University of Plymouth

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2026 · 2026-06

The quantification of fluids, heat, and chemical elements, which cycle throughout our planet is essential to our understanding of Earth’s oceans, atmosphere, and deep interior, and directly impacts global-scale modelling of climate change, ocean chemistry, plate tectonics, and natural resource distribution. Peridotite-hosted seafloor hydrothermal systems (PHHSs; peridotite: mantle rock-type), located in the rocky subsurface beneath our oceans, constitute a fundamental component of this planetary plumbing system. Within these PHHSs, circulating seawater and magmatic fluids react with the surrounding rock, resulting in chemical exchanges including hydrogen-production, carbon-capture, and seafloor metal-sulphide deposits. PHHSs are therefore important, not only for their contribution to ocean chemistry and global element cycles, but also for their relevance to our understanding of green-energy resources and geo-engineering solutions needed for the Energy Transition (H2-synthesis, CO2-capture, critical metals). Despite the recognised importance of PHHSs, knowledge-gaps concerning the processes that control PHHSs at a local-scale prevent us from robustly quantifying the geochemical, environmental, and economic impacts of PHHSs at a global-scale. Specifically, how local-scale controls of deformation, magmatism, and fluid-rock reactions dictate fluid properties (e.g., fluid-source, pH, temperature) in PHHSs remains a key challenge. LITHO-FLUCHS will address this challenge with a first-of-its-kind combination of new, state-of-the-art analytical and computational techniques that will constrain the missing local-scale controls of PHHSs, as the crucial step to quantifying their global-scale impacts. This is possible only now thanks to new samples, new techniques, and new modelling capabilities acquired and developed by our team of leading international researchers. Hosted at the University of Plymouth and University of Leeds, with supporting partners in the UK, Italy, and USA, LITHO-FLUCHS will resolve this problem through the following objectives: Obj-1. Characterize the micro-scale relationships between deformation, magmatism, and fluid-rock reactions observed in new, unrivalled rock samples from the Atlantis Massif PHHS. Obj-2. Quantify fluid sources and properties and their spatial/temporal relationships with deformation and magmatism from mineral geochemistry, using new, state-of-the-art micro-analytical techniques (SEM-EDS/WDS, TOF-ICP-MS, NeomaTM-LA-MS/MS-MC-ICP-MS, fs-LIBS). Obj-3. Integrate micro-scale analyses with new numerical modelling of PHHSs to constrain the mm-to-kilometre-scale controls of deformation, magmatism, and fluid-rock reactions on PHHS fluid properties. Obj-4. Constrain how changes to the controls of PHHS fluid properties impact element fluxes including hydrogen-production, carbon-capture, and seafloor metal-sulphide deposits. We will develop a toolkit of new open-source analytical workflows, true state-of-the-art instrumentation, and numerical procedures/codes to spatially quantify the controls of fluid properties in hydrothermal systems across submillimetre-to-kilometre scales. More broadly, we will advance understanding of fluid-rock processes that operate in tectonic and hydrothermal settings, in both marine and continental realms, including societally-important regions of seismic and volcanic hazard and economic resource potential. We will deliver our findings through our Digital Twin and Toolbox, providing a bespoke knowledge exchange tool fostering a legacy of next-level research to quantify the global-scale impacts of PHHSs. Our Stakeholder Advisory Board, including leading figures within minerals exploration (MMG Ltd), geo-engineering (Veema Hydrogen), and policy (International Seabed Authority) sectors will help us deliver research-impact beyond our immediate communities, ensuring we achieve maximum impact with the broadest group of beneficiaries. Collectively, these activities will transform our understanding of the processes that control H2-synthesis, CO2-capture, and metal deposits in PHHSs. With that new knowledge, backed by our new analytical-computational workflows, LITHO-FLUCHS will change the way we think about PHHSs, unlocking the pathway to robust quantification and modelling of their global-scale impacts.    

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2026 · 2026-05

Earthquakes cannot currently be predicted and therefore we rely on probabilistic seismic hazard assessment (PSHA) to assess the likelihood that an earthquake will occur over a specified period of time. Seismic hazard assessment is usually based on short-term observations, for example where and how many earthquakes occurred in the last few decades, and key assumptions, for example that earthquakes occur randomly and independently. This is a problematic approach because it is well established that the recurrence times of individual damaging earthquakes may be hundreds or even thousands of years (i.e. far longer than the instrumentally earthquake catalogue), and that earthquakes are known to cluster both temporally and spatially (i.e. they are not random or independent). Therefore, different approaches to characterising the sources and frequency of earthquakes need to be explored. During my FLF to date, we have explored how fault slip rates change over much longer timescales than previously considered by the seismic hazard community, giving insights into how faults interact and accommodation tectonic strain, and we have developed a new method to produce seismic hazard maps using physics-based numerical modelling, driven by field data, to generate synthetic earthquake catalogues over longer time periods (10-20kyrs). In this proposed UKRI FLF renewal project, the work will focus on a new study region (central Greece) and will explore how variable fault behaviour over a wide range of timescales would affect seismic hazard assessment. Central Greece is a region of active extension, with well exposed and studied normal faults. These faults are documented to behave variably, particularly in relation to variable slip/deformation rates, from timescales stretching from years to hundreds of thousands of years. The overarching aim of the proposed project is to apply earthquake cycle modelling (developed in the Quake4D project to date) and explore how seismic hazard varies over time. The key objectives of the project are: Quantify annual-scale deformation across an active normal fault using InSAR. Enhancing and creating a database of active fault data for seismic hazard models Further develop physics-based earthquake cycle modelling using multiple normal faults and documented variable slip rates over thousands to hundreds of thousands of years. Produce a suite of seismic hazard maps to gain insights into pitfalls of probabilistic seismic hazard assessment and the potential for calculating time dependent seismic hazard. This project will advance our scientific understanding in two key areas, 1) how faults behave over short timescales and the physical mechanisms of the earthquake cycle, and 2) how variable seismic hazard can be resulting from variable fault behaviour over a range of timescales, giving insights into time-dependent seismic hazard. These results will be of interest to both the academic community studying active tectonics, but also the risk industry, catastrophe modellers and the government and local populations of areas affected by earthquakes.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2026 · 2026-03

Stories of Us will empower communities to use data to tell stories, capture inequalities and express felt experience of place in order to create more inclusive urban futures. The project aims to address the feeling of powerlessness many people in the UK experience in relation to their local communities and decision-making processes. A significant portion of the population feel they lack control over decisions impacting their neighbourhoods, though many recognize the potential of local residents and community groups to improve their environments. The approach builds upon the concept of "experts by experience," which aligns with the increasing emphasis on integrating everyday experiences into local governance, as highlighted in recent reports like the AHRC place report. The core research challenge is that local decision-making often overlooks these lived and emotional experiences of place. This project seeks to address this gap by empowering marginalized voices, shifting power dynamics, and ensuring communities are actively involved in decisions that affect them. A key method is to build community capacity to use data in a way that fosters engagement with local decision-making processes. This will be done through participatory data practices to ensure that communities can take ownership of the data, allowing them to express and communicate their lived experiences. The project will engage communities through innovative data methods, such as emotional data gathering and creative storytelling. The beneficiaries of this project are the communities in areas of deprivation, where people often feel their voices are ignored. These places, often on the periphery economically and geographically, are rich in social capital and community wealth, even if they lack material resources. By empowering these communities, the project aims to help them take back control over decisions that impact their lives. The methodology follows a participatory action research (PAR) framework, which centres the voices of marginalized communities, promoting collaboration between community members, researchers, data practitioners, and cultural organisations. The project's focus on innovative data collection methods, including emotional data audits and AI demystification workshops, aims to equip communities with the skills necessary to gather, analyze, and use data effectively to drive change. The project will build an interdisciplinary, collaborative research network that includes community grassroots organizations and academics including organizations Nudge Community Builders, Hastings Commons, POP Collective, Social Life, and The Data Place. Each with experience in community building, data engagement, and local regeneration. The project will focus on two UK places—Hastings and Plymouth—both of which face significant social and economic challenges, offering the project an opportunity to engage deeply with underrepresented communities. The project will proceed in three phases over 12 months: discover and define (focusing on capacity building), development of data-driven activism (including micro-grant funding for local interventions), and the delivery of outcomes (with a final festival and policy analysis). The overall goal is to create a sustainable, scalable model of community-led data engagement that fosters inclusion, strengthens civic ties, and informs future policies on urban regeneration and community governance.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2026 · 2026-01

Context and Challenge Addressed People experiencing suspected seizures have greatly impacted lives. Whilst epilepsy is the condition most commonly associated with seizures, the vast majority of seizure-like events are in fact caused by other conditions. These include dementia, functional neurological disorder, stroke and traumatic brain injury amongst others. In almost all cases a test called the electroencephalogram (EEG) will be performed. The EEG is used to identify abnormalities in the electrical signals of the brain that are associated with epilepsy. However, service pressures and legacy impact of the COVID-19 pandemic means that thousands of people are waiting 4-6 months to attend hospital for a routine EEG. In contrast NICE recommend these people should be seen within 2 weeks of a referral. When they do attend the test is inconclusive for most people, resulting in delays and uncertainty whilst further tests are requested. Many people with suspected neurological conditions come from lower socioeconomic and minority groups and are often reliant on public transport. Frequent trips to hospital for tests and follow-ups are disproportionately expensive and inconvenient for these individuals. This is especially the case for those people living outside major urban areas. Aims and Objectives To address these challenges, we have brought together a multidisciplinary team whose overarching aim is to enable EEG to be deployed in community-based settings for the purpose of triage and early diagnosis. Success will require EEG devices that are easy-to-wear and in the case of their use at home, a system must be affordable (<£250 per unit) if it is to be deployed at scale. Further, digital biomarkers need to be developed that can withstand loss of data quality that will inevitably happen when EEG is not collected in a hospital environment by a trained expert. Within this project we plan 3 workstreams to address primary objectives around: Headset development; Digital biomarker discovery and validation; Community-based case studies. Using the rural geography of Cornwall as a 'living laboratory', we will work with key stakeholders, including healthcare professionals and people with suspected seizures to co-design and co-develop the headset, which alongside the use of existing "gold standard" easy-to-apply devices, will enable us to determine its utility in different community-based settings. Potential applications and benefits Successful delivery of this project has several potential applications and benefits. Whilst we do not anticipate the headset we develop or the use of gold standard devices by non-specialist to produce clinical grade EEG, we expect the data generated to be sufficiently robust for digital biomarkers to be applied. The purpose to provide an early indication of the most likely underlying neurological condition responsible for the symptoms observed. This will ensure that those most in need are prioritised for onward clinical tests and treatment. Further, by enabling data collection in the community, and ideally within the patient’s home, we will minimise cost and inconvenience for those individuals impacted by neurological conditions contributing to improvement in health equity. Reduction in hospital visits, and especially unplanned admissions to A&E will reduce carbon emissions, contributing positively to the Net Zero ambitions of the NHS.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-12

Context Gambling-related harms are increasingly recognised as a significant public health issue in the UK. The 2025 Gambling Levy represents a major investment in research, treatment, and support services. However, a critical gap exists in how we evaluate whether interventions actually help people recover from gambling harms. While existing research has documented the costs of gambling across different life domains (such as financial, psychological, and relationship impacts), we lack standardised ways to measure whether harm reduction interventions that target individual change are effectively addressing these harms. The Challenge Current approaches to evaluating gambling interventions face several problems. Most research focuses narrowly on psychological interventions like cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) and measures success primarily through scales like the Problem Gambling Severity Index (PGSI). However, this approach overlooks the broader spectrum of harm reduction interventions available in the UK, including brief interventions, peer support programmes, educational initiatives, and emerging digital support tools. Additionally, recovery from gambling harm involves much more than just reducing gambling or abstinence – it encompasses financial recovery, rebuilding relationships, improving mental health, and restoring overall wellbeing. Existing evaluation methods often fail to capture this holistic nature of recovery. Additionally, they tend to rely on older scales that fail to meet the standards of modern measurement science, making it difficult for commissioners, service providers, and policymakers to determine which interventions work best, for whom, and under what circumstances. Aims and Objectives This six-month rapid evidence review will systematically examine how individual-focused gambling harm reduction interventions are currently evaluated. We will identify what outcomes are measured, which assessment tools are used, and where significant gaps exist in the evidence base. By synthesising evidence from academic research and practice reports, we will develop a flexible, comprehensive framework that maps different types of interventions to appropriate evaluation measures across multiple recovery domains (a Modular Outcome Set or MOS). This framework will be compared against established frameworks from adjacent fields like alcohol and drug addiction to identify both commonalities and unique features of gambling recovery. The project brings together expertise from the University of Plymouth, the National Centre for Social Research (NatCen), and individuals with lived experience of gambling harms. We will follow rigorous established standards for scoping reviews and use a mixed-methods synthesis approach to combine evidence from different types of research, intervention types, and evaluation approaches. Potential Applications and Benefits The framework will provide practical tools for multiple stakeholders. Commissioners can use it to specify evaluation requirements when funding services, ensuring value for money while capturing meaningful change across different recovery domains. Service providers will have clear guidance on which outcomes to track for different intervention types, supporting quality improvement and demonstrating impact. Researchers will benefit from standardised evaluation approaches that enable comparisons across studies and interventions. Policymakers will gain evidence-based guidance to inform strategic decisions about gambling harm reduction. All outputs will be freely accessible through an online platform, including a searchable repository of relevant studies and implementation guidance co-produced with lived experience experts. This timing is particularly valuable as it can inform the early development of both the UKRI Gambling Harms Research Coordination Centre and the new Gambling Harms Research and Innovation Partnerships, ensuring evaluation approaches are embedded from the outset.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-11

Hospital neurology and neurophysiology services are increasingly overwhelmed. With a growing and ageing population, the incidence of many brain conditions (such as dementia and epilepsy) are rapidly increasing. Compounded by the COVID-19 pandemic, there are now over 10,000 people in the UK waiting more than a year for an appointment with a neurologist. Things must change! The purpose of our Network is to address these challenges through the development of new technologies that enable diagnosis and management in the community. These services could be provided in a community diagnostic hub, by high-street healthcare professionals, in a GP surgery, in a mobile unit or even in the home environment. Our focus will be on new digital solutions built around neural interfacing, signal processing, machine learning and mathematical modelling. We will work closely with partners developing technologies for measuring brain, eye, spinal, and peripheral nerve activity using wearable technology and minimally invasive devices. Collectively, this will contribute to a significant increase in capacity that will augment the expertise provided in neurology services. To achieve this, we will build a network of partners with backgrounds spanning academia, industry, hospitals and GP surgeries, charities and policy makers. Crucially we will ensure that people with lived experience of neurological conditions are at the heart of our network. Their experience will inform debate and shape our research priorities, ensuring feasibility and acceptability of emerging technologies. We will empower people from different backgrounds and career stages to work together on challenging problems whose solutions will lead to societal benefit. To enable this we plan a suite of activities built around the principles of connect, communicate and collaborate. To connect people we will build a website and social media presence, create a public representation group and build new parnterships. We will establish a mentorship scheme and post opportunities for people at different career stages to undertake secondments with partner organisations. To facilitate communication, we will engage with stakeholders including the public, people with neurological conditions, healthcare providers and policy makers. We will host workshops on emerging areas of interest, as well as an annual conference to celebrate findings from across the network. To enable collaboration we will host events including stake-holder led study groups, sandpits and research incubators: where teams of partners will work collaboratively in a facilitated environment, conducting feasibility studies over 6-9 months.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-10

Globally, coral reefs generate substantial social and economic benefits. Based on well-researched shallow-water coral reefs, it is widely accepted that shallow reefs are under imminent threat, with 99% expected to be lost within 50 years under a 1.5-2°C rise in global temperature. Mesophotic coral ecosystems (MCEs) are less well-researched and our understanding of these ecosystems is limited. MCEs are light-dependent ecosystems that reside between 30-150m and provide many of the same social and economic benefits (e.g. ecosystem services of food provision, climate regulation) as shallow-water reefs. At these deeper depths, temperature stratification bathes MCEs in cooler temperatures than at the surface, providing a possible spatial refuge for shallow-water coral species against rising sea surface temperatures. MCEs may also offer a compensatory role in supporting biodiversity, ecosystem function and ecosystem service provision following the decline of shallow-water reefs. However, there are fundamental gaps in our knowledge and understanding of MCEs in terms of their diversity, distribution and vulnerability to the impacts of warming temperatures, stemming from the logistical and financial challenges of studying ecosystems at depth. Our recent research in the central Indian Ocean (IO) demonstrates that the previously-held assumptions of mesophotic corals being immune to elevated temperatures were ill-founded. We observed extensive coral bleaching at depths of 60-90m during the 2019 Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD) event. This bleaching was due to the large-scale deepening of the thermocline throughout the central and western IO. Thus, MCEs may be as vulnerable to climate change as shallow-water reefs, and the role that these ecosystems will play in the future functioning and biodiversity of coral reefs globally, as shallow-water reefs decline, is uncertain. This project will provide a step change in our understanding of the vulnerability and resilience of MCEs in the IO and how these ecosystems respond to changes in temperature that are predicted to become more widespread and severe with climate change. Our objectives are: O1) Describe the distribution, diversity and health of mesophotic coral ecosystems over the depth gradient (30-150m). O2) Determine the relative impact of hydrodynamic processes and associated biogeochemical changes in modulating the environment at mesophotic depths, and how this impacts MCE diversity and health. O3) Quantify the horizontal and vertical connectivity of mesophotic coral ecosystems on a local and regional scale. O4) Characterise the reproductive strategies and life history characteristics of keystone coral species from mesophotic depths. O5) Assess the thermal performance of early life history and adult stages of keystone mesophotic coral species. O6) Determine the physiological response and acclimation potential of early life history stages of keystone mesophotic corals reared at shallow-water depths, and vice versa. O7) Build and strengthen our existing network of researchers and managers across the IO region to develop a standardised approach (methodology and equipment) to monitor long-term changes on MCEs and their response to climate change, and to inform policy and management. The improved knowledge gained here will constitute a cornerstone for future efforts in assessing the impact of deterioration in coral reefs globally, providing a standardised methodology for long-term monitoring of MCEs, an open-access, global repository for data on MCE health, and an in situ bleaching monitoring system. With this new information it will be possible to integrate MCEs more broadly into marine policy and management, as important functional ecosystems that require protection, to improve resilience to climate impacts.    

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-10

IODP3 Expedition 502 “Impact of Petit-Spot Magmatism on Subduction Zone Seismicity and the Global Geochemical Cycle” targets a relatively newly discovered type of volcanism called petit-spots. These small volcanoes form on the outer edge of the subducting NW Pacific plate but we know very little about them. Expedition 502 will sample these petit-spot volcanoes in order to understand how they may influence earthquake processes (e.g how they may change the mechanical behaviour of earthquakes) and global cycling of elements between the crust, mantle and oceans, so called ‘global geochemical cycles’. Submarine volcanoes typically result in very fractured rocks that allow seawater to percolate down into the rocks. This seawater becomes heated and migrates through the rocks, driving reactions that result in changes to the minerals, chemistry and physical properties of the rocks. As petit-spot volcanoes have only limited sampling to date, we do not know the extent to which seawater might react with the rocks. In this project we will investigate this potential fluid-rock interaction using the newly recovered cores from Expedition 502 and compare these results to other submarine volcano hydrothermal systems. Project Objectives: To characterise the fluid/rock reactions that have taken place around the petit-spot volcanoes using traditional petrography and whole rock geochemistry. To create novel imaging spectroscopy mineral and hydration maps that enable the objective quantification of different alteration types and hydration levels. To determine the geochemical exchanges that have taken place in the different alteration types and scale these observations to estimate the contribution of petit-spot volcanism to global hydrothermal budgets. Our primary research objective supports Expedition 502 Objective 3, which aims to better understand heat and element transfer in the oceanic lithosphere and evaluate the role of petit-spot magmatism in global geochemical cycles. We focus specifically on quantifying the extent and nature of hydrothermal alteration in petit-spot basalts, an essential record of fluid-rock reaction in subseafloor systems. To achieve the project objectives, we will assess the distribution, abundance, and variability of newly formed hydrothermal minerals, using this to define different hydrothermal ‘types’. Integrating a range of analytical methods (eg thin section analysis, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) with high-resolution elemental mapping, bulk geochemistry via XRF, imaging spectroscopy) will enable robust characterisation of the mineralogical and chemical signatures of alteration at a range of spatial scales. High-resolution infrared imaging spectroscopy is a novel technique that is rapid and non-destructive that enables the identification of minerals at <250 µm resolution using their diagnostic signatures. Importantly, mineral signatures can be linked to the hydration states of the rock, providing a tool to quantify how hydrated the petit-spot volcanoes have become. Hydration is important when considering the mechanical properties of rocks in subduction zones. Outcomes of this project will advance our understanding on the contribution of petit-spot magmatism in altering the oceanic lithosphere and its contribution to global geochemical cycles.

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 · 2025-08

Accurate diagnosis, prognosis and management of epilepsy is a significant unmet medical need. Epilepsy is a serious brain condition whereby susceptible individuals have recurrent seizures. It affects almost 1% of the UK population at some point in their lives. Every year 125,000 people attend first seizure clinics across the UK. Of these, 40,000 eventually receive a confirmed diagnosis of epilepsy, typically following an average delay of a year (Joint Epilepsy Council, September 2011). Whilst two-thirds of these confirmed cases can ultimately be controlled by anti-epilepsy drugs (AED), approximately 50% remain uncontrolled a year after commencing treatment, with no clear indicators of choice of AED or dose. Treatment response is currently a case of "watchful waiting" to see whether further seizures occur and adjusting choice of medication and dose accordingly. For those who do not respond they continue to have seizures, apparently at random, which leads to a significant reduction in quality and quantity of life. Every year over 1,000 people die in the UK as a direct consequence of epilepsy. I propose an exciting programme of research in which mathematical models and computer algorithms will be developed to improve our understanding of how seizures occur. These models will describe how different regions of the brain interact with each other and how internal and external stimuli can influence these interactions. The interplay between neural activity within brain regions and the connections between regions critically determines whether seizures can occur and how frequently they are likely to happen. Having developed this fundamental understanding, computer algorithms can be developed to inform key parameters of these models directly from clinical recordings collected from people with epilepsy. This makes the models personalised and therefore suitable to address key questions for people with (suspected) epilepsy: - is the diagnosis accurate? - are the drugs being prescribed effective? - will exposure to stress make seizures more likely? - can I know when my seizures are most likely to happen? - will surgery stop my seizures happening? I will work with a software engineer and people with epilepsy to translate this understanding into a prototype tools to address these questions. For example, developing a tool that can aid a multi-disciplinary clinical team in determining where in the brain seizures originate from and using this information to better plan for surgery. Alternatively, a smart-phone based app that receives electrical brain recordings from a wireless headset to provide a forecast of seizure risk. Co-designing and developing these prototypes with people with lived experience and clinicians will maximise the likelihood of their leading to impact of the fundamental research.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-04

To ensure well-functioning health systems and health service delivery, it is essential that the regulation of health professionals is effective, safe, and serves the public interest. Nevertheless, there is no clear agreement on what 'effective' professional regulation should look like, especially in a globalizing and digitalizing context that is fundamentally altering both professional work and professional governance. In the United Kingdom (UK), current discussions on regulatory reform have focused on increasing autonomy for regulators, to allow them to act flexibly without the need for parliamentary approval, revising fitness to practise procedures, and potentially harmonizing procedures between regulatory bodies around a new legislative template. Discussions around regulatory reform are also occurring in Canada, where several provinces have either recently made, or are currently in the process of implementing, substantial legislative changes altering health profession regulation (including British Columbia, Nova Scotia, Quebec, Alberta, and Ontario). In addition to legislative policy changes, regulatory bodies are adapting processes in response to technological changes and the spread of generative artificial intelligence, both of which are altering professional practice and - in some cases - regulatory practices and processes. Moreover, widespread healthcare workforce shortages in Canada and the UK have raised demands for internationally educated health professionals, necessitating policy changes to facilitate their entry to practice. These changes combine to alter the risks that professional regulation aims to manage, and raise questions about how to address these risks effectively while ensuring the public interest is served. Declining public (and government) confidence in the ability of health profession regulators, in both Canada and the UK, to 'get it right' makes these risks and uncertainties all the more concerning, and heightens the need for research to shed light on best practices for professional governance systems that work. Through a scoping review, we will generate a synthesized understanding of effectiveness in health profession regulation in a digitizing and globalizing world. The rapid pace of change, in a context where regulatory and healthcare reforms are increasingly regarded as urgent, means that a knowledge synthesis of research and policy practices internationally is essential. The project objectives are to answer three research questions: 1) What regulatory risks are raised by international migration of healthcare practitioners and digitization? 2)  Are these risks relevant to everyone or for some groups more than others? 3) How can regulatory effectiveness in these areas be identified, demonstrated and measured? Our knowledge synthesis will not only seek out research and grey literature on best practices in health profession regulation, but will draw on the insights of regulators and government policymakers as collaborators throughout the research process. We will engage a range of cross-sectoral system partners through integrated knowledge mobilization activities to help ensure the findings can be used in both nations to inform regulatory frameworks that facilitate effective professional practice in the public interest.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-03

Our understanding of the effects of marine climate change is still in its infancy. One reason for this is that most work to-date has been focussed on a narrow range of species from a restricted number of ecosystems. If we are to fully characterise the mechanisms that will allow species to cope, or not, with future conditions this remit needs to be widened. This project is focussed on the coastal lagoons of the Arabian Gulf which have been termed a 'natural laboratory' for climate change studies. This is because they experience some of the most extreme environmental conditions of any marine system on earth, yet remain productive and biodiverse, with species able to tolerate the extreme and highly variable conditions they experience daily, and seasonally, (desiccation, salinity, temperature, and oxygen fluctuations), together with exposure to environmental contaminants resulting from anthropogenic activities. However, it has been suggested that many lagoon species are living at their upper physiological limits and this tolerance is accompanied by substantial physiological costs. If so, even slight increases in the intensity of environmental drivers could push those species beyond their tolerance thresholds. This project aims to establish a new long-term international partnership via co-implementation of a project to characterise the mechanisms underpinning benthic invertebrate species' abilities to survive under these extreme conditions at different life stages and levels of biological organisation. Our objectives are to examine these abilities i) under both current, and future projected climate change conditions, and ii) in the absence and presence of environmental contaminants. The results will produce impactful benefits to wider society, as they will also be applicable to other species, including those that provide ecosystem services such as food security within the region and beyond. This project will bring together a new international partnership of researchers and expertise from the Ecophysiology and Development Research Group (EDRG) at the University of Plymouth (UoP) (Turner (PL), CoLs Spicer, Tills, and Collins) and the Scottish Association for Marine Science (SAMS) (Reinardy), and the Burt Marine Biology Lab (BMBL) (Burt) (PP), New York University Abu Dhabi (NYUAD), United Arab Emirates. It will combine the unique knowledge, expertise, and experience of Burt from his > 15 years of work characterising the responses of Arabian Gulf marine species to ongoing and projected climate change with that of the EDRG at UoP and Reinardy (SAMS) who together have a track record of characterising and understanding the ability of species throughout their life histories to respond to environmental stressors in the context of regular fluctuations (e.g. daily, seasonally) as well as extreme environments and events. To cement this new partnership this project will comprise a series of workshops (x2), exchange visits (x3), and field experiments (x2). These activities will also facilitate the mentoring of ECRs (x2 from each country) who are at the heart of this project, growing their network and enhancing their skills. The first workshop will allow all project participants (including ECRs) to meet, and to exchange ideas, experimental plans, and methodologies. At the project's end a second workshop will facilitate the discussion of findings, manuscript preparation, co-writing of an immediate follow-on grant, and dissemination of findings to local stakeholders. The exchange visits will enable training in specific skills and techniques, and to plan and execute the multi-taxa, multi-stressor experiments that are integral to this project's aim.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-03

The literature on AI and specifically AI literacy is growing rapidly and demonstrates the role that AI literacy plays in shaping not only how these technologies are understood, including their social and economic impacts, but also citizen’s trust in AI and governance. This literature however has not sufficiently addressed the gaps in AI literacy in society and how these gaps can impact the differential outcomes of AI on diverse populations. Research examining the deployment of AI in cities and communities suggests a series of social benefits but has not sufficiently addressed the differential impacts on social groups. Some scholars suggest that AI serves to equalize disparities and can particularly support marginalized communities. Yet other scholars see these technologies as exacerbating inequalities. Moreover, one of the core concerns when it comes to smart cities and communities is that despite the abundance of data, many marginalized social groups are susceptible to technological invisibility. A second concern arises in relation to citizen’s data once it is collected and how that data will be used. There are many privacy concerns and ethical questions. Objectives: The proposed knowledge synthesis project has two main objectives. First, to review the existing literature published within the past 10 years on AI literacy and social equity, and to identify social impacts of AI in cities on women, gender relations, gender equality and social equity. Second, to develop a spreadsheet with measurement tools of AI literacy scales developed today. Finally, the project will review the efficacy of key AI literacy interventions. The goal of this review on interventions is not only to identify AI literacy interventions that are effective and targeted to specific social groups, but also to highlight gaps in terms of marginalized populations whose AI literacy may be low. This project has several outcomes (1) the knowledge synthesis report; (2) two refereed articles in the Journal of the Association of Information Science and Technology and Journal of Urban Technology; (3) a research dataset on AI literacy measures and scales shared on Borealis (The Canadian Dataverse Repository). We will engage in knowledge mobilization targeted to three audiences librarians and educators; policy makers; and NGOs through (1) two panels (live and recorded for sharing on social media) in collaboration with NGOs such as MediaSmarts and Connected by Data  (2) two policy briefs published in collaboration with NGOs such as Cooperative AI,  The Data and AI Civil Society Network, and The Global AI Ethics Institute (GAIEI) (3) short videos for social media that summarizes key findings in lay language; (4) two op-eds for news media venues such as The Conversation and American Library Association newsletter (5) five presentations and two stakeholder workshops in UK and Canada to academic institutions, government agencies, public policy research organizations, think-tanks and NGOs via conferences and public and academic library events. The project provides HQP training in skills such as conducting synthesis reviews, creating datasets, interdisciplinary collaboration, and the use of AI tools in research. The findings will also inform academic curricula in engineering, computer science, geography, and urban planning through courses on Ethics and Values in Smart Cities and Communities.  

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-01

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 · 2025-01

The project examines how emerging digital technologies with live-streaming capabilities are generating new opportunities to engage with extreme weather (including floods, storms and hurricanes). Recent floods in New Zealand (where a man died while live-streaming on his phone) and the United States (where viewers of a YouTube stream directed emergency services to a casualty) have demonstrated that streaming technologies are increasingly connected to the experience and management of extreme events. Yet, while some research has charted diverse motivations for live-stream production and consumption in other contexts, no research has explored how live-streams mediate experiences of extreme events or the motivations for, and geographies of, viewership. Additionally, no research has examined how live-streaming may be wrapped up in new forms of risk governance, or how such visual imageries may be affording new opportunities to engage with (potentially catastrophically) changing places. In short, nothing is known about the impacts of live-streaming in the extreme weather context. This lack of understanding is important given two different - but interlinked - domains where an increase in the provision and utilisation of live-streamed footage is observed. First, there is evidence of local authorities increasingly using live video to communicate changing environmental conditions, often during floods. Footage is now shared on government websites and the Environment Agency (UK) is exploring streaming infrastructures to this end. The roll-out of these technologies is underpinned by a currently unevidenced assumption that visual depictions of conditions improves citizen decision-making. Second, there is evidence of internet users repurposing live-video infrastructure (commonly on YouTube) to witness extreme weather. Here, webcams (such as 'beach cams') are repurposed to become spaces of hazard engagement where citizens witness the developing event. Initial observations suggest that these streams are used for sense-checking purposes - with government risk guidance discussed in comment spaces - however further research is required. At the very least, in both domains, live-streaming technologies are enabling viewers to engage with the 'unfoldingness' of events in ways not previously possible. In response, the project aim is to generate understandings of the factors shaping both engagement with live-streamed extreme weather and the impacts of engagement in both abovementioned domains. Specifically, informed by poststructuralist notions of digital witnessing, the project questions how live visual content enables viewers to make sense of (potentially catastrophically) changing places. The project adopts a two-strand multi-scalar approach that enables production and consumption spaces to be examined. The first strand includes a global review of the use of live-streaming and video footage in hazard warning systems (including interviews with state 'hazard hub' designers). The second strand utilises a novel community-based methodology through the establishment of live-streaming infrastructure in the high-flooding-risk coastal Devon town of Brixham (in collaboration with the Prospect Brixham - a Data Trust pilot organisation). In doing so, the research will produce urgently needed evidence to inform government investment on the design of new extreme weather communication systems. This evidence will advise Environment Agency decision-making on the creation of new 'hazard hubs' in the UK. Furthermore, the novel community-based methodology will provide both data and infrastructure that supports Prospect Brixham's aim of examining climate sense-making in coastal communities. Lastly, the project will provide the first exploration of live-streaming in the extreme weather context - contributing new knowledge to a range of disciplinary fields (including human/digital geography and disaster sociology).

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2024 · 2024-11

The surface of the Earth is divided up into tectonic plates that have moved throughout Earth history and these plates are continually created and destroyed at the boundaries between plates. In the oceans, features called mid-ocean ridges create new volcanic seafloor along the boundaries between two diverging tectonic plates. These mid-ocean ridges creating a vast chain of underwater volcanoes that circle the oceans like the seams of a baseball. Whilst much of the growth of new seafloor is driven by magmatic processes at mid-ocean ridges, these regions are subjected to high stresses which deform the crust in various ways, primarily along linear features called faults. When erupted onto the seafloor, crack and faults within newly formed ocean crust allow seawater to percolate deep into the crust, where it is heated and reacts with the surrounding rocks to form new minerals. This process, called hydrothermal circulation, produces variably hot fluids rich in elements that become buoyant and exit the seafloor via vents, which host unique ecosystems. The conditions here are our closest comparison to the environments where life may have first developed. Studying the seafloor rocks therefore provides us with an unrivalled opportunity to study plate tectonic processes, the evolution of our planet, and the emergence of life on Earth. To study these mid-ocean ridges we require samples of the seafloor. One way these samples can be accessed is through scientific drilling by the International Ocean Discovery Programme (IODP), which recovers rock core samples drilled from beneath the seafloor. IODP Expedition 399 will sample the Atlantis Massif ocean core complex at 30N on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, which forms the plate boundary between the North American and Eurasian plates. The speeds of these plates are unusually slow. Consequently, seafloor spreading along the Mid-Atlantic Ridge is accommodated by deformation rather than magmatism. Large detachment faults bring rocks from deep in the crust to the seafloor creating domal structures called oceanic core complexes. These detachment faults promotes fluid circulation, and a positive feedback develop whereby fluids react with the fault rocks creating new, but weak secondary minerals that promote further deformation. Whilst we know a link between deformation and fluid flow exists, the grain scale mechanisms responsible for this link are poorly understood. In this project we will investigate the controlling grain-scale deformation mechanisms of detachment faulting, via microstructural analyses of fault rock samples collected on Expedition 399. We predict that the deformation mechanisms will change over time due to hydrothermal activity, which produces weak, low-friction secondary minerals. We will investigate the types of secondary alteration minerals present in the detachment fault, and how those minerals influenced deformation. We also predict that deformation mechanisms will change over time due to a reduction in temperature, which changes the mechanical properties of minerals. We will therefore constrain the temperatures at which the observed deformation occurred to understand if and how deformation evolved during cooling. Microstructural analyses will be conducted at the University of Plymouth and University of Cardiff with state-of-the-art electron microscopy techniques including electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) and electron dispersive spectroscopy (EDS). These techniques quantitatively constrain grain-scale deformation mechanisms, deformation temperatures and mineral chemistry, by measuring the crystal structure and chemistry of deformed rock samples. Our research will provide a new understanding of the processes which control the detachment faults. This is vital for understanding the relationships between deformation and hydrothermal activity at slow-spreading ridges, and the controls that those processes have on plate tectonics and hydrothermal ecosystems.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2024 · 2024-11

The impact of alcohol and drug addictions extends globally, affecting a staggering 148 million individuals. In the year 2019 alone, these addictions directly caused 296,000 deaths, while indirectly contributing to an additional 2.44 million fatalities. Over the span of a decade (2009-2019), the prevalence of substance use disorders (SUD) surged by 45%, encompassing 39.5 million individuals worldwide. In the United Kingdom, the economic ramifications of Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD) amounted to an annual cost exceeding £23 billion due to healthcare expenses, diminished work productivity, and criminal implications. Despite existing treatments for SUD and AUD offering some benefits, their success rates remain suboptimal, particularly considering the intricate interplay of treatment outcomes influenced by concurrent conditions. This inadequacy necessitates a comprehensive reassessment of current strategies. A novel approach is imperative - one that dissects and characterizes the fundamental neural and cognitive factors affected and altered by addiction, integrating this understanding into treatment methodologies and recovery monitoring. Recent strides in deep brain stimulation (DBS) technology have successfully identified neural markers associated with reward processing and craving, notably within the Nucleus Accumbens (NAcc). This technology holds promise in regulating cravings linked to SUD, akin to its success in addressing uncontrollable eating behaviors. These breakthroughs pave the way for future research aimed at crafting targeted treatments tailored specifically for the complexities of addiction. Since the inception of my Fellowship, my team and I have led research in non-invasive focused ultrasound stimulation, holding potential for transformative advancements in SUD and AUD treatments. Our laboratory findings confirm that Transcranial Ultrasound Stimulation (TUS) surpasses established brain stimulation methods by enabling transient manipulation of neural activity deep within the brain, with unprecedented precision. TUS offers a unique avenue for precise deep brain neuromodulation without surgical intervention or device implantation. Its potential as a treatment for psychiatric conditions is a burgeoning area of interest, and our research has demonstrated its efficacy in inducing cognitive and behavioral changes, notably in dopaminergic-related circuits, particularly the NAcc relevant to SUD. This has been replicated across three human studies. In the subsequent phase of my UKRI fellowship, I aim to capitalize on the groundwork laid in the initial stage by demonstrating the safety, tolerability, and feasibility of TUS targeting the NAcc in healthy individuals. Our objectives include assessing its short-term impact (on the day of intervention) and longitudinal effects (over 90 days) on substance craving among individuals with AUD.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2024 · 2024-07

The need for the UK to shift to NetZero was highlighted at COP26 in Glasgow, and there is a clear need for UK energy security. UK policy to achieving these is based on massive expansion of off-shore wind. In 2022 Crown Estate Scotland "ScotWind" auctioned 9,000 km2 of sea space in the northern North Sea, with potential to provide almost 25 GW of offshore wind. Further developments are planned elsewhere, for example, the 300 MW Gwynt Glas Offshore Wind Farm in the Celtic Sea. These developments mark a shift in off-shore wind generation, away from shallow, well mixed coastal waters to deeper, seasonally stratified shelf seas This shift offers both challenges and opportunities which this proposal will explore. Large areas of the NW European shelf undergo seasonal thermal stratification. This annual development of a thermocline, separating warm surface water from cold deep water, is fundamental to biological productivity. Spring stratification drives a bloom of growth of the microscopic phytoplankton that are the base of marine food chains. During summer the surface layer is denuded of nutrients and primary production continues in a layer inside the thermocline, where weak turbulent mixing supplies nutrients from the deeper water and mixes oxygen and organic material downward. Tidal flows generate turbulence; the strength of turbulence controls the timing of the spring bloom, mixing at the thermocline, and the timing of remixing of the water in autumn/winter. Determining the interplay between mixing and stratification is fundamental to understanding how shelf sea biological production is supported. Arrays of large, floating wind turbines are now being deployed over large areas of seasonally-stratifying seas. These structures will inject extra turbulence into the water, as tidal flows move through and past them. This extra turbulence will alter the balance between mixing and stratification: spring stratification and the bloom could occur later, biological growth inside the thermocline could be increased, and more oxygen could be supplied into the deep water. There could be significant benefits of this extra mixing, but we need to understand the whole suite of effects caused by this mixing to aid large-scale roll-out of deep-water renewable energy. eSWEETS will conduct observations at an existing floating wind farm in the NW North Sea to determine how the extra mixing generated by tides passing through the farm affect the physics, biology and chemistry of the water. We will measure the mixing of nutrients, organic material and oxygen within the farm, and track the down-stream impacts of the mixing as the water moves away from the wind farm and the phytoplankton respond to the new supply of nutrients. We will use autonomous gliders to observe the up-stream and down-stream contrasts in stratification and biology all the way through the stratified part of the year. We will use our observations to formulate the extra mixing in a computer model of the NW European shelf, so that we can then use the model to predict how planned renewable energy developments over the next decades might affect our shelf seas and how those effects might help counter some of the changes we expect in a warming climate. Stratification is so fundamental to how our seas support biological production that we will develop a new, cost-effective way of monitoring it. We will work with the renewables industry and modellers at the UK Met Office on a technique that allows temperature measurements to be made along the power cables that lie on the seabed between wind farms and the coast. Our vision is that large-scale roll-out of windfarms will lead to the ability to measure stratification across the entire shelf. This monitoring will help the industry (knowledge of operating conditions), government regulators (environment responses to climate change) and to operational scientists at the UK Met Office (constraining models for better predictions).

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2024 · 2024-07

This research project brings together digital technology and art historical analysis for the study and dissemination of the plaster ceiling in the Long Gallery at Lanhydrock House (National Trust). It offers a new model for the interpretation of this key monument which has the potential to transform the public role of several similar sites in the Southwest. Plasterwork represents a significant part of the West Country's artistic heritage in the 17th century. Elaborate ceilings and mantelpieces were key in communicating complex views on religion, society, family, gender, and the environment. Made from readily available materials, they represent a genuinely local practice of image-making in post-Reformation Britain. The Genesis cycle in the Long Gallery at Lanhydrock House with its 36 large narrative scenes on a 116 feet long and 20 feet wide barrel vault has always been recognized as the centerpiece of this tradition. Despite its potential global significance, the ceiling is little-known beyond specialist circles and our knowledge of its commission, design, and making remains limited. This is a time-sensitive project: the National Trust is embarking on the restoration of the ceiling in 2024 and it has partnered up with the University of Plymouth to conduct full 3D digital and laser scans of the barrel vault (before, during, and after the restoration). Adapting methodologies from the field of art history and digital heritage, the Genesis in Plaster interdisciplinary project will transform the understanding and public perception of the ceiling. In terms of the design, the project focuses on the new identification of a set of visual sources that inspired the rich depictions of the Book of Genesis. These art historical findings are brought together with digital heritage surveys. The project will use cutting-edge 3D laser scanning to reveal the plasterwork in unprecedented detail. This will offer new insights into the material creation of the scenes and the design of their iconography, establishing the ceiling's international import. The reinterpretation of Genesis cycle at Lanhydrock House will galvanize the study of 17th century plasterwork in the Southwest since it will offer a new and solid starting point for the analysis of their materiality and iconography. The process of digital scanning to investigate the ceiling will also be the foundation for a series of impact activities at Lanydrock, directly informing the new visitor route and experience from March 2025. The 3D model will be integrated into c. 20 min long film about the Long Gallery in flat screen and dome formats. The flat screen version will be displayed on the National Trust website and at Lanhydrock. The dome version will be shown at immersive venues in the UK and overseas (first screening at Market Hall, Plymouth). Both settings will include 1:1 scale tangible 3D prints. All digital outputs and 3D scans (photogrammetry, lidar scans and render versions) are to be deposited open access at University of Plymouth.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2024 · 2024-06

SUPERSLUG will push the frontiers of scientific knowledge and technical innovation to reveal new fundamental insights into the legacies of catastrophic sediment-rich flows (SRF) in mountain landscapes, such as landslides, rock-ice avalanches and glacial lake outburst floods. Catastrophic SRFs are hypothesised to become more frequent this century due to climate warming, and often affect vulnerable communities and assets in least developed countries the most. SRFs can entrain, mobilise, and deposit vast quantities of sediment, which can blanket valley floors to depths of tens of metres. The subsequent re-working and transport of these sediments by rivers can generate large-scale and fast-moving 'superslugs', which is a so-called 'legacy' impact of an SRF. Such legacy impacts are poorly understood, mostly due to observational challenges which have persisted for over a hundred years. However, improving our understanding of these impacts is of vital importance: enhanced fluvial transport of sediment following an SRF can affect flood hazard (by altering river channel bed elevation), infrastructure (e.g. by scouring bridge footings and damaging hydropower turbines), and can disrupt water quality, reducing water and energy security in regions that experience increasingly unstable and hazardous hydrological regimes. With SUPERSLUG we seek to encourage a paradigm shift framed around our argument that the landscape legacies of catastrophic SRFs should be quantified in as much detail as an initial event. To do this we will springboard from recent UKRI-funded pilot work by our international team to develop and apply a new multi-method and widely applicable suite of tools for quantifying the geomorphological evolution of SRF-affected catchments over multi-decade timeframes that are relevant for decision makers, in turn generating new insights into the fundamental behaviour, and impacts, of sediment superslugs. We will focus on a ~150 km-long exemplar system in the Indian Himalaya that has recently experienced a catastrophic SRF; the so-called 'Chamoli disaster'. This catchment arguably represents the most data-rich landscape of its type globally and sits within an otherwise extremely data-poor region. To deconstruct the evolution and impacts of sediment superslugs we will implement five work packages which will: (WP1) benchmark the geomorphological and sedimentological evolution of an SRF-affected system in space and time by using drone-derived observations to upscale from local- to catchment-wide observations using satellite remote sensing; (WP2) directly measure bedload motion in SRF-affected river channels using innovative wireless 'smart' cobbles, complemented with passive seismics; (WP3) develop an open-source toolkit for detecting and tracking fine-grained superslugs by leveraging cloud-based (Google Earth Engine) processing of free satellite imagery; and (WP4) integrate our novel observations from WP1-3 to upscale a powerful numerical landscape evolution-hydrodynamic model to simulate superslug mobility and the wider geomorphological evolution of our exemplar catchment. Our calibrated model, which will be a form of 'digital twin', will represent the largest of its kind and we will use it to explore catchment management decisions (e.g. HEP flushing schedules) for mitigating the worst superslug impacts. Underpinning these four WPs is a fifth WP, wherein we will adopt a Theory of Change-based approach for engaging closely with beneficiaries of this new knowledge and associated tools to translate our findings into practical outcomes and impact, including governance and disaster management professionals, hydropower operators and the wider international academic community.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2024 · 2024-06

Advances in understanding complex biological responses have never been so urgent given the unprecedented rates of local and global environmental change, and the increasing pressures on biological systems. Embryos are extremely sensitive to environmental change and exhibit incredible diversity and dynamism in spatial, functional and temporal phenotypic change. They therefore present a unique system for pushing the boundaries of how we measure complex biological responses to an increasingly complex and anthropogenically impacted natural world. The first four years of my FLF supported the development of entirely new technologies and approaches for measuring environmental sensitivity during the earliest stages of life, in marine and freshwaters. The Fellowship supported moving research away from traditional manual phenotypic approaches to measuring the biology of developing animals at their most dynamic, and moving towards integrative, data-rich and scalable methods of measuring whole-organismal biological responses. I will use a three year extension to my FLF, broadly in line with my initial Fellowship, to drive impact from the innovation to date by: i) Establishing the capability for predictive phenomics in developing organisms, to enable biological responses to be predicted via timeseries models trained using deep learning on the basis of the previous developmental phenotype. This will have broad relevance for predicting sensitivity, artificially selecting for particular outcomes in later life and enabling dynamic feedback loops within experiments to assess the time-specific effects of different environmental drivers. ii) Creating digital twinning between laboratory and field instruments to enable dynamic environmental synchronisation of field conditions in the laboratory to assess the real-time biological impacts of simulated environmental events in the field. iii) Extending the user base of the EmbryoPhenomics instrumentation and research approaches to different research areas, continents and sectors. Working with local user groups and the open-source hardware community we will extend the applicability of these approaches to the challenges of different stakeholders. Establishing a global community of users will support environmental sensitivity experiments being run in parallel globally, but will also enable a concerted effort to document the visible physiological diversity of organisms during their early life, via timelapse bioimaging. The resulting video will be maintained in the first open-source repository of developing organisms and will be invaluable to both researchers, but also as a resource for shining a light on the hidden world of biological development, within the context of global environmental change.