Reason for the Project: The DIREKT project aims to instill best Information Literacy (IL) practices in higher education systems in the Russian Federation, Kazakhstan & China. The project is much needed in order to up-skill library and academic staff specifically their transferable, pedagogical and lifelong learning skills in the Information Literacy field thereby developing capacity and affecting all stakeholders including students. The project aims for improved, more relevant University services in the Information Literacy area leading to better awareness, modernization and improvements in teaching and learning. Concise Description: Creation with Librarians and Faculty, of curriculum-integrated IL programs (embedded in the three cycle system (bachelor/master/doctorate), quality assurance and recognition of qualifications for the development of lifelong learning in higher education and in Society at large and incorporating appropriate electronic media. Development of training programmes supported by 7 ECTS modules- a DIREKT Curriculum for Information Literacy which will be embedded in curricula in PC universities and with involvement of external stakeholders to ensure maximum transfer effect to Society at large.Impact envisaged: As Information Literacy is a vital transferable skill for lifelong learning that transcends all academic disciplines what is truly special and unique about this project is that the results will benefit a huge learner group- all University staff, students and librarians and the effects will be felt in RF, KZ and Chinese Society through university links with external stakeholders.

The EPSRC-ESRC Network in Consumer Goods, Big Data and Re-Distributed Manufacturing (RECODE) aims to develop an active and engaged community through which to identify, test and evaluate a multi-disciplinary vision and research agenda associated with the application of big data in the transition towards a re-distributed manufacturing model for consumer goods. Transforming the consumer goods industry through the use of big data and re-distributed models of manufacture poses entirely new challenges inherent to the capture, storage, analysis, visualisation and interpretation of big data. Combined with this is the cross-disciplinary requirement for radically new methods of engaging end-users, empowering customer interaction, facilitating ad-hoc supply chains, re-capturing and re-deploying valuable materials, optimising manufacturing processes, informing new user-driven design of customised goods and services, developing novel business models and implementing data-driven open innovation. The world generates 1.7 million billion bytes of data every day and global big data technology and services is growing by 40% per year, predicted to reach USD 16.9 billion in 2015. The exponential growth of available and potentially valuable data, often referred to as big data, is already facilitating transformational change across sectors and holds enormous potential to address many of the key challenges being faced by the manufacturing industry including increasing scarcity of resources, diverse global markets and a trend towards mass customisation. The consumer goods industry, one of the world's largest sectors worth approximately USD3.2 trillion, has remained largely unchanged and is characterised by mass manufacture through multi-national corporations and globally dispersed supply chains with 80% of materials ending up in landfill. The role of re-distributed manufacturing in this sector is often overlooked, yet there is great potential, when combined with timely advancements in big data, to re-define the consumer goods industry by changing the economics and organisation of manufacturing, particularly with regard to location and scale. RECODE will develop novel methods to engage communities of academics, international experts, user groups, government and industrial organisations to define and scope the shared multi-disciplinary vision and research agenda. New perspectives and contributions from user groups and stakeholders will be used to ensure that the vision of the network is fully inclusive and sensitive to regional trends, variances and scales. Short-term studies will be undertaken across the breadth of the theme to test and evaluate the feasibility of specific research challenges, the findings of which will contribute to an interactive roadmap representing local and global communities and research agendas of the network. Closing the gap between manufacturers, suppliers and consumers will provide opportunities for personalisation of products and services, up scaling of local enterprise and the development of user-driven products tuned to the requirements of local markets providing economic competitiveness for the UK. Improved understanding of skills and training required for interpreting big data and transforming industries will ensure that the UK can take full advantage of opportunities for job creation. Moving towards a localised and regenerative model of consumer goods manufacture will create more efficient and effective supply chains capable of on-demand responses; increasing productivity and competitiveness of the manufacturing industry. This challenging two year network will bring together an internationally renowned team of experts from Cranfield, Brunel, Cambridge, Manchester and Teesside universities drawing on leading-edge strengths of the host institutions and international connections with research communities, companies, business intermediaries and governance at local, national and international scales.

Aerosols are a collection of solid particles of liquid droplets dispersed in air and include smoke, fog, sea spray and pollution particles from vehicles. Particle sizes can range from the nanometre (a millionth of a millimetre) to the millimetre scale. Aerosols influence health, visibility, and climate and are finding increased technological application in the delivery of drugs to the lungs, the engineering of nanostructures through spray drying, and the delivery of fuels for combustion. This research will examine some of the fundamental challenges faced in understanding aerosols.A key to understanding the impact of aerosols on human health is to understand how they are transformed as they are inhaled and exhaled. In the humid environment found within the respiratory tract, water vapour can condense on inhaled particles leading to growth in size. This can influence their depth of penetration into the lungs, with smaller particles penetrating deeper. The targeted delivery of drugs to the lungs may be enhanced by altering their response to a humid environment. Further, the transmission of airborne viruses, such as the influenza virus, may be influenced by the humidity changes on exhalation and inhalation. Similarly, in atmospheric science it is crucial to understand how aerosol particles are influenced by humidity in order to predict the size of cloud droplets. Understanding the change in particle size with humidity is also critical for understanding the ability of particles to scatter and absorb sunlight and their impact on climate. Thus, key themes of this project will be to understand how particles change in size with humidity and their efficiency in scattering and absorbing light.It is also essential to know the chemical composition of particles to interpret their impact on health and the environment, particularly in polluted urban environments, and to understand how particles are chemically changed over time. Water is ubiquitous in our environment and largely regulates the composition of aerosol. However, many chemicals are not soluble in water. This is particularly true for many pollutants such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, which are considered to be carcinogenic and mutagenic, and for many of the agrochemicals that are used in crop production. Such chemicals may be very soluble and become concentrated in organic liquids. A key theme of this project will be to understand the properties of aerosol droplets that contain both water soluble and insoluble chemicals, and to understand how chemicals can dissolve into the organic phase within an aerosol. Indeed, many of the organic components may undergo chemical reactions in our environment and a further theme will be to explore the chemistry that can occur in aerosol and how it influences aerosol properties. From the delivery of drugs to the lungs, to the evaporation of fuel droplets in combustion, the spray drying of particles, and the growth of particles in the atmosphere, understanding the rate at which particles can change size and composition is also crucial. For example, the processes occurring during the evaporation of a volatile solvent in the use of metered does inhalers critically determine the delivery of active pharmaceuticals to the lungs. The solid structures formed when liquid droplets rapidly evaporate are controlled by how quickly the solvent evaporates in spray drying. Studies of these very rapid processes are a further theme.Finally, there is considerable interest in the analysis and chemical reactions of very small sample volumes, and this has led to the development of lab-on-a-chip technology. Commonly, solutions flow through very small fabricated channels to allow measurements on micro-litre samples. A final theme of this project will be to control reactions in aerosol droplets containing only picolitres of sample, a billionth of cubic centimetre, using laser beams to move particles around and control chemistry.

The CIPnet project is a Joint Action to be implemented in China. Its general objective is to promote the modernisation and harmonisation of Intellectual Property Management practices in the higher education system in China, with a view to enhance university-industry collaborations and contribute to economic and social development.The CIPnet consortium identified several deficiencies in the Universities’ TT and IP management performance in China such as low levels of entrepreneurial attitude, shortage of TT skills, inadequate IP protection, low industry-academia engagement and mismatch between the needs of the firms and the university research results. In this context CIPnet present an innovative proposal to improve the TT&IP system based on a network with a bottom-up approach. The project specific objective is to establish a National HE IP Network as a learning platform to foster the modernisation, harmonisation and strategic planning of IP Management practices and regional integration in HE of China.The CIPnet activities implemented by 7 CN HEIs & 3 EU HEIs with a long-standing tradition on IPR & TT issues (as partners) with a series of key actors on IP field (as associates), will include:- Benchmarking & needs analysis activities will identify good practices on IP services and strategies in CN and EU HEIs, providing a good insight of the situation of the China HEIs in terms of the level of IP awareness and creating a database of IP experts in China.- CB on TT&IP management, via face-to-face and on-line workshops that trainees will adapt for the implementation of the IP replication workshops. - Creation of a National HE IP Management Network with a strong networking focus.- An ambitious dissemination and exploitation strategy of the network fostering that new members join the network, contributing to the development of modern IP management policies for HEIs in CN and widening the impact and exploitation of the project results beyond the consortium.