature and more frequent heatwaves. This means animals might more often experience temperatures close to their physiological limits, with critical consequences for human health, food production, biodiversity and conservation. Studies in humans and a few other animals suggest that the impact of extreme temperature increases with age. However, major gaps in understanding the interplay between age and heat stress remain; 1) the shape of the relationship across the lifespan, 2) whether there are sex differences in these relationships, 3) whether different traits respond in the same way and 4) what molecular mechanisms underpin these relationships.   Whilst classically survival limits have been used to predict responses to thermal extremes, there is increasing focus on sublethal effects of extreme heat. For example, we tested 43 species of Drosophila fruit fly, finding substantial variation in survival and fertility thermal limits in young males. Intriguingly, in more than half the species, males permanently lost fertility at a much cooler temperatures than their lethal limits, which could have devastating consequences for populations. Using a meta-analysis of more than 300 species, we have now shown that higher temperatures reduce both lifespan and reproductive output, but reproduction is much more severely affected. However, in systematically mapping existing literature, we found that most studies did not test thermal limits, did not test acute shocks (simulating heatwaves), and did not allow testing of sex or age-specific effects. This illustrates that such sublethal thermal effects require more attention.   To address these significant knowledge gaps, we propose to use Drosophila fruit flies, as they are a well-established model for understanding ageing and thermal biology.  We have new evidence that heating D. melanogaster males to just below their thermal limit is more harmful to 6-week-old than 1-week-old males, both in terms of fertility and survival. We will extend this approach to assess how the pattern changes over the lifespan (a gradual decline or cliff edge), whether females show different patterns, and whether there are common patterns across fly species. Gene expression changes with age, so we will then use D. melanogaster to test whether the changes with age are due to misregulation of genes that usually protect cells under stress. We will then functionally test some genes that do show these patterns by manipulating their expression to alter the sex and age-related patterns previously observed. Finally, we will flip the question to assess the long-term consequences of experiencing a heatwave when young. We expect those that survive temperatures close to their thermal limit will show faster age-related declines in various functions. We will test their lifespan, reproductive output, climbing ability, immune function, gut function and cognition, all of which have been separately shown to decline with age and be affected by temperature. The information we generate could immediately be used to inform better demographic predictions of what will happen to populations after heatwaves. Because the genetic responses to temperature are well conserved across species, in the longer term this could better predict vulnerable populations or individuals and to design interventions (e.g. when to prioritize for cool refuges for people, designing livestock breeding for heat resilience).

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-08

Language change is a natural and inevitable process. Social and demographic shifts in recent decades have accelerated change across regional English varieties, which are ‘levelling’ to lose their distinctive features (Kerswill & Williams, 1999). The local industries that once played a vital role in cultivating regional culture, identity, and linguistic diversity are disappearing in post-industrial Britain. Ironically, meanwhile, attitudes towards linguistic diversity have themselves shifted; traditional/regional varieties are increasingly being recognised as vital cultural assets warranting preservation. This has motivated linguists to question the role of individuals in such changes, asking: can individuals change their accents and/or dialects over their lifespan? A growing body of longitudinal ‘panel’ studies, comparing the same speakers at different points in time, has recently emerged in response to this question (see Sankoff, 2018, 2019 for an overview). Findings show that either i) linguistic changes do advance over the lifespan, but at a much slower rate than the community, ii) they regress, with speakers becoming slightly more conservative than they were in earlier life, or, iii) change across the lifespan is absent. Outcomes vary depending on the linguistic feature and community being studied, with most evidence drawn from studies concerning morphosyntactic or consonantal features. To fully understand lifespan change, additional longitudinal data on gradient linguistic features, such as vowels, from a diverse range of individuals and communities is necessary. This project is a rare and time-sensitive opportunity to address this gap. We will conduct a replication of the UK’s first ever sociolinguistic investigation of linguistic change, namely Peter Trudgill's well-known survey of Norwich English (1974, data collection 1968). We will re-record as many of Trudgill’s original participants as possible as part of a panel study over 56 years, making it possible to evaluate lifespan changes to individuals’ speech production and perception for the first time. We will collect new samples from the present-day Norwich community for comparative ‘trend’ analysis with Trudgill’s corpus, tracking community-level change across five generations. Our deep longitudinal perspective will significantly improve understanding of the causes and mechanisms behind complex community-level linguistic shifts, as our methods capture the dynamic nature of social, cultural and economic factors that influence dialect change, loss, and survival. Objectives: Test the stability of individuals’ speech production and perception over the lifespan Evaluate historical predictions of language change against contemporary realities in light of social and spatial phenomena of the past century Better understand how and why linguistic changes are accepted, modified, or rejected within communities Examine the social and linguistic factors that accelerate/decelerate linguistic change Evaluate received methodologies This research stands to enhance sociolinguistic methodologies and benefit researchers in related fields in a transdisciplinary way. Active engagement of local communities in the data collection process and a series of school workshops will facilitate diverse public impact by heightening public awareness about linguistic heritage and diversity. This extension of Trudgill's work will provide an updated resource for local educational entities. Sharing the resulting dataset in line with open science best practice will enhance models of language evolution based on real-world outcomes, while creating an East Anglian Voices Corpus will lay the foundations to extend this research in the future. As an embodiment of the social, historical and cultural milieu of the time, all interview recordings/transcriptions generated by the project will engage researchers and the wider public in the long-term.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-07

Two of the great quests of humankind are the hunt for habitable planets and the search for the signatures of life beyond planet Earth. We have now discovered more than 5,600 planets orbiting other stars, the so-called exoplanets. Of these, 29 have a similar size to Earth and also orbit their host star in the habitable zone, a temperate region where liquid water may be able to survive on the planet surface. However, a planet's presence within this temperate zone is only one of several criteria that determines whether or not a planet is truly habitable. So far, we know of only one place in the universe where life has begun and thrived, planet Earth. It is still not well understood why the Earth is seemingly the only planet in the Solar System where life has flourished, especially because our neighbour, Venus, also orbits within the temperate region around the Sun, yet has an atmosphere and surface that is not friendly for life. Rocky planets like the Earth and Venus are formed from cataclysmic collisions of moon-sized bodies, the energy from which would have created a molten, hot surface from which volatiles, such as water, would have boiled away to space. So what happened to make the Earth friendly for life? One theory, supported by the enhancement of heavy isotopes in the Earth's atmosphere and oceans, is that impacts from comets, icy leftovers from the formation of the Solar System, delivered a substantial volume of water and life-friendly (carbon-rich) ingredients to the surface of the young Earth when the crust cooled and solidified. This replenished the planet with the ingredients needed for life to begin. However, this then raises questions on the role of comets in seeding *all* potentially habitable planets with life-friendly ingredients. Are cometary impacts a vital process in the formation of a habitable planet? If so, are comets that are formed around other stars also carriers of carbon-rich and life-friendly material? This research will scrutinise the criteria needed for habitability by investigating the role of comets in seeding life on *all* potentially habitable planets, using state-of-the-art computational chemical and climate models, to contrast with state-of-the-art observations of comets and exo-comet forming regions around other stars. My team and I will determine i) whether or not the comet-building material in exoplanet-forming systems are universal carriers of organic-rich material needed to seed life, and ii) whether or not cometary impacts on the atmospheres of rocky exoplanets are an observable phenomenon. The outputs from this research will provide strong constraints on the commonality of habitable planets, and provide a suite of diagnostics to search for evidence of cometary impacts using next generation telescopes that will target potentially habitable exoplanets. This research will revise the definition of "habitability" and will provide atmospheric diagnostics of habitability beyond the already proposed biosignatures.