QUEEN'S UNIVERSITY BELFAST

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-09

Increasing deployments of AI models in sensitive domains (e.g. defence, healthcare, automotive, national/allied cyber-infrastructure, etc) makes them increasingly attractive attack targets. These models hold substantial commercial and operational value and may be trained on or interact with sensitive or proprietary data. A key method of attack is Side-Channel Analysis (SCA), which examines things such as power consumption, electromagnetic radiation, timings, etc. These side channels are impacted by system operations and so leak sensitive information about the system and running models. As the industry moves towards edge deployments of AI, with physical exposure and insecure operating environments, the risk from these attacks will only increase. It is now crucial that we have the capability to test and analyse these attacks. The goal of this project is to make advanced SCA for AI more accessible to the UK security community by benchmarking and replicating cutting-edge SCA attacks on low-cost platforms. By bridging a capability gap between highly funded US laboratories and resource-constrained UK institutions, our work will help democratise access to sophisticated AI hardware security analysis and pave the way to understand attackers’ capabilities for building better defenses.. The core of this project is a US-UK collaboration between Queen’s University Belfast (QUB) and North Carolina State University (NCSU). NCSU’s world-class lab, equipped with over $1 million in high-end SCA instrumentation, serves as the benchmark environment. The Centre of Secure Information Technologies (CSIT) at QUB has invested in the equipment to set up a lab based on the low-cost Chipwhisperer ecosystem but has not yet deployed. A more advanced fault injection platform for comprehensive security investigations is also expected to be built up. This timely collaboration will allow CSIT researchers to learn directly from the state-of-the-art methodologies at NCSU, then apply and adapt those insights to establish a UK-based, low-cost yet high-fidelity lab.    

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-09

Even if we would never act on it, many of us have felt the urge to get back at someone who hurt us. Revenge stories have captivated us in films like Gladiator and series such as Game of Thrones. This fascination stretches back centuries, from ancient Greek plays to Shakespeare. Evolutionary psychologists suggest that humans have sought revenge for over 10,000 years. But what drives this desire, and why are we so captivated by revenge? My research aims to answer these questions using psychology. My research could benefit society. Understanding what motivates and inhibits revenge can help us intervene to prevent violence. Revenge exists in over 90% of societies (Jackson et al., 2019), and it plays a role in violent crime and terrorism, including 42% of New York murders and 27% of U.S. bombings (Jackson et al., 2019). Research like mine can help to shape violence-prevention initiatives. During my PhD, I found that feelings of humiliation triggered revenge desire. This was an important finding, as psychologists used to think that revenge was mainly triggered by anger. This led me to conclude that anti-violence programmes should focus on lowering humiliation and boosting people’s self-worth to prevent violent revenge. But revenge research can do more than just prevent violence. Many of us see revenge as simply immoral and evil. However, my research shows that revenge is complex. It can lead to violence, but it can also serve as a coping mechanism. My thesis found that people, especially crime victims, often fantasize about revenge to regain a sense of control or strength after being wronged. While such fantasies may offer short-term comfort, if they persist, they can become harmful. My research has linked long-lasting revenge fantasies to insomnia, anxiety, and depression in crime victims. How victims are treated by the justice system can also influence their revenge desires. My thesis showed that if victims feel disrespected by police, or lose trust in the legal system, they are more likely to fixate on revenge. My findings suggest that victim-friendly justice reforms could reduce crime victims’ revenge desire and support their mental health. This fellowship has four goals: Collect new data to explore how victims’ experiences with police and courts affect revenge desire, enabling better policy recommendations and a new publication. Increase academic and clinical impact by publishing findings from my PhD on how shame influences revenge and mental health. Communicate my research to the public and victim support organizations, highlighting how revenge fantasies affect mental health and the need to destigmatize them so victims can seek help. Develop and present policy recommendations to government bodies and crime-prevention organizations (e.g., contributing to the Department of Justice’s NI Victims and Witness Strategy 2025–30). I will share findings with academic audiences (via conferences and seminars), the public (via podcasts, blogs, and talks), and key organizations (via meetings and reports).  

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-09

Intellectual property rights to plant varieties (“plant IP”) are highly significant for the environment and the food system, but receive relatively little attention from legal scholars. By contrast, plant IP has provoked significant debate in economics, anthropology, geography, and ethnobotany, although this work often demonstrates weak engagement with the substantive doctrines of plant IP laws. In the debates about the role of plant IP rights in the protection of food security and biological diversity, many have asserted that plant IP has been a disaster for crop varietal diversity, an argument that was strongly influenced by the debates in the 1990s about the privatisation of genetic information enabled by the use of biotechnology and genetic modification (Fowler & Mooney, 1990). This contrasts with the insistence from breeders organisations and certain government agencies that plant IP stimulates the development and commercialisation of new, more sustainable plant varieties and is therefore “an area of immense importance for biodiversity and the agricultural industry” (CPVO, 2024). My research will develop and expand on the dataset and methodology of Heald & Chapman (2012) to address the question: how should plant intellectual property develop to effectively promote food security and biodiversity? I will undertake empirical research on plant IP laws and varietal innovation that significantly advances the work of Heald & Chapman (2012) in two ways. First, whereas Heald & Chapman focused on the United States, my study will compare the plant IP laws and varietal innovation in both the US and Europe, with the latter explored through the experience of the UK and Ireland. Second, whereas Heald & Chapman focused on apples, vegetables, and corn, I will build on their dataset to examine a larger number of plant species, namely potatoes, cereals, fruits, and ornamentals. I will draw on a combination of doctrinal, historical, and socio-legal methods to trace how the emergence of plant IP laws has impacted plant varietal diversity over the last century. Given the current biodiversity crisis and threats to food security, my research will provide significant empirical data to shape international plant IP policy. The proposed project is timely for two reasons. Firstly, the earliest intellectual property legislation to protect plant varieties, the US Plant Patent Act of 1930, will have its centenary in 2030, which overlaps with the timeline of the fellowship. Secondly, plant IP is named as a component of current environmental and agricultural policies, such as the European Green Deal and Farm to Fork Strategy, but there is a lack of empirical evidence to show how plant IP rights can support these policy objectives (EUIPO, 2022; GHK, 2011). The US, EU, and UK governments are generally pushing for the expansion of plant IP protection, both worldwide (e.g. through trade agreements) and domestically (e.g. through lengthening the duration of protection). At the same time, however, the European Parliament is considering a proposal to exclude plants developed through new genomic techniques from patent protection, while the recent US Department of Agriculture’s “Fair and Competitive Seed Report” (2023) indicated that the complex American plant IP framework may stifle research and development of new varieties, and is ripe for reform to better promote food security, genetic diversity, and agricultural production capacity. My study will directly address concerns about biodiversity and food security and inform ongoing policy debates across the United States and Europe.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-09

Aims and objectives Billions of people could be better off if we used the evidence and research funding available more effectively. This project will help policymakers achieve better results for less money by providing timely summaries of the state of current knowledge through a transparent scientific process known as evidence synthesis. This work is urgently needed to help achieve the missions and priorities of all levels of UK government; to support the “rescue plan” for the Sustainable Development Goals; to help the world tackle the climate crisis; and to help individuals, businesses, and local decision makers around the world to achieve their goals. Our current inability to utilise research effectively is compromising our collective ability to develop effective policy. Our ultimate goal is a timely, comprehensive, and reliable living evidence synthesis capability, covering all major social questions, used by policymakers and others around the world to improve people’s lives. Approach We will create new breakthrough AI and open data infrastructure to make evidence synthesis faster, cheaper, and more relevant to policymakers’ needs in the UK and globally. Human-AI workflows will enable us to create comprehensive, up-to-date, and accurate portals of all relevant research on a topic in ready-to-use form, offering ‘real-time’ evidence synthesis. We will develop new research methods to tackle some of the biggest needs of policymakers using evidence synthesis: applying evidence from one context to another; answering the large-scale questions policymakers work with; and assessing and making the most of varied research, evaluation and other evidence. We will engage with policymakers to understand their needs, and to promote evidence usability and use. We will adapt how evidence synthesis is presented, and distributed until it becomes their go-to resource. We will work in partnership with the wider evidence support systems inside and outside government. Experienced teams of researchers and policymakers working together will deliver exemplar projects of living evidence synthesis in four areas of national and international importance: education, crime and justice, climate, environment and society, and international development. The overall result will be an extensible and flexible infrastructure that can be applied across the whole of social science and public policy. Allied to this will be a growing network of organisations engaged in promoting and using evidence synthesis to inform decision making. Leadership expertise The Campbell Collaboration UK and Ireland is the ideal organisation to lead this initiative, given its pivotal role in building the intellectual and practical foundations for evidence synthesis in public policy, based on joint principles of inclusivity and reliability. The leadership team is a global partnership of synthesis leaders and infrastructure providers, experts in technology, methods, policy, and supporting evidence use. The team has a proven record in cutting edge AI for evidence synthesis and a track record of using AI to transform another global evidence sector. Sustainability This project is made possible by at least £15m in aligned spending and a wealth of pre-existing AI software development. This includes Wellcome funding through our partner projects DESTINY and SOLACE-AI. Each exemplar project will benefit from co-investment or aligned investment. It will become part of the global Evidence Synthesis Infrastructure Collaborative that is being co-created in an open global process facilitated by some of our group, and the plans will be revised in line with the outcomes of that process in mid-2025.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-09

From 1934 until the Nazi defeat in 1945, one of Britain’s most effective anti-fascist resistance networks operated out of the Café Vega, a vegetarian restaurant in London. Today, the luxury hotel occupying this site carries no plaques describing this history of resistance. This absence mirrors the fact that, to date, no focused study has detailed the history of the influential milieu of socialist exiles in interwar Britain connected to this restaurant, itself established in 1934 by a German refugee couple who, along with their staff and many of their patrons, were members of the important Internationaler Sozialistischer Kampfbund (ISK). Initially formed as a splinter from German social democratic currents, the ISK was a transnational anti-fascist network that remains under-researched. To resolve this gap, my project uncovers histories of the ISK - alongside their collaborators, friends and families – in Britain before and during the Second World War. By combining an innovative history of intimacy methodology with cutting-edge digital reconstruction, Europe Speaks will pioneer new ways of understanding how an exile community maintained networks of resistance during a pivotal moment in modern European history. Building on my track record as an early career historian specialising in the transnational history of interwar radicalism, this ambitious project will enhance my research, leadership, and engagement skills. Using a history of intimacy methodology sensitive to the importance of affect in determining political trajectories, I will illuminate personal bonds that facilitated consequential intellectual exchanges within the wider world of interwar anti-fascism. This methodological focus resonates with urgent contemporary needs: today, European cities once again host exiles fleeing autocracy and war. Like the interwar exile community, these diverse political groups must navigate complex relationships with states and citizens. I will also lead an innovative public engagement initiative transforming archival research into immersive virtual reality (VR) experiences through a digital reconstruction of the ISK's Café Vega. This project strand will develop my profile as a technologically skilled public historian. Based at Queen’s University Belfast (QUB), the digital humanities strand of the project will transform the Centre for Public History (CPH) into a hub of collaboration between historians and technologists. I will develop interdisciplinary leadership experience by coordinating with two world-leading QUB centres: MediaLab, a centre for immersive technology research with a VR laboratory, and the Sonic Arts Research Centre (SARC), a hub of recording studios and expert staff. Leveraging my previous experience creating historical soundscapes, this ambitious digital humanities project will pioneer new ways of democratising historical research. Users will become active participants in historical investigation, discovering how an everyday space became a site of political resistance. This VR experience will catalyse new frameworks for public engagement with histories of political exile – frameworks adaptable by other scholars and heritage organisations. The project will have a wide range of beneficiaries. Journal articles arising from the project will enhance scholarly understandings of interwar European antifascism and the rapidly accelerating potential of digital public history. The public engagement framework I will develop through interdisciplinary project management will be applicable to heritage organisations, cultural sites, and educational institutions. Collaborations within QUB and with external institutions including the Wiener Holocaust Memorial Library will be mutually beneficial, enhancing the reputation of each stakeholder. Ultimately, this project will uncover an under-researched history while investigating and establishing frameworks for technologically ambitious and discipline-bridging public engagement.  

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-09

The Northern Ireland Longitudinal study (NILS) is a member of the family of UK Census Longitudinal Studies (UK CenLSs) and is an important part of the Northern Ireland (NI) and UK data infrastructure for population research. Funded by the ESRC since 2008, this application makes a case for the further funding of user support until 2030. One element – the continued maintenance of the secure environment including help with project applications, output checking, provision of metadata, and the provision of metrics – is necessarily ‘business as usual’. However, the unique environment of the mid 2020s also gives us the opportunity to do new things, responding to fresh opportunities and adapting to a rapidly-changing environment. The linkage of the 2021 Census to the NILS (and other UK CenLSs) is a major opportunity for high-quality impactful research since it is now possible for analysis to span 40 years in NI, 30 years in Scotland and 50 years in England & Wales. This is therefore a central part of our proposal where the NILS takes the lead on a cross-UK small-grants scheme to prime LS research across the UK. Responding to the need for regional/national impact, another innovation is the employment of an Impact Research Assistant (RA) with the remit of supporting research of public and policy interest and building analytical capacity for the future. New technologies shape the context for the bid; for the first time remote secure access to the NILS is a firm prospect and we commit to working with NISRA to ensure that users can access the NILS without using the secure environment; this is key to increasing the geographical reach of the NILS and user numbers. We will also explore the potential use of AI (with colleagues across QUB) to monitor NILS outputs, collect narrative evidence of impacts, and search out research opportunities, sharing lessons and methods where appropriate. Finally, a strand of work – in coordination with colleagues across the UK – will seek to position the NILS in the emerging UK population data where the options for 2031 range from a traditional Census to a linked administrative data system. The unique environment demands agility to take advantage of opportunities, respond to challenges, and to leverage progress to date and we thus place this at the centre of our bid. Continued support for the NILS-RSU will benefit both academic and government researchers requiring access to the NILS databases, as well as users of this research across diverse thematic areas, from health to linguistic studies. Additionally, it will support the development of quantitative capacity for students and early-career researchers.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-09

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

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-09

This project will provide a comprehensive background to a new living history exhibit at the Ulster American Folk Park. It will explore life and living conditions for Ulster migrants to American cities between 1840 and 1910. The researcher will spend time researching the material culture of Ulster-American life, delving into relevant museum collections, and through consideration of other sites’ best practice, explore how the UAFP could best present case studies of Ulster emigrant life in American tenements. The focus of this PhD will be on the experiences of Ulster emigrants to northern cities in the United States – an experience which is currently understudied in Irish migration history, which tends to separate Protestant and Catholic experiences, and in Ulster historiography, which emphasises Ulster Presbyterian life in rural settings. It will therefore contribute to filling a gap in Irish diaspora scholarship while presenting opportunities for additional interpretation in the UAFP. The time-period studied allows for consideration of multigenerational community identity development, expanding the narrative from dominant male middle class experiences to familial structures, single working women, and children growing up in an American city. This, therefore, allows for the exploration of themes of class, gender, religion, and, as these migrants were living and loving in multi-ethnic urban spaces, ethnicity and race. In these ways, this project contributes to the historiography of Irish migration and the priorities of NMNI.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-09

The Animal Welfare Research Network was established (with funding from BBSRC) in 2016.  Since then it has grown to a thriving and productive network with a membership of over 1200 individuals from 276 organisations, including animal welfare researchers and a wide range of stakeholders. Currently the AWRN is funded through BBSRC Responsive Mode with a Government Partnership Award. In addition, the AWRN recently secured BBSRC funding for a one-year project to develop our activities in relation to Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI). The current application is for core funding to sustain the AWRN for a further three-year period. During the funded period, the AWRN will focus on eight objectives (co-designed with members) to meet the overall aim of improving research quality, capacity, culture, societal relevance and impact.  To ensure stakeholder relevance and a focus on EDI, project delivery will be guided by the network Coordinating Group, the Stakeholder Advisory Board, the EC committee and the EDI Working Group (composed of members with diverse lived experience). In order to enhance research culture in animal welfare science, we will continue to focus on improving EDI and supporting ECR development. Planned EDI initiatives include working with The Equal Group (specialist EDI consultancy) to provide targeted EDI training to committees, tailored support to minoritised groups and share best practice; working with In2ScienceUK (specialists in bringing disadvantaged young people into STEM) to promote animal welfare science careers and create animal welfare placements; and running an EDI survey within the network. Support for the development of ECRs in the network will include an ECR day at the Annual Meeting, the continuation of the online Monthly Meet-Ups, training-focused workshops and ECR plenary, an expanded mentoring scheme and a new ECR Impact Prize. A number of initiatives will improve research quality and relevance.  In order to support reduction and refinement in animal research, NC3Rs will fund Kick-start projects and feed into grant writing workshop and we will further develop the AWRN Open Science Framework. We also aim to address research gaps and consider future welfare issues through a horizon scanning focused Annual meeting and new Priming Grants for research or sandpits in novel areas. To increase collaborations, we have initiated partnerships with a number of other BBSRC-funded networks including joint workshops. We also plan to increase collaborations, lab exchanges and mentoring with organisations from our Stakeholder Advisory Board and external stakeholders.  To enable an increased number of high quality funding applications in animal welfare science, we propose to fund larger Kick-start grants to fund pilot studies (with funding leveraged from NC3Rs and industry). The AWRN is committed to increase the dissemination and impact of animal welfare science. A survey of members’ outreach activities and barriers to engagement has informed our plans to provide training in science communication and outreach, while working with the NCCPE to develop a public engagement strategy and re-designing the AWRN website to disseminate material effectively.  In order to increase the impact of welfare science, we aim to develop Working Groups on key welfare issues, to translate research findings into policy advice and to focus on Human Behaviour Change as an important barrier to consider during research. The planned programme will help to develop an innovative, collaborative research community that will benefit not only animal welfare researchers and practitioners, but also stakeholders and policymakers.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-09

People often make short-sighted decisions or decide not to do things they should, like getting vaccinated against influenza or responding to an invitation for a screening appointment.? Indeed, a major public health challenge is to support people to make better decisions.? We will integrate two different approaches to helping people make healthful decisions. One approach asks people to imagine their personal future experiences in rich and detailed ways. This ‘pre-experiencing’ of the future is known as Episodic Future Thinking (EFT).? Psychological studies consistently show that encouraging people to engage in EFT results in less shortsighted decision-making. There is currently substantial interest in whether such an approach can be scaled up into interventions that help real-world health-related decisions. However, we do not yet understand why EFT works.? The other approach asks people to anticipate the unpleasant regret they might feel about making a specific decision, such as deciding to forgo vaccination. A long history of such work contains both successful and unsuccessful attempts to use anticipated regret to support healthful decisions. Unfortunately, we do not yet understand why such interventions sometimes fail. This project will put these two approaches together within a new framework for explaining how future-related thinking supports decision making. This framework will help researchers (1) understand when, why, and for whom such approaches work, and (2) inform the design of more effective interventions to improve healthful decision-making. The central idea is that people may anticipate a range of emotions occurring at various points along a timeline in the future and weigh them in decision-making, and that EFT can enhance such anticipation. In the context of a set of health-related decisions, including decisions about health screening, vaccination, and cancer checks, our studies will test whether (1) prompting the anticipation of decision-related emotions is most effective when people are encouraged to episodically imagine the emotional experiences, and (2) one reason EFT is beneficial is because it can facilitate the anticipation of emotions that occur after (as well as before or during) an outcome. Such emotions include not just regret: we hypothesise that imagining the pleasurable emotion of relief might be also effective, although little is currently known about relief anticipation.? The studies will also test whether cognitive differences between people’s ability to think in ways that underlie EFT or the anticipation of emotions such as regret and relief determine effectiveness. Finally, because both good and bad health-related decisions may have emotional consequences at various points along a future timeline, we will study the spontaneous future thinking that people engage in when making health-related decisions, helping us to identify the emotions and time-points it is most beneficial to anticipate. We will use this information to pilot a novel intervention combining EFT and anticipated emotion designed to direct decision-makers’ attention towards particular periods along a timeline into the future as they make decisions about their health.? Our project should have very significant theoretical implications as it seeks to situate and extend EFT and anticipated emotion interventions for decision-making in a novel and integrated theory. We also anticipate that our findings will deliver the basis for a whole series of novel interventions for healthful behaviour. We will make links with practitioners and applied psychologists with the aim of developing future collaborations so that our discoveries can be scaled up for real world application.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-08

Nature’s most remarkable functional molecules – proteins – are polymeric chains formed by bonding together amino acids. By simply changing the sequence of amino acids an incredible array of functions can be accessed, from structural proteins such as spider’s silk, to highly efficient enzyme catalysts. This proposal focuses on the development of atropisomeric foldamers, a novel class of synthetic molecules inspired by the natural folding behaviour of biomolecules such as proteins. Foldamers are artificial oligomers that can mimic the structures and functions of biological macromolecules. The primary innovation of this research is to incorporate atropisomerism—a form of stereochemistry where the shape of the molecule is determined by the restricted rotation around certain chemical bonds—into the design and synthesis of foldamers. A unique feature of our approach which differentiates it from natural systems, is that the shape of the polymer can be determined simply by the choice of catalysts used to form it. The methodology involves using a series of catalytic reactions to iteratively build these foldamers. By controlling the stereochemistry during synthesis, we hope to create foldamers with specific shapes and functions. This could lead to materials that are more versatile than natural biomolecules, with potential applications in drug delivery, catalysis, and molecular recognition. The research plan is divided into several work packages, each focusing on different aspects of the synthesis and analysis of these foldamers. Initial efforts will be directed toward synthesizing the core foldamer motifs and understanding their conformational behaviour using techniques like X-ray crystallography and NMR spectroscopy. Subsequent work will explore how the stereochemical configuration of the foldamers influences their function, particularly in binding to other molecules—a feature that could make them useful as molecular sensors or catalysts. One important feature of atropisomeric molecules is that their shape becomes flexible at higher temperatures: we will exploit this feature to develop new “host” molecules, moulded specifically to bind a particular guest. In summary, this research aims to create a new family of polymeric molecules with precise structural control, opening up possibilities for advanced materials with tailored functionalities. The work is positioned to contribute significantly to the fields of asymmetric synthesis, materials science, supramolecular chemistry and macromolecular chemistry.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-08

Manifolds are, in many ways, the building blocks of topology and appear in virtually every area of mathematics. They are high-dimensional analogues of the space in which we live: to the inhabitants, manifolds look flat just as the earth appears flat to us, but in reality, they can have a much wilder global shape. One approach to the study of manifolds is to study their embeddings, that is, how a copy of one manifold can sit inside another. This way of studying manifolds has been employed since the mid-twentieth century and is currently seeing a great revival. The primary aim of this project is to use and develop modern techniques in homotopy theory to compute the homotopy type of spaces of embeddings, or in other words, calculate how embeddings behave up to homotopy. The project will use two main tools, the first of which is functor calculus. Functor calculus is an abstraction of the ideas of differential calculus to a categorical setting where functions on the real line are replaced by the notion of a functor: i.e., a "function" which sends one mathematical object to another mathematical object, i.e., a topological space being sent to its fundamental group. The calculus of functors provides a method for breaking a functor into smaller pieces that are easier to handle and gives a prescribed way to build the original functor from these pieces. There are three well-known versions of functor calculus employed in homotopy theory: Goodwillie calculus, orthogonal calculus, and embedding calculus, and this project will utilise all three and their interactions to dismantle spaces of embeddings into smaller pieces which are easier to manipulate. The second primary tool is chromatic homotopy theory. At its heart, the purpose of chromatic homotopy theory is similar to that of functor calculus: it splits spaces of objects into "frequencies", much like how a prism separates white light into colours. From these "frequencies," one may reconstruct the original space. Typically, these "frequencies" capture the periodic homotopy type of the space of embeddings. At its core, the project will examine the interaction between these two theories. Both functor calculus and chromatic homotopy theory provide filtrations on a space by easier-to-manipulate pieces, but how do these filtrations interact? Much of this project will explore yoga relating to various calculi and chromatic homotopy theory. The project aims to use the interactions of these two methods to completely decompose the space of embeddings into pieces that we understand and can compute and then reassemble our computations to give a complete description of the homotopy type of spaces of embeddings. Although some interactions between chromatic homotopy and functor calculi are known, we will weave a novel web between all of the theories so that by travelling along one of the threads, one can play these theories against each other to make concrete computations in manifold topology. Start date

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-08

This project generates the first ever Northern Irish Peace Index (NIPI): an empirical, data-led, quantitative measurement of negative and positive peacefulness in Northern Ireland over time. Using the NIPI, we will conduct workshops with The Executive Office of Northern Ireland (TEO), the civil service, and non-government organisations to integrate positive peace into Northern Irish peacebuilding strategies. After 10 years of operation, the TEO has recently decided that the government's principal peacebuilding programme, “Together: Building a United Community” (T:BUC), should move beyond an emphasis on “good community relations” and towards developing new approaches. Thanks in part to the existing work of the proposed project team, the TEO agrees that “positive peace” should become a cornerstone of future peacebuilding strategies. Many other third sector organisations are also seeking to move away from a focus on "reconciliation" and "social cohesion" in their peacebuilding activities towards a more positive forward-focused outlook.  There now exists an extraordinary opportunity for us to transform the way the Government, civic organisations, and researchers conceptualise and analyse peace, design peacebuilding strategies, and monitor and evaluate progress. By presenting a new, holistic approach to peacebuilding in Northern Ireland, our NIPI offers stakeholders including the TEO, the civil service, local government councils, researchers, NGOs, and the public an evidence-based rather than outcomes-based approach to peace. Working with the Institute for Economic and Peace (IEP), we will build a composite index of negative and positive peacefulness in Northern Ireland. Preliminary scoping confirms the availability of data that is historically comprehensive, conceptually valid, and reliable across the 11 district councils of Northern Ireland. We will collate and analyse this publicly available data, including but not limited to crime statistics, attitudinal information, data on economic and government performance, and socioeconomic data to produce: A publicly available tool for empirically measuring and assessing changes in negative and positive peacefulness over time and for comparing scores across counties and cities nationally and internationally that will contribute to monitoring and evaluation of the wider impact of different peacebuilding activities, A statistical methodology and a collaborative approach to identify drivers of peacefulness that can aid in the design of policy interventions A data-led, independent statistical assessment of how positive peace is interrelated to other positive societal factors, such as economic development, health and education, political participation, and other measures of personal wellbeing. We will employ an evidence-based methodology to identify drivers of peacefulness based on two approaches. The first is based on “systems thinking”, and tracks interactions within a given system to offer a complex understanding of their causality. The second approach uses the contents of the NIPI to develop our collective understanding of positive peace in Northern Ireland. Through workshops with key stakeholders, we will engender a shared language around positive peace, explore how positive peace interrelates to other societal areas, and identify how positive peace can be fostered more effectively. This high-impact, policy and practitioner-relevant research extends beyond this funding award. Following the construction of the NIPI, we aim to produce updated reports every two to four years and work with key beneficiaries towards achieving a more peaceful society in Northern Ireland and beyond.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-07

Global demand for more powerful and energy-efficient computing continues to escalate, driven by exponential growth of data storage needs, adoption of cloud computing, and advancing AI technologies. In 2020, it was estimated that 4-6% of the global energy supply was used by ICT devices and the trend is increasing [1]. A considerable portion of this energy is dissipated as waste heat, which if not properly managed, can lead to overheating, reduced performance, and even failure of components. Moreover, inefficient thermal management contributes to higher operational costs and environmental impact due to increased cooling requirements. As modern electronics become smaller and more densely packed with powerful transistors, the issue of thermal management becomes increasingly important. Addressing this issue is a tremendous technological challenge, with a need for innovation in thermal management at the level of nanoscale components. Creating an effective thermal switch, where transmission of heat can be controlled with electrical signals, could have dramatic implications for the thermal management demands of next generation microelectronics. In this regard, oxide ferroelectrics present an exciting opportunity: these are materials that can exhibit tuneable thermal conductivity through voltage control of polar domain microstructure. This family of materials also offers promising characteristics such as sub-nanosecond switching speeds, low power consumption, and chemical stability. This aim of this project is to explore how heat flow can be controlled using oxide ferroelectrics, enabled by fundamental studies that combine microstructure visualisation with direct thermal transport measurements. The project objectives explore different aspects of natural and artificially controlled microstructure that can affect heat flow in ferroelectric materials and the closely related family of antiferroelectrics: (i) Naturally occurring domain wall microstructure can disrupt thermal vibrations, therefore reducing thermal conductivity. We will measure heat flow in nanostructured ferroelectric samples, using prototype microbridge devices to advance our understanding of their thermal properties. (ii) At low temperatures, we will take this further to create a completely new type of “heat mirror” by engineering thermal wave reflections by domain walls in order to maximise thermal conductivity changes. (iii) The electrical properties of ‘artificial’ conducting domain walls can potentially be used to channel heat, offering a route to enhance heat flow conduits using domain walls. (iv) Field-driven phase changes in antiferroelectrics offer another exciting route for effective thermal switching and this mechanism will be explored in various material systems with complex phase diagrams. (v) We will build on our Scanning Thermal Microscopy capabilities to explore the influence of microstructure on solid-state cooling in electrocaloric materials and on self-heating in domain wall devices. This facility will further our understanding of nanoscale thermal transport, supporting the development of advanced thermal management technologies. Overall, oxide ferroelectrics are exciting candidates for use as active elements in tuneable thermal devices, with the potential to either enhance or restrict heat flow. It is envisaged that this research will not only contribute to academic knowledge but could also inspire innovative approaches for managing excess heat in commercial technologies, addressing one of the most pressing challenges in energy efficiency today. [1] “Energy Consumption of ICT”, UK Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology, 2022, POST Report 677.  

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-06

Lung cancer is the most common cancer worldwide and accounts for nearly 20% of cancer related deaths. Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is the most predominant form of lung cancer, and these tumours are often driven by mutations of epidermal growth factor receptor. Patients whose tumours are driven by mutations of this receptor have successfully been treated with inhibitors which block its activity. However, these tumours quickly develop resistance to the inhibitors via additional mutations. Therefore, different drug targets are still being sought to treat NSCLC patients with epidermal growth factor receptor mutations, as well as those which have become resistant. USP17 is an enzyme that removes ubiquitin from proteins onto which it has been attached. The addition of ubiquitin can impact the activation, location, or degradation, of proteins and so its removal can also regulate these processes. USP17 is highly expressed in NSCLC, but is not detected in non-malignant lung tissue. Patients with higher levels of USP17 respond poorly to treatment and are more likely to have a tumour that spreads throughout the body. Depleting USP17 in cells derived from NSCLC tumours blocks their growth and migration, which indicates USP17 is a promising target in NSCLC. In addition, we have shown in NSCLC cells derived from tumours with epidermal growth factor receptor mutations, not only does it stop their growth, it also actively leads to cell death. This indicates it represents a particularly interesting target for tumours with these mutations. Indeed, we have also shown USP17 depletion can trigger cell death in cells derived from tumours which have developed resistance to inhibitors of epidermal growth factor receptor. This indicates targeting USP17 could potentially improve the treatment of NSCLC tumours with epidermal growth factor receptor mutations and either treat, or prevent the emergence of, drug resistant cells. However, without a specific inhibitor of USP17, it is difficult to further validate the impact of USP17 inhibition in NSCLC models, and to date there are no reported USP17 specific inhibitors available. Therefore, to allow further validation, and to act as a starting point for drug development, we need to identify compounds which specifically inhibit USP17. As a result, this project aims to identify potential USP17 inhibitors from the AstraZeneca compound library by screening for active and selective inhibitors. Any inhibitors identified can then be used to help further validate USP17 as a target, as well as acting as a starting point for future drug development. Eventually the aim would be to further develop any identified inhibitors to make them suitable for use in the clinic and to provide the basis for drugs which could be used to treat NSCLC patients.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-06

Warm dense matter is generally defined as matter at around solid density but at temperatures above 10,000 degrees Kelvin and pressures of millions of atmospheres.The study of such matter has direct relevance to the understanding of matter at conditions existing in the cores of giant planets. Over the past decade and more, a major international project to build intense ion-beam facilities (FAIR) has been underway the GSI in Darmstadt, Germany. A part of this project has been to couple the ion beam facilities with the PHELIX pulsed laser system. This allows for the creation of warm dense matter samples on micro-second timescales whilst probing the samples via laser-plasma x-rays created on a sub-nanosecond timescale synchronised to the ion beam.This is a unique international facility and early experiments have already taken place with the applicant as a PI. Early proof of principle experiments have generated promising data, that indicates creation of the alpha-gamma phase change in ion beam heated Fe. Recently, more time has become available in June 2025 and we wish to travel to take part.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-06

A cataract is a progressive clouding of the eye's natural lens, which interferes with light passing through the eye and thereby results in blurred vision. Currently, there is no medical treatment to reverse or prevent this natural process. The cloudy lens must be physically removed and replaced with a clear synthetic implant called an intraocular lens (IOL). Surgical interventions to remove a cloudy lens in the eye include Cataract Surgery (CS) and Refractive Lens Exchange (RLE). IOL implantation, following either CS or RLE, is one of the most commonly performed eye surgical procedures in developed economies. Nowadays, the emphasis in CS and RLE has shifted from technical concerns about the safe removal of the cloudy lens to the minimisation of post-operative refractive errors, i.e., blurred vision, caused by IOL power miscalculations. Uncorrected refractive errors represent one of the world's leading causes of blindness and they are a significant contributor to the global burden of eye diseases. Refractive errors are known to be even greater and more unpredictable for eyes with uncommon characteristics. The affected population includes patients who have eyes with long or short axial length, patients with keratoconus condition, patients with prior laser refractive surgery as well as the growing senior patients’ population. Recently, new lens models, known as toric IOLs, have been designed with the aim to improve the refractive surgery outcomes for the aforementioned challenging eyes. However, this type of lenses required an accurate estimation of the two components (spherical and cylindrical) of its power, and this poses some challenges. Current industry standard formulae for calculating power of toric IOLs rely on classical formulae for IOL power calculation, which are designed to address only a specific (spherical) part of the refractive error. Hence, they fall short to accommodate the requirement of toric IOLs, and up to now there isn’t yet a satisfactory approach, capable of estimating both the adequate spherocylindrical power as well as the orientation of the corresponding astigmatic axis. To achieve the maximum potential of the visual benefit of toric IOLs, an accurate determination of their spherocylindrical power and the expected orientation of the astigmatic axis is of paramount importance. This requires innovative approaches, underpinned by new scientific understanding of the complex relationship between patient anatomical and physiological characteristics, IOL design as well as surgical techniques and instruments specific idiosyncrasies. This project aims to develop an innovative concept, which will address the deficiencies of current methods for calculating IOL power, leveraging the capabilities of Artificial Intelligence. The output of this project will culminate into a new methodology, which will be of significant benefit to the society through improved clinical quality of care and patients care experience; hence, a better quality of life for patients following CS or RLE. Ultimately, this will reduce the economic and social burden caused by eye diseases associated with uncorrected refractive errors while enhancing the UK's position as an international leader in eye-care research, service, and technologies.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-04

This Network Plus will create an active digital design community that will define, set and prioritise key Engineering Design challenges and viable solution pathways that will exploit digital design technologies and help UK engineering transition to net zero faster. Digital design technology, tools and infrastructure have advanced significantly over recent years. For example, generative design tools can identify new and innovative design solutions by exploring design spaces in new ways; optimisation tools are available to tailor the performance of concepts for their intended applications, bolstering performance and increasing sustainability; and computational simulation capabilities can ensure the performance of new designs is fully understood across a range of operating points and that they can be manufactured as designed. In terms of infrastructure, there now exist high performance compute provision across the country, with larger national clusters and incoming Exascale facilities.  Despite these advances, industrial engineering design processes have yet to fully leverage these emerging capabilities. Such capabilities, and the adoption thereof, are essential if UK industry is to design: Faster - compressing the overall process and exploring more of the design space in depth. Better - creating products and systems that better meet customer needs, while better addressing societal challenges and satisfying constraints of existing infrastructure & systems. With less - reducing design effort and resources, and the footprint of the product’s lifecycle. Overcoming the lack of adoption is not straightforward. While there is now a vast array of potential digital design tools and processes available, there is a lack of fundamental understanding and knowledge on how to use, configure, combine and optimise these into workflows that allow UK engineering to tackle tomorrows’ engineering challenges. Furthermore, generating the necessary understanding and knowledge is an interdisciplinary problem spanning academic researchers, solution providers and end users. To address these challenges and meet the industrial need, the Digital Design Network plus: designing faster and better with less (D2N+) aims to: i) coalesce and develop a community of academics, end users,  solution providers, and Research & Technology Organisations (RTOs); ii) explore current capabilities and thinking and identify challenges and gaps in current provision; and, iii) agree priorities and set roadmaps for faster digital design in the UK industrial setting (through enhanced tools, processes, usage and knowledge). The objectives for the D2N+ are to: O1. Assemble a diverse and inclusive interdisciplinary community of digital design researchers. 02. Prepare & distribute Challenge Case Studies, co-created with end users and hosted by RTOs. O3. Distribute >£1M to test ambitious solutions, prioritising early and mid-career researchers. O4. Support the community, for example by delivering opportunities to come together, training, expert advice, access to facilities (e.g. Isambard). O5. Create metrics and methodologies for appraising digital design tools, processes and practice. O6. Disseminate a Corpus of Challenge Case Study definitions and solutions. O7. Report a common understanding of the challenges and opportunities in making digital design faster, better and more efficient, with agreed priorities and roadmaps for the future. O8. Publish an agreed lexicon for terminology related to digital design. O9. Secure the future by leading major grant submissions on digital design. Meeting these objectives will help the research community focus together on the right questions, to help UK engineering make better us of new and existing capabilities, making the transition to net zero faster.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-04

According to the WHO influenza A viruses (IAVs) are responsible for a billion cases of seasonal influenza annually, and with the continual concern for the next pandemic IAV, there is a perpetual need for further research to understand how these viruses replicate and manipulate the host cell environment.  IAVs have a remarkable ability to infect a wide range of host species, with pigs representing a species with a high risk of generating a novel IAV capable of pandemic disease.  This was indeed the case with the 2009 H1N1 pandemic resulting from the reassortment of swine, human and avian IAVs within a swine host, generating a novel strain.  With the mechanisms driving IAV reassortment remaining poorly understood, I predict that as-yet unidentified host cell factors play a role in the trafficking and packaging of newly produced viral ribonucleoproteins (vRNPs) during egress from the host cell, the stage of the life cycle when reassortment is presumed to take place.  Understanding fundamental aspects of vRNP regulation in pigs, which likely affect reassortment dynamics, may enable the development of broadly acting antivirals against these important host cell factors. Our previous work has identified novel host proteins that interact with vRNPs during intracellular trafficking in human cells.  We found that myoferlin (MYOF), a transmembrane protein involved in membrane dynamics and receptor recycling, co-localises with vRNPs in Rab11a-positive trafficking vesicles.  The remodelling of Rab11a vesicles by IAVs is well-described by others, and we have recently demonstrated that MYOF is an essential co-factor for this process.  However, I wish to move beyond this work and investigate the host species differences in vRNP regulation as little is currently known on the mechanisms of how vRNPs are trafficked and packaged into virions in porcine cells.  With the pig being an ideal ‘mixing vessel’ for human adapted IAVs, a better understanding of these essential processes in viral replication is critical as we aim to predict and avert the next influenza pandemic. During this project I will expand the understanding of IAV replication in the context of porcine cells, with three research aims: Determine the IAV vRNP-interacting host factors in porcine cells.  Validate the pro-viral functions of identified swine factors in the context of IAV vRNP trafficking.  Verify whether pathways utilised for vRNP egress are conserved between porcine and human cells.  Upon completion of this project, we will have a better understanding of the trafficking and packaging of vRNPs in porcine cells, identifying which host cell factors are key players at this stage of viral replication and budding from cells.  Identifying host co-factors that are conserved between porcine and human cells, and how IAV proteins interact with them will aid our understanding of how swine viruses need to mutate and evolve to cross species barriers and infect human cells.  Additionally, we will gain a clearer understanding of how the eight IAV gene segments are packaged together in newly formed virions and what stages of this process can be targeted with novel antivirals to block IAV replication and transmission.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-03

The requested funds will be used to support the travel and subsistence costs associated with scientific observing runs on telescope facilities around the world over the April 2025 - March 2027 period.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-03

Context The development of novel antimicrobial treatments that could directly regulate bacterial load and growth in the lung (chronic infection) would revolutionise the lives of patients with lung diseases such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and Cystic Fibrosis (CF) lung disease by sustaining and maintaining lung function. Additionally, antimicrobial agents that can act by inducing a robust host-derived antibacterial response (immunotherapeutics) may also circumvent the issue of antimicrobial resistance. Helminth parasites such as Fasciola hepatica are masters of immune regulation – they can survive for many years in their host by selectively suppressing or modulating specific arms of their host immune systems by secreting specific proteins (e.g. F. hepatica host defence molecule-1, FhHDM-1). We have synthesised and identified a novel derivative of FhHDM-1, called FhHDM-1 NT, which displays potent antibacterial effects in vitro and in vivo, similar to the parent peptide and with novel IP (intellectual property). FhHDM-1 NT activates host cells, such as macrophages, to remove bacteria more efficiently by a mechanism that is partly dependent on the activation of a macrophage kinase pathway. In this project, we will investigate the ability of the NT peptide to be delivered directly to the lungs of infected mice and retain its antibacterial activity against prominent lung disease-causing bacterial pathogens such as Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Haemophilus influenzae. This study will provide proof of principle data for a future DPFS application which will evaluate direct nebulised delivery of the NT peptide in vivo in collaboration with respiratory CROs   Aims and objectives   Can FhHDM-1 NT peptide be instilled directly into the lung and retain its antibacterial activity? Does lung instilled FhHDM-1 NT peptide alter lung inflammation in vivo?   Potential applications and benefits There is currently a lack of effective immunotherapies that are capable of reducing bacterial infection via a mechanism that activates the lung host defence system. Antibiotics, steroids and bronchodilators are routinely used as therapies in COPD but have little or no value in fully eliminating bacteria from the lungs of patients or reducing inflammation in these conditions. These patients are also susceptible to pulmonary exacerbations and, due to the rise of antibiotic resistance, there is a need for novel, effective and safe therapeutics that can promote bacterial clearance and control inflammation. It is well-known that periods of exacerbation result in decreased lung function, which is thought to emanate from the damage caused by infection-induced inflammation during this period. Treatments that can effectively clear infection may successfully impact on subsequent inflammation and lung damage and may limit disease progression. The interest in peptides as drugs is growing rapidly because of the ease and relatively low cost of synthesis while direct instillation into the lung will be an attractive delivery option for these peptides

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-03

Northern Ireland (NI) historically has the lowest uptake of A-level Physics within the UK (IOP News Release 23 August 2022). In 2022, GCE Physics only comprised 4% of the A-level entries in NI, a proportion which has stagnated since 2019 despite STEM subjects as a whole increasing by 1.6% (CCEA Qualification Insight Report 2022). Most worrying is the poor 2023-2024 progression rates between AS and A2 Physics, which shows that 32% of 2023 AS Physics students in NI did not continue their studies in Physics to completion in 2024. This is much greater than both the 21% reduction in total student entries, and the GCE Mathematics progression, which shows a 23% reduction (CCEA; FOI Request). Furthermore, there is a strong regional variation in the 2023-2024 GCE progression rates, with alarmingly high GCE dropouts within certain NI Council boundaries. Three council regions with the poorest AS to A2 progression in 2024 were identified as “Armagh, Banbridge and Craigavon”, “Derry City and Strabane”, and “Mid and East Antrim”. These regions exhibit 38%, 39%, and (most alarmingly) 47% decreases in student entries to A2 Physics compared to the same cohort’s 2023 AS Physics entries (CCEA; FOI Request). These above data reflect a persistent public opinion, especially among post-primary students, that physics is “too difficult” a subject. In particular, the perception that achieving top grades in physics is a greater challenge leads to students selecting other A2 subjects to ensure progression to higher education. NI has the additional potential limitation that only one higher education institute, Queen’s University Belfast (QUB), offers undergraduate physics study. This severely restricts the direct engagement schools in NI distant from Belfast may have in terms of access to role model figures, extra-curricular activities, and positive physics engagement opportunities within NI. The proposed project is to lead a school visitation system, partnering with schools which are in socioeconomically deprived regions identified by the NI Multiple Deprivation Measure 2017 report (NIMDM2017) and are distant from QUB. The scheme will focus on engaging with three target age groups identified as key influential stages of student development and subject selection: late primary (ages 10-11), mid-secondary (ages 13-14), and late secondary (ages 17-18). In particular, the project concentrates on providing age-appropriate practical experiments utilising real science data to overcome the perceived “threshold fear” of engaging in science. These activities will demonstrate how scientists collaborate to analyse data from the world’s largest telescopes and all-sky surveys, and will incorporate real images, light curves, and data acquired from the research expertise within the QUB Astrophysics Research Centre. Additionally, we aim to explore creating 3D-printed experiment setups and resources to produce cheap, replicable engagement activities to supplement school curriculums. These resources and guides will be published and freely available for other educators to use by the end of the fellowship. Another major objective of this project is to identify the primary factors that are responsible for the above-average dropout rates between GCSE to AS Level and particularly AS to A2 progression. This will be conducted through a national survey of post-primary physics educators and students in STEM subjects to investigate the perceived barriers to studying physics at higher levels. The outcomes of this survey will be published as a stand-alone report to provide context, key targets, and metrics for future public engagement activities within NI.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-02

This research focuses on the urgent issue of permafrost thaw in the Arctic and its significant implications for global climate change. Permafrost, a permanently frozen layer on or under the Earth's surface, is thawing rapidly due to increased temperatures in the Arctic, releasing large amounts of carbon that have been stored for thousands of years. This release of carbon could lead to runaway global warming, with potentially devastating consequences for both the environment and society. However, most studies have focused on the gaseous emissions and have neglected the organic carbon that is lost through thaw. This carbon could be buried again in the sediment at the bottom of lakes or the sea, or enter the bacterial food web and end up being consumed, producing CO2, a greenhouse gas, a process known as respiration. Either fate for permafrost organic carbon will have an impact on climate projections for the area, and in other degrading system. My aim is to quantify the loss of organic carbon from permafrost and determine if it is reburied in lake or marine sediment. I will then estimate what has been emitted after respiration to establish the fate of organic carbon lost in permafrost thaw. I have developed a novel Radiocarbon technique known as Ramped Pyroxidation, to analyse bulk organic material to separate sources according to their resistance to breakdown under heat. I then use the radiocarbon age of fractions to attribute them to sources, to identify if permafrost carbon lost in thaw is sequestered in aquatic sediment. I will use the data to build a model to understand the flow and impact of permafrost carbon in aquatic systems, and estimate the proportion of permafrost organic carbon that is respired in the foodweb and released as CO2. By studying the cores of permafrost, lake sediment, and marine sediment, I will track the carbon's journey from the permafrost to the aquatic environment, and ultimately understand its impact on the global carbon cycle. To achieve these goals, the project will involve field expeditions to collect permafrost cores, and lake water and sediment from Toolik Lake Alaska. Project partners will provide marine cores from Prudhoe Bay. As the organic carbon loss from thaw is severely under-studied, it hasn’t been included in climate projection models. This research will highlight the potential for this permafrost carbon pathway to be a major source of emissions if respiration is larger than burial. Overall, this research project addresses a critical gap in our understanding of the impact of permafrost thaw on the global carbon cycle, highlighting the urgency of mitigating the effects of climate change on these sensitive environments.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-02

Radiotherapy treats cancer through the precise delivery of high doses of radiation to tumours, killing cancerous cells by damaging their DNA. Radiotherapy is highly effective because radiation can be accurately targeted to tumours while avoiding normal tissue, preventing the unwanted side effects which would result from killing healthy cells. The introduction of new advanced treatment techniques and better imaging to improve tumour targeting has significantly improved patient outcomes following radiotherapy. However, while radiotherapy benefits from a high degree of physical personalisation, more can be done to improve treatment outcomes. Cancer is a highly complex disease, associated with a large number of different types of genetic mutation. These mutations can significantly affect the radiation sensitivity of a given patient's cancer. Despite this, all patients with cancer in a particular organ are typically treated with the same dose and treatment schedule. While these doses have been tailored to cancer at a population level, this almost certainly under- and over-treats some patients. If individual radiosensitivity can be precisely defined before treatment, significant improvements in outcome could be achieved, in terms of improved tumour control or reduced side effects, depending on the patient's particular genetics. This fellowship seeks to address this challenge by developing models of how cells respond to radiation, which can accurately predict the sensitivity of an individual's disease based on the mutations present in their particular cancer. In work to date, we have developed models and characterised responses related to DNA repair, and shown that we can effectively predict and quantify quantify how DNA repair failure impacts on radiosensitivity. However, this work has also shown that although loss of DNA repair is important, it only explains a small fraction of the variability between the responses of different cancers and different patients. As a result, this approach needs to be expanded to better understand the range of responses seen in the clinic. In this renewal phase, we will work to better characterise these differences, measuring the impact that changes in other biological processes - such as those related to cell growth and cell death - have on radiation sensitivity, and integrate this into a combined model. We will demonstrate the efficacy of this model using new data generated locally, and then develop a method by which these predictions can be applied in clinical treatment plans, to enable its predictions to be tested in real patient data. If successful, this research programme will deliver a unique tool to enable the tailoring of radiotherapy using both physical and biological factors, offering more personalised therapy and better treatment outcomes for patients suffering from cancer in the future.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-01

Queen's University Belfast’s (QUB’s) Research Strategy (2021-2030) seeks to attract and support the best global talent, to undertake further research of the highest international standing that addresses societal and planetary challenges, changing the world for the better, and underpins the economic, social and cultural growth of our region. To achieve this ambitious goal requires the procurement and maintenance of state-of-the-art equipment, the foundation for world-leading research. The Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences (EPS) at QUB is the primary EPSRC-facing faculty. Our EPS Faculty Research Strategy, and ongoing Technical Review outlines plans to enhance facilities and identify gaps in essential research equipment, with the ambition of ensuring the appropriate resourcing of our research portfolio and capital investments. The research activities undertaken in the EPS Faculty, where this equipment grant will be held, are central to Northern Ireland and the wider UK's economic development. Indeed, by 2030, we will have established a research environment that strengthens both our University and the UK research and innovation landscape. To do so, we seek to acquire equipment that benefits multiple users across our EPSRC-facing staff, supporting researchers from a diverse range of subject areas, career stages, and demographic backgrounds. Our strategy will enhance our research capabilities and ambitions, creating and sustaining a world-class research environment, characterised by cutting-edge facilities, linked with high quality training and support, in alignment with EPSRCs principles of 'World Class Labs ecosystem'. Crucially, the procured equipment allows us to further operate under the ideal of "Best with Best" collaborations with other cutting-edge researchers across the UK and internationally. The equipment we seek is aligned to areas of strength within our research portfolio that have the potential to produce academic, economic, and societal impact relevant to EPSRC’s strategic themes and priorities. The requested equipment was identified from a detailed scoping and decision-making exercise, with items prioritised based on the university's Strategy 2030 research needs, fit to the core equipment call, and the capability of the equipment and technical lead to provide maintenance and sustained operation. ECRs and postgraduate students will always be able to avail of these resources, as we recognise the importance of such equipment for the development of their careers. If successful, equipment will be accommodated in well-established EPS Faculty laboratories, which are supported by well-trained research technical professionals and maintained in a way such that environmental and financial sustainability are core to their operation. Recognising the importance of Place, the equipment we seek to procure will also support a pipeline of doctoral graduate talent, which is necessary to support regional strategies, such as the Northern Ireland Department for the Economy’s 10X strategy, which seeks to deliver a ten times better economy with benefits for all our people, and the innovation pillars of the Belfast Region City Deal, which seek to deliver inclusive economic growth that delivers more and better jobs, a positive impact on the most deprived communities, and a balanced spread of benefits across our region.