The criticality of Cu, Co (+/- V) in battery technology and electricity transmission has established them as key components of the carbon-free energy transition. A major proportion of these elements are sourced from sedimentary basin-hosted deposits, formed from large-scale fluid flow systems. Recent work has shown that diverse basin architectures and processes were responsible for their genesis, yet we still do not understand why so few basins become highly endowed with metals. Given their paucity, the geological evolution of such basins demands the juxtaposition of unique conditions that: (1) generated large volumes of metal-bearing fluid; (2) provided sufficient sulfur; (3) created reducing trap sites; and (4) focused fluid flow into these sites [5]. Understanding large deposits is particularly significant because they are efficient to mine and offer the greatest societal benefits. Our particular focus is to develop and integrate mineral and petroleum systems approaches to provide a disruptive innovation opportunity in the science and industrial applications in this field. Our objectives are to identify the processes, operating over a range of scales, that lead to the formation of large Cu-Co-(V) deposits and derive new and practical exploration tools. The opportunity is timely, given the current wave of academic interest in these ore systems, and the increased collaboration between industry and academia to develop sophisticated methods that can reduce exploration costs, risk and environmental impact. To tackle these challenges, we have assembled a multi-institute academic consortium with internationally-recognised expertise across the geosciences. We have also built strategic research alliances with: (1) the UK's major mining houses, Rio Tinto and Anglo American, and with BHP and First Quantum Minerals, all with global interests in sediment-hosted copper mineralisation; (2) the energy sector (Scheupbach Energy); and (3) international academic partners (CSIRO, Univ. Houston, GFZ Potsdam, Universidad Nacional, Buenos Aires. The collaboration between PIs, PDRAs, affiliated PhD students funded outside the grant, industry and international partners will deliver high impact scientific publications, new data and tools to support the development of lower risk mineral exploration strategies, and highlight the UK as a world-leading community for research in basin-hosted mineral systems.

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

Citizen Science is a rapidly expanding and diversifying field of innovation with significant implications for, and potential benefits to, society, policy, and various academic research areas. This heterogeneity leads currently to a fragmented and not fully coordinated European Citizen Science landscape. The ambition of EU-Citizen.Science is to build, fill, and promote a sustainable platform and mutual learning space providing different tools, best practice examples and relevant scientific outcomes that are collected, curated, and made accessible to different stakeholders, ranging from interested citizens over scientific institutions up to politicians and public media in order to mainstream Citizen Science in Europe. This breakthrough will be pursued through three interconnected lines of activity: (i) coordination of citizen science actions and leveraging of existing resources in the presently fragmented landscape of Citizen Science in Europe, (ii) engagement of quadruple helix stakeholders at all levels (local, national and European), and (iii) creation of a mutual learning space and a set of comprehensive co-designed training modules for the different target audiences. Moreover, following a transparent, open and inclusive approach, EU-Citizen.Science will promote interdisciplinary, cross-border, cross-sector collaboration, and give rise to significant social innovation and new business models through the creation of new partnerships and the provision of novel sustainability-supporting tools. The EU.Citizen.Science project involves 14 partners and 9 third parties, representing 14 European Member States and a variety of stakeholders ranging from universities, NGOs, local authorities, CSOs and natural history museums, along with several other project supporters. Many of the partners are already engaged in other SwafS projects related to RRI, co-creation and citizen science, as well as numerous initiatives at national or local level.

The research in this proposal tries to answer a string of questions about why we are here. Not just why you and I are here. Not even why life started. But why we have a Solar System, at all. We are sure the planets formed from a swirling disk of gas and dust. However, we do not know much about how the planets formed, and how material in the disk was redistributed. We can get clues from precise measurements of small differences in the kinds of atoms present. This isotopic heterogeneity came from stars that predated our sun. These act as a signature of the dust characterising different parts of the disk allowing us to track motions rather like a detective uses fingerprints to trace a criminal. We have tentative evidence that Mars, a small planet, actually formed very fast, at the same time as Jupiter should have been forming a bit further away. Maybe Jupiter accumulated most of the dust and debris and did not leave much for Mars to get bigger. The first thing to do is to check out this evidence on timing and see if it is right. We need to improve the trace element and isotopic measurements to achieve this. We think the Moon formed from the debris left from a collision between Earth and another planet. The debris was so hot that it vaporised and some was lost to space. We have evidence that alkali metals like rubidium were also lost. We need to check out this theory with more measurements and see what else evaporated when planets were made. We also think metal cores form from an ocean of molten rock created from the incredible heat resulting from collisions with other planets and impactors. We can figure out the temperatures and pressures and composition of the planet at the time by measuring trace elements and comparing their concentration with what you predict from experiments. We want to know how melting works on planets that have lots of volcanism. We will model the behaviour of one of Jupiter's moons (called Io) and make comparisons with the early Earth which is a time when tidal effects would have produced extensive melting. We need to establish how volcanism generates atmospheres. The depletion in volatile elements in the terrestrial planets provide clues but they are not well understood. We will develop new models to try and constrain this. We will also study how volcanism affects planetary environments and their habitability. In particular, we will investigate how lightning is generated in volcanic planetary environments. Lastly, we will look at the issue of why the basic building blocks of life on Earth have a certain 'left handed' molecular structure. We think this chirality may have something to do with the way amino acids interacted with clays in the early Earth and will conduct experiments aimed at evaluating this.