University of Bristol

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-04

Chronic pain is a major societal and economic European burden, affects one in five adults, and its inadequate relief indicates a major unmet need for effective and mechanism-based non-pharmacological treatments. In FRESCO4NoPain, we propose that maladaptive brain oscillatory activity is associated with persistent pain, and that non-invasive brain neuromodulation may provide a novel treatment strategy. For this, mechanistic insight is needed. We see this as the perfect opportunity to unite world-leading experts in pain neuroscience to train 15 uniquely skilled Doctoral Candidates (DCs) who will become the future generation of pain scientists, fully equipped to address unmet challenges within chronic pain. The DCs will be integrated in a one-of-a-kind network-wide training infrastructure conducting frontline research on non-invasive brain stimulation that targets persistent pain based on i) preclinical studies of the relevant brain circuitries, ii) human studies of the involved mechanisms, and iii) clinical studies. Through FRESCO4NoPain, DCs will access a unique set of basic, experimental, and clinical disciplines in both academic and non-academic settings, tied together by synergistic collaborations across the network. An application-based and patient-oriented mindset will permeate the consortium via the active involvement of cutting-edge MedTech companies, knowledge actors and end-users. Only such a truly interdisciplinary and intersectoral approach can provide the necessary ecosystem to go beyond the state-of-the-art, promote disruptive thinking while developing new methods that overcome current technological barriers in the complex field of interdisciplinary pain neuroscience. FRESCO4NoPain will deliver on urgently needed non-pharmacological therapeutic concepts for chronic pain and build on fundamental scientific insights regarding the role of neuronal oscillations in the brain processing of pain, thereby potentially helping millions of people with chronic pain.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-04

The Global Methane Pledge, signed at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change 26th Conference of Parties, acknowledged the urgent need to rapidly cut methane emissions to meet climate change mitigation targets. However, atmospheric methane concentrations grew at the highest rate yet observed in 2021. Researchers have struggled to understand the relative contributions of natural and anthropogenic sources to the global methane budget, and there is intense debate about the causes of recent growth rate fluctuations. This uncertainty means that emission reduction efforts may not be optimally targeted, and the role of methane sources in climate change feedback is not well understood. Therefore, improved quantification of the global methane budget has been recognised as a grand challenge in environmental science for the coming decade (e.g., Ganesan et al., 2019). To support policymakers and researchers, millions of dollars are being spent annually on atmospheric methane observations, including on recently launched or planned satellites. Because of the enormous data volumes these systems are generating, they have the potential to revolutionise our ability to evaluate climate agreements and understand methane-related climate feedbacks. To meet this potential, a step-change is now needed in our methods for inferring fluxes from very large atmospheric datasets. Our proposal will develop a greenhouse gas flux inference system using new developments in machine learning and hierarchical Bayesian inference. Our approach builds on two recent proof-of-concept studies in these fields, led by our group. Firstly, we will develop a machine learning emulator of the transport of greenhouse gases through the atmosphere. This method allows the "footprint" of a greenhouse gas observation to be directly estimated from meteorological fields, in a fraction of a second. We aim to use new deep learning technologies such as graph neural networks to emulate greenhouse gas transport and dispersion at any location on the planet, opening the possibility of applying our algorithms to satellite observations. Secondly, we will develop a highly efficient method to solve for greenhouse gas emissions using data and models in a hierarchical Bayesian framework. This hierarchical approach, which can be shown to lead to more robust uncertainty estimates than traditional Bayesian methods, was demonstrated by our team for regional emissions evaluation using in situ measurement data. Here, we will further extend it for global flux inference. Based on these advances, we will constrain global methane emissions using satellite data between 2019 and 2027 and beyond, providing new information with which to inform policy and process understanding of methane fluxes.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-04

This project investigates how attitudes towards men and masculinity in France are being shaped through contemporary cultural production. In partnership with the Institut Français du Royaume-Uni (IFRU), it promotes how clichéd notions of manhood can be productively questioned and reimagined across a variety of forms, including literature, film, photography, digital content, and live entertainment. By driving collaborative networking between academics from the arts and humanities and non-academics in cultural programming and practice, it builds timely capacity for researching how the representation of masculinity can help to close the gap between France’s egalitarian ideals and its social imbalances. Patriarchal stereotypes of masculinity come at a high price in modern France. Male aggression and risk-taking costs the justice and health systems billions of Euros per year. French men account for 83% of annual prosecutions and are three times as likely to die by suicide (Lucile Peytavin, 2021). They also demonstrate lower levels of educational attainment and are disproportionately targeted by the addictive algorithms of online pornography. Chauvinism has correspondingly been on the rise over the last decade, with one fifth of young French women saying they have been sexually assaulted (Haut Conseil à l’Égalité, 2023). That troubling escalation reflects how France’s ‘booming industry of declinism’ (Rachel Donadio, 2017) has powered nostalgia for past assurances rather than just longing for fresh starts. As the country tries to reinvigorate itself in a globalised and postcolonial world, worries about socio-economic inequality, environmental degradation, and demographic change have made masculinity into a flashpoint for this tension between longstanding outlooks and forward-looking perspectives. France’s ‘one and indivisible’ republic has historically construed citizenship in universal terms while ultimately privileging men’s bodies and behaviours as the norm. Polarised responses to the international #MeToo and #BlackLivesMatter movements have exposed how France still hesitates to acknowledge its predisposition towards male social domination and its associated regulation of class, race, and religion. The project therefore fosters and deepens the understanding of the relationship between masculinity, culture, and society for a range of beneficiaries, including academics, creatives, cultural stakeholders, educators, and activists working towards gender equality and improved men’s health both in France and the UK. It has five objectives: To create a research network that will be a springboard for international creative engagements between academics and non-academics. To facilitate the network’s knowledge exchange and partnership-building through a workshop and a conference. To engage Franco-British audiences in addressing the aesthetic and social questions raised by representations of masculinity through four public events. To determine and assess ways of responding to those questions that will allow the network’s research agenda to be pursued and grown beyond the project. To disseminate the project’s findings through three outputs – one public-facing article; one public-facing website; and one academic book publication. Meeting these objectives will propel the critical study of men and masculinities (CSMM) within France – where interest in this field has traditionally been tentative – while emphasising the value of the arts and humanities for addressing the social challenges posed by patriarchy’s resilience.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-04

In the run up to the bicentennial of the abolition of the slave trade at the start of the twenty-first century, many in Europe and the US assumed there was a ‘we’ who agreed on the defining wrong of slavery, and the appropriate ways in which it can be represented in museums, heritage sites and other public spaces, and by whom. Today, those assumptions are publicly contested in multiple ways. Protest movements, including Rhodes Must Fall and Black Lives Matter, have foregrounded the arguments of critical race theorists concerning the foundational role of racial slavery in the development of the modern social and political order in Europe and the United States, and its continuing impacts. This has prompted a questioning of the ways in which the past of slavery and antislavery, and the continuing afterlives of slavery, are (and are not) publicly narrated, visualised and memorialised. In line with recent shifts in museum work towards centring audience authority and participatory practice, some curators have begun to respond by including in audience-led content creation communities that, in their specific national context, are most marginalised by these histories. However, the history of slavery was simultaneously global, national and local. It generated multiple and diverse injustices and divisions, and can hold different meanings in different contexts, even amongst those most marginalised by it. Moreover, its living legacies are not necessarily experienced in identical ways in global south and north, yet global south voices have been largely absent from debate on the presence of slavery’s undead past. Our mission is to include, amplify and differentiate marginalised voices from south and north in the process of researching, developing, testing and evaluating novel ways of curating the material culture and spaces of memory associated with transatlantic slavery. With its emphasis on inclusivity, diversity and equality, the Thrive model of team convening is ideally suited to research on how curators of museums and heritage sites can remember, narrate and represent the multiplicity and diversity of slavery’s past and afterlives, and develop ways to curate ‘against the grain’ of asymmetries in both north/south and racialised power. The project brings together a diverse team of curators, filmmakers, historians, anthropologists and sociologists from Britain, Brazil, Ghana and Dominica, to: map contestations around slavery at local, national and global levels; deploy pluriversal, collaborative, participatory methods with research participants from communities most marginalised by histories of slavery in those countries to develop and test inclusive methods of engaging multiple and diverse stakeholders; disrupt hierarchical top-down processes of meaning-making, and explore possibilities for forging reparative connections between places and people divided by histories of transatlantic slavery by bringing our research participants into dialogue with each other; with participants, co-create outputs in the form of content, film, and exhibitions that will afford a unique lens on global and local social justice. Slavery museums partners in Ghana, Brazil and Britain are redeveloping their exhibitions over the next three years, so the project will directly influence curatorial practice at three key points of the transatlantic triangle.  

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-04

The proposed network aspires to provide high quality doctorate training to a core group of young researchers in one of the most visible and fast-developing areas of astrophysics, the lifecycle of supermassive black holes and their impact on the evolution of galaxies. The key innovative aspects of the proposed training include (i) the leveraging of time-domain astronomy observations from state-of-the-art facilities to map the inner environments of supermassive black holes, (ii) the use of novel analysis methods from the discipline of data science to maximise the information gain from the observations, (iii) the development of new models and theories to interpret the data and learn about physics, (iv) the extensive interaction with the industrial sector to promote key technical and complementary skills that are essential for future market leaders. Training in the proposed science theme is needed now to exploit the increasing influx of time-domain observations and prepare for the imminent explosion in data volume and quality as new dedicated facilities (e.g. Vera Rubin telescope, Einstein probe), with strong European involvement, see first light in the next 1-2 years. The ultimate goal of the network is to enhance the human capital of Europe, thereby contributing to major societal priorities, such as the digital transformation through new technologies, or the competitiveness and environmental neutrality of the European economy through innovative solutions.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-03

CONTEXT AND CHALLENGE W.D & H.O Wills was formed in Bristol in 1786 - the first British company to mass-produce cigarettes. The Wills Collection of Tobacco Antiquities at the M-Shed Museum in Bristol offers a plethora of under-explored packaging materials, photographs and objects from 200 years of Wills (and Imperial Tobacco) company records. Tobacco is one of a number of difficult elements in Bristol's past and its relationship to itself as a contemporary city. Calls for a reconciliation process to address the city's links to colonial violence 1 are reflected in the decision to display the toppled statue of Colston as part of an exhibition about protest at the M-Shed in 2024. Can the Wills collection help us creatively reimagine both our public and cultural health as a city? We are curious if creative approaches can be a bridge between public and cultural health and how our perspectives (creative writing, history, anthropology, curating, public health) will influence what we see in the archive and how we see it. We address two interrelated challenges: Heritage narratives are often implemented in ways that are exclusionary, colonising and contested 2 . Heritage can support human connection. If not adequately managed, it can perpetuate dis-connection within a community. Increasing public awareness of the diverse meanings which heritage conveys is paramount. Smoking rates in Bristol are significantly higher than in England. 16.9% of Bristol's population smoke compared to an England average of 13%. Hartcliffe in Bristol, home to Wills' head office in the 1970s, has smoking rates of 31.2%3 . Could these patterns be a cultural legacy of the presence of Wills in Bristol? Mirroring Bristol's cultural legacies, First Nations people are twice as likely to smoke as non-Indigenous people 4. Indigenous scholars argue that a better understanding of First Nation ceremonial uses of tobacco is essential to public health efforts to lowering smoking rates in those communities 4. Bristol Integrated Care priorities for equitable health are to reduce tobacco harm, recognise historical injustices and utilise community assets. Recognising how historical harms can become part of public health strategies are, we believe, yet to be found. What can we learn from Indigenous scholars' public health efforts?

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-03

Insects constitute more than half of all documented animal species, and the only group of flying invertebrates. Polyneoptera represents one of the major lineages of winged insects with unsolved evolutionary history, and the first lineage of winged insects that underwent an evolutionary radiation. Open questions in Polyneoptera evolution include their phylogenetic relationships, patterns of wing evolution (origin and secondary loss of flying abilities), and how the origin of fly relate with patterns of polyneopteran diversification and species richness. These issues have profound implications for our understanding of the early evolution of winged insects more broadly. This project will use, for the first time, a combined morphological and phylogenomic approach, and integrate new fossils and living taxa to achieve a holistic understanding of polyneopteran evolution. We will explicitly focus on two orders that are particularly poorly understood: Plecoptera and Grylloblattodea, to clarifying the relationship close to the root of the polyneopteran tree, particularly the relationships of the Zoraptera, Dermaptera and Plecoptera. We will infer a new evolutionary timescale of Polyneoptera using new fossil calibrations defined using Middle Jurassic fossils from the Daohugou locality I already sampled, and that I will describe as part of this project. Subsequently, using new fossils and existing data I will compile a morphological dataset, and using publicly available data a new phylogenomic dataset. I will resolve the phylogeny of Polyneoptera, date it and use the new morphological matrix to understand patterns of morphological evolution in this lineage. Finally, I will perform diversification analyses to discriminate how extrinsic (e.g. climate and environmental changes) and intrinsic (e.g. origin of wings) factors shaped polyneopteran evolution and contributed to their current biodiversity.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-03

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

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-03

In this project, we will build the data-acquisition system for the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE). Neutrinos are the most abundant matter particles in the universe, yet they are still poorly understood due to their weak interactions. DUNE is a leading edge, international experiment that will make precision measurements to further our understanding of neutrino properties and the matter-antimatter asymmetry in the Universe, and potentially to detect the neutrino burst originating from a nearby supernova. The experiment comprises a neutrino beam created at Fermilab, USA, which travels 1300km through the Earth to a set of vast detectors located 1500m below the surface at the Sanford Underground Research Facility. These detectors use 70kton of liquid Argon to detect the neutrinos and measure their interactions with exquisite precision. The detectors will generate data at a huge rate, up to 10TBps. The data-acquisition system that we aim to construct in this project will receive this data, perform real-time processing to identify data of interest and reduce the overall data rate to less than 1GBps. The project will use custom electronics, high-performance software engineering and distributed computing techniques to achieve these aims.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-03

Quantum networking is an emerging technology that leverages the principles of quantum mechanics to transmit and exchange quantum information among different users. It offers many key advantages over classical networks, including enhanced communication security, efficient scaling of quantum computing power by interconnecting quantum computers, and high-precision synchronisation across networks. For these reasons, quantum networking is a significant area of research and development. While the potential benefits of quantum networks are significant, there are numerous technical challenges to address to realise it. 1) Integrated quantum and classical network architecture: the network infrastructure is essential and requires significant technological advancements adaptable to the existing fibre infrastructure to achieve useful, cost-effective and robust quantum networks. 2) Dynamic connectivity: producing entanglement is still a non-trivial task and the entanglement photons are precious resources in the quantum network. Dynamic connectivity of entanglement will ensure the on-demand delivery of valuable entanglement resources, as well as entanglement rate adjustment similar to the offering of various bandwidths in classical communications. This supports efficient allocation of the entanglement. 3) Long distance and robust reach: It is important to support long-distance and robust entanglement in the future quantum network. It will require innovative approaches such as low-loss infrastructure, bright entangled photon source, entanglement swapping and purification. This project will focus on developing novel solutions to create robust, scalable and dynamic entanglement-based networks which operate over the real-world deployed fibre infrastructure. We will first develop a portable, fibre-based hyper-entangled photon source that can be deployed in real-world environments. We will also focus on developing switching elements for interconnecting users in the local area access quantum network (LAQN) and metropolitan area quantum network, known as LAQN gateway and quantum-enabled reconfiguration optical add-drop multiplexer (Q-ROADM). The switching elements will support the entanglement-based quantum link connection at two different hierarchical network layers, offering dynamic connectivity between users and adjusting the ‘bandwidth’ of the entanglement rate. We will further demonstrate dynamic entanglement swapping beyond the metropolitan scale, which is a crucial technology to extend quantum network distances when quantum memory becomes more feasible. In addition, the team will work together to demonstrate controlled-NOT (CNOT) gate operation between frequency and polarisation qubits carried by the hyper-entangled photon pairs, and use frequency qubits to purify polarsation qubits for entanglement distillation. This is essential for maintaining robust and high-quality entanglement over long distances.  

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-03

Acquiring high-quality footage in challenging environments, such as low light, heat haze, and adverse weather conditions, presents significant challenges. These conditions not only result in visually unpleasing videos but also make interpretation difficult for both humans and machines. Consequently, post-processing becomes necessary. However, video restoration and enhancement are challenging due to the loss of information. Moreover, ground truth is generally unavailable. Therefore, this research project, PriorPool, aims to address these issues in a novel manner. We propose that prior information extracted from high-quality videos, which share similar content with the distorted videos, can serve as constraints during the learning process of modelling algorithms. This approach allows us to leverage the inherent characteristics and knowledge embedded in high-quality videos, providing valuable guidance for the learning-based restoration and enhancement of distorted videos. PriorPool project aims to develop a comprehensive framework for video restoration and enhancement by addressing blind inverse problems with unsupervised learning. The specific objectives are as follows. To define and acquire a comprehensive database that includes priors relating to high-quality videos serving as references for enhancing distorted videos. To develop a new robust high-level representation of the video content. Distortions will generally alter video characteristics, increasing the difference between the input videos and the corresponding high-quality videos in the database, even if they have the similar content. This will minimise this gap to maximise the accuracy of acquired priors. To develop a prior retrieval system, providing global, local, and context-based priors, along with statistically driven models that provide a reliable basis for video restoration and enhancement process. To address blind inverse problems, where the degradation process during video acquisition is unknown. We will define a network to learn distortion functions from data that simultaneously inform the optimisation in Objective 5. To develop and refine optimisation and learning strategies that are aware of the acquisition context and capable of learning without explicit ground truth information. The aim is to enhance video quality using unsupervised learning approaches. The enhancement of distorted video is important in a number of fields including cell microscopy, space imaging, industrial metrology, surveillance, robotics and autonomous vehicles. While any solutions will have broad applicability, in this work we will initially target natural history filmmaking in challenging environments. The creative industries are a strength in the UK economy and Bristol leads the world, known as the Green Hollywood for natural history content, responsible for well over 40% of the world's productions.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-03

In this FLF proposal, we expand the advances of mid-air haptic technology through the lens of multisensory experiences by applying the principles of human-computer interaction (HCI). Traditional user interfaces typically employ physical touch, e.g., pressing buttons and taping on touchscreens. Mid-air interaction technology replaces "taping on screens" with hand-gesture recognition algorithms and holographic touch. Cameras track your hands to activate actions on a computer system from a distance while phased ultrasonic arrays deliver tactile sensations to your palms and fingertips in mid-air. This unique combination enables novel interaction paradigms previously only seen in sci-fi movies (e.g., Minority Report). We can now interact with computers, digital objects and with each other in immersive 3D environments that we can not only see and hear, but can also touch and feel, without the need to wear or hold any additional controllers. To date, innovation in mid-air technologies has been focussed on hardware and software development to advance engineering methods related to accuracy, recognition and rendering. However, very little is known about how these technologies influence human behaviour and therefore it is unknown how to exploit human perception to improve interactivity and help society. This fellowship is at the forefront of enabling the evolution of those novel and innovative interaction paradigms through the specific lens of multisensory experiences not just taking a leap from physical to mid-air touch interactions, but also integrating it with other sensory modalities (vision, audio, smell). Through studying the cross-sensory associations and integration of mid-air touch into multisensory experiences, this fellowship aspires to create more emotionally engaging and compelling digital experiences where the human senses are as important as in the real world. Then, taking advantage of the effect of multisensory stimuli on human decision-making, we take a unique perspective on understanding the impact of such novel mid-air interfaces on societal responsibility. In particular, we focus on improving the users' sense of agency (SoA) when interacting with autonomous systems. Today, intelligent systems involve increased automation and make many decisions for us (cars, smart homes, robots), which tend to reduce the SoA i.e., the feeling of being in control of one's actions. By understanding the effects of mid-air interactions enhanced by multisensory experiences on the SoA, we aim to design and develop more responsive systems that provide the user with a feeling of being in control and strengthen responsible interactions. As a result of this project, we ambition to help create a future where the holographic display in autonomous vehicles can be touched and felt, and that this tactile dimension generated by focused ultrasound patterns is designed to promote a sense of trust towards the autonomous system, and a future where we can have a 3D video call with friends and family whilst being able to communicate our affection by sending tactile sensations generated by a beam of focused ultrasound and even perceive smells from their environment. This FLF will challenge existing interaction paradigms in HCI through a systematic understanding of the role of mid-air haptics from a multisensory perspective, aiming to design digital interactions where you can see, hear, touch and smell, and this multisensory experience helps to share agency between users and technology. Our approach will break from the conventional studies in mid-air technology by fostering a new and inclusive ecosystem of multidisciplinary research around mid-air technology involving psychology, neuroscience and HCI so that the impact of these technology is not limited to hardware and software, but also provides a positive impact on society with respect an accelerated digitisation of human experiences.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-03

In the UK over two million older adults 75+ live alone and many have poor health. This is a recipe for isolation and loneliness; a growing problem well evidenced by Healthy Ageing initiatives. COVID has exacerbated the situation, prompting anxiety about leaving the house. Isolated older adults often spend many waking hours passively watching television and are not online as much as younger people. Shrinking horizons and decreasing social confidence create barriers to arts and culture. Yet, we know that having a rich cultural, creative and sensory life promotes wellbeing, confidence and opportunities for connection. So, alternative and more active ways of engaging with the world beyond the four walls of home are needed. The majority of older people have smartphones or tablets which can be mobilised to support this engagement. Tabletop Travels https://www.tabletoptravels.co.uk/ offers older isolated people new ways to connect with culture. It is a home-delivered box of goodies that takes them on a multi-sensory journey to a travel destination; exploring life in a European city. Each box contains a guide booklet, at least eleven items including food, drink, something that smells good, a local craft, something to grow or a game, a souvenir and postcards. Optional associated video and audio are accessed through QR codes in the booklet or via the website. This media includes interviews with people associated with the items in the box, videos of city streets, a chef cooking a speciality etc. Each Tabletop Travels destination is curated by an artist who lives locally, lending the booklet and media a direct, personal and anecdotal tone that supports a sense of social connection. The wellbeing impacts of Tabletop Travels accrue from both the excitement of receiving a gift and seeing what's in the box, and then having fun independently exploring and sharing over a longer period. Wellbeing impacts are embedded into the experience with subtlety; re-gifting items and sending postcards enhances self-worth, activities such as games and crosswords support cognitive health, new conversations with carers are opened up and the box includes nudges to get online. A partner reported that an older isolated person had hung the Greek eye from the Athens box in her house and 'she would touch it and remember that someone somewhere had thought about her'. Tabletop Travels fills a gap in low-cost at-home cultural engagement activities for isolated adults that can be scaled. Organisations working with older people have told us that activities that do not require face-to-face interventions for delivery offer good value - so Tabletop Travels can be an enriching, stimulating and affordable add-on to their provision. Additionally, improved wellbeing can lead to fewer calls to GP, and less use of other services. Care homes are also interested in group boxes as part of their activity offer, as well as providers of in-home respite opportunities for carers. The Tabletop Travels concept originated from an older isolated person and has been developed through a co-design process. Now, we will found a social enterprise  - our core strategy is to bring corporate sponsorship to supply grassroots partners with boxes to deliver to their community members; mobilising the work they have done in developing relationships with individual isolated older people with the greatest need. This will be supported by individual subscription sales and to-be-developed boxes for specific user groups.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-03

Context Sepsis is a common and life-threatening response to infection which frequently leads to multiple organ failure. The kidney is particularly vulnerable, however the mechanisms for damage are not well understood. This means there are currently no specific treatments for kidney damage in sepsis, which often leads to kidney failure. Challenge The oxygen carrying cells of the blood (red blood cells RBCs) have a delicate jelly like outer layer called the glycocalyx (Glx). The human Glx is very fragile and not easily detectable by standard laboratory techniques. However, we have developed a blood test which can detect RBC Glx damage. Results from my pilot study suggests the RBC Glx is broken down in patients with sepsis and kidney failure. Healthy RBCs are known to prevent immune cells called neutrophils from activating excessively in the bloodstream. Regulation of neutrophils is essential for health, and vital to combat infections. In sepsis, excessive neutrophil activity damages organs and tissues, including the kidney. I believe that a healthy RBC Glx is important for limiting excessive activation of neutrophils. When this layer becomes damaged in sepsis, RBC are no longer able to prevent neutrophils from activating excessively causing damage to the blood vessels within the kidney. Aims Firstly, I will confirm RBC Glx damage in patients with sepsis using our blood test. Then I will see whether RBC Glx can be used as a marker or predictor of organ damage in sepsis. Next, I will investigate whether damaged RBC Glx (using enzymes) change the behaviour of human neutrophils in test tubes. I will perform this work in collaboration with world leading neutrophil experts at the University of Bristol to assist me with specialist tests of neutrophil activity. Finally, I will investigate treatment strategies to protect RBC Glx to see whether this reduces human neutrophil activation. I will test these treatments in mice to see whether we can reduce the severity of their sepsis and kidney damage. By collaborating with experts at the University of Southern California, I can use a highly sophisticated technique (multiphoton microscopy) to image blood vessels deep inside anaesthetised mice. Multiphoton microscopy will help me determine whether protecting the RBC Glx affects the number of neutrophils entering the kidney and time spent in the blood vessels of the kidney. This work will progress our understanding of organ damage in sepsis, highlighting the previously neglected role of the RBC Glx. Potential benefits Using RBC Glx as a marker of kidney damage will allow us to identify patients at high risk of developing organ failure, facilitating their early risk assessment. These patients can be monitored more closely and treated earlier with the limited therapies currently available. Ultimately, this project aims to uncover a new pathway leading to new treatments which effectively reduce organ damage in sepsis. By reducing kidney damage, patients with sepsis have a much greater chance of recovery and are much less likely to develop long term health problems such as chronic kidney disease, and complications of kidney disease such as heart attacks and strokes. Beyond sepsis, regulating neutrophils by protecting RBC Glx has the potential to lead to treatments for other conditions where there is excessive neutrophil activity such as in malaria, cancer, autoimmune and cardiovascular disease.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-03

Context: While grief is not a medical condition, it is crucial that people feel supported in bereavement; yet, sadly this is often not the case. Support services are over-stretched and private counselling too expensive for many. It is this problem which Good Grief aims to alleviate. We use diverse online and in-person methods and collaborate with therapists, artists, and people with lived experience to offer events and courses for bereaved people and professionals. Since launching our first Festival in October 2020, Good Grief has reached over 30,000 people, across 250 events and 2 pilot courses. Approximately 60% of our users are bereaved people; the remainder are professionals. Our evaluations demonstrate that our festivals make a positive difference, e.g. over 75% report increased confidence talking about grief. The challenge the project addresses: Grief affects us all and yet people often struggle to talk about grief and death. A third of UK adults don’t know how to start a conversation after a bereavement. Bereaved people not only feel isolated and stigmatised, but often face barriers to accessing support, e.g. cost, accessibility or feeling therapy isn’t ‘for them’. Professionals are keen to support bereaved people, but don’t always have the time or resources for expensive in-person training. Good Grief addresses these problems, widening access to research about grief and bereavement, and providing inexpensive support and education. Aims and objectives: - To conduct market research with bereaved people and professionals to inform our course strategy - To write a business plan to achieve sustainable growth and enable future employment of a chief executive - To hold two in-person meetings to discuss our business case, inviting potential board members of our social enterprise  - To design and pilot a new course with added educational components and an off-the-shelf version - To explore platforms providing as user interface for our training, integrated with our website: goodgrieffest.com Potential applications and benefits: Good Grief aims to provide events, education and resources that will help to create a more grief literate and compassionate society. We offer courses with leading experts on relevant specialist topics in a convenient format (webinars with recordings available immediately afterwards), as well as YouTube playlists of related content. By normalising grief and presenting different perspectives on the subject, Good Grief offers something unique, and can help support improvements in societal attitudes to these universal topics.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-03

The WHO identifies vaccine hesitancy as a top 10 threat to global health. It is largely driven by misinformation which is difficult to combat. Healthcare professionals (HCPs) play a vital role in increasing public confidence in vaccination but many lack confidence in talking to vaccine hesitant patients and addressing misinformation. In response our research group developed the Empathetic Refutational Interview (ERI), a four-step evidence-based framework for HCP’s to create a space for conversation with vaccine hesitant patients. The ERI was designed to fill a need for HCP’s to have effective tools to refute misinformation and is based on sound psychological principles. Field testing showed that in-person delivery is key to effective training and that in order for our research to have lasting impact we would need to establish a sustainable way of continuing to provide training. HCP's report a lack of vaccine communication training and our work has shown that there is a market for the training we provide. With this funding we will equip our team with the knowledge and tools needed to develop a full and marketable training package and establish a social enterprise which will allow us to support continued provision of training, thus supporting HCP's in tackling misinformation and ensuring that people are able to make informed decisions about vaccination. 

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-03

Future Places Toolkit is an Augmented Reality planning consultation and community engagement tool for councils, architects, and developers. Using guided conversation, live Virtual Reality sketching, and AR viewed on smartphones, people see plans and their ideas for a building project visualised immediately in 3D in the context where a development is proposed. Future Places Toolkit (FPT) provides a novel solution to the problem faced by council planners, regen teams, architects and their clients of engaging a wider range of people meaningfully with planning consultation. Planning processes can be perceived as dry and complex, so FPT aims to involve communities in a more imaginative, accessible and inclusive way in consultation around neighbourhood redevelopment. Consultation often involves 2D images displayed on boards in a hall, away from the development site itself: it is hard for non-professionals to visualise or imagine what plans would look like in their surroundings. Digital planning tools are being applied in consultation, but these tend to be online forms that gather ideas/feedback from local people individually and not in the place. FPT has two distinctive aspects (1) visualisation offered at the development site itself and (2) an engaging opportunity for residents to provide feedback rendered live through mobile devices in-situ. Such engagement is necessary to satisfy the requirements of the Statement of Community Involvement, which is part of the planning application process. But it also benefits communities, who are able to understand plans better and get involved in conversations that shape these: our service aims to lead to developments people can buy into, rather than oppose and that are more aligned with local needs. We are successfully getting our solution to local customers/users and have been applying the AR tool with Bristol City Council, but ARC Accelerate will give us the capacity we need to engage with new places and clients nationally. In addition to marketing the consultation service that we deliver, the partners will explore scaling FPT as a software as a service (SaaS). Our objectives for the ARC Accelerate programme are: 1. Further market research and competitor analysis around the current AR planning consultation and engagement service provided by the team, to position this effectively in the sector, to confirm pricing and the uniqueness of the offer. 2. Commercialisation development for the software as a service, which would enable others to use the software, scaling up and out to other sectors that could benefit from AR tools for co-design. 3. Develop the business case for a spin-out company, to make impact at scale possible, and business modelling to determine sustainable price points for both our service offer and the planned SaaS. 4. Marketing: produce strong visual promotional material that differentiates FPT and publish a prototype web page. 5. Showcasing, promotion and new customer engagement; raising our profile, growing our network and client base in the architecture and planning sector and potentially beyond. Future Places Toolkit has been developed collaboratively by Uninvited Guests, a theatre company that specialises in participation, Zubr.co, a leading AR and VR studio, sound designer Duncan Speakman, and Paul Clarke of the University of Bristol's Centre for Sociodigital Futures and Centre for Creative Technologies. For further info see: https://www.uninvited-guests.net/projects/future-places-toolkit And these demo videos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bxToBfDsWqs, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SebjE04olEQ, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ru4BYzA44yc

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-03

Missing data is a problem across all studies in health and social sciences, randomised trials, and social surveys. Information may be missing for a variety of reasons – e.g. because people don't want to answer some questions, or forget to give some information, or drop out completely – and often the reasons for the missing data are not known. The way the available information is analysed must be chosen carefully, or the results of the study will be wrong (“biased”), or less precise than they should be, or both. This could mean that policies, therapies, or interventions are based on incorrect evidence. Multiple imputation (MI) is an analysis strategy that can correct the bias due to missing data. In MI, the information we do know about people in the study (e.g. details of their previous health, their age, and so on) is used to predict ("impute") the missing information. Whether this technique is successful depends on why the information is missing in the first place, and how well it can be predicted. There are some guidelines for carrying out MI in specific circumstances, but these are often outdated, incorrect, or complex and hard to follow. There are also commonly-encountered scenarios – e.g. comparing patient survival under different treatment strategies – where guidelines for MI do not exist. Different studies use MI in different ways, and do not usually document what was done - so it is hard to replicate analyses, or to see if analysts have followed best practice. We aim to develop guidance on when and how to carry out MI. We will focus on aspects of MI for which guidance is particularly lacking. This will be useful for anyone who uses incomplete data, but will be especially aimed at those who may have relatively little formal training in statistical analysis of missing data. We will co-produce our guidance with experts in statistical methods, including those who assess statistical research submitted to medical journals, and those who already provide policies and advice for users of such data. This will ensure our guidance is up-to-date, relevant, accessible, and addresses areas of need. We will provide our guidance in many formats. This will include freely-available software tools that make it easy to apply each part of our guidance, and examples that show exactly how our tools can be used. Our guidance will ensure users are following best practice and - by providing documented decisions and code - it will increase reproducibility and transparency of analyses. We will run focus groups with researchers to help us develop and refine our guidance. We will include the guidance, and the tools to implement it, in workshops and courses on how to deal with missing data, in order to reach as many people as possible. Our guidance will be useful for all types of study – including cohort studies, randomised trials, and surveys. We will use our links with other researchers, those working in health and social settings, and non-academic agencies to ensure that our guidance is widely used. Thus it will have the potential to improve the level of evidence informing policy and practice in health, medicine, and beyond, in the UK and worldwide.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-02

There is an ever increasing need to develop alternative materials for composites using sustainable and renewable resources. In recent years cellulose and lignin have emerged as separate solutions to this problem, but have typically been applied to composites as a component with other oil-based feedstocks - for instance cellulose fibres with thermoplastic/thermosets derived from oil, or carbon fibres from lignin as an alternative to PAN based materials. Significant developments have been made in recent years to take the rich chemical structure of lignin and convert it to useful feedstocks for resins. Some of this groundbreaking work has been carried out at the University of Tokyo in making divanillic acid based polymers from lignin. Equally, great strides have been made in developing cellulose nanomaterials for their use in composites, and unique derivatives that bridge the oil-water interface. Much of this work has been developed at Bristol University. This grant will bring together these unique and world-leading capabilities to develop a series of monomers from natural products, including divanallic acid, ferulic acid, and combinations of these with soybean oils. In situ polymerisation routes will be explored to make a 'one-pot' solution to the production of truly sustainable composite materials. These composite materials will be fully characterised in terms of their mechanical properties. Fundamental science of oil-water emulsions and emulsion polymerisation using these materials will be addressed, paving the way for their ultimate development in an ever increasingly sustainable world. Life Cycle Assessment of the materials will be undertaken for these materials to compare against traditional materials, for specific use in construction matrerials for housing. The whole package of work will address SDG12 (Responsible Consumption and Production), SDG13 (Climate Action), SDG11 (Sustainable Cities and Living).

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-02

HesCat is the first commentary in English and a revised critical edition and translation of the Hesiodic Catalogue(s) of Women. The archaic Greek epic poems ascribed to Hesiod were one of the most influential sources of heroic tales and genealogies in the ancient world. The poems describe the liaisons between gods and mortal women, their offspring and their marriages and descendants, and the societal and cultural impact of these unions. They arrange the main genealogies of the Greek world through the mortal women who bore children to the gods. The offspring became founders or eponyms for settlements, tribes, and regions in Greece and beyond. The poems are an innovative synthesis of several local traditions into a new whole to create a new, shared Hellenic identity. The poems cover topics such as the use cultural heritage, constructions of gender and identity, mobility and migration across Mediterranean. The Catalogue(s) offer explanations of societal aspects of archaic Greece (e.g. the status of men and women, marriage practices, religious rites) by appealing to past precedents as a source of authority (e.g. moral, identity, prestige). They bring cult, gender, geography, and mythology together. The Catalogue(s) were widely read, however they now survive only in fragments, both as quotations in other authors and on papyri recovered from the late-nineteenth century onwards. HesCat combines Classics and ancient history with archaeology, art, comparative studies, cultural anthropology, and gender studies to brings the poems to a wider audience and provides readers with the best philological, literary, and socio-historical assistance in understanding this complex collection of genealogical discourse. Consisting of a monograph-commentary and two articles, HesCat demonstrates how the poem is a key witness in our own understanding of Classical mythology, and its legacy in Greco-Roman identity and European thought.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-01

Long-COVID is a condition in which people continue to have health problems for many months or years after a COVID-19 infection. It is a big health and economic problem in the UK, affecting nearly 2 million people and costing £8 billion each year. Many people with long-COVID experience ongoing breathing difficulties. They have a pattern of erratic breathing during exercise and even at rest, even though their lungs appear normal. We're not sure why this happens, but there is increasing evidence that this is due to disruption of the control of breathing, coordinated by the brain and nervous system, rather than a specific lung problem. A key part of this breathing control system is the carotid chemoreflex. This reflex is driven by small organs in the neck called the carotid bodies which monitor the chemical status of the blood, sending signals into the brain causing breathing and circulatory adjustments. The carotid chemoreflex, thus, controls breathing and feelings of breathlessness. When someone gets infected with the COVID-19 virus, the virus can get into the carotid bodies and disrupt their normal function. This could explain why some patients with long-COVID are breathless at rest and during exercise despite their lungs being normal. Our recent research shows that the carotid chemoreflex is more sensitive in people with long-COVID who don't have other health issues. This might be one of the reasons why they feel breathless and breathe too heavily during exercise. We propose to conduct 3 studies. In the first 2 studies, we will temporarily "switch off" the carotid chemoreflex with a medicine called dopamine. We know that temporary use of dopamine does not cause many side-effects in people because it has been used extensively in people with and without health problems. However, in study 1 we will test that dopamine does not lead to adverse effects in 6 patients with long-COVID. We will move to Study 2, in which we will use dopamine in 21 people with long-COVID and abnormal breathing and 21 people without long-COVID (controls). The results of the two groups will be compared to determine whether temporarily switching off the carotid chemoreflex improves breathing at rest and during exercise in people with long-COVID. If this works; we will know that the carotid chemoreflex is driving some of the breathing difficulties in patients with long-COVID. Dopamine however cannot be used long-term as a treatment because the body removes the drug too quickly. However, if dopamine works to improve breathing, we will explore a drug called gefapixant, which can help regulate the carotid chemoreflex. Gefapixant is currently used to treat people with chronic cough. We know that in animals, gefapixant works to calm the carotid chemoreflex, but we need to know whether this will work in people with long-COVID. We will therefore test in 41 people with long-COVID (Study 3) whether gefapixant can calm the carotid chemoreflex. If successful, this treatment could transform long-COVID therapy and potentially benefit people with similar symptoms from other post-viral illnesses or heart failure, for example. This research has been co-designed by people with long-COVID, doctors who look after them, experts in clinical trials and respiratory experts.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-01

Access to compute is a core requirement to conducting internationally competitive EPSRC-remit research at the University of Bristol (UoB). The University has invested in this trend over the last 20 years (£17.5M) and is working strategically to support a paradigm change in the way researchers now need to access this compute. This paradigm change has two drivers: Researchers increasingly view high performance computing (HPC) as an extension of their laptop, and want to consume it interactively. This is evidenced by the move towards using interactive compute tools such as Jupyter notebooks, workflows applications and access to cloud computing.  2. Researchers increasingly use AI, which is bringing the need for high performance computing to a whole new generation of researchers who have little prior experience. Isambard-AI, based at UoB, enables the tackling of the second driver of this change. However, we must not leave behind researchers who need access to interactive compute that is not AI-related, and we must create a pathway where the “AI-curious” have a place to explore before stepping up to Isambard-AI. Our Digital Strategy recognises the need to invest in the University Cloud, an on-premise private cloud providing self-service on-demand access to virtual machines for research. The challenge this project will address is that demand for GPU-enabled virtual machines in the University Cloud is rapidly growing. We will use our EPSRC Core Equipment allocation to purchase hardware required to upgrade the University Cloud and outfit it with a significant increase in GPU capability. This will be via investment in eight GPU-equipped servers which will grow the University Cloud with an additional thirty-two GPUs. This will enable the University Cloud to potentially support more than 500 extra concurrent researchers, thereby accelerating the pace of internationally-competitive EPSRC-remit research at the University. We have identified critical parallel investment into lower to mid-range computational needs for UoB researchers within EPSRC priority research areas. The aim is to provide central capabilities such that researchers can access these with ease and ensure protections in line with research policies such as Open and Trusted Research. Current in-house HPC capabilities (BlueCrystal 4 and BluePebble) support researchers university-wide, agnostic of domain and have led the UK landscape in providing centralised sharing of HPC resource for research. Usage is dominated by the Faculty of Science and Engineering (FSE) with EPSRC-remit research making up over two thirds of the user base.  The evidence for the need for interactive GPU compute comes from our observation that researchers are increasingly turning to public cloud services. Investment here will enable us to meet researcher need via on-premise GPUs in the University Cloud and is part of a multi-faceted strategy where parallel investment in CPUs, additional storage and personnel will deliver a complete solution for our compute needs. This investment will deliver benefits in key EPSRC research priority areas including engineering biology, development of next-generation sustainable composites, chemical catalysis, and cybersecurity. It will deliver benefits for PGRs, early career researchers and wider research community.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-01

To write.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-01

Socioeconomic and demographic inequalities are a persistent feature of society in the United Kingdom. Those of lower socioeconomic status continue to be disadvantaged in terms of their educational, health and other social outcomes, a situation recently exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Education and health are interlinked outcomes with the power to support or hinder social mobility and are target sites for interventions to improve quality of life and other social outcomes. However, the way in which biological, social, and geographical factors combine and interact to shape individual outcomes and the variability in these associations across different social contexts and combinations of identity is less well understood. The aim of my proposed research is to support the agenda of 'levelling up' by quantitatively interrogating the dynamics of general health and educational attainment inequalities within and between generations in the UK through a secondary data analysis of longitudinal and cohort datasets. To support policymakers in the agenda of addressing socioeconomic inequalities, it is important to improve understandings of their distribution, development, and dynamics. The proposed project will draw upon an interdisciplinary framework combining insights from intersectionality research and biosocial geography (concerned with the interaction of the social and biological in pathways between places and people). This framework will provide a more nuanced knowledge of inequalities through focus on the variability of associations across different contexts (neighbourhoods/households/schools) and social groups (combinations of gender, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and disability), revealing potentially hidden dimensions of disadvantage in the production and transmission of inequalities across generations. Additionally, the biosocial perspective will enable novel interrogation of the processes through which groups are exposed, made vulnerable to, and embody their social environments. In doing so, the project has the potential to expose important factors, contexts, and timepoints which could act as critical sites for potential interventions to improve education and health outcomes and will also serve to critique the power structures underlying the social production of inequalities. The project will focus attention on the early to mid-life course, considering: children's educational and health trajectories throughout schooling and into early adulthood; how these are impacted by early life social contexts; the potential for intergenerational effects from parents to children; and variation across different sociodemographic and economic intersectional identities. The project will therefore address the following three main objectives: (1) examine sociodemographic intersectional variation in individual health and education outcomes for students; (2) explore biosocial pathways for how neighbourhood and familial circumstances combine and interact to influence individual health and education outcomes from early to mid-life; and (3) study the cross-outcome production of health and education inequalities between generations. The project will produce academic writings and policy briefings to disseminate crucial findings on the development of inequalities in educational attainment and general health in the early to mid-life course. A data visualisation website will also be produced to allow interactive illustration of the extent of intersectional inequalities in education and health outcomes and how these develop within and between generations. Collaborative networks for knowledge sharing and research partnerships will be fostered through presentations at leading international conferences and hosting an end-of-grant symposium bringing together academic and non-academics working in the field of social inequalities.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-01

RNA viruses comprise an important group of zoonotic agents. During early stages of transmission, host antiviral receptors play essential roles in surveying, detecting, and responding to "non-self" pathogen associated molecular patterns (PAMPs). Although a blueprint for replication, viral RNA genomes are potent PAMPs. As such, viral genomes are under immune-selective pressure, driving viral evolution and diversification. As a countermeasure and to avoid detection, viruses (e.g., HIV-1, Influenza and picornavirus) avoid inclusion of immunostimulatory sequences (e.g., CpG) within their genomes. Recently, we performed a genetics-based epidemiological examination of multiple well characterized human clinical datasets. This coupled with our in vitro studies, identified that HIV-1 may contravene this general principle. We found HIV-1 transmitted/founder (T/F) viruses (viruses that infect and replicate within a recipient) contained significantly elevated numbers of previously characterised immunostimulatory sequences in their viral genomes compared to non-transmitting HIV variants. Moreover, we identified that T/F virus genomes occupied higher-risk sequence space (i.e., contain codons that were a single mutation away from generating stop codons), than non-transmitting viruses. This latter point is important as premature stop codons can lead to the generation of non-functional proteins and defective virus, thereby impacting viral replicative fitness. Based on these intriguing observations, we seek to understand: Why HIV-1 T/F viruses, with increased numbers of immunostimulatory sequences in their vRNA, have improved transmission fitness? Understand if risky sequence space is advantageous for HIV transmission and if it affects replication fitness. Determine if the findings in i) and ii), are linked or independent characteristics of T/F viruses. The potential applications of this research are wide ranging and include gaining important insights into the mechanisms of viral transmission and replication. This could lead to improved virus surevillance strategies, where genomic information could be used as biomarkers for prediciting transmisison/replication fitness of variants within populations. Just as important, this work could contribute to the development of targeted interventions and therapies for HIV and other RNA viruses. For intance, by studying genomic data to understand and predict transmission and replicative fitness, we would be ideally positioned for the rational selection of new candidate immunogens for vaccine development against T/F viruses.