After more than two decades of infrared astronomy, we still know very little about the origin and evolution of cosmic dust in galaxies, responsible for obscuring half of all starlight since the Big Bang. This obscured starlight is re-radiated in a region of the electromagnetic spectrum that is still relatively unexplored. Herschel provides a unique opportunity to resolve this by revealing the 90% of dust too cold to be detected before, yet only a tiny fraction of the largest survey of the sky carried out with Herschel has been exploited. This project aims to unravel the dust and gas content of galaxies in the local universe and over cosmic time. I will produce the first statistical census of dust in galaxies, pushing out to earlier cosmic epochs than previously possible. This also provides us with an opportunity to detect unusual objects not seen in other surveys, including a population of extremely dusty galaxies found in Herschel with blue optical colours and very different properties to more evolved spirals typical of the Milky Way. I will use our multi-wavelength data to investigate the emissivity, gas and star formation conditions on resolved spatial scales. Our Herschel data will also expose the role of environment in the interstellar content of early-type and spiral galaxies. I propose a novel approach to resolve the controversy of whether dust forms in exploding stars using polarized light. This could have implications for the detection of polarized signals in the relic radiation from the Big Bang, currently attributed to primordial gravitational waves. Our polarized dust maps of nearby supernova will reveal whether this could be a major contaminant to cosmological signals. This project is timely due to the availability of final Herschel data products and new facilities in 2015-16 in combination with tools and techniques that we have tried and tested. This ERC award will provide me with the resources to continue to lead this emerging field.

In the womb, the baby?s lungs are filled with fluid. At birth, this fluid is removed so that the baby can begin to breathe. The process of removing this fluid involves the opening of tiny, specialised molecules known as channels. As the child grows to adulthood, these channels must stay open in order to prevent the lung filling up totally with fluid. If they do not, the lung begins to fill with fluid again and breathing becomes very difficult, finally resulting in serious danger. This is what often happens in: 1) diseases such as asthma, chronic bronchitis, cystic fibrosis, smoking-related illness and infections where normal liquid movement is dramatically altered and; 2) heart failure, when excess fluid collects in the lung very frequently. Although we know a lot about the channels which open at birth, we know very little about how they work in the adult lung. In fact, we are still not certain which ones are important or where exactly they are situated within the lung. We will answer these important questions using our new methods of studying these channels and their effects in small pieces of lung and in whole lung. For the first time, these studies will allow us to find out which channels are present, how they behave and which parts of the lung are most important. Why do we need to know this? This new knowledge will tell us how the adult lung normally works and will help us to understand what happens when it goes wrong. Increasing our detailed knowledge of how the lung normally deals with fluid has the potential to be applied to all the conditions mentioned above and our results will help doctors design ways of helping people to recover more quickly. This might be by the new use of medicines already available or by stimulating manufacture of new drugs which will target the mechanism discovered by our research work.

At present there are no biomarkers available that can definatively diagnose arthritis or measure the usefulness of many different treatment approaches that are available to help slow the progression of the disease and thereby improve the quality of life of the patient. Indeed, at present there are no means available to diagnose and distinguish between early stage rheumatoid arthtritis and early stage osteoarthritis; if this latter point could be achieved there would be substantial costs savings to the national health care providers in most countries worldwide. The objective of this proposal is to evaluate the capabilities of a panel of biomarker assays to detect different types of tissue breakdown or synthesis products in the blood, joint fluid and urine in large numbers of a medically well-characterised groups of patients with different stages in the progression and types of arthritic disease. These data will then be analysed for different patterns of expression of these substances with a view to identifying specific fingerprints of their occurrance that can be used in clinical trials, to diagnose different disease subtypes and also monitor the benefits of different treatment strategies. After these assays have been developed and validated using MRC funding these technologies will be transferred to an industrial partner so that they can become commercially available to hospitals and research institutions for use in clinical diagnosis and monitoring of treatments as well as for new drug discovery initiatives for treatment of arthritic diseases.

"Cardiff University is already an international organisation. We attract a geographically diverse range of staff and students; collaborate with institutions, governments and businesses worldwide; and conduct research that is proven to have global significance and impact, host international conferences and have staff that win international prizes. Cardiff University has been involved in the Erasmus+ programme since the Programme was first established in 1987. As an institution we have over 290 Inter-Institutional partnerships with universities across 26 countries throughout Europe. Cardiff University's involvement in the Erasmus+ programme contributes to the University's strategic vision to become a consistent world top 100 university, and to be recognised as an international university of benefit to Wales, as laid out in the University's strategic plan, ""The Way Forward"". The University has identified greater international engagement as crucial to this, with a target of ensuring that by 2017, 17% of our home students will have studied, worked or volunteered abroad for at least a month during their time at Cardiff.A wider aim of Cardiff's International and Engagement strategy is to make a positive contribution to the international development of higher education, working with our partners to play a crucial role in tackling some of the biggest global issues of today and of the future, through research collaboration, exchange of curricula knowledge and ideas and exchange of staff and students. Involvement in the Erasmus+ programme is directly linked to achieving this objective. The University’s Internationalisation Strategy is informed by and supports the Welsh Government’s International Agenda, which aims to help Wales compete on an international stage. There is a growing awareness that we need to enhance international recognition of our excellence in research and education. We need to ensure that our students are suitably equipped with international experiences to succeed in the increasingly globalised environment and to meet the needs of graduate employers; we need to maximise the impact of our research for society throughout the world. Partnerships, such as those forged through the Erasmus+ programme, will be critical to developing our international activities and to enhancing our international reputation.Traditionally we have welcomed to Cardiff University far higher numbers of students than we have sent to partners. Our goal is to address this balance, and to promote outward mobility to students and staff across all academic Schools, and in line with the University's international strategy. During the second year of the Erasmus+ programme, a total of 380 participants have taken part, including Student Mobility for Study, Student Mobility for Traineeships and Staff Mobility for Teaching and Training. During 2015-2016 a total of 337 students have participated on the Erasmus+ programme. 185 students from 9 academic Schools took part in Study placements in 8 countries; 152 students from 13 academic Schools) took part in Traineeships in 15 countries. 29 academic members of staff took part in Teaching mobility across 11 countries; and 7 staff took part in Traineeships in 4 countries.The Global Opportunities team was launched in June 2014 to provide services to students, staff and partners, and to implement the University’s international mobility strategy and help attain University and College targets. The team represents a source of expertise and knowledge in relation to European Exchange at Cardiff University. Staff have a wealth of experience of working with the Erasmus+ programme and over recent years resources have been dedicated to increase involvement in the Erasmus+ programme from a wider range of academic Schools, not just those Schools where traditionally students go abroad. Over the past 2 years, more Schools than ever have been involved in the Programme, and the general trend is pleasing. We have seen a shift from students taking part in Study placements to more students taking part in Traineeships. From 2007 the number of students participating in Traineeships has leapt from 3 participants to 152 in 2015/16. This is largely due to support from academic Schools, increased flexibility of degree programmes to allow for periods of mobility abroad, as well as engaging with shorter-term (8 week) Traineeships over the summer holiday.Cardiff University is committed to both student and staff mobility and strives to continue to develop the breadth and depth of our relationships through the Erasmus+ programme."

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