University of Warwick

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-06

Prizes represents a unique form of recognition in science, acknowledging groundbreaking ideas and the individuals and fields behind these achievements. By identifying top scientific accomplishments, prizes establish role models for scholars, influencing knowledge generation and shaping individual careers. Highlighting specific research topics, these prizes can direct investments and collective attention towards promising areas, impacting the overall growth of science. Despite their significant and long-lasting influence on the scientific landscape, our understanding of the function of scientific prizes remains relatively limited. Here we propose a two-year research program to collect, link, and analyze the structure, evolution, and impact of scientific prizes at scale. Building on five large-scale datasets, this project will link prizewinning records of more than 10,000 prizewinners with their demographic characteristics, publication trajectory, scientific impact, funding support, and broad impact beyond science. By developing and applying tools from complexity sciences and computational social sciences on the new data, we will first map out the (1) fundamental structure of scientific prizes. This involves building a network-based framework to examine how prizes at different levels interact and connect in a hierarchical structure, and how scientific prizes as a complex ecosystem grow and evolve over time. We will then perform extensive analyses to understand the role of prizes in science and innovation. Integrating recent advances in the science of science, we aim to examine how scientific prizes may effectively both predict and influence (2) productivity, impact, and novelty in individual careers; (3) the emergence and growth of scientific fields; and (4) the broad impact of science in patenting, policy, and other important socioeconomic institutions. These analyses will provide deeper insights into the function and application of prizes, offering valuable information for individual scholars, discipline leaders, and university administrators. The program will further examine two important aspects of scientific prizes, both with direct implications for policymakers. To understand why and how scientific prizes accelerate and publicize scientific research, we will examine (5) the mechanisms of financial and reputational incentives by comparing the impact of scientific prizes and grants across different prestige and monetary values; and (6) equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) issues in scientific prizes by quantifying the evolution of racial and gender disparity in winning scientific prizes, and its relationship with bias in citations, inequalities in funding allocation, and homophily in collaboration networks. By illuminating the mechanisms and impacts of scientific prizes, systematic answers to these questions will not only deepen our quantitative understanding of science, but also shed new light on more effective and equitable practices in science policy and administration. Insights generated from the project can offer crucial lessons for improving the way we evaluate and promote research outcomes, as well as inform a broader range of technology and innovation policies where scientific research may play a role, from R&D investment to research commercialization, from STEM education to talent immigration.        

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-06

There is a constant demand for materials suitable for use in new devices and applications, fuelling the rapid technological advances made across the world. Such developments are only possible because of the efforts of materials physicists and chemists, who drive this progress by first discovering new materials and then continually improving the materials' properties, and therefore their performance, to enable their use in applications. It is an indisputable fact that to fully understand the physics and to exploit the functionality of many classes of materials, studies of single crystals are absolutely essential. It is therefore imperative that crystals with the optimum physical properties are produced and then investigated. Consequently, the provision of high-quality single crystals underpins progress in both fundamental as well as applied materials research. Single crystal growth is thus an activity of strategic importance, allowing scientists to work at the forefront of investigations of the physics of materials. The proposed programme will be carried out by a team of experts based in the Superconductivity and Magnetism Group at the University of Warwick, an internationally recognised centre of excellence in single crystal growth. The team have all the necessary expertise and access to a suite of equipment for both the production of high-quality crystals, and investigations of the properties of the wide range of new and exotic materials described in the proposal. Over the 3 year period of the project, the team propose to produce high-quality single crystals of a variety of important systems of current interest to the research community. These include magnetic (frustrated, low-dimensional, spin-liquid), superconducting (unconventional, non-centrosymmetric, exotic) and topological (skyrmion and soliton lattice) materials, 2D systems (transition metal dichalcogenides, cleavable magnetic), and materials suitable for applications in lasers and batteries. In-house studies of the synthesised crystals will be complemented by work at international central facilities using techniques such as neutron and x-ray scattering, muon spectroscopy, and measurements in high magnetic fields, as well as by our collaborators, including important input from theorists, enabling us to arrive at a more complete understanding of the physics of the materials. For the crystal growth of each target material, the most suitable preparation method will first be determined through pilot studies. At Warwick, there exists a choice of several growth techniques including the Floating Zone/Travelling Solvent Floating Zone technique, Chemical Vapour Transport, and the Bridgman and Czochralski methods, with accessible melting temperatures of up to 3000 °C. Crystal growth by the floating zone technique is possible at elevated gas pressures of up to 30 bars, which will be a great advantage when working with volatile materials, as well as those with metastable and/or unusual oxidation states. This single crystal growth programme supports a very large network of UK research groups, made up of academics, facilities' scientists, students and postdoctoral researchers. The activity at Warwick also attracts many international scientists, seeking the provision of high-quality single crystal samples for their studies. The collaborative network, which has been active for many years, continues to grow, attracting new members from academic research institutions as well as scientists working in a commercial/industrial setting. This activity will help serve the future materials needs of the UK condensed matter physics community, facilitate the training of early career researchers in the science of crystal growth, and enable world-class fundamental and applied research.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-06

The dynamics of quantum many-body systems is a fundamental yet notoriously difficult subject due to the nature of strong interactions between macroscopic number of constituents in the systems. Consider setting up a many-body system in a "simple" quantum state, one that does not have much non-local correlation between different subsystems. What are the fates of the system as it evolves in time? Does the system thermalize and exhibit chaotic behaviour, or does it localize and retain information of its initial state? A simple and elegant way of tackling these questions is to investigate the spectral statistics of the quantum many-body systems. A physical system can often be represented by a Hamiltonian - a matrix with a spectrum of energy levels which the system can occupy. The study of spectral statistics asks, what generic features does the correlation among the energy levels in the spectrum capture? Spectral statistics is a fundamental subject in physics due to its role as a robust diagnostic of quantum chaos, and due to universality - generic systems exhibit identical spectral statistics depending only on symmetry classes and dimensionality. In the last five years, spectral statistics has been utilized in multiple frontiers of modern physics, including the demonstration that black holes behave like random matrices in sufficiently late time; a debate concerning the existence of an important dynamical phase called the many-body localization; and the discovery of universal spectral signatures in quantum many-body chaotic systems, as described below. A recent discovery shows that the spectrum of generic quantum many-body chaotic systems has an extended region in which the spectral correlation deviates from known behaviour derived from random matrices. This region grows as the system size increases, and therefore presents a significant gap in our understanding of spectral statistics in the presence of many-body interaction. How does the existence of anomalous spectral correlation affect the scrambling of quantum information? This proposal aims to address such a question, and analytically extract novel signatures of spectral statistics and dynamics in isolated and open quantum many-body systems. Furthermore, despite its importance, spectral statistics in quantum many-body systems has not been experimentally measured, owing to the difficulties of resolving the tight spacing in the spectrum. The second aim of this fellowship is to experimentally measure, in collaboration with experimentalist partners, key signatures of spectral statistics in quantum many-body simulators in the lab for the first time. This project is especially timely, as it deepens and sharpens the understanding of the roles of many-body interaction in the information scrambling and processing in quantum systems, responding to the recent revival in quantum chaos, and to the rapid developments in quantum simulations of quantum many-body systems. Achieving these goals will deliver significant impacts in the constructions of broadly applicable analytical frameworks; in the first experimental measurement of spectral statistics in quantum many-body simulators; and in establishing new connections between communities in condensed matter, quantum information, and high energy physics.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-06

As autonomous vehicles (AVs) transition to public roads, ensuring their safety is paramount. Scenario-based testing, gaining recognition for AV safety, employs synthetic data for virtual testing. Significant investment in advanced simulators and Generative AI aims to enhance fidelity, creating realistic virtual environments and sensors mimicking real-world driving conditions. Despite this, synthetic data generation is still incapable of achieving outright fidelity. This leads to a pivot question: What level of fidelity is required for synthetic data to be deemed sufficient for AV safety? This project, driven by the PI's vision of "building trust in an AI-powered world," aligns with the UK's ambition for AV technology and Safe AI. It advances academic knowledge in safety engineering and Safe AI, fostering interdisciplinary collaboration. Economically, it speeds up AV safety solutions, aids in industry product development, and influences AV safety standards/policies. Societally, it ensures safe AV deployment, enhancing public trust. This project focuses on examining instance-level fidelity of a synthetic data-point (e.g., an image). Here, fidelity is defined as the ability to precisely replicate the (unsafe) behaviours of AVs as if they were operating in real-world. Such fidelity should be tailored for the specific System-Under-Testing (SUT); e.g., an emergency braking system needs less detail about obstacles than an object detection system which must classify and locate objects. The proposal hypothesises: fidelity of synthetic data pertains to how the SUT (i.e., Machine Learning (ML) models enabling AV perception) processes the data and for what purposes. A deeper understanding of how the ML-model's behaviours (ranging from its predictions, features learnt, and rationales behind predictions) differ, when exposed to paired real-world and synthetic data, can be measured for quantifying fidelity. Through verification using such fidelity-aware data to establish sufficient confidence in AV safety, we can then answer the fidelity sufficiency question. The aim is to develop a safety framework focused on quantifying synthetic data fidelity and integrating the fidelity information into scenario-based virtual testing. The programme comprises 4 work-packages (WPs) over 2.5 years. WP1 will specify an understanding of the fidelity challenge in virtual testing for AVs, creating a formal specification for synthetic data generation process. A spectrum of fidelity definitions with diverse metrics will be formulated, based on variations in ML behaviours when fed with real-world and synthetic data. WP2 will establish a SUT-specific AI-predictor that quantifies fidelity for a given synthetic data-point. It first creates a training dataset by evaluating fidelity metrics (from WP1) for a set of scenarios with "paired" real-word and synthetic representations; then it employs state-of-the-art Safe AI techniques to train and validate the predictor, ensuring its reliability. WP3 will develop novel ML debugging and acceptance testing methods using fidelity-aware synthetic data (quantified by WP2), considering which and how many scenarios to test. WP4 will integrate, validate, and communicate the methods developed in the preceding WPs as a holistic approach. Both safety argument templates and case studies will be developed, to support requirements derived from WP1 based on evidence from WP3. WMG mentors and partners will advise on thematic aspects and support corresponding WPs, offering feedback in quarterly meetings, workshops, and advisory boards. The team, including two funded PhD students, will have full access to WMG's simulation and computing resources, with WMG engineers' support. The project will utilise £140K+€88K in-kind-contributions from partners including Siemens, Wayve, Denso, Adelard, University-of-Liverpool, City-University-of-London, Technical-University-of-Munich and Fraunhofer-IKS.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-06

Atmospheric reactive nitrogen oxides (NOy = NO + NO2 + HONO + …) are coupled to Earth’s nitrogen (N) cycle through interactions of anthropogenic activity, soil N, and soil microbial activity. The biogeochemistry of soil N emissions is traditionally thought to be dominated by N2O and N2. However, satellite, modelling, and laboratory studies illustrate that NOy emissions from soil are also important. Descriptions of soil emissions of NOy in climate models are underdeveloped, because details of the mechanisms leading to the formation of NOy species are lacking, of which, nitrous acid (HONO) is grossly lacking mechanistic detail. This represents a major gap in our understanding of a significant land-atmosphere interaction that prevents us from up-scaling these processes. There is a critical need to include these mechanisms into climate models since emissions of reactive N are expected to increase from estimates of 60 Tg-N y-1 to 80-130 Tg-N y-1 by 2100, coinciding with global temperature rises of between 2–4 °C. Soil emissions of HONO (estimated at 7.4–12.0 Tg-N y-1) play a crucial role in atmospheric chemistry, acting as a precursor for radicals that influence air quality and climate. However, the microbial sources and mechanisms responsible for HONO production in soils remain poorly understood. This project aims to elucidate the molecular mechanisms behind these emissions, focusing on the role of ammonia-oxidising archaea (AOA) and bacteria (AOB). Through controlled experiments with AOA and AOB cultures, soil incubations, and chemical assays, we will test the hypothesis that AOB actively release HONO while AOA do not, simultaneously determining the underlying molecular mechanisms. Additionally, this project will quantify the effects of HONO on soil organic matter turnover and composition. By serving as a radical source, HONO may stimulate the abiotic photooxidation of complex soil organic carbon pools. This could reveal a previously unknown link between the terrestrial nitrogen and carbon cycles, with implications for understanding and modelling soil carbon storage and climate change feedbacks. The research aligns with NERC priorities to advance predictive understanding of terrestrial biosphere responses and biogeochemical cycling feedbacks to environmental change. By elucidating a currently undefined source of NOy from soils, as well as its impacts on soil organic matter oxidation, the findings will reduce key uncertainties in Earth system models regarding soil N emissions and soil carbon storage. Improved representation of these processes in predictive models will benefit climate change forecasting and inform sustainable land management practices. This project leverages state-of-the-art techniques such as isotope labelling, microbial inhibition studies, spectroscopic analytical instrumentation, and genetic tools. These showcase UK expertise at the interface of environmental microbiology, soil biogeochemistry, and atmospheric chemistry, ultimately informing climate change mitigation strategies and sustainable land management practices. The core team is comprised of Ryan Mushinski (Project Lead) who has broad expertise in nitrogen cycle biogeochemistry, Gary Bending (Project Co-Lead), who has expertise in soil surface processes, and James Covington (Project Co-Lead) who has expertise in environmental engineering and sensor development/implementation. Specialised expertise will be facilitated by Marc Walker (Specialist in X-Ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy), Ben Breeze (Specialist in Raman Spectroscopy), Megan Purchase (Research and Innovation Associate, currently working on N-cycle projects with Mushinski), and a Senior Research Technician (to be hired) who will have expertise in traditional microbiology and -omics. This interdisciplinary collaboration will advance our understanding of connections between microbial processes, soil biogeochemistry, and atmospheric chemistry.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-05

Labour shortages in long-term care are widely attributed to low pay, precarious working conditions, limited career opportunities. Ethical international recruitment is often part of solutions, but a stronger focus is needed on creating good work to ensure high care quality in the sector. The study focuses on the effects of Algorithmic Management (AM) on job & care quality due to its expected increasing pervasiveness following digitalisation of care services and new AI developments. The research will i) develop a framework to measure job quality in the context of AM, ii) explore its deployment and effects on retention, job & care quality through 15 company case studies and iii) highlight good practice through stakeholder engagement. Key to the study is the analysis of care models and the understanding of the context and challenges for successful implementation in distinct welfare states (UK, SE, AT, BE, ES). National findings are compared to support knowledge exchange and transfer.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-04

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 · 2025-04

In this project we will develop a suite of adaptive THz optical components that can be deployed to rapidly and autonomously boost the performance of THz spectroscopy, imaging, non-destructive testing and free-space communications systems. Integrated adaptive THz optics will be created that accomplish state-of-the-art wavefront correction, offering novel functionalities for users of THz systems such as auto-alignment, auto-focusing, polarisation control and pulse compression. We will fabricate new active THz sources, particularly in the hard-to-access 5-20 THz ‘gap’, that can be used in conjunction with these adaptive optics tools to enhance spectroscopy and imaging. The new THz components will be produced and validated in partnership with the research and industrial community, with the vision of improving the performance and reliability of a wide range of time- and frequency-domain THz systems. Specifically, the adaptive auto-focus system will allow optimum spatial resolution to be obtained by correcting for the finite aberrations of THz optics, yielding benefits for THz imaging applications that will be proven in an impact study on THz biomedical imaging. Active auto-alignment will optimise THz signals (in spectroscopy and imaging), which are sometimes notoriously weak, removing a major barrier to entry for new users and increasing the productivity of existing expert users. This impact deliverable will be validated at partner labs in industry and academia, as well as at several beamlines at major German THz facilities. In parallel we will develop advanced new THz sources, especially in the challenging 5-20 THz range, that can be combined with the adaptive THz optics to form THz pulses with minimal duration (flat spectral phase) and the highest possible peak electric fields. These advances are critical to efficiently drive higher-order nonlinear processes in technologically important materials ranging from batteries (solid electrolytes) to molecular semiconductors. These new tools will allow the capture of fundamental structural dynamics (anharmonicity of vibrational modes, cross-coupling between different quantum states) that impact the function of these advanced materials, opening new avenues for researchers across physics, chemistry, biology and engineering to rationally optimise material functions. This project will significantly strengthen and support research in THz technologies and systems in the UK via targeted collaboration with German partners. Our ambitious goals will deliver world-leading and impactful research using the combined expertise of three UK teams and four partners in Germany, exploiting synergies between our interdisciplinary mix of backgrounds (in physics, chemistry, electrical engineering, medical physics) and by working across academia, national laboratories and industry. The scientific and technological outcomes will be highlighted in publications, conference talks, outreach events, as well as at a showcase workshop in the final year of the grant. Objectives 1. Develop a versatile and deployable set of adaptive THz optical components that can automatically optimise the alignment, focus and pulse duration of a THz beam. 2. Create advanced sources of pulsed THz radiation in the 5-20THz range to enable new applications in materials science, including battery materials and organic semiconductors. 3. Deliver three substantial impact cases using adaptive THz optics and/or advanced THz sources in improved biomedical imaging, multidimensional THz spectroscopy and at international facilities.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-04

Ion-exchange membranes (IEMs) are required for a diversity of applications across many fields spanning clean energy, environmental remediation, and healthcare. Examples include: green hydrogen producing electrolysers and low temperature fuel cells; carbon dioxide electrolysis into high value chemicals; salinity gradient power; hydrogen peroxide generation; redox flow batteries; actuators; batteries and supercapacitors; electrodialysis and diffusion dialysis for the recovery, extraction, and separation of inorganics including heavy metals ions and acid and bases; chromatography materials for protein purification; biomaterials for tissue engineering; and fouling resistant membranes for microfiltration. The Lancaster University team will develop a novel table-top facility using terahertz time-domain spectroscopy (THz-TDS) to routinely and non-destructively quantify the different states of water (bound, bulk, and free) in IEMs in environments with both relative humidity (RH) and temperature control. Previously, water states and contents have only been measured in uncontrolled environments using either pulse field gradient nuclear magnetic resonance experiments or with destructive techniques like differential scanning calorimetry. The developed THz-TDS system will be used to gain a more extensive TRL1-2 level fundamental understanding of how the states of water vary in IEMs with different composition characteristics. These IEMs will be either commercial types (including those provided by a project partner) or those fabricated at the University of Surrey (see below). Underpinning preliminary work at Lancaster University has shown that THz-TDS derived water state information can be collected at different RHs, but this was only possible at ambient temperatures. A more comprehensive development of a system, that can collect such data with both RH and temperature control, is required. Commercial ion-exchange membrane developers and users, including project partners, have indicated that they would like to see this knowledge deficiency rectified, where routinely collected water-state data is available over a wider range of conditions. Radiation grafting is a useful method for bulk functionalisation of polymers with defined characteristics (films, powders, fibres). The University of Surrey will supply a range of small-scale (10 × 10 cm) samples of radiation-grafted cation- and anion-exchange membranes with a diversity of: (1) ion-exchange capacities; (2) chemistries; (3) thicknesses, and (4) nano-morphologies (distribution and size of crystallites). This will aid the generation of new fundamental scientific knowledge related to how IEM characteristics affect their water contents and states. In the latter stages, the Surrey team will then conduct TRL3 scale-up work on down-selected radiation-grafted IEMs, an effort that will be supported by the developed Lancaster University-based THz-TDS capability. For initial translation to impact, the scaled-up RG-IEMs will be those that have the right balance of properties for application in peroxide generating cells, an interest of our aerospace partner. It is well known that the in situ performances of IEMs (in numerous electrochemical systems) is as much a function of water contents (and mobility) as they are of ion-conductivity. Hence it will be important to elucidate the homogeneity of the distribution of water states across different areas of scaled-up (30+ × 30+ cm) batches of IEM, as well as the consistency of water states across multiple repeat batches. It is currently unknown if homogeneous ion-exchange capacities actually lead to homogeneous water states.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-04

Highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) persists in poultry in several countries around the world, with Africa and Asia most severely affected by the disease. The H5 subtype is a major public health concern, with 889 human cases reported to April 2024, approximately half of which were fatal. Poultry to human transmission is especially prevalent in regions where smallholder poultry farming is commonplace, with Indonesia previously being most severely affected by human disease. Additionally, since 2019, there has been a significant increase in cases of H5N1 in poultry and wild birds in Europe and North America and reports of spillover cases to mammalian populations, including recently in cattle farms in the USA, resulting in the World Health Organisation (WHO) declaring that H5N1 poses a risk to humans. The overall aim of this project is to develop an understanding of the demographic, management and behavioural characteristics that affect transmission risk of avian influenza viruses (AIV) within and between poultry farms and between poultry and humans. This will allow us to provide critical information for farmers, government authorities and the general public in Indonesia to implement appropriate surveillance and interventions for reducing the risk of human exposure to HPAI. Our project will consist of three work packages (WPs). In WP1 we will undertake a human behavioural survey and a field study of poultry farms in Indonesia. Using  a questionnaire, we will collect information on human behaviour, farming habits, temporal changes in farm/flock sizes, and syndromic detection of disease (e.g. flock death records). Laboratory samples for virological and serological analysis will be taken to detect the presence of current HPAI viruses and antibodies against AIV in poultry and humans. In order to obtain accurate data on circulating H and N subtypes, pseudotyped virus (PV) will be used in neutralisation tests. These biological data will be used in WP2 and WP3. Information will also be collated on the human population, the distribution of poultry farms in Indonesia and case reporting data in the region. In WP2 we will construct a mathematical model to simulate the spread of HPAI within and between poultry farms and at the poultry-human interface. The model will utilise the data from WP1 to determine transmission parameters and the spatial pattern of transmission risk. This will provide information regarding regions that should be targeted for surveillance to reduce the likelihood of future poultry outbreaks and consequently lower the human health risk. In WP3, the model will be used to determine the effectiveness of active surveillance and intervention strategies and their impact upon zoonotic disease transmission. We will employ an adaptive management framework that will enable surveillance and control strategies to be modified during outbreaks as more information becomes available. The key deliverables of this grant will be an increased understanding of the human health implications of HPAI outbreaks in Indonesia, an identification of high-risk regions and an exploration of appropriate adaptive strategies for future outbreaks. The Indonesian team has a proven track record of working with local policy makers which will ensure that our policy recommendations are communicated to appropriate national authorities and local practitioners. The project investigators also collaborate closely with the WHO and the Food and Agriculture Organisation and will liaise closely with these agencies during the project, thereby maximising both the regional and global impact of this research.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-03

Antimicrobial resistance is a growing global problem with wide ranging societal and economic implications. Whilst the focus is often on the impact on human medicine, it is also a concern for food security (including food spoilage) and animal health and welfare. Antibiotics targeting lipid II, which is the basic substrate in the biosynthesis of the bacterial cell wall, are excellent drug candidates. It is far more difficult to develop resistance when substrates are targeted rather than, e.g., proteins. However, lipid II binding molecules often also have physico-chemical properties that make them challenging to apply, e.g., in clinic. If molecular level understanding on how they work is available, molecules preserving the binding properties of the original antibiotics but also exhibiting more favorable properties for applications can be engineered. This project will focus on developing a streamlined toolbox composed of reagents, biophysical/structural measurement methods and molecular dynamics simulations to characterise interactions of antibiotics and lipid II at atomic resolution to facilitate their engineering. In order to make the approach generally applicable to any lipid II binder, we will focus on developing methodology that uses lipid II itself as a reporter on the interactions. The work described will be able to make use of collaborations across the physical and life sciences utilizing a capability to synthesise high purity isotopically labelled lipid II and complementary nature of solution and solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and computational methods. The experiments can be carried out in a range of membrane compositions to determine how the environment affects the antibiotic-lipid II complex and to determine its suitability for high resolution structure determination. Our approach will be a highly valuable pathway for characterisation, validation, and refinement of new lipid II binding antibiotics. We will validate it on a set of antibiotics with known modes of action and test it on a recently discovered antibiotic for which binding to lipid II is not known.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-03

The overarching goal of the proposed proposal is building and validating transdisciplinary knowledge on climate-health-built environment connections that can be linked to the risk of malaria transmission in a changing climate. The specific objectives associated with this goal are: 1) conducting stakeholder engagement and participatory research with communities to understand local, place-based climate-related health threats and develop effective adaptation and mitigation strategies that focus on community resilience; 2) assessing potential impacts of future compounding and cascading climate change events and hazards on malaria over different timescales; 3) performing intersectional analyses to better understand differential Malaria, existing and compounding vulnerabilities, and the impacts of climate change experienced by vulnerable populations; 4) Exploring the potential direct or indirect health co-benefits, risks, or unintended consequences / maladaptive response of climate change mitigation and adaptation measures, and; 5) developing and validating a decision support framework that can be used to evaluate how the design aspects of the physical and built environment (urban, indoor, outdoor) could help mitigate climate change, support adaptation measures, and improve malaria prevention. Climate change impacts on vector-borne disease transmission and the climate vulnerability of marginalized communities across the globe is a growing concern (CDC, 2022; Rocklöv and Dubrow, 2020; Thompson and Stanberry, 2022; Sutherst, 2004). Climate change-related extreme heat and flooding cause an increased risk of vector-borne diseases, resulting in overburdening of under-resourced healthcare sectors in resource-constrained contexts. Increasing global temperatures allows mosquitoes to encroach into new areas and increase the transmission of parasites. Plastic pollution, open sewers, and stagnant storm water interact with changes in rainfall intensity to create breeding sites for vector mosquitoes (Landrigan et al, 2023; Kumar et al, 2021). Higher night-time temperatures coupled with inadequate building cooling and ventilation drive occupants to avoid bed nets and/ or, open windows, and spend time or sleep outside during prime mosquito-biting hours. Recognizing these risks and developing suitable built-environment responses will help reduce malaria transmission. The adverse impacts of climate on health have been acknowledged (Woodward, 2014; Campbell-Lendrum, 2023; Patz and Olson. 2006; Romanello et al., 2023), particularly dynamics of vector-borne diseases (Lafferty, 2009; Caminade, 2019; Williams, 2021). More data is needed on how the built environment contributes to the incidence of Malaria in a changing climate. The term “built environment” as used in this proposal refers to human-made or modified physical areas such as our homes, communities, schools, workplaces, parks/recreational areas, business areas, water and sanitation systems, and transportation systems (Younger, 2008). These vary in size from smaller rural to peri-urban and large-scale urban areas. The built environment has also been linked to changes in the environment that directly or indirectly influence the incidence and distribution of vector-borne diseases (Rocklöv et al., 2022; Shenton et al., 2019; Obonyo et al., 2019). Our proposed research will deepen the understanding of the intersection of gender, access, and interventional design. There are significant gaps in our understanding of how sex, gender roles and poverty intersect to create gender-specific vulnerabilities. We will explore the impact of gender norms and associated gender inequities such as education levels, access to economic assets, and access to and use of malaria prevention strategies. Our proposed research will address these intersectional challenges from a transdisciplinary approach, engaging academic and non-academic expertise. Malaria transmission risks are multifaceted. Urban political ecology studies on public health issues in cities underscore the need to broaden understanding of and solutions to such health issues beyond technocentric approaches (Moore, 2011; Robbins and Miller, 2013) and to consider the socio-political and the spatial dimensions that equally shape the risk factors (Ferring and Hausermann, 2019; Connolly et al., 2021). At the same time, these risk factors can be observed at different scales (Wolf, 2016). The multi-scale aspects address translational science challenges that have been articulated by the WHO/UN-HABITAT Multi-sectoral Working Group on malaria (co-chaired by Mbazazi, a senior personnel in this proposal). Using comparative case studies from the participating regions, the project team will derive research insights and address transdisciplinary methodological gaps at the nexus of climate change mitigation and adaptation, the built environment, and malaria’s impacts on human health. Specifically, our Belmont Forum project will develop a novel transdisciplinary methodology drawing from convergent approaches in global comparative research for understanding both common drivers and context-specific processes that can catalyze progress toward a climate-smart, malaria-free building sector. This methodology will leverage GCSE’s extensive network of subject matter experts. Existing approaches will be tailored to our projects through hosting 6 actionable knowledge workshops. Penn State and GCSE will host the kick-off workshop. Ardhi University will host the second workshop in Tanzania. During the second year, project team members will take turns to host stakeholder engagement workshops in Panama, Mozambique, and Nigeria. These will mirror the event in Tanzania. Penn State will leverage institutional resources to host a convening event for the broader community of stakeholders in public health responses to malaria in a changing climate. The investigators will also build on primary data from previous research efforts. For example, Obonyo, Mhina, and Madivate have collected data from households impacted by recent extreme weather events in Florida and selected coastal communities in Mozambique and Tanzania as part of a Belmont Forum Disaster Risk Reduction project that seeks to advance the resilience of low-income housing. Kibe, Mulure, and Mutunga have led malaria research efforts in Kenya. Anyanwu and Adetoun have findings from previous research efforts in Nigeria. Young has extensive community engagement experiences in Panama. The selected test beds have varied malaria transmission risks across many dimensions of complexity. In addition to climate, hydrology, ecology, and other biophysical factors, these include human and technology factors. This project offers an opportunity to leverage, improve, and apply actionable knowledge methodologies across these dimensions; and to use this actionable knowledge to generate transdisciplinary insights on built environment-related malaria prevention strategies.    

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-03

Imagine choosing between restaurants in an unfamiliar city, deciding whether to invest in a new company, or selecting between novel medical treatments: how do we decide between options that we have never directly experienced before? A recent line of explanations for these choices are mental sampling models in which decision makers generate potential outcomes in their mind and choose the option which these mental simulations suggest they would prefer. Sampling offers a powerful and intuitive solution to a wide range of cognitive tasks, narrowing our complex and uncertain environment into concrete examples to make such decisions feasible. Existing theories do not always agree about how such sampling works, however, and the specific form of sampling can impact the resulting choice: for example, each new sample may be similar to its predecessor, meaning our imagination may not move far from the first option we consider, or certain features like high prices may come to mind more easily, leading to greater focus on these aspects. Moreover, while a great deal of work has been done on these types of decisions, currently available data do not well distinguish between different types of sampling, focussing on the choices people make rather than the information they consider beforehand. There is thus a current need for more detailed examination of the sampling process in choice. Mental sampling theories are not unique to decision making, however: work in other domains has used sampling to explain varied behaviours such as estimates of perceptual features, judgments of probability and forecasts of financial prices. This work has focused specifically on identifying the sampling process using both behavioural experiments and computational modelling. These methods may then offer new insights into the psychological systems supporting decision making, but have thus far been limited to situations with clear objective solutions (e.g., the number of dots on a screen) rather than the uncertain or subjective valuations of everyday life. This research seeks to bridge such sampling work with decision making: behavioural experiments will examine the samples produced by decision makers before choice, looking for patterns such as similarities between concurrent samples and whether the frequencies of generated items match their true probabilities. The findings from these experiments will then guide the construction of new sampling models directly incorporating these patterns into their mechanisms, which will be compared against existing standards in the field to assess their ability to capture choice behaviour. Linking these subjects will contribute to a broad sampling framework providing a common solution to the varied problems that people might encounter in their everyday life, from simple perceptual judgments like estimating the size of a crowd to complex real-world decisions with far-reaching consequences like purchasing a home or selecting medical treatments. Such a framework could offer consistent explanations for many psychological phenomena, including suboptimal choices, errors in estimates of probability, and biases in predictions of future prices, as well as potential connections between these effects not predicted by existing theories. More generally, understanding how such decisions are made holds pro-social applications in helping people towards better choices, guiding policy on education as well as the regulation of industries such as finance or gambling to discourage damaging behaviour.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-03

Bacteria are remarkable chemists capable of assembling complex molecules that enter cells and bind biomolecular targets with high affinity and selectivity. Consequently, bacterial natural products have wide-ranging applications in medicine (as antibiotics, anticancer agents, and immunomodulators) and agriculture (as insecticides, fungicides, and herbicides). How the "blind watchmaker" of evolution creates structurally diverse molecular architectures is a key question in contemporary biosynthesis research. In this proposal, we seek to understand how promiscuous interactions between a conserved modular polyketide synthase (PKS) and various nonribosomal peptide synthetases (NRPSs) enables natural combinatorial biosynthesis of a medically important class of histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitors. We will test our understanding by engineering production of a novel HDAC inhibitor analogue. The specific objectives of our proposal are: Structurally characterise inter-subunit interactions enabling productive PKS-NRPS engagement in FR901375 biosynthesis Investigate crosstalk between HDAC inhibitor PKS and enacyloxin IIa NRPS subunits in vitro Produce an HDAC inhibitor analogue in vivo Provide interdisciplinary training and career development to a promising young researcher The knowledge gained from this interdisciplinary research will enable the development of bioengineering approaches to rational alteration of hybrid polyketide-nonribosomal peptide natural products, which often require structural modification to optimise them for therapeutic or agricultural application. Structural modification of polyketide-nonribosomal peptide analogues using synthetic chemistry is challenging due to their complexity. Moreover, such methods rely on non-renewable petrochemical feedstocks, are energy intensive, create environmentally damaging byproducts, and are expensive. In contrast, structural modification of polyketide-nonribosomal peptide hybrids via bioengineering enables optimised derivatives to be produced via fermentation, which is cheaper, more energy efficient, has lower environmental impact, and utilises sustainable plant-derived feedstocks. This research is directly relevant to the Engineering Biology theme of BBSRC's Transformative Technologies priority of the Advancing the Frontiers of Bioscience Discovery high level objective. It also aligns with the Sustainable Agricultural Systems focus area of the Bioscience for Sustainable Agriculture and Food priority, the Production of More Sustainable Products focus area of the Bioscience for Advanced Manufacturing and Clean Growth priority, and the Bioscience for an Integrated Understanding of Health priority of BBSRC's Tackling Strategic Challenges high level objective.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-03

Understanding how cells respond to signals and make decisions to switch state or choose a cell fate is a central concern of biological and medical research and key to being able to exploit the immense potential of, for example, stem cells and new cancer therapies. Recent developments in single-cell transcriptomics, proteomics and imaging have opened up exciting opportunities to probe these decision-making mechanisms in much deeper ways but there is a great unmet need for powerful analytical approaches and tools to understand this data. We are proposing a new approach to cellular decisions based on a formalization of the Waddington landscape metaphor into a rigorous mathematical tool for constructing landscapes and fitting them to cell fate data. This has been successfully applied to several developmental systems. The key difference this new approach makes to the understanding of cellular decision-making is that whereas current single-cell methods can identify the topology of the process, our method in addition uncovers the underlying dynamical structure and the way the signals the cell receives alters the decision. The underlying mathematics is concerned with understanding the structure of generic parameterised families of relatively simple dynamical systems which represent the gene regulatory networks that describe the dynamic and complex circuits formed by the signals and the downstream transcriptional responses controlling the location and timing of the cell fate decisions. Since these systems always flow downhill, by analogy with Waddington's landscape, they have become known as \emph{dynamical landscapes}. Our strategy is to firstly classify these landscapes on the basis of various complexity criteria and use this classification to determine which has the most plausible qualitative correspondence to the experimental data. Then we use stochastic simulation algorithms such as ABC particle filters to fit the normal form of the model to the data and choose between the alternative hypothesised models. In this grant we aim to develop both the mathematical foundations of dynamical landscapes and the data science component of our approach which uses machine learning and AI to link the models to the dynamic single cell data. In collaboration with our project partners we also will extend the range of the development systems analysed in this way and as part of this we will extend the theory to include systems involving oscillations.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-03

Summary In mammals, the process of creating sperm and eggs is essential for starting a new life cycle. The first step in this development is the formation of primordial germ cells (PGCs) in the early embryo. These cells undergo changes in gene expression and profoundly remodel the epigenetic information associated with their DNA before commencing development towards sperm or eggs. Disruptions in this process can lead to infertility or germ cell cancer. Previous research, including studies by myself and others, suggests that the unique epigenetic changes in human PGCs are crucial for normal gamete and embryo development. Despite this, our understanding of human PGC development, especially in terms of epigenetic remodelling, remains largely elusive. The main obstacle hindering progress in this area is the lack of an accessible and efficient model system that fully replicates human PGC development in a laboratory setting. This project aims to identify proteins promoting human PGC development, understand how they work, and use this knowledge to recreate human PGC development in cultured cells. In this project, my team and I will build upon my prior studies focusing on human PGCs and model systems used to derive in vitro human PGCs in the laboratory. In current model systems, in vitro-derived human PGCs only partially follow the normal developmental path and exhibit abnormal gene expression. Our research focus will be on genes active in human PGCs but inactive in in vitro-derived germ cells. We hypothesize that activating a combination of these genes will promote normal development of in vitro-derived human PGCs. To test this, we'll use a CRISPR technique to activate individual genes or combinations of candidate genes and observe the impact on in vitro human PGC development. We'll particularly focus on factors promoting human PGC-specific epigenetic changes. The gene combination found to most efficiently promote hPGC development will be used to establish a novel model system for in vitro human PGC development relying on CRISPR-mediated gene activation. Simultaneously, we'll study the DNA and protein interactions of the identified candidates to understand their function. Importantly, my past research shows that activation of key transcription factor genes through CRISPR can initiate human PGC development in cultured cells, highlighting the potential of this approach. Our goal is to overcome the limitations of previous in vitro models and create an accessible stem cell-based system faithfully recapitulating human PGC development. This system will deepen our understanding of human germline development and potentially serve as a platform for deriving gametes from cultured cells in the future. In medical and pharmaceutical research, the established system could be a valuable screening platform for identifying risk factors affecting male reproductive health globally. Additionally, our research into the function of proteins in the human germline will enhance the understanding of germ cell tumor types originating from human PGCs. This project aligns with the BBSRC strategic delivery plan by providing insight into a fundamental human development process and establishing a transformative technology to enhance our understanding of diseases.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-03

Advanced composites have been used extensively in high performance lightweight applications ranging from aerospace, automotive to renewable energy sectors, with a global market of composite products over £60bn by 2017 together with a compound annual growth rate of 7% since 2011, and a projected £10bn growth in sales of composites in UK industry by 2030. However, with the ever increasing demand for zero-impact and sustainable development, the environmental impact of each stage from composite production to their end-of-life options should be considered to take the advantage of this high growth rate in the composite sector. Three important questions remain for the clean growth of the sector: (1) how can we manufacture the composites in an environmentally sustainable way, i.e. reduce the energy consumption for the rapid growing production needs; (2) how to effectively reduce, recycle, and reclaim valuable materials from end-of-life composite wastes; (3) how to truly reveal the lightweight feature of composites and reduce the overdesign in composites while avoiding unexpected catastrophic structural failures. This project will address all three questions by materials and manufacturing innovation, creating a circular economy for the composite industry by providing an extremely energy efficient and intrinsically safe manufacturing method based on recycled composite wastes as new functional fillers. With only 1% of energy consumption compared to current manufacturing methods, high performance composites with integrated new functions like deformation and damage sensing as well as de-icing will be manufactured without needs of even an oven. This new method will be tuned to fully comply with the processing requirements of existing high performance composite systems, reducing costs in capital investment, operational, and maintenance aspects. The new functions will also provide real-time health monitoring of components' structural integrity to enable condition based maintenance with high reliability. This research will be supported by a strong joint force from both academia (WMG, University of Warwick, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, US) and UK industry (ELG Carbon fibres Ltd, and LMK Thermosafe Ltd), with leading expertise from polymer and nanocomposite processing, smart composites, to carbon fibre recycling and intrinsically safe heating applications, to ensure a great success of the project and a large impact on relevant research fields, as well as a direct contribution to addressing the UK Grand Challenges of "clean growth" and "future of mobility" and international competitiveness of the UK economy, with world leading development in lightweighting in transportation, manufacturing and efficient use of resources.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-03

Auxin is central for the life of land plants. Moreover, herbicides based on auxin are fundamental for global food security. The auxin system consists of a complex of a receptor protein, the auxin molecule, and a co-receptor protein of the Aux/IAA family. In the available crystal structures of this complex, a region of the co-receptor known as the degron is found as a loop filling the binding pocket. The heart of the degron is a sequence (GWPPV) conserved across land plants, and the degron is locked in place by the W-P bond being in the cis conformation giving a twist to form this loop. In general, peptide bonds are almost always trans. Uniquely, our recent work showed that 50% of the unbound degron exists as the WcisP conformer. Our first hypothesis is that the flanking sequences of the degron contribute to the unusual stability of this WcisP bond, even though the sequence of amino acids around the degron region is predicted to be disordered. Intrinsically disordered regions (IDR) are common in proteins and despite their lack of formal structure IDRs are essential for function. Our recent work has shown that the IDR of Aux/IAA17 exists as an ensemble of dissimilar conformations, offering a series of different surfaces for protein-protein interactions. The auxin co-receptor complex is part of a ubiquitin E3 ligase enzyme and ubiquitylation efficacy of many E3 ligases is determined not only by target binding, but also by cis-acting regulatory interactions. Our second hypothesis is that there are unknown regulatory proteins which bind to and promote certain structural elements in the IDR of the Aux/IAAs and affect auxin sensitivity. Interestingly, the flanking sequences in the IDR around some auxin degrons have been associated with field resistance to auxin herbicides in several weeds, which is a serious threat to food sufficiency in some countries. Our third objective is to understand the molecular basis of these resistances and their durability outside selective pressure, so that we may promote the best compound stewardship practices. We will: Use molecular dynamics simulations and receptor-binding assays to examine promotion of the cis bond in the degron. We will also establish how structural plasticity is supported by flanking sequences. This will identify the key to the molecular basis of auxin signalling which contributed to the ascent of land plants. Use constructs of Aux/IAA IDRs fused with neonGreen fluorescent protein to identify interacting proteins using proteomics. This will discover cis-acting regulators of auxin-mediated signalling. Mutations in several auxin herbicide resistances map to the degron region of weed Aux/IAAs. We will measure how degron plasticity, signalling efficiency and cis regulation affect fecundity with and without selective pressure of auxin herbicides. This will determine the molecular drivers behind the emergence of resistance-conferring mutations. Combined, these WPs will give unprecedented insights into the biophysics, biochemistry and applied biology of the auxin degron and the role its IDR plays in auxin signalling. Moreover, this new understanding will provide a knowledge-rich rationale for future stewardship of synthetic auxins which currently have a global value as selective herbicides of close to $4 Bn a year.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-02

Topological structures in ferroic materials have garnered immense interest in recent years for their richness in condensed-matter physics as well as potential applications for future low-power ultra-high density nanoelectronics. Ferromagnetic topological spin structures (e.g., vortices and skyrmions), driven by the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction (DMI), are promising for next-generation spintronic devices due to their small size as well as energy-efficient and current-driven behaviour. In comparison with ferromagnetics, ferroelectric materials are more structurally anisotropic and therefore should host smaller topological structures as indicated by the much smaller internal characteristic length scale (domain wall width being ~1/10 of that in ferromagnetics). However, complex ferroelectric topologies triggered by the electric DMI have not been discovered until recently in a spin crystal ferroelectric system-(SrRuO3)m/(PbTiO3)n/(SrRuO3)m. In order to further harness the potential of spin crystal ferroelectrics for next-generation nanoelectronics, the structural and polarization dynamics of the topological structures under external stimuli, e.g., electric, optical, and mechanical excitations, merit detailed studies. In this proposal, we plan to use time-resolved synchrotron x-ray diffraction in combination with scanning probe microscopy to examine how the unique ferroelectric topological structures will be perturbed by external excitations and the possible deterministic interconversion among different topological states. Additionally, with the help of theoretical calculations, we aim to gain an in-depth understanding of the underlying physics. Such studies will provide further evidence for the potential of ferroelectric systems to mimic their magnetic counterpart, further extending their application prospects.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-02

This collaborative project aims to develop novel AI (Artificial Intelligence) methods for breast cancer diagnosis and risk prediction using mammograms, by leveraging the combined expertise and diverse mammogram datasets from the UK and Brazil. Breast cancer remains a significant global health burden, with an estimated 2.3 million new cases and 685,000 deaths in 2020 alone. Early detection is crucial for improving patient outcomes. However, AI-based cancer detection and risk prediction models can be biased if the training sample is not representative of the entire population. The UK and Brazil have distinct demographic characteristics. By leveraging mammogram data from both countries, this project aims to reduce bias and improve the generalizability of the diagnosis and risk prediction models, contributing to more equitable and effective breast cancer screening worldwide. The UK-based team has developed a deep learning model called BREST (Breast Risk Evaluation from Screening Test) for three-year risk assessment using mammograms. The Brazilian team has proposed a breast cancer diagnosing algorithm called "Patch to Multi-View" (P2MV) that simultaneously uses the two standard views of the breast to significantly increase the accuracy, compared to other strategies that also use the two views. We will test whether the breast cancer risk prediction provided by BREST can be improved using multiple mammographic views via the P2MV algorithm. When a radiologist finds a suspicious lesion, he/she may request complementary mammogram views, such as cone view, cleavage view, compression view, etc., to better evaluate the detected abnormality. We propose to investigate whether using these complementary views can help to improve breast cancer detection and risk prediction. P2MV algorithm is well-suited for this task, as it can extract information from multiple views. A recent study analyzed 134,870 breast cancer deaths in Brazil in women aged 20 to 69, from 1996 to 2013. Unfortunately, there was a temporal trend of increased breast cancer mortality in young women aged 20 to 49. Therefore, early diagnosis of cancer in young women becomes increasingly important. However, young women have dense breasts, making it difficult to diagnose cancer using X-rays. We want to determine how well AI models perform in detecting and predicting breast cancer risk in young women. This would allow us to propose the best strategies for early cancer diagnosis for this age group.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-02

The performance of consumer electronic devices is largely constrained by the heat generated in electronic components. Efficient cooling of these components would lead to faster devices with lower energy consumption. This can be achieved using Peltier cooling provided materials with a high thermoelectric efficiency can be identified. Peltier cooling is silent, environmentally friendly and requires no moving parts. Conversely, an efficient conversion of waste heat through the Seebeck effect using such materials would have applications in IT infrastructure and server farms. That is why there is a world-wide race to develop new thermoelectric materials for cooling low-power devices and converting waste heat into electricity. However, current thermoelectric materials are not sufficient to create a viable technology platform for cooling and energy harvesting. Phase-coherent quantum transport has been demonstrated recently in subnanometre structures at room temperature. This creates possibility of utilising quantum phenomena to engineer properties of single atomically precise nanocluster (ANCs) to form ultra-thin film materials with unprecedented thermoelectric cooling performance. My aim in this proposal is to exploit phase-coherent quantum, spin and phonon transport in novel ANC-based nanodevices to design radically-new high efficiency thermoelectric materials. The efficiency of a thermoelectric material to act as refrigerator via the Peltier effect or to convert waste heat to electricity via the Seebeck effect is characterised by the thermoelectric figure of merit ZT. A target value of ZT>3 at room temperature would lead to disruptive new cooling and energy harvesting technologies based on thermoelectricity. For this, materials with high electrical conductance, high Peltier coefficient and low thermal conductance are needed. The radically-new hybrid nanostructured materials proposed in this proposal will be formed from ANCs and then up-scaled to parallel arrays of ANCs between 2D-materials as electrodes. Employing quantum phenomena such as quantum spin effects and quantum and phonon interference in ANCs to yield a new generation of high-performance thermoelectric materials is an entirely new approach. This proposal will elucidate design strategies for the development of new thermoelectric cooling devices and consequently will change the community view on routes to engineer and realize highly efficient novel thermoelectric materials for cooling of consumer electronic devices. NanoCool will fill a UK capability gap and have a strong influence on UK competitiveness in the field of thermoelectric energy conversion. It could lead to a new generation of flexible and wearable electronic devices for converting waste heat into electricity, with impact on consumer electronics and ICT.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-02

Are we alone in the Universe? Since the confirmation of the first planets outside our solar system in the 1990s, we have made tremendous progress towards answering this question. Yet, the confirmation of a true Earth-analogue still evades us. On top of this, if we are truly to understand the origins of life in the cosmos, we must also create a complete picture of planetary formation, evolution, and habitability. However, each of these aspects necessitates a detailed knowledge of solar-type stars. This is because we study exoplanets indirectly by analysing their much more luminous host stars. For example, most planet confirmation relies on the Doppler wobble of the host star, induced by the planet. Moreover, we can learn about a planet's dynamical history from mapping its projected orbit as it transits its host star. Hence, stellar surface inhomogeneities can impact planetary interpretations, and can completely swamp the signals from rocky worlds. My research aims to overcome these hurdles. For this, my team studies stellar surfaces from a two-pronged approach: with state-of-the-art 3D simulations and using transiting planets to empirically probe stellar surfaces. I aim to understand and disentangle a fundamental barrier on the pathway to confirming other Earths: the stellar surface inhomogeneities from convection. Planet confirmation requires a mass measurement, which can be determined from the Doppler shift of the absorption lines in the stellar atmosphere. However, all Sun-like stars are enveloped in boiling plasma, causing hot bubbles of plasma to rise to the surface (inducing blueshifts), where they cool and fall down into the surrounding regions (inducing redshifts). The net result is spurious velocity shifts up to a m/s - completely swamping the tiny signal of an Earth- twin, which is a mere 9 cm/s. These shifts can be even larger if regions of magnetic field concentrate and inhibit the convection. As the next generation spectrographs continue to come online, we are entering an era where it is technologically feasible to confirm Earth-twins. With the launch of the PLATO mission in 2026, primed to provide such candidates, and the Terra Hunting Survey commencing late 2024, equipped to confirm such worlds, this work is extremely time critical. The Sun has shown us convection does not easily average out; we must disentangle its signature to find Earth-like worlds. To do this, my team uses 3D magnetohydrodynamic simulations to create realistic model stars. With these, we study precisely how convection alters stellar lines, and work to optimise stellar noise reduction techniques. My present work on Solar- analogues indicates we can use the curvature of the stellar lines to remove this noise, but will this work for hotter or cooler stars? How do noise diagnostics behave if a star has a patchy distribution of magnetic field? Which lines are most sensitive to the convection and magnetic fields? These are some of the questions my research aims to answer. Of course, these diagnostics are only as reliable as their underlying simulations. I have pioneered a new technique, using transiting planets as probes, to validate these for the first time for main-sequence stars other than the Sun. By subtracting in- from out-of-transit observations, we isolate the starlight behind the planet. With this, we can study the convection behaviour, stellar differential rotation, and determine the 3D trajectory of a planet's orbit - a key feature in understanding its formation and evolution. By applying this technique to a range of systems are able to validate the simulations, quantify the impact of convection on planetary dynamic measurements, and contribute to a more global understanding of planet formation and evolution. With this 2-pronged approach, I aim to push the frontiers of astronomy towards the future confirmation and characterisation of habitable alien worlds, and help answer whether or not we are truly alone in the Universe.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-02

Bacteria are remarkable chemists capable of assembling complex molecules that enter cells and bind biomolecular targets with high affinity and selectivity. Consequently, bacterial natural products have wide-ranging applications in medicine (as antibiotics, anticancer agents, and immunomodulators) and agriculture (as insecticides, fungicides, and herbicides). How the "blind watchmaker" of evolution creates structurally diverse molecular architectures is a key question in contemporary biosynthesis research. In this proposal, we seek to illuminate how enoylreductase (ER) enzymes contribute to structural diversification of an important class of bacterial natural products called polyketides by understanding how trans-acting ERs are recruited to and suppress iteration in specific modules of trans-acyltransferase (trans-AT) polyketide synthases (PKSs). The specific objectives of our proposal are: Establish the structural basis for productive interaction between trans-acting ERs and specific acyl carrier protein domains in trans-AT PKSs. Elucidate the substrate tolerance and catalytic mechanism of trans-acting ERs involved in the assembly of the antibiotic gladiolin and the anticancer agent gladiostatin. Investigate the generality and molecular mechanism for suppression of trans-AT PKS module iteration by trans-acting ERs. The knowledge gained from this interdisciplinary research will enable the development of bioengineering approaches to alter the degree of unsaturation and chain length of polyketide natural products, which often require structural modification to optimise them for therapeutic or agricultural application. Structural modification of polyketides using synthetic chemistry is challenging due to their complexity. Moreover, such methods rely on non-renewable petrochemical feedstocks, are energy intensive, create environmentally damaging byproducts, and are expensive. In contrast, structural modification of polyketides via bioengineering enables optimised derivatives to be produced via fermentation, which is cheaper, more energy efficient, has lower environmental impact, and utilises sustainable plant-derived feedstocks. This research is directly relevant to the Engineering Biology theme of BBSRC's Transformative Technologies priority of the Advancing the Frontiers of Bioscience Discovery high level objective. It also aligns with the Sustainable Agricultural Systems focus area of the Bioscience for Sustainable Agriculture and Food priority, the Production of More Sustainable Products focus area of the Bioscience for Advanced Manufacturing and Clean Growth priority, and the Combatting Antimicrobial Resistance research priority of the Bioscience for an Integrated Understanding of Health priority of BBSRC's Tackling Strategic Challenges high level objective.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-02

Agreements are a fundamental part of human morality: people make promises, ask for consent, draw up contracts, and "talk it out" when disagreements arise. In philosophy, contractualist moral theories—which view actions as morally acceptable when they would be agreed upon—are deeply concerned with mutually beneficial arrangements. In moral psychology there is now growing interest in the role that agreement plays in moral judgment and decision making. For complex problems, however, practical constraints on individual cognition and social coordination pose an immediate challenge for psychological contractualist theories—we obviously cannot come to literal agreement, interpersonally, on everything. This proposal addresses this challenge by developing a resource-rational account of contractualist morality. It proposes that moral cognition can be understood as approximating the outcome of actual negotiation by making rational use of limited resources. First, people often substitute anticipated agreements (i.e., imagined ones) for actual ones. Second, people often recycle past agreements, generalizing them to novel circumstances, even if their fit to those circumstances may be less than ideal. Third, people can switch between cognitively effortful agreement-based reasoning, and cognitively efficient heuristics, depending on the importance of accurate moral judgments and decisions. This proposal develops these ideas theoretically and tests them empirically using manipulations of resource-rational factors (e.g., stakes, complexity, time pressure) in vignette-based experiments and multiplayer interactive games. It then builds on cutting-edge AI techniques to develop contractualist decision aids. Non-NSF funded collaborators: Nick Chater, Hossam Zeitoun, Behavioural Science Group, Warwick Business School, University of Warwick.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-02

This project builds on the success and findings of the Retrofit Rocks project, developed in collaboration by the University of Warwick (UoW), Coventry City Council (CCC) and its energy partners, Act On Energy (AOE), to better understand barriers to engagement with retrofit measures (such as improved insulation, boiler upgrades and solar panel installation) via a new innovative approach. With the growing pressure to reduce household carbon emissions and meet the UK’s 2050 net-zero target, raising awareness of energy efficiency in existing homes is becoming paramount to also address climate-related inequalities like fuel poverty, poor housing conditions and its impacts upon health and wellbeing. Recent national data show that Coventry is among the worst-hit authorities by fuel poverty, with over 20.3% of households affected, reaching over 50% in some areas (CCC, 2023). Despite this, uptake of energy efficiency measures, even fully funded schemes like the Energy Company Obligation (ECO) Flex, remains very low (<2%). The council is currently implementing several strategies to increase the uptake of retrofit programmes across the city but has identified resident engagement and behaviour change as key barriers to further adoption. This project aims to further support the City Council’s efforts to boost the uptake of retrofit programmes across the city. The project has four main objectives. First, to develop an interactive and innovative human-centred approach to retrofit using co-creative workshops and virtual reality (VR). Second, to increase public awareness of hosing retrofitting schemes by offering a “lived” experience of a 3D retrofitted house and its benefits. Third, to understand the multiplicity of barriers to change which exist across socio-demographic groups and market segments across the City. Fourth, evaluating the effectiveness of this approach in driving engagement and behaviour change, increasing residents’ confidence in retrofit grants and energy efficiency adoption. This inter and transdisciplinary participatory project brings together design, behavioural, and technology scientists to understand and address barriers faced by residents in Ball Hill, Coventry. The academic research team will actively engage with the community throughout the process, working alongside key stakeholders like CCC, AOE, and Destination Ball Hill (DBH), a community Hub focused on enhancing sustainable practices. The project prototypes and tests an experimental methodology that utilises a design thinking participatory research approach to understand and tackle the challenges of housing retrofitting, integrating virtual reality (VR). In doing so, it will also offer an opportunity to reduce common obstacles to participation in these schemes, such as access to information. In addition, it will provide an opportunity to enhance local digital skills and understanding of the role that research plays in society. The project will create a new strategy to raise awareness about the benefits of retrofitting and available schemes, while also gathering more data on the barriers to adoption across different market segments. Ultimately, the project could serve as a blueprint for driving change and fostering future collaborations with other councils. References: CCC, 2023. Net Zero Carbon Route Map For Coventry, and draft Climate Change Strategy, available at: https://www.coventry.gov.uk/downloads/download/7469/net-zero-carbon-route-map-for-coventry and https://www.coventry.gov.uk/draftclimatechangestrategy [Accessed on 10 September 2024].