Recent Project Additions to the EDC

Building better batteries is one of the major scientific and societal challenges of the 21st century. However, incremental improvements to current batteries cannot meet the requirements necessary for Europe to reach its net-zero goals by 2050. Next-generation batteries are therefore essential for the transformational improvements in performance required for the electrification of transport and grid-scale storage of energy from renewable resources. Nevertheless, the full potential of such batteries is severely hindered by numerous underlying challenges, many of which centre on the ion transport and interfaces in their constituent materials.Building upon my expertise and proven track record in the atomistic simulation of materials and connecting such simulations to the macroscale, AMPed will revolutionise the understanding and design of the ion transport and interfaces within solid-state battery architectures. AMPed will utilise state-of-the-art classical, quantum mechanical, structure prediction and machine learning approaches to develop battery materials with improved performance, stability and sustainability by achieving the following four key objectives:(1) Establish a new time-domain paradigm for understanding ion transport in solid electrolytes(2) Explore nanostructured solid electrolytes for optimised performance(3) Mitigate resistance and instability at heterointerfaces in solid-state batteries(4) Drive transition to sustainable solid-state sodium batteries These novel and exploratory models will be experimentally validated in partnership with my close network of interdisciplinary experts in battery materials and devices. AMPed will provide transformative opportunities for the design of energy materials and push the boundaries of computational energy materials design, thereby advancing the excellence of energy research in Europe and further consolidating my research at the frontier of computational materials science

The cooling sector currently consumes around 14% of the UK's electricity and emits around 10% of the UK's greenhouse gases. Global electricity demand for space cooling alone is forecast to triple by 2050. Moreover, as air temperature increases, the cooling demand increases, but a refrigerator's Coefficient of Performance decreases. This results in a time mismatch between a refrigerator's efficient operation and peak cooling demand over a day. Clearly, this problem will deteriorate over the coming decades. Indeed, research by UKERC recently reported that cooling sector will cause a 7 GW peak power demand to the grid by 2050 in the UK.A solution is to employ cold thermal energy storage, which allows much more flexible refrigeration operation, thereby resulting in improved refrigeration efficiency and reduced peak power demand. Large-scale deployment of cold thermal energy storage could dramatically reduce this peak demand, mitigating its impact to the grid. Moreover, the UK curtails large amounts of wind power due to network constraints. For example, over 3.6TWh of wind energy in total was curtailed on 75% of days in 2020. Therefore, through flattening energy demand, cold thermal energy storage technology provides a means to use off-peak wind power to charge cold thermal energy storage for peak daytime cooling demand.This project, based on the proposed novel adsorption-compression thermodynamic cycle, aims to develop an innovative hybrid technology for both refrigeration and cold thermal energy storage at sub-zero temperatures. The resultant cold thermal energy storage system is fully integrated within the refrigerator and potentially has significantly higher power density and energy density than current technologies, providing a disruptive new solution for large scale cold thermal energy storage. The developed technology can utilise off-peak or curtailed electricity to shave the peak power demand of large refrigeration plants and district cooling networks, and thus mitigates the impacts of the cooling sector on the grid and also reduces operational costs.

Solar photovoltaics (PV) are predicted to be a key enabling technology on the road to net zero - the international energy agency predicts that solar electricity production should increase from 430 Tw-h in 2017 to 6,410 Tw-h in 2040. (1) To achieve this, new materials, that are cheaper to process and manufacture than the current market leader (crystalline Si) are urgently needed. Inorganic materials with a spontaneous polarization have attracted significant interest for photovoltaics, due to their ability to overcome several limitations of traditional PV materials, but there are a limited number of such materials with the required optical absorption for effective PV. In this project we will use our expertise in data-driven materials science to design new polar PV (PPV) absorbers with the potential to offer excellent efficiencies from cheap, earth-abundant materials.Machine learning (ML) has had a transformative effect on many important industries. However, in materials science, the lack of large labelled datasets of important properties proves a barrier to adopting some of the most commonly applied methods from fields such as image analysis or language processing, where data is not an issue. Recent work has shown that incorporating physical knowledge into ML greatly enhances learning ability, and allows powerful predictive models on limited datasets. In the project we will develop ML methods for PPV materials, that include prior physical knowledge, thus allowing us to learn accurate models for the important properties of PPV materials. These ML models, once trained are highly scalable and will allow us to virtually screen through spaces of hundreds of billions of candidate materials - a scale unimaginable with traditional simulations, let alone with physical experiments.The award will fund the development of a team with a unique combination of expertise in machine learning, photovoltaics and materials design. The proposal includes Queen Mary University of London (QMUL), which has recently invested more than £16 million in state of the art facilities for data science and the Physical Sciences Data Infrastructure, who are developing the technology for facilitating the future of data-driven physical science in the UK. The project will also work closely with experimental groups at QMUL who are world-leading in the development of polar photovoltaic materials and devices.(1) International Energy Agency (IEA) World Energy Outlook 'Sustainable Scenario' https://www.iea.org/weo2018/

The future 'Net Zero Economy' will be based on new forms of energy (e.g., renewable electricity and hydrogen), new feedstocks (sustainably sourced biological and waste materials), and a new depth of data. These changes present particular problems for the process industries (bulk and fine chemicals, food and beverages, pharmaceuticals, manufacturing, and utilities etc). To 'Engineer Net Zero' in these industries, they must undergo the most profound transformation since the industrial revolution. To accommodate these new energy types, novel feedstocks and new data, entirely new processes, process technologies and green chemical routes will have to be developed. The scale of the challenge is enormous; manufacturing alone accounts for ~10% of the total economic output of the UK (£203bn Gross Value Added) and ~7% of UK jobs (HMG, 2022).Research Challenges:The PINZ CDT will help to 'Engineer Net Zero' by developing new processes, green chemistries, and process technologies, via Research for Technology Transfer (O2) at the interfaces of process and chemical engineering, and the biological, chemical and data sciences. Our Research Themes (T) have been informed by and co-created with industry:(T1) Energy: The use of renewable electricity and hydrogen demands new ways to perform process steps (reactions, separations, heat transfer) and whole process design.(T2) Feedstocks: Sustainable feedstocks/raw materials and solvents (bio-based, carbon-neutral, waste-derived), will force the development of new process chemistry and technology.(T3) Data: The increasing quantity and quality of data (in-process, LCA, TEA) will dramatically change how we design, operate, and monitor processes.Training Challenges:Build Back Better: Our Plan for Growth (HMT, 2021), and The UK Innovation Strategy: Leading the Future by Creating It (BEIS, 2021) highlight a strategic focus on skills development, innovation, and Net Zero to transform the UK into a global science and engineering superpower. To meet these substantial challenges and maintain the UK as a technology hub and global leader in innovation in the process industries, the UK requires pioneering, innovative, and knowledgeable chemical engineers/chemists. These world-class, doctoral-level graduates will not only be required to navigate these challenges: they will need to lead the change. The PINZ CDT will create these 'Net Zero-enabled' future leaders via a nurturing, supportive and collaborative training environment, which will equip the researchers with the tools to develop, analyse, evaluate, and implement new technologies and processes during their projects and future careers.Student-Centred Training (O1) will underpin everything we do, tailoring research training both at the individual and CDT level, alongside the provision of the management, entrepreneurship, and business skills that industry demands. Throughout their training, we will facilitate peer-to-peer interactions within and across cohorts to build a community and engender a broad exchange of ideas. This is especially important when working with students from diverse academic and personal backgrounds and recognises the contribution diversity makes to a challenge on the scale of Net Zero.Delivery:PINZ will be led by the world's largest Process Intensification Group (PIG, Newcastle University), and the world-leading Green Chemistry Centre of Excellence (GCCE, University of York), leveraging >40 years of combined experience in technology transfer and >40 ongoing industrial partnerships. Only through this combination of the 'biggest and best' can the internationally leading education, training, and research needed to produce the next generation of leaders and innovators for Net Zero be realised.

Since the 2004 Energy Act, nuclear fission has rapidly grown, and continues to grow, in significance in the UK's Energy and Net Zero Strategies.Government's Nuclear Industrial Strategy states clearly that the nuclear sector is integral to increasing productivity, driving growth across the country and meeting our Net Zero target. Nuclear is, and will continue to be, a vital part of our energy mix, providing low carbon power now and into the future, and the safe and efficient decommissioning of our nuclear legacy is an area of world-leading expertise. In order for this to be possible we need to underpin the skill base. The primary aim of SATURN is to provide high quality research training in the science and engineering underpinning nuclear fission technology, focussed on three broad themes:Current Nuclear Programmes. Decommissioning and cleanup; spent fuel and nuclear materials management; geological disposal; current operating reactors (AGRs, Sizewell B, propulsion); new build reactors (Hinkley C, Sizewell C, possibly Wylfa Newydd;Future Nuclear Energy: Advanced nuclear reactors (light water reactors, including PWR3, gas cooled reactors, liquid metal cooled reactors, other concepts); advanced fuel cycles; fusion (remote handling, tritium);Nuclear Energy in a Wider Context: Economics and finance; societal issues; management; regulation; technology transfer (e.g. robotics, sensors); manufacturing; interaction of infrastructure and environment; systems engineering.It has become clear that skills are very likely to limit the UK's nuclear capacity, with over half of the civil nuclear workforce and 70% of Subject Matter Experts due to retire by 2025. High level R&D skills are therefore on the critical path for all the UK's nuclear ambitions and, because of the 10-15 year lead time needed to address this shortage, urgent action is needed now.SATURN is a collaborative CDT involving the Universities of Manchester, Lancaster, Leeds, Liverpool, Sheffield and Strathclyde, which aims to develop the next generation of nuclear research leaders and deliver underpinning (Technology Readiness Level (TRL) 1-3), long term science and engineering to meet the national priorities identified in Government's Nuclear Industrial Vision. SATURN also provides a pathway for mid technology level research (TRL 4-6) to be carried out by allowing projects to be based partly or entirely in an industrial setting. The consortium partners have been instrumental in a series of highly successful CDTs, Nuclear FiRST (2009-2013), NGN (Next Generation Nuclear, 2013-2018) and GREEN (Growing skills for Reliable, Economic Energy from Nuclear, 2018-2023). In collaboration with an expanded group of key nuclear industry partners SATURN will create a step-change in PhD training to deliver a high-quality PhD programme tailored to student needs; high profile, high impact outreach; and adventurous doctoral research which underpins real industry challenges.

HyWay aims to synthesise hydrogen rich syngas from low cost carbon source, and eliminate the environmental issues from conventional waste management (e.g., landfill or incineration). HyWay advances the state-of-the-art in carbonaceous waste management especially plastic waste, waste tires, waste biomass and crude glycerol for hydrogen production. The overall aim of the HyWay is to establish long-term consolidated research collaborations between the participating institutions with complementary expertise and knowledge to design and develop carbon-neutral, scalable, and socially acceptable pathways to sort and convert waste to hydrogen rich syngas as part of next generation sustainable fuels. Through secondments, workshops, training, webinar series, and industry-focused events, HyWay produces multiple avenues for career development, cross-sectoral experiences, and academic training in a multi-cultural and interdisciplinary environment. Research results are translated into training materials, including formal academic and industry courses on waste sorting, chemical recycling technologies, process modelling, machine learning, techno-economic analysis and life cycle analysis for postgraduate students, early-stage and experienced researchers and industry; training tutorials for industrial and technical staffs; and creating the basis for developing academic textbooks for the wider research community and possibly in undergraduate module delivery. There is also a focus on transferable skills, with dedicated trainings activities specially designed to facilitate personal development, technological and communication skills. HyWay delivers through the effective collaboration of 7 member state/associate country universities and companies, and eight third country universities and companies from China, Japan, Australia and Malaysia

Tackling industrial emissions is essential for the UK to deliver on its climate commitments and achieving economic and social prosperity from the transition to net zero. IDRIC was established in 2021 as part of the UKRI Industrial Decarbonisation Challenge to support the decarbonisation of industrial clusters. During this time, IDRIC has developed an influential and impactful network at a critical time and become an essential catalyst bringing together the research and innovation community to accelerate the pace and scale of industrial cluster decarbonisation.Funding for current IDRIC activities will cease in Spring 2024. However, the need for the functions IDRIC is delivering - the research work plus bringing together the relevant players in an environment that allows and encourages trust and collaboration, reduces barriers and accelerates progress - will continue for decades. The UK needs to take long term, multi-decadal decisions to providing long term commitment for industry emission reductions into the 2030s and IDRIC is exceptionally well placed to lead EPSRC activity towards the delivery of the UK's Industrial Decarbonisation Strategy.This proposal represents funding for a 12-month transitional period (April-2024 to March-2025), which will be crucial to support IDRIC in maintaining essential momentum and the community cohesion necessary to safeguard the knowledge, experience and relationships built at this critical time for industrial decarbonisation. The objectives have been co-created with industry and academia building upon the established sense of belonging and the long-term relationships and associated trust required to deliver:Continue to synthesise and disseminate learnings and impacts from the cluster focussed, challenge-led research delivered in 2021-2024.Foresight and horizon-scan of industry-informed research and innovation needs of decarbonisation to deliver towards targets of 2030, 2040 and 2050.Co-create and share knowledge by maintaining active networks and platforms to stimulate cross-learning and engender national/international collaborations for developing net zero solutions.Support policy, skills development and mission advocacy by providing evidence to policymakers, regulators, industry, the wider supply chain and the public to promote decarbonisation.To date, IDRIC have carefully considered that continued engagement is critical and also dependent on stakeholders gaining ongoing strategic benefit from their interaction. This has been key to IDRIC's current success, as shown by bringing together relevant players in an environment that allows and encourages trust and collaboration, reduces barriers and accelerates progress. Therefore, with this 12-month funding we will be prioritising key stakeholder engagement that are aligned with 3 workstreams; Clusters & Partnerships; KE & Synthesis; Cross-cutting Themes (Policy, Skills, EDI). The activities for this phase of IDRIC are designed to utilise IDRIC's unique convening power. They will deliver a suite of outputs e.g. (frontiers report, industry net-zero innovation roadmap) scoped through engagement with the community to ensure maximum impact from the current phase and strategic activities in support of a mapping a clear path for the critical steps required from 2025-2030 - crucial to enabling the realisation of the UKs first net-zero cluster by 2030

Quite frequently matter is subject to irradiation. One can think of electronic devices in space, radiotherapies, materials processing bysputtering, nanoparticle modification, materials in the civil nuclear industry, radiation detectors, and many others. There is a commondenominator to these scenarios, and is that radiation brings matter out of equilibrium, sometimes quite dramatically as in laserablation, leading to a variety of physical, chemical, and biological phenomena at all scales, starting at the attosecond and nanometerwith electronic excitation, and going up to meters and days or even years at the engineering or biological scale, where macroscopicphenomena like failure, fracture, explosion, or death can occur as a consequence of irradiation. Sometimes the goal is to avoid ormitigate damage, and other times is to harness the effects of radiation to alter the properties of materials. In all these scenarios it iscrucial to understand the fundamental mechanisms of material response to intense and fast energy deposition.The research aim of MAMBA is to advance our understanding of material response to irradiation and to apply it to tailor and controlthe properties of materials exposed, purposedly or involuntarily, to intense radiation environments. We have selected five casestudies lying at the frontier of knowledge, and spanning applications in diverse, although connected, fields: space electronics,photovoltaic cells for space applications, radiation-resistant nanostructures for nuclear fusion applications, radiation detectors forclinical studies, proton radiotherapy, and radiolytic hydrogen generation in nuclear decommissioning. These topics will be addressedthrough a combination of experimental and modelling techniques that, to a large degree, are common to these areas. Thiscommonality allows for cross-pollination between themes and for implementing a rich training program that includes Schools, workshops and many PM of secondments

Reliance on renewable energy sources and increased use of green solutions (e.g., electric vehicles) is one of the strategic actions for a sustainable environment in the face of increasing fossil fuel consumption and associated environmental impacts. Supercapacitors are one of the most developed and researched energy storage technologies and have gained enormous attention and acceptance due to their portability and stable performance. Carbon materials mainly used for supercapacitor development are usually made from petroleum-derived feedstocks which are non-renewable and environmentally harmful. Currently, bio-based carbon materials are being extensively researched for the development of supercapacitor materials due to their electrochemical stability and environmental friendliness. Despite the progress made so far in the development of bio-based carbon materials; the search for materials with novel properties and simple fabrication processes has become of great importance for the development of sustainable supercapacitors with high energy density. Therefore, this proposal has three specific objectives: (i) to synthesize new carbon materials suitable for supercapacitors from biomaterials (ii) to fabricate nanocomposite electrodes based on the developed bio-based carbon materials, and (iii) to fabricate a high-efficiency supercapacitor device based on the developed bio-based components. The fabricated supercapacitor device will be fully biodegradable and have the capacity to deliver both high energy density and power density. Therefore, the contributions of this project will be a great step towards solving the energy problems in the EU and beyond, through the development of green technologies for future advances in the production of electric vehicles and portable electronic products

Polluted water is a complex global socioeconomic issue that affects human and animal health, and greatly impacts industries such as agriculture and fishing, recreational activities and transportation. The World Health Organisation (WHO) recently estimated that contaminated water is responsible for almost 500 million deaths per year. In a wide range of applications across sectors, current filtration technologies are ineffective, relying on the specific physicochemical properties of the membrane and the target molecule(s) to be removed, and their manufacture often requires complex and expensive multi-step processes with high associated energy costs.In this project, we will develop bioinspired membranes as new solutions for water purification technologies, selectively removing contaminants with minimal energy input requirements. Utilising advanced polymer synthesis strategies, we will develop new bespoke polymers that can extract transmembrane proteins capable of moving molecules across membrane with exquisite specificity and enable their subsequent incorporation into biomimetic artificial membranes. This will afford water purification membranes with previously unrivalled molecular selectivity and specificity.The new membrane technology developed in this project will help to advance and evolve the landscape of membrane science. The platform materials and approaches devised will be transferrable to additional membrane filtration and water purification applications and will enable universal manufacturing processes to afford high-performance reusable, recyclable devices that can contribute to a circular economy. The need for such new systems is recognised by the UN with Sustainable Development Goal 6 on clean water and sanitation.

Addressing climate change is of existential importance. Although there are many contributing factors, energy production and consumption has one of the most direct impacts on the environment. A significant portion of this can be attributed to computer networks, with some reports estimating that they consume 1.5x the energy of all data centres. However, in contrast to other large scale compute infrastructure, accounting for the carbon emissions of the network is extremely hard. A traffic flow can cross multiple administrative domains in different regions of the world, be processed in devices powered by different energy sources, and share the energy consumption with tens of thousands of other traffic flows.The goal of this project is to quantify, and subsequently reduce, the carbon emissions of computer networks. Concretely, it proposes a comprehensive research agenda that will: (1) identify metrics that cover the end-to-end environmental cost of data transmission; (2) leverage programmable network elements to collect and report the metrics by developing novel carbon-intelligent network telemetry solutions; and (3) design novel, carbon-aware network routing algorithms that utilize the measurements. Overall, the project will enable accurate accounting of computer networks' carbon emissions and develop novel routing algorithms to minimize the carbon emissions of the Internet, combating climate change.If successful, the project will help us meet the targets established by the UK government, which has committed to achieving 'net-zero' by 2050. Specifically, it will help communication providers to minimize their carbon emissions; enable policy makers to reliably check that companies meet government's net-zero goals; and allow consumers to choose communications and ICT providers based on their sustainability claims.

We will train a cohort of students at the interface between the physical and computer sciences to drive the critically needed implementation of digital and automated methods in chemistry and materials. Through such training, each student will develop a common language across the areas of automation, AI, synthesis, characterization and modelling, preparing them to become both leader and team player in this evolving and multifaceted research landscape.The lack of skilled individuals is one of the main obstacles to unlocking the potential of digital materials research. This is demonstrated by the enthusiastic response toward this proposal from our industrial partners, who span sectors and sizes: already 35 are involved and we have already received cash support corresponding to over 27 full studentships. This proposal will deliver the EPRSC strategic priority "Physical and Mathematical Sciences Powerhouse" by training in "discovery research in areas of potential high reward, connecting with industry and other partners to accelerate translation in areas such as catalysis, digital chemistry and materials discovery."The CDT training programme is based on a unique physical and intellectual infrastructure at the University of Liverpool. The Materials Innovation Factory (MIF) was established to deliver the vision of digital materials research in partnership with industry: it now co-locates over 100 industrial scientists from more than 15 companies with over 200 academic researchers. Since 2017, academics and industrial researchers from physical sciences, engineering and computer sciences have co-developed the intellectual environment, infrastructure and expertise to train scientists across these areas.To date, more than 40 PhD projects have been co-designed with and sponsored by our core industrial partners in the areas of organic, inorganic, hybrid, composite and formulated materials. Through this process, we have developed bespoke training in data science, AI, robotics, leadership, and computational methods. Now, this activity must be grown scalably and sustainably to match the rapidly increasing demand from our core partners and beyond. This CDT proposal, developed from our previous experience, allows us to significantly extend into new sectors and to a much larger number of partners, including late adopters of digital technologies. In particular, we can now reach SMEs, which currently have limited options to explore digitalization pathways without substantial initial investment.A distinctive and exciting training environment will be built exploiting the diverse background of the students. Peer learning and group activities within a cross-disciplinary team will accelerate the development of a common language. The ability to use a combination of skills from different individuals with distinct domain expertise to solve complex problems will build the teams capable of driving the necessary change in industry and academia. The professional training will reflect the diversity of career opportunities available to this cohort in industry, academia and non-commercial research organizations. Each component will be bespoke for scientists in the domain of materials research (Entrepreneurship, Chemical Supply Chain, Science Policy, Regulatory Framework). External partners of training will bring different and novel perspectives (corporate, SMEs, start-ups, international academics but also charities, local authorities, consultancy firms). Cohort activities span the entire duration of the training, without formal division between "training" and "research" periods, exploiting the physical infrastructure of MIF and its open access area to foster a strong and vital sense of community. We will embed EDI principles in all aspects of the CDT (e.g. recruitment, student well-being, composition of management, supervisory and advisory teams) to make it a pervasive component of the student experience and professional training

The EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training (CDT) in Engineering Hydrogen Net Zero will develop the necessary networking, training and skills in future doctoral level leaders to enable rapid growth in hydrogen-related technology to meet the UK government's 2050 net zero targets. This CDT is a partnership of three world class Universities and around 40 Industrial and Civic organisations. The CDT aims to address the challenging aspects of rapid growth in hydrogen production and usage such as cost, supply and waste chain development, scalability, different system configurations, new technology, and social requirements through a blended cohort co-creation approach. The CDT will provide mandatory and optional training in Fundamental Knowledge, Thinking Innovatively, Business Acumen and Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Community (EDIC). A cohort based CDT is most appropriate for embedding skills in Engineering Hydrogen Net Zero due to the breadth of the training needs and the need for co-support and co-learning.In addition to a tailored co-created skills training program, the CDT will engage with partners to address key research priority areas. The CDT research plans are aligned with the EPSRC's "Engineering Net Zero" research priority, aiming to engineer low-cost hydrogen for net zero. Decarbonisation is not just implementation of a single solution fits all but a complex process of design that is dependent on what is being decarbonised e.g. different types of chemical industry to whether or not there is future access to a hydrogen hub. This results in the requirement for many new solutions to ensure affordability, scalability and sustainability. This includes undertaking research on hydrogen into topics such as, design for scalability, hydrogen on demand, new low cost materials, new interfaces, new processes, new storage means, new energy interactions, new waste management, existing infrastructure adaption and lifespan monitoring and management and social acceptance.The CDT will work with industry and civic partners to generate impact through innovation through research. This will include direct financial benefits, improved policy outcomes through engagement with local authorities, government organizations, and standards bodies, enhanced public engagement and acceptance of hydrogen, and create employment opportunities for students with industry-ready skills. The CDT represents an excellent opportunity for students to work together, with industry and with world leading international experts on impactful projects for a common decarbonisation goal with multifunctional stakeholders.This CDT will build upon the experience of the University partners and the lessons learnt from participation in 7 previous CDT's to bring forward best practice (e.g. buddy scheme and childcare funding) and remove roadblocks to opportunities (e.g. timetable clashes). We will co-create a CDT with international reach and access to over £55m worth of hydrogen and wind turbine demonstrator and research facilities. The team has excellent links with Universities and Industry internationally including partners in Europe, Canada, Malawi, China, USA, Brazil and Australia. CDT students will have opportunities to learn from International experts at a summer design and build, link with world leading experts to build international networks of contacts, undertake CPD activities (such as partner site visits), attend national and international conferences & partners secondments, research sandpits and webinars. All activities will be undertaken with due care, diligence & best practice in EDIC.The academic, industrial and civic team has the expertise to deliver the vision of the co-created CDT through the development of a unique research and training program.

Fusion Power has the potential to solve one of society's greatest challenges: universal access to plentiful, safe & sustainable energy. A person's entire lifetime energy needs can be supplied from fusion energy using the deuterium taken from a domestic bath of water and the tritium that can be bred from the lithium in a single mobile phone battery. Fusion power plants cannot suffer any type of runaway and they do not produce any direct greenhouse gas emissions. However achieving fusion is technically challenging: it requires heating the deuterium & tritium fuel to millions of degrees. At this temperature, the fuel becomes a plasma - a gas of charged particles. The plasma must be confined for sufficient time at sufficient density in order to get more energy out than we put energy in. There are a number of approaches being explored but the most successful are (1) magnetic confinement fusion which holds the fuel by magnetic fields at relatively low density for relatively long times in a chamber called a tokamak, and (2) inertial confinement fusion which holds the fuel for a very short time but at huge densities.The exciting news is that fusion is now entering a golden era. Since 2020, there have been substantial scientific breakthroughs, such as at JET in the UK and at NIF in the US. There has been dramatic expansion into the private sector with over 30 companies globally pursuing a range of approaches and many more establishing the fusion supply chain; governments around the world, but especially in the UK, are investing to accelerate fusion delivery.A remaining critical barrier to making fusion a reality is the shortage of people who understand the inter-related operational constraints for both the plasma fuel and its containment materials, including the breeding of tritium from lithium, all of which must be satisfied simultaneously. The EPSRC CDT in Fusion Power will build on our existing success and international reputation to become the global beacon for training the next generation of fusion leaders. At the core of our CDT is the partnership between six leading research-intensive universities and more than 20 private companies, UK & international labs and government agencies. Our students will benefit from a systems-thinking-based technical training in plasma physics and materials science including tritium breeding & handling. They will benefit from training delivered by non-academic partners in topics such as regulation & licensing, commercialisation & entrepreneurship, sustainability, financing & investment and project management. Through the CDT partners, the students will use internationally leading experimental facilities and high performance supercomputers. Initially through their supervisors and then increasingly independently, students will access international networks of institutions and fusion professionals. During their PhD, students will have the opportunity to build their track record through presenting work at conferences and leading their own "collaboratory" mini project. These scientists and engineers will go on to solve the technical cross-disciplinary challenges, moving fusion forward faster at a rate of more than 20 scientists & engineers per year. We will increase diversity in the fusion community through: positive recruitment & admissions practices; supportive, cohort-based training activities; undergraduate fusion internships for students from under-represented groups; outreach to the public and via sustained relationships with target schools. This supply of the best people will energise the UK fusion industry and enable a global ambition for fusion power plant innovation & development.

The Centre for Doctoral Training in Green Industrial Futures (CDT-GIF) will deliver the next generation of global leaders in the energy transition, through a world-leading, interdisciplinary whole systems research and training programme to address national and global priorities to realise the green industrial revolution. The CDT-GIF is critically important, as skill shortages are currently limiting the opportunities of the green industrial revolution, adding significant risk of loss of economic and social value. For example, over 350,000 additional jobs (28% professional roles) are required to meet the demands of the current UK industrial cluster decarbonisation projects between 2025 to 2040.Therefore, there is a substantial and pressing demand for training doctoral-level graduates to fill these roles to drive R&D for industrial decarbonisation, lead critical important decarbonisation projects, and prepare future graduates for the net zero agenda. The CDT-GIF directly addresses this and is in closed alignment with the EPSRC mission inspired priority 'Engineering Net Zero' by providing an industry-guided, interdisciplinary training environment in transformative low-carbon technologies that will uniquely train 100 doctoral students, whilst leveraging significant investment from academic and industry partners.Four institutions with global standing in decarbonisation (Heriot-Watt University, Imperial College London, University of Bath and University of Sheffield) have partnered with a comprehensive range of stakeholders to ascertain the critically in-demand skills and knowledge that prospective employers are seeking to deliver net zero industries. These include technically trained on systems thinking, career ready and industry literate, and internationally connected. As a result, we have co-developed a training programme, based on three pillars, that will equip our students with these attributes, namely: (1) a cohort-based whole systems taught training programme (2) metaskills development programme (Net Zero Leadership Programme), and (3) unrivalled international opportunities to visit world-leading facilities, e.g. National Carbon Capture Centre (USA), ECCSEL (European network), Heriot-Watt Dubai campus and UNECE Sustainability Week. The training elements of the programme will run parallel to student's research in order to ensure cohesive learning within and across yearly cohorts, building peer-to-peer networks. A series of activities have been designed to foster a cohesive cohort trained in a diverse and inclusive environment that engenders a culture of environmental sustainability, research trust and responsible research and innovation.The CDT-GIF research and training programme is centred on four technological themes, with one cross-cutting systems theme: (1) Advancing carbon capture, utilisation and storage technologies, (2) Green hydrogen & low carbon fuels, (3) Developing next generation CO2 removal technology, (4) Energy processes, systems integration & resource efficiency, and (5) Integrated thematic areas including socio-behavioural change, policy & regulation and net zero economics related to the four technological themes. Within these themes, students will undertake challenging & original research projects that will be co-created with industrial collaborators to discover transformative, responsible and integrated solutions to achieve net zero. Challenging and original research projects will be rooted in one of these research themes, as well as across three integrated thematic areas and supervised by >75 internationally recognised researchers with excellent track record of doctoral supervision.In summary, CDT-GIF has the capacity, expertise and unique training opportunities to deliver the most comprehensive and transformational Centre for Doctoral Training to realise the green industrial revolution.

The Government's commitment to increasing offshore and marine renewable energy generation presents significant technological challenges in designing, commissioning and building the infrastructure, connecting offshore generation to onshore usage, and considering where these new developments are best placed, whilst balancing the impact they have upon the environment. In tandem, this commitment presents opportunities to advance UK capabilities in cutting-edge engineering and technologies in pursuit of net zero.Liverpool is home to one of the largest concentrations of offshore wind turbines globally in Liverpool Bay, the second largest tidal range in the UK, some of the largest names of maritime engineering alongside numerous SMEs, and the Port of Liverpool, a Freeport and Investment Zone status. The latest Science and Innovation Audit (2022) highlights Net Zero and Maritime as an emerging regional capability, and is an area in which the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority has stated its ambition to grow an innovation cluster. The University of Liverpool and Liverpool John Moores University each host world-class research expertise, environments and facilities relevant to addressing these maritime energy challenges, and have an established, shared track record in collaboration with industrial and civic partners.The Centre for Doctoral Training in Net Zero Maritime Energy Solutions (N0MES CDT) will play a vital role in filling critical skills gaps by delivering 52 highly trained researchers (PGRs), skilled in the identification, understanding, assessment, and solutions-delivery of pressing challenges in maritime energy. N0MES PGRs will pursue new, engineering-centred, interdisciplinary research to address four vital net zero challenges currently facing the North West, the UK and beyond:(a) Energy generation using maritime-based renewable energy (e.g. offshore wind, tidal, wave, floating solar, hydrogen, CCS)(b) Distributing energy from offshore to onshore, including port- and hinterland-side impacts and opportunities(c) Addressing the short- and long-term environmental impacts of offshore and maritime environment renewable energy generation, distribution and storage(d) Decommissioning and lifetime extension of existing energy and facilitiesThe N0MES CDT will empower its graduates to communicate, research and innovate across disciplines, and will develop flexible leaders who can move between projects and disciplines as employer priorities and scientific imperatives evolve.

The job of materials science is to develop the materials that we need to make all of the things that we rely on in our daily lives. These range from the materials used to make large scale objects, such as aeroplanes and buildings, right down to the smallest scales like the processors in the electronic devices we use every day. These materials are often complicated and need to be carefully designed with just the right properties needed to do their jobs for many decades and often in incredibly harsh conditions.There are many current challenges that require us to develop new, improved materials. We need to meet our net-zero climate goals and get better at designing products that can be fully recycled, for example. And there are some resources that we currently use in important materials for which we would like to find alternatives. These are difficult challenges and we need to overcome them quickly. But the way that materials scientists have worked to develop a new material in the past is too slow: it can take up to 20 years to develop a new material and we cannot wait that long.Fortunately, recent developments in the computer simulation of materials, in robotics and sensor technology, in our ability to exploit large volumes of data through machine learning and in techniques for quickly making and testing large numbers of different materials can help to speed things up. This idea, bringing digital technologies together to help us make better materials more quickly, is called "Materials 4.0".If we are going to take advantage of Materials 4.0 then we need to make sure that materials scientists have the necessary digital skills. These skills, things like data informatics, machine learning and advanced computer simulation, are not usually covered in depth in undergraduate university courses in science and engineering. So, the Henry Royce Institute, the UK's national institute for advanced materials, in partnership with the National Physical Laboratory, is proposing to set up a Centre for Doctoral Training (CDT) that will take at least 70 science and engineering graduates and train them in the techniques of Materials 4.0. These students will work towards PhDs and become leaders in the field of Materials 4.0. They will undertake research projects in universities across the UK (Cambridge, Oxford, Imperial College, Manchester, Sheffield, Leeds and Strathclyde), tackling a broad range of materials science challenges and developing new approaches in Materials 4.0.The need for these new approaches is widespread, throughout academia and in industry. In recognition of this, the training programme that we develop for the CDT will be made available more widely, in different forms, so that we can disseminate skills in Materials 4.0 to existing researchers in universities and industrial companies as quickly as possible. The training approach of the CDT will be to take our students from "Learners to Leaders" over the course of four years. Our students will be working across boundaries between materials science and computer / data science and between academia and industry. They will build new interfaces and help to develop a common language for communication. To strengthen our students' own learning and to disseminate their skills more widely, we will train our students as trainers so that the students are actively involved in designing and delivering training for fellow researchers and take the role of ambassadors for a cultural shift in materials science to modern ways of working.

Fatigue is the most pervasive failure mode that affects nearly all industrial sectors - including energy industries involving power plants, anemo-electric and tidal stream generators; transport vehicles and aircraft; national infrastructure such railway and bridges; military equipment from a blade in an engine to a whole ship; medical devices and human body implants. The economic cost of fracture has been enormous, approaching 4% of GDP, whereas 50-90% of all these mechanical failures are due to fatigue. Most fatigue failures are unexpected, and can lead to catastrophic consequences. In safety-critical sectors such as the aero-space and nuclear industries, there are ever increasing demands for better understanding of fatigue with respect to the microstructure of metallic components and the demanding environments that they are placed in.The ultra-small, ultra fast fatigue testing techniques I have created are able to make a breakthrough by addressing the classic needle in haystack problem in fatigue crack initiation (FCI) and short crack growth (SCG). Fatigue at these early stages is localized within a few hundred micro-meters. However, they account for more than 50% life in low cycle fatigue (LCF) and approximately 90% in the high cycle fatigue (HCF) regime, and contribute to the largest portion of scatter. My micro- and meso- cantilever techniques are capable of isolating FCI and SCG in selected microstructure features, allowing for the systematic exploration of slip evolution, slip band decohesion and short crack propagation in the context of an exquisitely well characterised volume of material. The ultra-fast testing rate up to 20 kHz means robust exploration can be achieved to 10^9 cycles and beyond, in hours in contrast to months or years demanded by the conventional method.This proposal, through further development of state-of-the-art extremely small and fast fatigue testing techniques, looks to radically change the technical scope of fatigue analysis by allowing environmental effects to be systematically explored at the levels of FCI and SCG and across the HCF and LCF regimes. In-situ ultrasonic fatigue testing rig will be installed in an advanced scanning electron microscope, enabling in-situ observation of the progression of HCF FCI and SCG at the resolution of ~ 1 nm. I will apply these cutting edge techniques to underpinning major fatigue issues in Ti and Ni alloys of technologically importance to the aero-engine industry and proton accelerators, specifically:(i) To achieve a breakthrough in mechanistic understanding of HCF FCI and SCG in titanium alloys with respect to the environments and deliver essential HCF FCI and SCG properties;(ii) To make groundbreaking study of fatigue in Alpha Case and dwelling fatigue in titanium alloys, which are major issues in aero-engine industry;(iii) To determine the effect of the heavy irradiation on HCF performance of Ti-alloys that will be used in the next generation proton accelerators;(iv) To achieve comprehensively understanding of the environmental effect on fatigue in single-crystal nickel superalloys that have the heterogeneous distribution of gamma' phase and element segregation;(v) To determine the HCF and LCF performance of the multi-functional coatings on the surface of a nickel turbo blade in the context of atmosphere, temperature and pre-corrosion treatment.A Ultrasonic Fatigue Testing Centre will be established to satisfy the frequent HCF assessment requests from the industry. The new functions developed on the ultrasonic fatigue testing rig in this project will be transferred to the national lab at Culham to update the bespoke rig in a 'hot cell', for study of active materials in support of fission and fusion innovation.

HyWay aims to synthesise hydrogen rich syngas from low cost carbon source, and eliminate the environmental issues fromconventional waste management (e.g., landfill or incineration). HyWay advances the state-of-the-art in carbonaceous wastemanagement especially plastic waste, waste tires, waste biomass and crude glycerol for hydrogen production. The overall aim of theHyWay is to establish long-term consolidated research collaborations between the participating institutions with complementaryexpertise and knowledge to design and develop carbon-neutral, scalable, and socially acceptable pathways to sort and convert wasteto hydrogen-rich syngas as part of next generation sustainable fuels. Through secondments, workshops, training, webinar series, andindustry-focused events, HyWay produces multiple avenues for career development, cross-sectoral experiences, and academictraining in a multi-cultural and interdisciplinary environment. Research results are translated into training materials, including formalacademic and industry courses on waste sorting, chemical recycling technologies, process modelling, machine learning, technoeconomicanalysis and life cycle analysis for postgraduate students, early-stage and experienced researchers and industry; trainingtutorials for industrial and technical staffs; and creating the basis for developing academic textbooks for the wider researchcommunity and possibly in undergraduate module delivery. There is also a focus on transferable skills, with dedicated trainingactivities specially designed to facilitate personal development, technological and communication skills. HyWay delivers through theeffective collaboration of 7 member state/associate country universities and companies, and eight third country universities and companies from China, Japan, Australia and Malaysia

The main goal of the IONBIKE 2.0 proposal is to fully exploit the science and technology of the disruptive "eutectogel" materials andits wide range of emerging applications in energy, bioelectronics and environment. IONBIKE 2.0 MSCA Staff Exchanges proposal is anatural follow-up of the IONBIKE RISE project. It will take advantage of the gained knowledge and momentum by the IONBIKE RISEconsortium in ionic liquid gels in bioelectronics with the addition of new partners as well as the extension of its technical scope toeutectogels and a wider range of applications. IONBIKE 2.0 will provide support for a joint research and innovation project throughthe exchange of staff with 15 partners including sixe European Universities, one Research Institute, two industries and six Universitiesfrom non-EU third countries. IONBIKE 2.0 will encourage collaboration towards a common scientific goal between all partnersthrough staff exchanges, sharing research infrastructures and networking activities. The research is highly interdisciplinary involvingexperts in different areas such as chemistry, polymers, electrochemistry, organic electronics, (bio)electronic devices, energy, chemicalengineering, environmental membranes and medical sciences. IONBIKE 2.0 is very ambitious, and it goes all the way from chemistry of the emerging eutectogels towards applications, including the participation of two industrial partners

Perovskite solar cells (PSCs) have emerged as the next-generation photovoltaic (PV) technology that offers high performance and lowprojected manufacturing costs. However, the current perovskite/charge-transport-layer (CTL) contacts lack the required long-termstructural and performance stability, which hinders the market entry of perovskite-based PVs. The instability of perovskite/contactinterfaces is a multifaceted challenge that requires a holistic solution to the interfacial defect, charge transfer, chemical stability, anddelamination problems. To overcome this challenge, it is imperative to design novel charge-selective molecules that cansimultaneously passivate perovskite/contact interface defects, facilitate charge transport, form a stable barrier layer, and preserve theintegrity of the contact stack. Therefore, this proposal aims to synthesize a new class of charge-selective molecules and use them todesign highly stable perovskite/CTL contacts that will enable the fabrication of high-efficiency and long-term stable PSCs. Unlikeexisting CTLs, the newly developed charge-selective molecules will be perovskite-specific and incorporate functional linker units,targeting to address all perovskite/contact interface problems simultaneously. Different from the existing literature studies, thisproject will follow not a specific but a complete set of the International Summit on Organic Photovoltaic Stability protocols to revealthe 'true' reliability of perovskite/contact interfaces. The holistic approach of this project, coupled with extensive characterizations,will generate new knowledge to address the long-lasting stability issue of PSCs, thereby enabling the commercialization of thispromising technology. Overall, the advanced device concepts that will be developed could pave the way to the next generation of PV technologies beyond 2030

MetacMed aims to link basic research on acoustic and mechanical metamaterials (MMs) to health and well-being issues. MMs have some remarkable properties, though to make them properly applicable to the targeted applications, their design must be carefully tailored. This will be achieved by bringing together a range of supervisory expertise and creating a network of 10 doctoral candidates (RESs), some of whom will work in the industry. The team includes beneficiaries and associated partners who, if working separately, would not be able to make the planned advances in research and innovation. RESs will each consider ways in which human health can be improved using MMs, e.g. improvement in the resolution of biomedical ultrasound imaging for e.g cancer diagnostics, the design of better spinal implants, monitoring of bone healing, the use of insoles to aid human walking. Another area of interest is to develop MMs that can be used for energy harvesting, to better power e.g. medical devices and reduce reliance on conventional power sources. These are all backed up by fundamental studies into the MMs themselves to provide the background to achieve these tasks. The balance of the network has thus been carefully considered in terms of basic science and applications, with input from industry in areas such as MMs fabrication and exploitation. Associated with the above is a strong set of training events, where the basic features of acoustic and mechanical MMs and their applications will be considered, together with soft-skills training such as writing, presenting, entrepreneurship, gender balance issues, stress management. Regular meetings of the RESs at various member locations will foster collaboration, and this will be reinforced by a carefully-selected set of secondments. A proper management system for both running the network effectively and properly monitoring and supporting PhD progression is built into the proposal, ensuring that successful outcomes are achieved by RESs

Concerted progress in energy sources, sensing, and communications are bringing closer a future in which connected smart sensors will contribute to improved health and sustainable use of resources via environmental, personal health, and process monitoring. For maximum value, data should be generated and processed through means that are reliable, but also cost effective, energy efficient, and ecologically sound. By doing the initial conditioning and processing of incoming data close to the sensor (i.e. at the edge of a sensing network), energy savings and signal integrity can be improved, at the expense of local complexity. The electronic devices performing signal conditioning, data conversion, and decision in such systems are typically realised in state-of-the art and exorbitantly expensive chip manufacturing facilities (fabs).Recent pressure on the chip supply chain has increased the appeal of exploring alternative technologies. Chief among these are thin-film processes in which electronic devices and sensing components can be manufactured at a fraction of the cost, but simultaneously with: a major drop in performance; challenges in manufacturing circuits of the required complexity; and in many cases, much higher energy requirements during operation.At Surrey, we have devised and are developing a design philosophy and associated thin-film electronic device called the source-gated transistor (SGT), with superior power efficiency, stability, and amplification compared to conventional thin-film transistors, advantages which come at the cost of further reducing the operating speed. Our recent observation shows that the best SGT performance arises when combining thin semiconductor materials of high electrical permittivity with low-permittivity dielectrics, in a design that is counterintuitive to traditional approaches but is consistent with first principles.In this project, we will demonstrate SGTs and circuits, with hitherto inaccessible levels of performance and energy efficiency, by combining the advantages of the device architecture with the material properties of suspended crystalline silicon and germanium membranes. The charge carrier mobility of these materials, vastly superior to the usual thin films, and the geometrical scaling afforded by the exceptional SGT functional features, will enable circuits that are >100x faster and >10x more energy efficient than previous SGT-based designs. By expressly merging thin-film and "traditional silicon"-based approaches, these devices will serve as unique building blocks for highly efficient wearable, point-of-care, and distributed sensing systems with built-in sensing, signal conditioning, and decision. Even as we will be using materials aligned with traditional chips, our approach will not rely on the costly state-of-the art fabrication facilities, relieving much needed manufacturing capacity for complex chips e.g. processors and AI accelerators, while delivering transformative functionality to an emerging sensor ecosystem.In this initial project, the route to manufacturing will be explored, but as a secondary concern. We will focus primarily on the demonstration of a ground-breaking concept, through innovative joining of previously disparate materials and fabrication philosophies. In a high-risk, high-reward approach, we will confirm transistor operation, not only as amplifiers and signal conditioning stages, but potentially as sensors for bio-, chemical and mechanical stimuli. We will establish design rules and guidelines, supported by numerical simulation and by material and device characterisation. Thus, these advances will holistically represent a toolkit for the implementation of highly versatile, multipurpose sensing and processing systems towards a connected future beyond the Internet-of-Things. As a catalyst for prolific academic and industrial advances, the research will contribute firmly to maintaining the UK's leadership in emerging electronic technologies.

Hydrogen is ubiquitous and has two faces. On the one hand, it is at the core of the most promising solutions to our energy crisis. Hydrogen isotopes fuel the nuclear fusion reaction, the most efficient potentially useable energy process. Moreover, hydrogen is widely seen as energy carrier of the future and the most versatile means of energy storage. It can be produced via electrolysis from renewable sources, such as wind or solar power, and stored to be used as a fuel or as a raw material in the chemical industry.On the other hand, hydrogen is widely known to cause catastrophic failures in metallic materials and structures, hampering these opportunities. Metals become brittle when exposed to hydrogen-containing environments, with the fracture resistance decreasing by up to 90%. This so-called hydrogen embrittlement phenomenon not only jeopardises the role of hydrogen as a potential solution to the global energy crisis but also constitutes one of the biggest threats to the integrity of the current energy infrastructure. The problem is particularly severe in aggressive environments, such as those experienced by the offshore industry, as corrosive mitigation strategies like cathodic protection exacerbate the production of hydrogen. Moreover, hydrogen embrittlement is becoming increasingly notorious due to the higher susceptibility of modern, high-strength steels. Decades of metallurgical research have led to the development of metals with high and ultra-high strengths. These modern alloys open new horizons in reducing weight, material use and costs while increasing performance and safety (fatigue resistance). For example, ultra-high strength steels are essential in meeting targets on CO2 emissions through vehicle weight reduction. However, the susceptibility to hydrogen embrittlement increases with material strength and the increasing uptake of these new high-performance materials has made hydrogen assisted fractures commonplace across a wide variety of sectors and applications in otherwise benign environments, from bolt cracking at the Leadenhall tower to rail failures in underground systems. There is an urgent need to understand the multiple physical mechanisms behind this hydrogen-induced degradation and develop models that can predict failures as a function of the environment, the loading conditions and the material properties.This EPSRC New Investigator Award aims at developing a new generation of models that can predict local hydrogen uptake and subsequent cracking by resolving the electrochemistry-diffusion interface and shedding light into critical uncertainties in surface behaviour and trapping. An accurate estimation of hydrogen ingress for a given bulk environment is the main bottleneck preventing the application of current chemo-mechanics models in engineering assessment. Occluded areas such as cracks, pits or other defects exhibit very different chemistry to the bulk environment, and local measurements are unfeasible apart from controlled laboratory experiments. NEXTGEM will merge mechanics with electrochemistry, combining experiments, multi-physics modelling and Bayesian inference to resolve the scientific challenges holding back the applicability of hydrogen embrittlement models. This new generation of electro-chemo-mechanics models for hydrogen embrittlement will be used to enable a safe use of high strength alloys, optimise material selection and inspection planning, and prevent catastrophic failures. The project involves world-renowned academic collaborators with expertise complementary to that of the PI and leading firms in the offshore energy sector, operating the oldest large-scale wind farm in the world (Horns Rev 1). The applicability of the models developed will be demonstrated by continuous monitoring of critical components, in a piece of proof-of-concept research that can have wider implications across the transport, defence, construction and energy sectors

Reinforcement learning (RL) is concerned with training data-driven agents to make decisions. In particular, an RL agent interacting with an environment needs to learn an optimal policy, i.e., which actions to take in different states to maximize its rewards. Recently, RL has become one of the most prominent areas of machine learning since RL methods can have tremendous potential in solving complex tasks across various fields (e.g., in autonomous driving, nuclear fusion, healthcare, hardware design, etc.). However, a number of challenges still stand in the way of its widespread adoption. Contemporary RL algorithms are often data-intensive and lack robustness guarantees. Established (deep) RL approaches require a vast amount of data that is readily available in some environments (e.g., in video games). This is often not the case with real-world tasks where data acquisition is costly. Another major challenge is to use the learned control policies in the real world while ensuring reliable, robust, and safe performance. This research aims to provide practical model-based RL algorithms with rigorous statistical and robustness guarantees. This is significant in safety-critical applications where obtaining data is expensive, e.g., in nuclear fusion, learning policies to control plasmas is performed via expensive simulators. The key novelty will be to incorporate the versatile robustness aspects into model-based RL allowing for its broad application across different applications and domains.This project focuses on designing algorithms that make use of powerful non-linear statistical models to learn about the world and can tackle large state spaces present in modern RL tasks. The focus is on obtaining near-optimal policies that are robust against distributional shifts in the environmental dynamics, (adversarial) data corruptions/outliers, and satisfy application-dependent safety constraints during exploration. A major contribution will be novel rigorous statistical sample complexity guarantees for designed algorithms that characterize convergence to optimal robust and safe policies. The obtained guarantees will be efficient in the sense of being independent of the number of states, and hence applicable to complex applications. This will require designing new robust estimators and confidence intervals for popular statistical models. Moreover, the project will result in an entire testbed with distributional shifts and attacking strategies that will be provided to benchmark the robustness of standard and novel robust RL algorithms. This project will be among the first contribution to achieving both robustness and efficiency in MBRL by providing practical algorithms that can be readily applied to emerging impactful real-world tasks such as robust control of nuclear plasmas (an exciting and promising path toward sustainable energy) and efficient discovery of system-on-chip designs.

This project aims to promote the sustainable use of water for urban green spaces during heatwaves and water scarcity restrictions to maintain green spaces as efficient and effective nature-based solutions for urban heat resilience. Increasing heatwave frequency and intensity will result in increased cooling energy consumption and mortality rates, and loss of worker productivity, which impose an additional burden on the economy. The development of effective green spaces for heatwave resilience requires sustainable water use planning and careful management, especially in arid and semiarid regions where irrigation is a key factor to save plants and produce cooling. Improving water efficiency by reducing irrigation without decreasing cooling effects is challenging. The success of this proposal contributes to water conservation and improved thermal comfort under heatwaves in the framework of UN SDG 3, 6, 11 and 13, and European Green Deal. In this project, the management strategy of deficit irrigation will be applied to maximise the productivity of applied water by optimising the trade-off between thermal comfort and irrigation. Estimation of water requirement of urban green spaces is difficult because of the heterogeneous nature of plants, small and isolated individual green spaces and the presence of various microclimates. The lack of approaches addressing all these factors has increased the gap between the irrigation water application and real water demand. This project will use the 3D micro-scale model ENVI-met to estimate ET, water loss from the processes of evaporation and transpiration. The results will be evaluated against on-site measurements in four green spaces. The effects of heatwave and water shortage on cooling of green spaces and thermal comfort will be estimated. By validating and developing ENVI-met for ET estimations based on real environmental conditions, this study will greatly advance decision support tools for nature-based resilience to heatwaves

Meeting the net-zero commitment on greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 means significantly cutting back on emissions by 2035. However, currently, ~80% of our energy supply is dependent on fossil fuels which by default means additional emissions. There is a wide range of technologies that can help us achieve decarbonisation of our energy supply and reach net zero. Using renewable hydrogen to convert emitted CO2, for the sustainable synthesis of chemicals, such as methanol, could result in a ~ 90% drop in CO2 emissions. And this could be possible using existing infrastructure.Indeed methanol is currently used as a solvent, pesticide, and alternative fuel source. It can be blended with gasoline to be used in existing road vehicles, or can be used as a substitute for gasoline or diesel in flex-fuel vehicles and dedicated methanol-fuelled vehicles. However, the lack of robust and active catalysts that convert CO2 to methanol selectively are currently hindering its wide commercial deployment. This project proposes a new way of controllably producing such catalysts, using a method called exsolution. Instead of depositing the catalytically active sites on the surface of the materials, they emerge on the surface from within following a carefully designed pre-treatment. This allows to spatially and chemically control them, while also provide them with stability against agglomeration and poisoning.The project is expected to lead to the production of super-catalysts that will allow us to successfully convert a greenhouse gas to basically a necessary chemical for everyday use. It will also ultimately enable a step-change in our progress towards our 2050 net-zero goals.

Incremental advances in semiconductor technology of the past decades led to unprecedented miniaturization of optoelectronic integrated circuits, which now use billions of transistors, each containing only hundreds of atoms. However, these most sophisticated devices still rely on collective phenomena such as electric currents and light beams. These classical concepts are limited by atomic-scale effects and allow no further progress through miniaturization. Overcoming this bottleneck, would require a new generation of devices where atomic scale effects are no longer an obstacle but are used as a resource to build circuits through precise placement of individual atoms while exploiting quantum effects to boost information storage and processing capacity.Recent innovations in semiconductor material science and technology offer new routes to atomic scale miniaturisation. This project relies on a new type of semiconductor quantum dots, which are tiny semiconductor crystals consisting of only a few thousand atoms. A comprehensive program of material development and experimental physics studies will seek to demonstrate quantum information storage and processing with nuclear magnetic states of individual atoms incorporated into a quantum dot. The broad goal of this proposal is to understand fundamental phenomena and develop material technologies that will stimulate and guide the transition from existing classical digital chips to future devices, which will eventually use every individual atom of a semiconductor crystal as a resource to build integrated circuits with Avogadro-scale number of elementary units and unprecedented information processing power and energy efficiency.

Global energy consumption is rising daily at an astronomical rate. In 2021, we used 176,431 TWh worldwide, which was more than double the amount consumed in 1982 and over six times that used in 1950. Whilst the use of renewable energy has been increasing in recent years, it still only accounts for ca. 16% of our energy consumption, and it is projected that renewables will account for only ca. 20% of global consumption in 2040. Currently, the biggest barrier to the uptake of renewable energy, particularly wind and solar electricity, is the inherent intermittency of the power production and the lack of scalable methods of storing electrical energy. Despite this, there is still a mismatch between the R&D efforts on energy capture and energy storage. Existing energy storage devices are assembled via multiple laborious processing steps and typically employ flammable solvents and fossil fuel-derived materials with poor thermal and chemical stability. Hence, there is a need to identify new solutions for sustainable energy storage. Together with this, materials generated from renewable feedstocks are desperately required to displace fossil fuel-derived products currently used around the world. Strikingly, only ca. 1% of all current polymer and plastic materials are made from renewable resources.The aim of this project is to develop safe, reliable, sustainable and commercially relevant next generation responsive gel electrolyte materials which will facilitate better green energy storage solutions. We will create bespoke functional, renewable polymers that possess unique material properties which make them excellent choices for a plethora of practical applications compared to existing materials currently used. When these unique polymers are combined with ionic liquids, they can form hybrid ionic liquid-polymer gel electrolytes called ionogels - these ionogels are not only more environmentally friendly gel electrolytes but they have enhanced, responsive mechanical properties with a broader scope of applications in fuel and solar cells, transistors, actuators and battery electrolytes. This transformative research programme will deliver new sustainable, responsive ionogel materials with minimal polymer loading (less than 3% w/w), achieved using novel block copolymer solution self-assembly strategies and importantly via greener one-pot processes for in situ ionogel formation, significantly enhancing the industrial viability of these ionogel preparation routes. The ionogels developed in this project will address the significant shortcomings in the underutilisation of renewable energy in the coming years and will thus contribute to the UK's drive to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. Given the desperate need for sustainable energy storage solutions, as recognised by the UN with Sustainable Development Goal 7 on affordable and clean energy, the proposed research is timely and impactful

Biomass, as the sole carbon-containing renewable energy source, will undoubtedly continue to play an indispensable role for Europe and the world in addressing the pressing challenges of energy crisis, climate change and environmental degradation. Converting biomass into biomass-derived carbon materials (BCMs) represents a crucial and unique approach to tackling these issues. As there remains a notable gap in our understanding of the mechanisms governing the multiscale structural evolution from biomass to BCMs especially under extreme conditions, TSBCM aims at achieving the targeted synthesis of BCMs by implementing three closely interconnected technical work packages, which are systematically comprehending the intrinsic mechanisms driving multiscale structure evolution using both conventional and unconventional methods (microwave and Joule heating) under extreme conditions, developing universally applicable methods to guide the preparation of BCMs towards desired structures, and demonstrating the proposed general methods through proof-of-concept applications of electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding and energy storage sodium-ion battery (SIB). The University of Edinburgh (UEDIN) and its UK Biochar Research Centre (UKBRC) stand at the forefront of biomass conversion and utilization research. The applicant, beyond the expected excellent research, profits greatly from the experiences of international view and professional skills training (UEDIN, UKBRC, host) supporting his strive for an independent academic career as professor. The successful implementation of TSBCM will facilitate the commercialization of BCMs and accelerate their applications in broad fields of energy storage, EMI shielding, carbon reduction, electronics, etc. Naturally, the applicant, the host, and UEDIN are fully committed to the planned action and to a most successful outcome, which will in turnstrengthen EU's world-leading position in renewable energy technologies.

There is an ever pressing need to develop clean and green methods for energy generation. Fusion is an important part of the solution, in principal at least providing close to unlimited high grade energy with a close to zero carbon footprint. Fusion is at a cross-roads, the physics is well understood but the engineering still needs a great deal of effort to bring about practical fusion. High Temperature Superconductors (HTS) have recently emerged as a serious contender for achieving this goal. The purpose of this project is to overcome the major difficulty of AC losses which are a perennial problem with HTS. HTS are only lossless under DC conditions, this will not be the case with a fusion magnet which will be ramped up and down. In a reactor there are coils which need to be ramped rapidly this will induce AC losses. AC losses are a perennial problem for superconductors which needs to be solved. Once it is solved a huge range of applications will become practical, not only fusion but, for example electric flight, even more powerful wind generators and many more. We aim to solve this problem

Electrochemical energy storage (EES) is crucial in the carbon-neutral future. Nevertheless, the current battery value chain hassignificant risks, especially concerning the supply of critical raw materials. eNargiZinc aims at developing new knowledge, technologyand commercially exploitable products related to innovative and affordable next-generation EES devices, targeting long-termsustainability through the use of abundant and renewable materials and low environmental-impact production processes. A rigoroustraining-through-research programme for ten Doctoral Candidates (DCs) has been designed through an interdisciplinary andintersectoral approach, involving studies on all the essential parts needed to develop sodium-ion batteries, zinc-air batteries, andzinc-ion batteries/supercapacitors. The research within eNargiZinc will focus on developing sustainable electrode materials (biomassderived carbons and their composites, redox-active polymers, hybrid transition metal oxides, and interphases for anode-lessconcepts), electrolytes (solid-state and gel-polymer types), and, especially, on integrating all the developed components into full cellsat an industrially-relevant scale. A Personalised Training Package for each DC will be tailored to allow them to acquire the requiredskills over the three years of employment within the network. To this aim, secondments to other partners (especially in the nonacademic sector), training in complementary skills, and network-wide training events will be implemented. The consortium, which iscomposed of nine beneficiaries and nine associated partners, is addressed to achieve the objectives of eNargiZinc and is based onexcellence, synergy and complementarity. Industrial partners will play a key role in the network, by providing the DCs with exposure to the private sector and access to industrially-relevant facilities, which are essential to validate the findings obtained at lab-scale

Environmental sustainability is one of the greatest challenges the world is facing, with many organisations and countries including the UK setting ambitious targets to reduce emissions and waste and increase renewable energy production. Technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) are seen as a key enabler to achieve these targets. This CDT will address this need by training future leaders in the application of AI to engineer a more environmentally sustainable future. Crucially, the students will not only have a fundamental understanding of AI, but they will also be able to identify the opportunities where sustainability challenges can be addressed using these tools, as well as understanding the business and social implications and needs. Stakeholder meetings and follow-up surveys have identified this type of system-level thinking as one of the key training requirements besides technical ability. Indeed, without considering People, Profit, and Planet together, solutions are unlikely to be adopted on a wide scale. Further to that, our unique selling point is that students will be trained with a view to directly respond to industry and societal challenges identified from our pool of 30 non-academic stakeholders which we will continuously refresh and grow.Together with our network of stakeholders, we have identified 5 themes as the focus for the research: (1) Sustainable Operations and Circular Economy, (2) Sustainable Transport and Logistics, (3) Energy and Buildings, (4) AI for Biodiversity and (5) Sustainable AI. The first 4 deal with specific application areas where AI can improve environmental sustainability. For example, AI can be used to make transport more efficient including shipping and realise targets for net zero. AI can also be used to better manage energy use and production e.g. through intelligent electric vehicle charging and decentralised energy markets. Theme 5 deals with hardware, software, and social/business solutions to deal with the sustainability of AI itself. For example, ChatGPT-v3 is estimated to have cost an equivalent of over 550 tons of CO2 to train. This can be addressed by building low-powered hardware and algorithms, and understanding the quality/cost trade-offs. Interdisciplinary projects and projects that span multiple themes are particularly encouraged.Alongside AI, sustainability is a core theme of our training, which has a range of sustainability-themed cohort activities, including innovation camps, hackathons and outreach activities, as well as regular team exercises where sustainability practices in organisations are scrutinised, re-scoped and improved. The aim is to produce a sustainability mindset whilst creating a collaborative team spirit and have an immediate impact in the operations within organisations. In addition, equality, diversity and inclusion principles are embedded throughout the CDT, from recruitment activities, to training of the management and supervisory team, as well as accommodating students with diverse backgrounds through a flexible training approach. Throughout, responsible research and innovation will be at the forefront and integrated within the training. This will be enhanced by our close collaboration with the Responsible AI (RAI) UK centre.Whilst there are bespoke compulsory modules, a range of optional modules from 3 different faculties are offered to supplement any gaps in knowledge depending on the chosen topic of research. These range from technical subjects such as machine learning and embedded devices to economics and supply chain management. In addition, an extensive range of online and short training workshops will be available throughout the CDT, from software carpentries for data analysis to training around policy (e.g., how to engage with government and writing policy documents) and commercialisation. These training and cohort-building activities provide students with more than a PhD, and significantly enhance their employability.

Controlling transport of liquid matter through channels with dimensions from Ångströms to nanometres is a key challenge in many areas of science and engineering. However, progress in this field is hampered by our lack of understanding, as the conventional macroscopic description of transport phenomena breaks down. Explaining the anomalous transport behaviour at the sub-nano scale necessitates close integration of experiments with atomistic model calculations. The emerging field promises huge technological and socio-economic impact. However, it is essential to train a new generation of early-stage researchers in the diverse skills that are needed to develop and apply precisely controlled nanofluidic mass transport. This, in a few words, is the aim of FLUXIONIC program: bridging Physics, Chemistry, Materials Science, and emerging nanoscale technologies. We created the network comprising academic and private partners with the major objective to offer an integrated training and a strong program of secondments to young researchers. FLUXIONIC will provide a rigorous, balanced, and timely supra-disciplinary training delivered by internationally leading scientists, with seamless opportunities to move between industry and academia. Recent exciting developments in experimental and theoretical methods to study transport of fluids and charged particles at the nanoscale mean that we are now at a stage where exploration of key processes is viable and fundamental and applied breakthroughs can be expected from our research program. The additional impact of FLUXIONIC will be structuring the EU research environment through long-term collaborations, consolidating doctoral training programs, and bridging the R&D in academia and industry. We will train young researchers for future leadership in the rapidly growing fields of nanotechnology with strong impacts on core challenges of modern society: clean water, disease treatment, sustainable production, storage and usage of energy

Controlling transport of liquid matter through channels with dimensions from Ångströms to nanometres is a key challenge in many areas of science and engineering. However, progress in this field is hampered by our lack of understanding, as the conventional macroscopic description of transport phenomena breaks down. Explaining the anomalous transport behaviour at the sub-nano scale necessitates close integration of experiments with atomistic model calculations. The emerging field promises huge technological and socio-economic impact. However, it is essential to train a new generation of early-stage researchers in the diverse skills that are needed to develop and apply precisely controlled nanofluidic mass transport. This, in a few words, is the aim of FLUXIONIC program: bridging Physics, Chemistry, Materials Science, and emerging nanoscale technologies. We created the network comprising academic and private partners with the major objective to offer an integrated training and a strong program of secondments to young researchers. FLUXIONIC will provide a rigorous, balanced, and timely supra-disciplinary training delivered by internationally leading scientists, with seamless opportunities to move between industry and academia. Recent exciting developments in experimental and theoretical methods to study transport of fluids and charged particles at the nanoscale mean that we are now at a stage where exploration of key processes is viable and fundamental and applied breakthroughs can be expected from our research program. The additional impact of FLUXIONIC will be structuring the EU research environment through long-term collaborations, consolidating doctoral training programs, and bridging the R&D in academia and industry. We will train young researchers for future leadership in the rapidly growing fields of nanotechnology with strong impacts on core challenges of modern society: clean water, disease treatment, sustainable production, storage and usage of energy

Controlling transport of liquid matter through channels with dimensions from Ångströms to nanometres is a key challenge in many areas of science and engineering. However, progress in this field is hampered by our lack of understanding, as the conventional macroscopic description of transport phenomena breaks down. Explaining the anomalous transport behaviour at the sub-nano scale necessitates close integration of experiments with atomistic model calculations. The emerging field promises huge technological and socio-economic impact. However, it is essential to train a new generation of early-stage researchers in the diverse skills that are needed to develop and apply precisely controlled nanofluidic mass transport. This, in a few words, is the aim of FLUXIONIC program: bridging Physics, Chemistry, Materials Science, and emerging nanoscale technologies. We created the network comprising academic and private partners with the major objective to offer an integrated training and a strong program of secondments to young researchers. FLUXIONIC will provide a rigorous, balanced, and timely supra-disciplinary training delivered by internationally leading scientists, with seamless opportunities to move between industry and academia. Recent exciting developments in experimental and theoretical methods to study transport of fluids and charged particles at the nanoscale mean that we are now at a stage where exploration of key processes is viable and fundamental and applied breakthroughs can be expected from our research program. The additional impact of FLUXIONIC will be structuring the EU research environment through long-term collaborations, consolidating doctoral training programs, and bridging the R&D in academia and industry. We will train young researchers for future leadership in the rapidly growing fields of nanotechnology with strong impacts on core challenges of modern society: clean water, disease treatment, sustainable production, storage and usage of energy

Communications and information networks are ubiquitous in our daily life, and information and communications technology (ICT) is estimated to contribute 1.8%-2.8% of carbon emissions. The successful deployment of 5G has revealed that the total power consumption for a 5G communication system is much higher than that in 4G due to more densely placed base stations in 5G. A recent study also revealed that a potential 6G system would consume nearly 50 times higher power than a 5G system due to a larger number of antennas, a wider spectral bandwidth occupation, and a denser base station deployment strategy. 5G techniques have already been standardized and deployed in real life without the priority on net-zero sustainability. Therefore, to lead the sustainability innovations for next generation net-zero communications, we should reshape the physical layer techniques for 6G.Improving energy efficiency has become the priority worldwide and has been identified as a key technology enabler for next generation 6G systems, and a number of industries and research institutes are chasing for net zero sustainable technology to achieve the objectives of cutting energy usage and carbon emission. This project aims for underpinning research in sustainable communication systems, which aligns with the UK government's top priority and ambitions on net zero in Wireless Infrastructure Strategy: a vision for 2030 (Source: GOV.UK).Power consumption for a communication system is directly linked to physical components such as physical hardware and physical signals. Hardware upgrade via advanced manufacturing can cut power consumption but with limited contributions in 6G when more base stations are required to serve a given area. Therefore, a fundamental breakthrough in energy efficient physical signal design, more precisely waveform design, is timely and specially positioned to achieve net-zero goals in 6G.A number of advancements have been achieved since 1924 when Harry Nyquist developed the foundation of today's digital communication signals. However, the existing waveform design in communication systems faces a number of fundamental challenges (a) Existing energy efficient air interface waveform designs are limited by the Mazo limit, which can only save power by up to 20% without any performance loss. However, the 20% power saving is no longer sufficient and the 20% is achievable at the cost of sophisticated and energy consuming signal processing. (b) Mathematically derived waveforms are limited by known mathematical models and are unlikely to be the optimal. (c) Machine learning can assist signals to have better performance but machine learning algorithms require lots of processing power. (d) Existing signal waveforms and AI models are commonly deployed using high energy consuming hardware because powerful computing resources are needed. To address the above challenges, an ambitious program is proposed including i) fundamental explorations of new waveforms beyond the conventional 20% power saving limit, ii) co-design of waveform and artificial intelligence to derive advanced waveform formats and cut the complexity of AI models, iii) low-cost hardware proof of concept with power saving validations.The fundamental research breakthrough in the signal waveform design with intelligence will have impacts on researchers' work across many areas and fields, from circuit design to new communication systems, artificial intelligence algorithms, sensors and sensor networks, green communication techniques, advanced signal processing, biomedical signals, and other areas.

Hydrogen is said to be both a blessing and a curse. It is ubiquitous and its applications will drive the technology of a net-zero carbon society. However, it is also infamous for "embrittling" metallic materials, dramatically reducing their ductility, fracture toughness and fatigue crack growth resistance. Hydrogen-assisted failures are commonplace across the transport, defence, construction and energy sectors, and their prevention is being held back by the lack of mechanistic understanding of what is known to be a particularly challenging phenomenon. As a result, significant cross-disciplinary research efforts have been allocated to the characterisation of this hydrogen embrittlement phenomenon and to the development of observation-driven mechanistic interpretations. My aim for ResistHfracture is to bring a paradigm change by going from the analysis of the problem to the design of a new generation of materials that will provide intrinsic resistance to hydrogen-assisted cracking. This will be achieved by exploring a counter-intuitive paradigm that carries a high risk but potentially also a high return: to deliberately introduce defects that can act as 'beneficial traps', sequestering the hydrogen away from harmful locations and hindering hydrogen diffusion within the metal. Materials will be engineered with a spatially-controlled distribution of voids, establishing a new "hydrogen trapping" paradigm through the combination of experimental and computational techniques spanning the areas of solid mechanics, nanofabrication, phase field fracture, additive manufacturing, multi-scale materials characterisation, and physical chemistry. This multi-disciplinary endeavour will establish new avenues for counteracting the deleterious effect of hydrogen, bringing new fundamental insight on trapping and surface phenomena, and laying the scientific foundations for engineering solutions that can address the pressing need of safely deploying a hydrogen energy infrastructur

Transportation is the largest contributor of carbon emissions in the UK (23%). Tackling transport emissions is one of the defining challenges of the UK Government's Net Zero Strategy. The Climate Change Committee consistently finds that lower travel demand futures are necessary to meet our carbon budgets but, as yet, there is a lack of credible solutions in the UK or internationally which can deliver change at scale.Sharing mobility assets, 'right-sizing' of vehicles, and powered light electric mobility could counter the focus on heavier vehicles and accelerate electric vehicle uptake by lowering costs and widening access. New service design options such as demand-responsive transport, service integration across products, radical road space reallocation, and virtual technologies could also improve the attractiveness of non-car-based options. However transport science, has focused only on measuring, predicting, and acting under assumptions of increasing car use. It lacks the data, the models, the methods, and the mandate to inform more radical transformation to new forms of mobility access not predicated on individual ownership. The INFUZE project seeks to address this major gap with a vision:To transform the process of understanding, designing, and implementing transport system interventions to enable and ensure the rapid transition to zero carbon mobility through accessing mobility on demand.INFUZE will develop a ground breaking approach to participatory mobility science to build a unique suite of data-enabled decision tools to identify and galvanise the opportunities for emerging mobility service systems which capture the impact of place, social learning, and tipping points. We will test, evaluate, and learn through a series of ambitious real-world trials how to stimulate a transition from individual ownership to mobility access. The question is not 'can you live without your car?' but 'what would a world where people did not need to own their own cars look like?'INFUZE will answer this question by achieving seven key objectives:Co-design with communities and stakeholders a set of vision-led approaches to building mobility systems which provide a positive alternative to car-ownershipDevelop new tools and conceptual models to understand the propensity to shift mobility ownership to mobility access taking account of new mobility service characteristicsBuild a world leading Agent Based Modelling platform which enables the joint modelling of mobility ownership, access and mobility choicesCreate and deploy new forms of data visualisation to enable stakeholders to engage with, scrutinise and impact our models to build enhanced scientific legitimacyTest, learn, iterate and validate our tools through a transdisciplinary, experimental approach that integrates participatory design science, data science and behavioural scienceIdentify the governance and policy changes which will enable new mobility packages to be scaled up and transferred nationally and beyondChange how mobility transitions are researched, developing a new approach to participatory mobility science for change INFUZE will open up opportunities for researchers to develop new projects and businesses to develop and test algorithms and services. The grant will act as a springboard to a new National Centre of Excellence in Low Carbon Mobility Transitions as a major 'place-based' investment that will enable partners from across the UK, and globally, to design and evaluate interventions building on our unique data assets, models, and whole life carbon assessment tools. Our participatory mobility science will change the way consultancies and governments approach the mobility transition challenge

Electrical machines are electromechanical energy converters between electrical/mechanical energy in both generating and motoring applications. Existing electrical machines rely on copper windings and iron circuits for electro-magnetic coupling, resulting in insufficient machine power density for zero-emission aviation electrification. High temperature superconductors (HTS) offer a ground-breaking and transformative way to develop high power density electrical machines with high efficiency. The zero resistivity of HTS enables ironless magnetic couplings with high electrical and magnetic loadings for a HTS machine. However, power densities of the HTS machines demonstrated to date are at least three times lower than theoretical predictions, due the fundamental challenges in understanding the complex inter-relationship between HTS and rotational electromagnetism. SUPERMAN aims to revolutionise HTS machine technology by providing ground-breaking technologies to develop novel HTS machines with high power density and efficiency, enabling them to replace fossil fuel driven counterparts in zero-emission aviation. By demonstrating an electrical machine to match the power density of gas turbine cores, SUPERMAN will generate an immediate impact in the aviation industry. As a multi-disciplinary research program bringing together material science, physics and engineering, SUPERMAN will open up new research frontiers in applying cutting-edge superconductivity to tackle clean energy conversion challenges

Artificial intelligence (AI) is undergoing an era of explosive growth. With increasingly capable AI agents such as chatGPT, AlphaFold, Gato and DALL-E capturing the public imagination, the potential impact of AI on modern society is becoming ever clearer for all to see. APRIL is a project that seeks to bring the benefits of AI to the electronics industry of the UK. Specifically, we aspire developing AI tools for cutting development times for everything from new, fundamental materials for electronic devices to complicated microchip designs and system architectures, leading to faster, cheaper, greener and overall, more power-efficient electronics.Imagine a future where extremely complex and intricate material structures, far more complex than what a human could design alone, are optimised by powerful algorithms (such as an AlphaFold for semiconductor materials). Or consider intelligent machines with domain-specialist knowledge (think of a Gato-like system trained on exactly the right milieu of skills) experimenting day and night with manufacturing techniques to build the perfect electronic components. Or yet what if we had algorithms trained to design circuits by interacting with an engineer in natural language (like a chatGPT with specialist knowledge)? Similar comments could be made about systems that would take care of the most tedious bits of testing and verifying increasingly complex systems such as mobile phone chipsets or aircraft avionics software, or indeed for modelling and simulating electronics (both potentially achievable by using semi-automated AI coders such asGoogle's "PaLM" model). This is precisely the cocktail of technologies that APRIL seeks to develop.In this future, AI - with its capabilities of finding relevant information, performing simple tasks when instructed to do so and its incredible speed - would operate under the supervision of experienced engineers for assisting them in creating electronics suited to an ever-increasing palette of requirements, from low-power systems to chips manufactured to be recyclable to ultra-secure systems for handling the most sensitive and private data. To achieve this, APRIL brings together a large consortium of universities, industry and government bodies, working together to develop: i) the new technologies of the future, ii) the tools that will make these technologies a reality and very importantly, iii) the people with the necessary skills (for building as well as using such new tools) to ensure that the UK remains a capable and technologically advanced player in the global electronics industry.

Climate change is arguably one of the most top challenges our planet facing during the 21st century, mainly due to huge amounts of greenhouse gas emissions in CO2 form to the atmosphere. In this regard, the catalytic upgradation of CO2 into fuels and high-value chemicals, e.g., ethanol, appears to be one of the most valuable solutions to address the overloaded CO2 in air. Catalytic CO2 hydrogenation to ethanol (CTE) not only contributes to slow down the global warming but also contributes to alleviate the global food shortage. Among various developed catalysts, Au- and Pd-based nano-materials emerge as one of the most effective catalysts for CO2 hydrogenation to ethanol, which deserves more research efforts. While the limited ethanol activity (TOF < 400 h-1) and relatively harsh reaction conditions (T greater than or equal to 200 oC, P > 3 MPa) preclude these works from industrialization. Herein, this proposal focuses on developing the strategies to maximize the atom utilization efficiency and the sites number of metal/adjacent oxygen vacancy, through atom-by-atom constructing atomically precise Au/Pd sites on oxygen-vacancy-rich My/TiO2-x (i.e., M=In3+, Fe3+), to further improve ethanol productivity under mild conditions. Furthermore, various operando spectroscopy techniques (e.g., operando X-ray absorption spectroscopy and steady-state isotopic transient kinetic analysis) will be integrated to identify the intermediates and mechanism of C-C coupling, thus establishing a clear structure-performance relationship and providing a rational guidance for the design of future CO2 catalysts, all of which will contribute to the ambitious goal of European Commission for reducing CO2 emissions from all sources by 80%-95% by 2050

The discovery and design of new materials is critical for advancing the state-of-the-art in batteries, which in turn are required for advancing a range of carbon-emission reducing technologies such as renewable energy and electric vehicles. Experimental discovery of new materials is typically slow and costly, quantum mechanics (QM) calculations have brought computational materials design within reach. However, QM calculations are often limited to relatively small sets of materials, as their computational costs are too great for large-scale screening, this is the case for calculating properties required for new battery materials. New methods in machine learning (ML) have emerged as a powerful complementary tool to QM calculations - learning rules from data calculated from QM and applying cheap, efficient models to explore large chemical spaces. However, these ML models have hitherto been restricted to instances where relatively large datasets of QM properties (tens of thousands or more instances) are available for training the ML, thus limiting their utility. In this project we will combine the expertise of our two groups (ML for materials design and computational modelling of battery materials) to tackle this important issue by using the approach of transfer learning (TL). In TL a prior model trained on a large dataset but on an apparently different problem, is used as a foundation to learn on a new, smaller dataset of direct relevance to the battery problem. TL has been transformative in many other fields and with this project we aim to bring this potential to materials design in general and battery materials in particular

In various systems that underpin people's living condition, movement and communication, we need power electronics converters to transfer electrical energy. For example, they can transfer almost constant voltage and current generated from a solar panel to the power grid, where the voltage and current are alternating polarities. They can also transfer alternating voltage from household power sockets to charge electric vehicles, smart phones and laptops, where the voltage of the batteries is almost constant. As the electricity is generated from a combination of sources (fossil fuel and renewable energy), the efficiency of the power electronics converters plays a vital role to reduce CO2 emission for Net Zero and sustainable development.The operation of the power electronics converters relies on the semiconductor transistors. A power electronics converter usually has 6 or more transistors. Each transistor works like a "switch" to turn on and off repeatedly following certain control patterns. When a transistor switches from one state to another, there is an overlap of voltage and current across it which causes power losses. If the efficiency of power electronics converters needs to be improved, each transistor's transition should be reduced. A recently developed transistor based on emerging gallium nitride (GaN) materials demonstrate the capability to transfer the kilowatt power during nanoseconds, which reduces the power losses more than 10 times in comparison to a traditional transistor based on silicon.However, the fast power transition comes with the challenge of the electromagnetic noise, which will propagate from one transistor to another, and from a high power circuit to a low power control circuit for control patterns generation. Consequently, the transistor will withstand higher voltage and current spikes that reduce their lifetime, and the low power circuit will generate wrong control patterns and make the whole converter fail to operate. Under the fast switching of GaN, the noise interference also reaches to a level that conventional approaches based on silicon transistors can no longer work.An ambitious target of the proposal is to reduce the noise interference by using a new design to connect multiple GaN transistors with their control circuits, and assemble them together in a power converter. We will first identify noise interference strength and polarity generated by each transistor, and then use the noise interference of the same strength but different polarities to cancel each other. Therefore, the total effective noise interference will reduce to almost zero in our proposed design, and power converter efficiency could be greatly improved. To achieve this ambitious design, a new partnership with French Ampere Lab will be developed and built via knowledge transfer and learning. The unique and global leading expertise of French Ampere Lab on 3D high-density packaging is crucial for the implementation of the design, and it will complement University of Nottingham team's expertise of power transistor application. Eventually, it will benefit UK and make UK a world leading role for emerging GaN power electronics technology that will underpin Net Zero and sustainable development.

The implementation of the European Green Deal is one of the highest priorities and biggest challenges of theEuropean Union today. Accelerating the decarbonisation of our economy requires the cost-effective generationof green hydrogen, large-scale and long-term (seasonal) hydrogen storage solutions and the development ofnew ways to utilise hydrogen as a chemical feedstock. PHOTOCAT3.0 will address these challenges bypioneering the development of next-generation sulphide perovskite photocatalysts that efficiently producegreen hydrogen, store it in form of ammonia and utilise it in the synthesis of chemicals from CO2These next-gen photocatalysts will excel in light-harvesting across the visible light spectrum as well as in theselective breaking and making of chemical bonds targeting high-value products. For the design of thephotocatalysts, this project takes inspiration from nature's approach to tackling some of the same chemicaltransformations with metallo-sulphur cluster-containing enzymes (hydrogenase, nitrogenase and carbonmonoxide and formate dehydrogenases), and, on the other hand, from high-performant photovoltaic materialssuch as copper indium gallium sulphides and selenides and lead halide perovskites. The objectives ofPHOTOCAT3.0 are i) to pioneer the development of low-temperature atomic layer deposition routes to highqualityhighly defined sulphide perovskite photocatalysts, ii) to establish an unprecedented understanding ofoptoelectronic and surface catalytic properties of this emerging class of materials through advancedcharacterisation techniques, iii) to benchmark their performance in photocatalytic transformations of smallmolecules with enormous economic and environmental importance and iv) to accelerate material discoveryusing Bayesian optimisation to predict optimum catalytic performance from a minimum set of experimentsand samples. This approach will produce the urgently needed efficiency breakthroughs of photocatalytic systems

MolCal will contribute to establishing a critical mass of researchers in promising exploratory topics on caloric materials and energy conversion technologies for solid-state cooling and heating applications at near-ambient and very-low temperatures. Temperature control systems are responsible for approximately half of the EU energy consumption expenditure. This figure alone amply justifies the need to dedicate great efforts to the search for alternative refrigeration and heat pump methods. Research on caloric materials has never been as active as it is now, due to the prospect of new-generation refrigerators and heat pumps that are energy efficient and environmentally friendly, on the one hand, and the policies on low-energy consumption and global warming refrigerants, on the other. MolCal presents an approach never tried before in similar collaborative research training programmes. We will consider caloric materials that fall under the umbrella of molecule-based materials and can respond to different sources of the driving stimulus, be it magnetic, electric, and/or mechanical. Since there is no clear-cut consensus on which type of caloric material holds the most promise, this multi-front approach will be an advantage because it will permit transfer of methods already developed from the magnetocaloric subfield into the others, which are increasingly in the spotlight because of their enormous potentiality. Furthermore, MolCal will develop devices based on low-cost barocaloric materials and, due to the molecular characteristics, will progress towards challenging applications by exploring the limits of the smallest size of magnetic refrigerators. Academic and non-academic leaders, from top research institutions in Europe and outside, will expose the doctoral researchers to integrative, multidisciplinary, and multisectoral training in chemistry, materials science, physics, device development, and relevant transversal skills

Finding an efficient way to put in contact gases and solids is essential for many of the operations in the manufacturing and energy industries. Powders are often primary products e.g. chemicals, fast moving consumer goods (FMCG), or key materials e.g. biomass, adsorbents, oxygen carriers, catalysts. Process intensification looks into ways of making gas-solid contact devices compact, use energy efficiently and generate less waste. As we transition into clean energies and the decarbonisation of industry, the need for new materials and processes accelerates. In the next decade we will rely in digitalization and the access to a vast amount of data to improve control, but also to predict the potential of new initiatives, emerging technology, and changes in the supply chain. We will need to be able to reconfigure existing processes, absorb or discard new materials, quickly and without unrealistic investments. This means that new contact devices can no longer simply focus on the optimisation of the rigid conception of the classic unit operations. Design must be flexible. Units must be efficient, but also robust and responsive, designed to adapt to changing targets, multiple functions, be retrofitted, and integrated within advance control strategies.In this award, I put forward a new class of responsive technology: Responsive gas-solid Vortex Chambers (REVOC), that can adapt in real-time to changing conditions to maximise the efficiency of gas-solid processes in the manufacturing (e.g. advance coating), and energy sectors (e.g. Power-to-X reactors). Swirl has been used for long in intensification to improve the transfer of heat and mass between a gas and a solid. High-g devices (those creating a very strong swirling motion) are the most efficient and can process cohesive material, otherwise hard to mix. However, they are also difficult to design and often, hard to scale. Gas-solid vortex reactors (GSVRs) create a fast-rotating fluidized bed without any moving parts. They have shown great potential as catalytic reactors and their simplicity makes them easy to deploy, but they are not broadly applicable. Like most chambers, GSVRs are conceived for a given type of feedstock, and do not cope well with changes in loading (e.g. adding a liquid), solid properties (e.g. diameter), or when the powder features a broad range of size, or different formulations (e.g. foods, drugs, fuels). This project puts forward a new design concept whereby a vortex chamber becomes responsive and able to adapt its operation to the needs of the process, controlling, in-real time the dispersion of any feedstock. A REVOC is broadly applicable, more flexible, more robust, it can complete different functions and sequential processes. During this project, we will produce prototypes and use them to validate a modelling platform. We will deliver a radial chamber expanding the traditional concept into a responsive mode. We will then use a digital twin of the unit to optimise the design using several flow compartments. The optimal REVOC will then be commissioned, characterised, and applied to fluidised industrial products (excipients, foods, absorbents, solid fuels), settings the grounds for its application at scale.

Precision engineering of complex chemical products used in high-value technology sectors, e.g. pharmaceutical, healthcare and fine-chemical products as well as emergent energy materials, can help achieve superior functionality, control of degradation, and the discovery of novel physical and chemical product properties. Such complex chemical products and devices often incorporate low atomic number ions and molecules as building blocks which, due to their sensitivity to the electron or ion beam, requires a step change in nanoscale chemical and structural imaging, if we are to characterize their detailed microstructure. This grant will advance and enable quantitative, analytical spectroscopy and imaging of these beam-sensitive materials in both their native state and during in-situ dynamic processes at nanometre spatial resolution using a unique set of electron and focused ion-beam microscopy (EM/FIB) instrumentation at Leeds and also externally. This will allow us to identify and create an understanding of unseen performance-limiting structures, defects and interfaces within the soft matter components in such products and devices.In the initial phase of the grant, we will use a combination of three synergistic Research Strategies to achieve our goal for the reliable and accurate characterisation of complex chemical products and devices. These are: (i) the optimisation of sample preparation methodologies; (ii) the development of new electron/ion beam scanning/ shaping strategies; and (iii) the harnessing of new detector technologies for scanning EM/FIB. A set of work packages (WPs) will enable reliable, calibrated methodologies to be developed for the study of the: Structure (WP1), Chemistry (WP2) and Dynamics (WP3) of beam sensitive materials at atomic and molecular spatial resolution in both two and three dimensions, within multiphase environments and with a radical improvement in state-of-the-art chemical sensitivity, whilst simultaneously minimizing beam-induced damage. Collaborations will include: direct partnerships with instrument manufacturers, use of National facilities and secondments to leading international groups with complementary capabilities and expertise, so enabling key advances in nanoscale analytical science for complex chemical products.In the second phase of the grant, these interlinked approaches will, with external user access and direct industrial involvement, be applied to a range of currently unmet challenges in model product/process systems to benchmark potential applications and develop nanoscale models of performance (WP4). Example systems include: (a) the mapping of phase distributions and analysis of interfacial and defect structures in model pharmaceutical formulations, metal-organic framework materials and organic and hybrid optoelectronics; (b) the identification of solution phase precursors, pre-nucleation clusters and hydrates during inorganic/organic crystallization processes; (c) the self-assembly/disassembly of polymeric micelles, micro-gel particles and core-shell particles for drug delivery.In the final workpackage of the grant (WP5), the instrumentation, methods, protocols and expertise so developed will be offered free-at-point-of-use to external academic users and be made available to wider industry to enhance research understanding and impact associated with their specific chemical product systems.

The National Research Facility (NRF) for Electron Paramagnetic Resonance (EPR) Spectroscopy supports research on paramagnetic systems for UK academia and industry and has many international collaborations. EPR is used widely across chemistry, physics, materials, biological and medical sciences.Challenge - to develop best practice in terms of sustainability of new and/or existing multi-user research infrastructure and engage with the wider research community to ensure the broader adoption of sustainable practices

The aim of this RAM Facility, to be established by our team of researchers in Chemistry, Engineering and Chemical Engineering, and in partnership with Resodyn Acoustic Mixers, the pioneering developer and only manufacturer of this technology, is to create in the UK an internationally visible hotbed of innovation in sustainable processes and materials. It will be a globally unique, self-sustained resource to help researchers and industries kick-start green chemical manufacturing in the UK through innovative technologies, sustainable product portfolios and potentially creation of spin-outs. The potential to advance both research and sustainable manufacturing is evident by almost 50 Support Letters that provide a cross-section of potential users and problems that can be addressed at the RAM Facility. The letters come from a wide community, including senior and early career researchers from the UK and abroad, interdisciplinary centres, as well as UK and international SMEs and large industries. Letters also demonstrate alignment and complementarity with many UK research centres and national facilities. The objectives of the RAM Facility are to enable and promote sustainability-oriented innovation in fundamental science and chemical manufacturing. This is summarised in a set of Science and Technology Challenges that will advance mechanochemistry for clean manufacturing, recycling and waste valorisation, discovery and development of materials for green, sustainable technologies (nanomaterials, battery materials, supercapacitors), and many other areas. This will advance diverse science disciplines (chemical, civil, and mechanical engineering, chemistry, physics, geosciences, metallurgy and materials, and applied mathematics) and industry sectors, including (but not limited to) additive manufacturing, aerospace, automotive, agricultural, chemical, defence, FMCG, food, green energy, and pharmaceutical sectors. Through small- and large pilot-scale instruments, the facility will uniquely support fundamental science of mechanochemistry and enable new concepts for sustainable manufacturing to be explored and immediately advanced to high TRLs. Only 10 pilot-scale systems have been installed in the world, all of them within industry sites, making our vision to place such a system into a truly "open" RAM Facility, centrally located, easily accessible and supported by dedicated staff, with access based on competitive and transparent research excellence, EDI and RRI criteria, truly transformative and of high impact for new sustainable technologies

Co-created and delivered with industry, REWIRE will accelerate the UK's ambition for net zero by transforming the next generation of high voltage electronic devices using wide/ultra-wide bandgap (WBG/UWBG) compound semiconductors. Our application-driven, collaborative research programme and training will advance the next generation of semiconductor power device technologies to commercialisation and enhance the security of the UK's semiconductor supply-chain.Power devices are at the centre of all power electronic systems. WBG/UWBG compound semiconductor devices pave the way for more efficient and compact power electronic systems, reducing energy loss at the power systems level. The UK National Semiconductor Strategy recognises advances in these technologies and the technical skills required for their development and manufacture as essential to supporting the growing net zero economy.REWIRE's philosophy is centred on cycles of use cases co-created with industry and stakeholders, meeting market needs for devices with increased voltage ranges, maturity and reliability. We will develop multiple technologies in parallel from a range of initial TRL to commercialisation.Initial work will focus on three use cases co-developed with industry, for transformative next generation WBG/UWBG semiconductor power electronic devices: (1) Wind energy, HVDC networks (>10 kV) - increased range high voltage devices as the basis for enabling more efficient power conversion and more compact power converters; (2) High temperature applications, device and packaging - greatly expanded application ranges for power electronics; (3) Tools for design, yield and reliability - improving the efficiency of semiconductor device manufacture.These use cases will: improve higher TRL Silicon Carbide (SiC) 1-2kV technology towards higher voltages; advance low TRL devices such as Gallium Oxide (Ga2O3) and Aluminium Gallium Nitride (AlGaN), diamond and cubic Boron Nitride (c-BN) towards demonstration and ultimately commercialisation; and develop novel heterogenous integration techniques, either within a semiconductor chip or within a package, for enhanced functionality. Use cases will have an academic and industry lead, fostering academia-industry co-development across different work packages.These initial, transformative REWIRE technologies will have wide-ranging applications. They will enhance the efficient conversion of electricity to and from High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) for long-distance transfer, enabling a sustainable national grid with benefits including more reliable and secure communication systems. New technologies will also bring competitive advantage to the UK's strategically important electric vehicle and battery sectors, through optimised efficiency in charging, performance, energy conversion and management.New use cases will be co-developed throughout REWIRE, with our >30 industrial and policy partners who span the full semiconductor device supply chain, to meet stakeholder priorities.Through engagement with suppliers, manufacturers, and policymakers, REWIRE will pioneer advances in semiconductor supply chain management, developing supply chain tools for stakeholders to improve understanding of the dynamics of international trade, potential supply disruptions, and pricing volatilities. These tools and our Supply Chain Resilience Guide will support the commercialisation of technologies from use cases, enabling users to make informed decisions to enhance resilience, sustainability, and inclusion. Equity, Diversity, and Inclusivity (EDI) are integral to REWIRE's ambitions. Through extensive collaboration across the academic and industrial partners, we will build the diverse, skilled workforce needed to accelerate innovation in academia and industry, creating resilient UK businesses and supply chains

Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry (SIMS) is widely used by industry and academia for 3D imaging of elements and molecular fragments to gain information on structure and content. With excellent spatial resolution, SIMS has enabled significant advances in the development of solar cells, semiconductor devices, batteries and biomedical research. However, SIMS still suffers from a few drawbacks, namely: (a) matrix effects, which cause artefacts in both images and depth profiles; (b) incompatible analytical conditions for the detection of elemental and molecular species; and (c) fragmentation, which precludes identification of larger organic molecules.Water cluster ion sources are a new development offering remarkable gains in sensitivity for organic molecule measurement, partially addressing limitation (c) above. Again, even this state-of-the-art system does not addresslimitations (a) and (b) above.This proposal will overcome these limitations by providing an internationally unique, cutting-edge capability for 3D molecular and elemental imaging at the sub-micron scale, by using both water cluster and MeV ion sources already located at the University of Surrey. This will enable more than a step-change in materials characterisation for UK academics and industry working in areas supported by EPSRC and other UKRI sponsorsWe will install and commission an internationally unique system in the Surrey Ion Beam Centre at the University of Surrey that will provide multimodal 3D imaging of elements and molecules at the sub-micron scale using label-free, non-targeted techniques. Specifically, the system will enable:(i) high-resolution imaging of larger molecules(ii) multimodal elemental and molecular imaging(iii) multimodal depth profilingThis will be achieved by combining MeV ion beam analysis (X rays, gamma rays, backscattered particles) and Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry (SIMS) in a single system. The Surrey Ion Beam Centre is the ideal host for this equipment, as it is not only a National Facility, but has also developed a proven business model, involving academic and industrial users, that will ensure the long term sustainable operation of the new capability. One of the main aims is to promote this added and unique capability to engage with a broader range of partners, especially those involved in health-related search and development, such as cancer treatment and drug testing.

We live in an information driven society, where we see proliferation of data centric technologies, e.g. self- driving vehicles, data centres, IoT and AI. Data complexity is explosively growing and data centers consume an increasing fraction of total world energy use. With the current von Neumann architectures up to ~80% of the computing energy is consumed in the data-transfer bottleneck between logic and memory on interconnects. To progress beyond this limit new types of device are needed. Neuromorphic systems, mimicking the brain nervous system, shine for proficiency in cognitive and data-intensive tasks, providing high computing efficiencies and low power consumption. Ferroelectric memories could offer the required technology for both non-volatile memory and neuromorphic computing. PlasmoFED links low-energy nanoscale device engineering and plasmon-enhanced light-matter interactions by implementing optically accessible memory devices to investigate ferroelectric switching materials in ambient conditions, in real-time and in-situ during device operation. We devise a non-destructive technique able to avoid electron-induced perturbation of the switching process present in traditional electron microscopy techniques. The industry-standard material HfO2 will be explored but with entirely new multifunctionality of ferroelectricity and ionic conductivity. PlasmoFED will focus on nanoscopic in-operando access to this hybrid switching process, tackling the current problems of stability in RRAMs. PlasmoFED will also address the current problems of scalability and reliability in FeRAMs aiming to understand the role of oxygen vacancies, defects and domain wall propagation in HfO2. The concept of light triggered ferroelectric switching will also be developed. PlasmoFED will provide critical knowledge for materials and device engineers to guide the creation of devices of unparalleled performance. The potential big win is new devices based on HfO2 for memory and AI applications

Scope: Nanotechnology lies at the heart of most modern technologies, from aerospace and automotive industries to optoelectronics through to surgical implants. Nanofabrication relies on a number of essential steps, including materials growth, device patterning and deposition of electrical contacts. In the last decade, 2D Materials (2DM) and their heterostructures have developed into a large multidisciplinary field. Their unique electronic, optical, mechanical and thermal properties have led to their use to demonstrate novel and improved performance in key areas of nanotechnology such as sustainable energy production and storage, sensors, low power electronics, communications and quantum technologies. Many billions of dollars are currently being invested in the EU, China, Korea and USA to scale up the infrastructure needed to transition 2DM technology to meet the demands of these applications.Vision: This proposal will provide a key experimental etching capability necessary to ensure that the UK remains a world leader in 2D materials nanofabrication. We propose to purchase a new state-of-the-art dry etching system, with capabilities to etch layers with atomic scale precision. This tool is one of the first commercial instruments allowing for atomic layer etching (ALE) and will enable controllable layer-by-layer 2D materials removal, currently not available anywhere in the UK. We will develop protocols and methodology to enable ALE functionality for key 2D materials and experimentally verify the results with a wide range of characterisation tools. The instrument will both provide new research capabilities and replace the current RIE system at National Graphene Institute which has reached the end of its life (15 years) to perform a broad range of already established tasks. The proposed instrument will be embedded in a world-leading centre of excellence for 2DM with dedicated staff support. It will be accessible to the whole UK 2D materials community through the Royce access scheme creating new opportunities for fundamental studies and supporting industrial development of 2D materials applications.The new etching platform will have the following key focus areas for 2DM applications:Low Power Electronics and Quantum Technologies: the new etcher will provide the ability to shape nanoscale devices with a high degree of tuneability but also at the wafer scale, with precise control of thicknesses, interfaces and electrical contacts.Sustainable Energy Generation and Storage: This facility will enable fabrication of model 2DM surfaces to generate new understanding of their function in electrodes and catalysis. It will also allow model nanoporous membranes to be synthesised and applied to generate new knowledge of their optimal geometries for fuel cells and in electrolysers.Biomolecular Sensors for Healthy Living: The proposed capability will advance creation of nanofluidic devices with angstrom-sized channels that enable unprecedented opportunities for nanoscale chemical sensing, molecular sieving and biomolecular analysis.To achieve this, the key objectives are:To develop and benchmark new world-leading capabilities for Atomic Layer Etching of 2DM.To successfully transition all current 2D etching to the new system, demonstrating equal or improved performance.To generate a suite of reliable protocols for different materials systems, providing improved efficiency by removing the current requirements to perform many repeat etchings simply to optimise fabrication conditions. Advertise the new capabilities to the whole UK 2D materials community, adding procedures if required in order to ensure broad usage of the system across the full range of application areas

Li-ion batteries are used in electric vehicles, powering consumer electronics and to increase storage capacity for the electrical grid, among other applications. However, when these batteries malfunction, failure can result in explosions, toxic gas release, and fire. In contrast, the emerging solid-state battery technologies are inherently safer and can store more energy. Such benefits would mean electrical vehicles with longer driving range, more compact medical electronics for use inside the body and longer life consumer electronics. Despite obvious advantages, manufacture of these batteries is currently slow and expensive, using several time-consuming steps. This project researchers a novel approach for scalable solid-state glass battery manufacture. It shall draw ultra-thin molten glass sheets from a furnace. This material will be nearly ten-times thinner than a human hair, scalable in width up to several meters and continuously drawn in length. As the molten glass is drawn, materials will be added to form a battery in a continuous manufacturing approach. This will lead to higher volumes, lower cost and scalable glass battery production

Energy storage systems are a crucial part to enable the transformation of our current economic system into a more sustainable one, to balance the fluctuating nature of renewable electricity production from wind and photovoltaics. There are many potential means of energy storage, that differ in their storage capacity and duration, such as batteries or redox-flow batteries.A common factor in all these systems is the importance of processes on surfaces and interfaces that control the involved chemical reactions and physical processes. To improve the current and develop novel energy storage systems, detailed understanding and insight about these surface and interface processes is required.The proposed Doctoral Network will gain insight into these highly relevant surface and interface phenomena. Advanced analytical techniques will be utilized to directly probe chemical and physical processes, relevant for the for the respective energy storage systems. Modelling and synthetic approaches will complement the understanding of these processes and allow the development of advanced materials and components for energy storage systems.The gained knowledge will be directly applied on real world energy storage systems, provided by the involved industrial partners. As these approaches are highly interdisciplinary, the new generation of researchers has to be trained to excel in such complex research and industrial environments. The proposed Doctoral Network will enable the PhD candidates to combine the most advanced scientific techniques (regarding analysis, modelling and synthesis) with the requirements of modern industry, in the dynamic field of energy storage systems. They will develop a deep scientific understanding of surface and interface processes and also the systemic knowledge to apply their skills in a broad range of industrial environments

Global climate change and Net-Zero mission are accelerating the emphasis from policy makers, academia, and industry on addressingenergy and environmental issues where methane and CO2 emissions in small, distributed sources are some main causes. So, methaneand CO2 capture and co-valorisation are of paramount importance. The state-of-the-art research for methane and CO2 co-valorisationmainly includes (super-)dry reforming of methane, plasma catalysis, electrocatalysis and so on, and most of current research suffersfrom multi-step process, e.g., via syngas, to value-added chemicals and fuels or focuses on the catalyst development. However, littleattention is paid in developing advanced catalytic reactors for radically technological breakthrough, which this project aims toaddress. In the context of process electrification in chemical industry, this eStructMR project proposes to develop the new generationof advanced membrane reactor driven by renewable electricity to achieve simultaneous valorisation of methane and CO2 to valueaddedchemicals and fuels in single-step process. Specifically, eStructMR aims to (1) develop the Electrochemical StructuredMembrane Reactor and obtain fundamental understanding on its rational design; (2) achieve high-efficient co-valorisation ofmethane and CO2 by tuning catalytic reaction microenvironment through proper microscale design of proposed reactor. The successof eStructMR project will yield a new perspective to both reactor design and catalytic process regulation not only for the covalorisation of methane and CO2 but also for many other catalytic reactions

High Performance Computers use substantial quantities of energy to keep them cool and operating efficiently. Buildings in the UK require substantial quantities of energy to keep their occupants warm. Today, energy for heating and cooling is carbon intensive, and nationally the supply of heat and cooling is responsible for 1/3 of the UK's greenhouse gases. Heat from cooling a HPC system can be used for space heating elsewhere, and heat storage can store excess heat, retrieving it when required. This proposal seeks to do just that: efficient cooling of HPC systems, and investigating storing the resulting excess heat in flooded coal mines - legacy assets from the UK's mining past acting as carbon-zero heat stores for a zero-carbon future. Here we examine the sustainable energy potential of combining complimentary energy demands - examining societal energy needs without costing the Earth.Current UK large HPC systems all use direct liquid cooling (DLC), where a cooling fluid is piped onto heat sinks within compute nodes, heat extracted and then exchanged via a heat exchanger before being released into the atmosphere. These systems can consume multiple Megawatts of power. Previous air-cooled systems were even less efficient.Immersion cooling is the natural progression in technology which involves fully immersing specially adapted servers in a heat transfer liquid, typically a mineral oil, which removes heat from all components (not just CPUs), simplifying server design (no fans, heat pipes and reduced embodied CO2. Heat is then extracted from the system at higher temperature. This technology uses as little as 5% of power for dealing with waste heat, much better than the ~20% for DLC systems and 40-100% for air-cooled systems, yielding a significant power saving.Current UK HPC data centres do not have any direct current experience with this relatively new technology, and therefore it is seen as a significant risk for adoption in new HPC systems.We therefore propose installing a commercial immersion cooling tank in Durham University's the data centre (which also hosts the EPSRC BEDE N8 Tier-2 system). This immersion test bed system will become a national testing facility for other data centre staff to visit to gain experience with this technology, and for vendors to demonstrate their server technologies. We will analyse the performance of kit hosted within this tank, and investigate properties such as fluid temperature and server energy consumption. A further benefit of immersion cooling is that the waste heat is at a higher (more usable) temperature than from conventional systems. Durham is the ideal location for such facility, currently hosting national ExCALIBUR hardware and enabling software systems and both Tier-1 and Tier-2 facilities.We furthermore propose to study data centre waste heat reuse, by investigating storing HPC waste heat in the abandoned and flooded coal mine workings beneath the data centre site. By storing the waste heat, it can be reused when required. This requires drilling several boreholes into the mine workings to abstract the water, add/subtract heat to it, and re-inject it back to the mine. In short, we would be investigating using the mine workings as a heat battery.This proposal is timely, since it fits well with the university's current plan to install a heat network across its campus. The site would be used as a living lab and exemplar for other potential systems

Transformative advances in product formulation are required to meet the demand for sustainability across a wide range of EU-priority industrial areas. Colloidal gels - complex, out-of-equilibrium soft matter systems - are core components in many of the formulations encountered therein, including building materials (e.g., cement), energy materials (e.g., batteries and fuel cells), consumer care and food products, and medicine. Current industrial practice requires delicate balancing between thermodynamic parameters (composition and interactions), quenching kinetics, and processing conditions to achieve gel structures with the desired material performance (e.g., mechanical, thermal, or electrical properties). Without a robust physical understanding of how the microstructure can be controlled and how this links to material properties, this balancing remains limited to trial and error. Recent advances in colloidal-gel physics strongly imply that the rational design of colloidal gel properties is within reach. This design is based on tuning gel microstructure via external stimuli, such as shear, ultrasound, and (magnetic/electric) fields, and the addition of non-Brownian inclusions. The CoCoGel doctoral network will enable the translation from the current academic state of the art to industrial practice, focusing on these routes to controlling microstructure. We will bring together 6 academic and 6 industrial partners - experts in a range of experimental, computational, and theoretical techniques - who can realize the creation of new sustainable materials and production processes via these routes. Key to the success of our industrial doctoral training network is a deepening and extending of existing collaborations, as well as the training of a new generation of researchers with both multi-disciplinary expertise in soft materials and practical experience engaging with industry. These will drive further sustainable development over a wide range of European industries

Within the field of materials and molecular science, modelling and simulation based on Density Functional Theory (DFT) is key in the R&D of functional materials for environmental sustainability, such as green computing, environment remediation, and energy production, conversion and storage. DFT-based research currently consumes a considerable amount of resources on supercomputers globally. In the UK, DFT calculations use over 45% of ARCHER2, the Tier1 UK National Supercomputing service. DFT also features heavily in the usage of Tier2 systems and lower-tier institutional computers. As ever more powerful computers become available, the environmental impact of DFT-based research is increasing rapidly. It is paramount to improve the efficiency of this research and develop means of assuring that energy-intensive compute resources are distributed and used responsibly. The proposed work will provide practical tools and evidence-based best practices towards these aims for researchers and the compute-resources distribution chain.DFT calculations contain numerical approximations that need to be converged according to the accuracy required for each study. Without more support for inexperienced users, the risk of is of over-convergence, leading to unnecessarily more costly calculations, or under-convergence, leading to entirely useless calculations, which are a waste of compute resource and electricity. A conservative estimate of the proportion of under- or over-converged DFT calculations is in the 10% range. Given the large proportion of compute resource invested in this research, even a relatively small increase in efficiency will result in a large reduction of wasted compute resource, and significant improvements in the environmental sustainability of research infrastructure.This project will result in a tool and evidence-based best practices to provide automatic, expert guiding in the 'Goldilocks' choice of these convergence parameters. This will be achieved by training machine learning (ML) models to predict the convergence parameters for DFT numerical approximations for the required accuracy in common types of scientific investigations. Given that numerical approximations requiring convergence are present in all codes, this tool will be applicable across all DFT codes in common use in the UK. The primary contribution of this project will be to increase considerably the efficiency and assurance levels of responsible use of UKRI and EPSRC hardware and software infrastructure, now and in the future.Comparison of the compute resources usage for typical jobs run before and after the adoption of this tool, will enable baseline quantification and extrapolation of the efficiency gained. Outcomes of this analysis will be disseminated globally, leading to best practices across international compute Facilities, so as to extend world-wide the gains in environmental sustainability of compute infrastructure. This project will be a significant step towards ML-based automatic generation of inputs for DFT calculations, as well as an automatic a priori calculator of compute resources and carbon footprint. This automation will contribute to democratisation in the use of this research method in parts of the world where digital research infrastructure may be more accessible than experimental facilities

A significant part of the environmental impact and CO2 emissions of a high-performance computing (HPC) system can be attributed to its manufacturing as well as its operation (including running idle). Once a system has been installed, it is therefore imperative that it is used as close to full capacity as possible and that science throughput should be maximised at all times, in order to get the best return on investment on both the monetary and carbon cost of the system. This highly desirable 100% utilisation rate is however near impossible to achieve in practice. The workload of a system is managed by its resource allocator, which attempts to place jobs from a submission queue (that users continuously add new jobs to) to fill gaps in the available resources. It is not always possible to attain perfect job placement and as a result, resources sit idle.Malleability in resource allocation introduces the concept that the resources (the number of compute cores or nodes, or even the system) that have been requested by a user at job submission time are not fixed and can be changed if this change means a job can be scheduled to run, and thus complete, sooner.MIRA ("Malleability In Resource Allocation for improved system efficiency in high-performance computing") will investigate the concept of malleability in compute resource allocation within a single system as well as across multiple systems, to improve overall system utilisation and science throughput, thereby maximising the "science per Joule'' that can be achieved.

OWIN6G will be the first Training Network dedicated to the field of wireless sensor network for Inter-of-things / Internet-of-everything as part of the 6G and beyond by focusing on novel sensors, solar-cells for power and optical detection, and the hybrid radio frequency-optical wireless technologies, as well as introducing machine learning for adoptability and optimization. OWIN6G interdisciplinary nature sets it apart from most other existing research programs, in which the focus is on one of the aforementioned disciplines. The program will (i) enhance understanding, knowledge and skills on research and project management for doctorate candidates, (ii) promote and broaden awareness of the subject to those working in the field and beyond; and (iii) produce novel and original scientific contributions in accordance the objectives

The advancement of numerous technologies has become increasingly reliant on the ability to dissipate large quantities of heat from small areas. Current designs in power electronics, supercomputers, lasers, X-ray medical devices, nuclear fusion reactor blankets, spacecraft, and hybrid vehicle electronics, and future improvements, rely on record high heat transfer rates. This rapid increase in heat dissipation rates required by such devices has led to a transition from more traditional fan-cooled heat-sink attachments to liquid cooling techniques.Liquid cooling techniques operating in single-phase, however, have now reached their limit being forced to run at very low inlet temperatures and exceedingly high mass flow rates, resulting in unacceptably high pressure drops and surface temperature gradients. Innovative approaches are urgently needed to overcome these significant shortcomings: one such approach is spray-cooling.Spray-cooling uses a nozzle to break up the liquid coolant into fine droplets that impinge individually on a heated surface. 'Low'- and 'high-temperature' spray-cooling applications involve surface temperatures below and above the critical heat flux (CHF), respectively. Single-phase spray-cooling (relies on liquid sensible heat rise only) provides greater operational stability and spatially uniform heat removal than liquid cooling, reducing the likelihood of large surface thermal gradients, particularly important for fragile electronic components. Two-phase spray-cooling (relies on liquid sensible heat rise and latent heat), are superior to single-phase systems and furthermore, compared to pool/flow boiling alternative systems, offer far less resistance to vapour removal from a heated surface enabling superior drop-surface contact . In fact, the CHF increases from 1.2 MW/m2 (for water pool boiling) to 10 MW/m2 for water sprays in two-phase applications.SANGRIA is an ambitious 3-year collaborative research programme aimed at investigating the fundamental mechanisms and transfer processes underlying spray-cooling. This project combines cutting-edge experimental techniques that furnish spatiotemporally-resolved diagnostics of the thermal, interfacial, and hydrodynamic fields, with multi-scale theory, modelling and 3-D high-fidelity numerical simulation that bridge the molecular and continuum-scales. The deep insights generated from SANGRIA will be harnessed to provide tools that are practically implementable by our industrial partners in order to maximise impact. Industrial and academic partners will provide additional technical support and feedback during the research programme plus pathways for direct industrial impact. The industrial partners include possible users of this technology: TMD Ltd (manufacturers of electronic equipment, high heat flux devices); Oxford naNosystems (manufacturers of enhanced heat transfer surfaces); ANSYS (Software development); Siemens (Software development); Spraying Systems Co. (Nozzle manufacturers); Syngenta (users of nozzles). LaVision offered a 15% discount on their Particle Master System. The academic partners from the University of Nottingham, Sorbonne University, Technical University of Darmstadt and Kyushu University are internationally recognised experts in single and two-phase thermal systems, including spray cooling. Participation and presentations during the HEXAG and PIN meetings will facilitate feedback and technology transfer

The purpose of this project is to evaluate options which reduce the carbon emissions of the Kelvin-2 high-performance computing (HPC) to zero or negative. This will be achieved by improving efficiency, and implementing scheduling and complementary technologies. HPC is a large electricity consumer and has a commensurate cooling requirement which can significantly increase power consumption. Therefore, targeting the processing efficiency and waste heat offers the greatest opportunity to decarbonise. The proposed outputs focus on these options and seek to demonstrate an effective 40% improvement in energy-efficiency with the resulting guidelines made available to other Tier-2 centres. We aim to improve the sustainability of HPC through a multi-pronged approach:1. Analysing and deploying software and hardware to improve utilisation and energy-efficiency of the infrastructureIn the last two decades, various research has proposed ways to improve energy-efficiency of HPC systems, such as efficient scheduling of parallel applications, dynamic parallelism control and dynamic voltage and frequency scaling, including research by the PI and de Supinski, e.g., EP/M01147X/1, EP/L000555/1 and EP/M015742/1. However, these techniques have not transitioned from research to practise due to unknown risks on the service. Our goal is to re-evaluate and adjust such techniques on an isolated slice of the Kelvin-2 system. Additionally, we will explore alternative node architectures as different node architectures may present better energy-efficiency for specific applications. We will moreover investigate if we can leverage dynamic voltage and frequency scaling to help maintain the electrical utility grid's stability, as renewable energy sources reduce the grid's ability to counter dynamic stability problems, which limits their adoption. Based on expertise in time-synchronised instrumentation (OpenPMU), we will explore adaptation of power consumption of HPC infrastructures in real time to counter electrical grid frequency fluctuations.2. User engagement with sustainabilityIt is an open question for HPC centres how to incentivise users to execute jobs sustainably. We can however inform users on the environmental impact of their jobs, e.g., through reporting energy and carbon usage. The missing links are operational policies and scheduling algorithms that prioritise jobs with environmental impact in mind. This requires a fair charging scheme that reflects on the optimality of the time-vs-energy trade-off of executing jobs (avoiding penalising large energy-efficient jobs because of their size).3. Operations for Net zero HPCUtilising renewable sources can reduce the emissions associated with data processing significantly. By integrating HPC with other technologies which utilise the waste heat to capture or reduce the emissions of other processes they can be truly net zero. Using temperature data we will investigate various options for thermal enabled decarbonisation such as evaluation of novel direct air carbon capture (DAC) and co-location with heat consumers. We will maximise the impact of this project through knowledge sharing with other HPC facilities and stakeholders, which will be supported through collaborations with Northern Ireland HPC (https://ni-hpc.ac.uk/), the eFutures 3.0 network on electronics, and industry partners Dell Technologies, AlcesFlight and Northern Ireland Electricity Networks

The quantum behaviour of many interacting particles leads to the emergence of exotic quantum materials, which promise to makeour transport, computers, and power supplies faster, more energy efficient, and cheaper to run. Unfortunately, we have no analyticsolution to the quantum many-body problem and realistic numerical simulations are far beyond the reach of the world'ssupercomputers. This chasm between our simulations and the real-world leaves us searching in the dark for the societal revolutionspromised by quantum materials.In recent years, hype has been escalating around quantum computing as a solution to many unsolved problems, including thequantum many-body problem. Quantum computing provides a completely new paradigm for computation based on the preciseengineering and control of quantum many-body systems, with experiments already beyond proof-of-concept. While quantumcomputers are still in their infancy, we are already experiencing in our everyday lives the impact of machine learning. Given thepotential of quantum computing, it is natural to explore how quantum technology can foster even more powerful machine learningtools, and in-turn how machine learning can facilitate the use of quantum computers.This cross-disciplinary research programme has the ambitious goal of realising a practical quantum advantage using near-termquantum computers. We will establish practical applications for quantum computers, beyond the access of classical numericalmethods. This programme is designed to exploit and develop relationships between quantum entanglement, quantum computing,and machine learning. We put these relationships at the centre of our proposal to generate new approaches to confront the quantum many-body problem, which could ultimately guide the synthesis of new quantum materials

Lithium-sulfur (Li-S) batteries represent one of the most promising technologies to advance battery performance beyond lithium-ion batteries (LIBs), to move away from the reliance of critical raw materials, and enable applications previously inaccessible due to poor energy to weight ratio such as powered flight. The current battery market is valued at $110 Bn ($424 Bn by 2027). It is estimated that a third of this market is for weight-critical applications which account for approximately 2 % of global carbon emissions. Li-S batteries are key to facilitating the net-zero transition and electrifying these weight-critical technologies.The commercialisation of Li-S batteries has been hindered by the lack of a viable cathode material with energy density to complement the Li-metal anode used in these cells. Furthermore, there are several factors which hinder the route to a viable Li-S battery including active material loss, high electrolyte use, and poor sulfur conversion. This all leads to low-capacity and short-lived Li- S batteries. Therefore, there is an urgent need to overcome these issued to enable Li-S batteries.Work supported by the PI's ERC Advanced Grant has shown a transformative breakthrough of a new cathode host; LixMoS2, for critical raw materials-free Li-S batteries. This remarkable cathode host has shown to solve key issues which have previously lingered during decades of research efforts, to enable high-energy and long-life Li-S batteries for the first time. This Proof of Concept aims to take essential commercial and technical steps to commercialise this innovation: demonstrate kilogram scale manufacturing of our cathode, demonstrate large-scale Li-S batteries with high-performance using our scaled-up cathode material, a critical market assessment for a business plan, and engagement with industry and end-user for a route-to-market

Organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) have become a dominant technology in the display industry and hold great promise for a variety of applications in the fields of lighting, visible communication, sensing and healthcare. Current research efforts focus on the development of thermally-activated delayed fluorescent (TADF) emitters that promise highly efficient and long-lifetime performance without the use of any heavy metals. These materials show a small energy gap between their singlet and triplet energy levels allowing the up-conversion of non-emissive triplets to light-emitting singlets at room temperature via the reverse intersystem crossing process. Although efficient triplet harvesting can take place in TADF OLEDs, the dynamics involved in the TADF mechanism need to be faster to substantially reduce the accumulation of long-lived triplet excitons during the device operation and improve their overall performance.This project addresses this research challenge by proposing an innovative approach based on the integration of sub-wavelength photonic nanostructures into TADF OLEDs. Via their effects on the local photonic density and the dielectric permittivity of the effective media, the photonic nanostructures will be engineered to accelerate both radiative decay and reverse intersystem crossing rates. This will improve the efficiency of OLEDs, especially at high brightness and increase their lifetime. The successful outcome of the project is expected to lead to an improvement of the TADF OLED technology and will be highly relevant for a range of other applications in fields as diverse as organic optoelectronics, sensing and photochemistry.

Great Western Supercluster for Hydrogen Impact for Future Technologies (GW-SHIFT) is co-created by world-leading academic expertise (Universities of Bath, Exeter, Bristol, Cardiff, Swansea, South Wales, Plymouth), innovative civic partners (Western Gateway, Great South West, West of England Combined Authority) and cutting-edge industries (Hydrogen South West, Airbus, GKN, Bristol Airport, easyJet, Bristol Port Company, National Composites Centre, Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult, Johnson Matthey, etc.) to drive concentrated impact across the H2 ecosystem of South West England and South Wales. It will catalyse cross-sectoral, cross-regional and interdisciplinary opportunities for long-term impact.The ambition of GW-SHIFT is to grow from a nascent cluster to an established supercluster which is uniquely placed to lead the delivery of the green H2 economies needed to decarbonise the UK, driving joined-up impact that spans multiple sectors (maritime, road, rail, aerospace, chemicals) across the region's unique testbed of urban, rural, and coastal areas and resources.GW-SHIFT has been co-created by its academic, civic and industry partners with a shared vision to maximise the enormous potential of the region's H2 ecosystem. Its impact will power clean, inclusive growth across the region, maximising world-leading academic knowledge and H2 assets, and enabling key government strategies and targets for a low carbon H2 future. This includes Powering Up Britain and British Energy Strategy targets for 10GW H2 production capacity by 2030 and 100,000 new jobs, £13bn GVA by 2050.The creation of the supercluster directly addresses key regional strategies and action plans, including the Western Gateway's H2 vision and 'Powering a Greener, Fairer Future' strategy, Great South West's "Speed to the West," WECA's Climate and Ecological Strategy and Action Plan, the West of England Local Industrial Strategy and the Welsh Government's Hydrogen in Wales pathway. Success of the supercluster can deliver the region's targets for 17,000 new H2 jobs by 2050.GW-SHIFT will drive impact through its aims and objectives to:1. Grow the GW-SHIFT supercluster of academic, civic and industry partners towards established and sustainable supercluster status via policy and theme conversations and academic-civic-industry secondments.2. Deliver high impact co-created collaborative projects, with 20 short sprint projects and eight 1-2 year collaborative match-funded projects, leading to the development of new products, processes and techniques, new spin-out companies, significant follow-on funding, new jobs, and regional and national policy impacts.3. Deliver place-based capacity building across the South-West of England and South Wales H2 ecosystem through entrepreneurial training to academic researchers (including early career), civic and industry staff, cross-mentoring programmes, and upskilling programmes to equip regional workforces for the opportunities of the future H2 economy.4. Engage key stakeholders across the region (civic, industry, regulatory, public, schools, etc.) via public engagement, school outreach and curriculum development, wider academic, industry and policy engagement to raise awareness of the benefits and opportunities of a future H2 economy and to encourage public acceptability of hydrogen. The establishment of GW-SHIFT as a hydrogen supercluster for the South of England and South Wales will enable maximum impact from joined-up strategic advances in H2 production, storage and distribution, conversion, end-use applications (for mobility, heating, power), industrial feedstocks, and cross-cutting issues (economic, environmental, social and safety). It will be a critical enabler of a thriving low carbon hydrogen sector in the South-West and South Wales, with national and global applications, delivering energy security, skills, economic growth, supply chain development and driving Net Zero innovations

The lanthanides and actinides, known collectively as the f-block elements, constitute approximately a quarter of the periodic table. The chemical and physical properties of these elements are indispensable to modern society. Lanthanides are at the heart of a huge variety of technological applications, ranging from medical imaging, computer HDDs and bulk magnets, to defence technology and optical materials. The actinides thorium, uranium and plutonium are used in nuclear fission reactors, a technology earmarked for growth as part of the UK's net-zero strategy.The chemistry and physics of lanthanide and actinide compounds depends strongly on the oxidation state of the metal. For the lanthanides, oxidation state +3 is ubiquitous whereas compounds containing these elements in oxidation states +2 and +4 are known in a limited number of cases. For the early actinides, oxidation states range from +3 up to +6 or +7, and the highly reactive oxidation state +2 has recently been observed. This project will focus on the synthesis and characterization of the first compounds containing the lanthanides and the early actinides (thorium-plutonium) in the elusive +1 or monovalent oxidation state.The PI's recent report of the first uranium(I) compound signposts a route to a family of monovalent lanthanide and actinide compounds. At the outset, we focus on monovalent lanthanides, aiming to synthesize a series of metallocene-like sandwich compounds and to determine the factors upon which the properties of these unusual compounds depends. In parallel, we will synthesize monovalent metallocenes of the early actinides thorium, uranium, neptunium and plutonium.A core goal of the project is to combine observations from synthetic and structural chemistry with detailed physical characterization and theoretical studies. This approach will provide quantitative insight into the electronic structure and chemical bonding of monovalent f-elements, including descriptions of the ionic and covalent contributions. The structure-property relationship will be used to design reactivity studies, with an emphasis on small-molecule activation using highly reducing monovalent f-elements. The electronic structure of monovalent lanthanides should be more diverse than for these elements in conventional oxidation states. As a result, contrasting reactivity for neighbouring lanthanides could occur, potentially requiring standard descriptions of f-element chemistry in terms of the lanthanide and actinide contractions to be revised. In addition, we will embed impact into the project through a new international collaboration with colleagues in Germany, through a programme of engagement activities aimed at inspiring the public with our science, and through the career development of the Sussex team members via participation in various training programmes relevant to the scientific objectives

Addressing climate change is humanity's greatest challenge in the 21st century. The European Green Deal has declared that Europe is committed to realizing a climate-neural society by 2050. To reduce carbon dioxide emissions from transport, power, and industry sectors, Europe must urgently change the energy paradigm, shifting to renewables. However, renewables are all intermittent, and facing the storage challenge. Secondary batteries offer highly efficient electrical energy storage capability, and become the key technology to achieve the large-scale application of solar/wind green energy and thus support the deep decarbonization of European energy system. European Commission estimated that the value of battery industry can reach 250 Euros billion by 2025. Existing battery systems still suffer from low energy density and safety issues. There is huge gap between commercial batteries and advanced battery proposed by BATTERY2030+. Employing novel electrode materials are considered as promising strategies to develop next generation high performance batteries. However, these high capacity electrode materials raise significant challenges (dendrite, volume change, and degradation etc.) in practical application, which limit their commercialization prospects. LESIA will develop and construct bio inspired surfaces/interfaces with electrochemical functionalities for the components of batteries using laser-based fabrication and emerging nanoscale characterisation techniques. LESIA will develop new surficial chemistry, and regulate the decisive electrochemical interfacial processes, and thus address the challenges of the high performance anodes and cathodes for next generation advanced batteries. The advanced batteries are designed to deliver 450+ Wh/kg energy density, 5000+ W/kg power density, 5000+ cycles and 85 Euros/kWh target cost. LESIA will create new paradigm of advanced battery development by using cutting edge laser-based surface/interface engineering technologies

When water is wasted at the tap, we consider the water waste, but rarely the waste of energy gone into making this water potable, and almost never the wasted energy to treat the resulting 'waste' water. Yeti the UK the water industry accounts for around 3% of energy expenditure, and is estimated to be the fourth largest energy user. In the wastewater sector this is particularly incongruous: wastewater actually contains around 10 times more energy than is currently used to treat it.Wastewater treatment technologies have changes little in the last 100 years. Much of the infrastructure was built for much lower population levels, and 'treatment' was focused on the simply removing organic content down to a level acceptable to discharge into waterways. There has been a slight shift in recent years toward recovery of resource specifically with the implementation of anaerobic digestion of sewage sludge to recover energy, however this is a small bolt on solution which can only recover around 10% of the energy spent. No technologies exist at scale capable of intelligently, controllably and flexibly recovering a variety of resources, closing the loop on the circular economy of human water cycle. If discharge standards are to be guaranteed in the future where energy costs are likely to be higher and weather effects more problematic then new smarter biotechnologies will be needed. Furthermore there will be a need to remove and ideally recover a wide range of other pollutants from ammonia through to microplastics or trace metals. New technologies are needed for the water industry to become the responsible, responsive service needed to meet the Netzero pledges for 2030, and the environmental needs of the coming decades.Microbial electrochemical technologies are one such technology, which could help enable some of these changes, and lead to greater understanding of the biological processes involved in order to help develop further technologies. They are an anaerobic technology that works, like a battery, using waste organics as a fuel liberating electrons and protons. These electrons and protons can be the driving force for recovery processes either of energy directly through electrical current or indirectly through hydrogen gas, or useful chemicals such as caustic soda or ammonia. This research aims to robustly test and develop these technologies using large scale replicated reactors under realistic conditions. Within the lifetime of the grant we aim to develop a reactor capable of meeting the treatment needs of industry, thus having short term impact. We then aim to increase the value of this technology optimising and trialling the recovery of different resources. Furthermore, by conducting rigorous experiments, at large scale, and fully analysing the biological behaviour in these open systems and in particular during the start-up phase, we aim to establish a deep understanding of microbial community formation processes which will be applicable to other biotechnologies.

QMol will realise a new generation of switchable organic/organometallic compounds, with the potential to fulfil societal needs for flexible energy harvesting materials, low-power neuromorphic computing, smart textiles and self-powered patches for healthcare. The possibility of creating these exciting materials derives from a series of world firsts by the investigators, demonstrating that advantageous room-temperature quantum interference effects can be scaled up from single molecules to self-assembled monolayers, new strategies for controlling molecular conformation and energy levels, and new methods of molecular assembly, which can be deployed in printed scalable architectures.The demand for wearable electronic devices has increased enormously in recent years and integration of these devices into textiles is highly desirable. A key problem is the need for a power supply, typically in the form of a battery or supercapacitor, which need to be recharged. To overcome this problem, QMol will develop flexible thermoelectric materials that can covert waste heat from the body and other sources into electricity. Progress in this direction has been made using disordered, doped polymer composites (eg ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces 2020, 12, 41, 46348), but there is a need to develop higher-performance, inexpensive, easily processable, flexible thermoelectric materials. The best inorganic materials cannot fulfil these requirements and therefore QMol will focus on the development of high-performance, thin-film, organic/organometallic materials.In parallel with these developments, it is widely recognised that dendritic-synaptic interconnections among neurons in the brain embed intricate logic structures enabling decision-making that vastly outperforms any artificial electronic analogues, with extremely low power requirements. Moreover, the network in a brain is dynamically reconfigurable, which provides flexibility and adaptability to changing environments. To build artificial neural networks, which mimic this behaviour, QMol will develop thin-film, organic/organometallic materials, which embed complex logic possibilities in the material properties of a single circuit element and outperform recent realisations of such logic elements. The resultant current-voltage characteristic of these molecular memristors will exhibit history-dependent, non-volatile switching transitions between different conductance levels.As demonstrators of the wide potential of these new materials, by the end of the Programme, we shall deliver(i) smart textiles with in-built thermal management,(ii) cross-plane, memristive devices, which are a fundamental building block of a neuromorphic computer(iii) flexible organic thermoelectric energy generators (TEGs) and self-powered patches for healthcare.We have demonstrated that room-temperature quantum interference effects in monolayer molecular films can be used to enhance memristive switching, energy harvesting and thermal control. Since transport is perpendicular to the plane of such films, long-range order within the films is not required.QMol recognises that although monolayer films are of fundamental scientific interest, they are not technologically useful, because for example, in a device, it is not possible to create a significant thermal gradient across a monolayer in a perpendicular direction. Therefore the new materials envisaged by QMol will be finite-thickness multi-layers, which move the above functionalities into the third dimension.The team comprises nine academics, with track records at the forefront of their fields. They are supported by twenty world leaders from industry and academia, comprising the six-member QMol Advisory Board and fourteen external partners. Eight postdoctoral researchers (PDRAs) will be employed by QMol and will be joined by eight PhD students, an industry-funded CASE student and an industry-funded PDRA.

This proposal suggests a Local Policy Innovation Partnership (LPIP) in the region of the Forth Water Basin (FWB) in Scotland (including the Firth of Forth and the capital city, Edinburgh). Its innovative structures for 'optimising outcomes' from water assemble an excellent academic and stakeholder team, combining the capacities of each for the benefit of all. This unique, multi-disciplinary and multi-sectoral partnership addresses three fundamental questions: (i) How can we optimise outcomes from water resources, in the pursuit of sustainable and inclusive economic growth? (ii) How can we raise stakeholder capacity to enable and connect new opportunities from partnership, including community resilience and empowerment? (iii) How can we build productive and harmonious relationships between human and natural systems in these pursuits? In sum, this novel and ground-breaking partnership addresses important, urgent and complex issues that lie at the core of our life and economy.Everywhere in the world people organize in relation to water. Its resources and assets provide essential 'goods' and 'services' and huge opportunities for the economy, society and communities. Harnessing these productively is a key route to optimising growth, value and community outcomes. Yet water is also multi-faceted and difficult to manage. Our work with stakeholders has identified that a diverse, multi-disciplinary and multi-sectoral social and public policy approach is urgently needed to square the value and impacts of water for human systems and communities and vice-versa. Also urgently needed is a serious investment in science-based capacity building across all stakeholders, focused on demystifying water's value chains and enabling innovative opportunities to raise the levels of key economic, social, community and environmental benefits. Engagement has been high in Phase 1 of the project, and this has been invaluable in prioritizing our activities in LPIP Phase 2. The shared vision we have developed has also significantly increased the membership of the LPIP. Our solutions-led approach to innovation adds to knowledge concerning key unanswered public policy questions of productivity, place-making, and positive-sum system interactions, particularly in some of the most deprived communities in Scotland. No-one has yet assembled the multi-disciplinary scientific capability we propose here, which builds on world-leading technological innovation to (i) optimise outcomes for communities and (ii) create transferable learning for initiatives and investments in similar contexts across the UK. These ideas are generating enormous energy in stakeholder interactions. More than 80 partners have now provided letters of support across all the key areas required to deliver on our key objective to 'optimise outcomes from water resources in the Forth Water Basin'. Collaboration on this scale is important in building system change. It is strengthening local capacity for innovation, research and knowledge exchange in a way that exceeds the boundaries and boundedness of current networks. With its powerful enabling infrastructure, the Partnership is thus at once a policy network, a learning community, and a direct actor in the water system - able to identify and implement actionable insights and to challenge the conditions that can stifle positive action. 'Optimising outcomes' means raising levels across the board for sustainable and inclusive economic growth, resilient communities and a healthy environment, through innovative solutions, place-making, and positive-sum system interactions. Moreover, our technologically-advanced HsO, and conceptual and methodological development in an important and transferable learning context, will add further value to initiatives and investments in similar water basins across the UK