We are seeking funding to acquire a microarray robot for bioscience research. These machines are in effect printers that instead of ink, print biological samples in the form of spots on a surface such as a slide or membrane. The power of microarrays and their value to life science research is immense because entire libraries of molecules from complex biological systems can be represented in the form of tens of thousands of spots in an area no bigger than a postage stamp. With these arrayed libraries, we can explore interactions between molecules, test for biological activities, screen for new drugs and discover new enzymes. This technology was first applied to nucleic acids (DNA and RNA), but microarrays are now used for research into proteins, carbohydrates, lipids and small molecules. The technology is especially powerful for deciphering interaction networks between genes and proteins and for large scale screening of antibodies, enzymes and other bio-molecules. Furthermore, the latest generation of microarray robots are also advanced manufacturing devices capable of fabricating sensors and assays and can be used for performing multiplexed (many simultaneously) microscale experiments in-situ within the controlled environment of the machine. The equipment that we are requesting will be custom manufactured with bespoke features that greatly enhance its capacity and versatility, by a globally-leading UK company. By embedding this equipment within a new Biosystems Engineering unit at Newcastle University, we will create a truly world-class microarray technology hub that will accelerate research in food security, bioenergy and industrial biotechnology and health bioscience. By working with locally based but globally active industry partners we will use this equipment to drive translational research towards commercialisation. The equipment will also ensure that a new generation of UK students will have access to state-of-the-art technology, bringing a lasting legacy of research benefits.

To improve competitiveness, quality and effciency of service, repairs and back - office functions throughout the group through an innovative transformational change programme.

There is an unmet need to improve the number and quality of organs transplanted. The stress following lack of oxygen and when blood supply is reinstated results in production of molecules which modify the proteins involved in inflammation, called chemokines. These modified chemokines could be novel biomarkers in assessing organ quality before transplantation. We have developed a novel antibody for modified-chemokine; we will quantify the ratio of native to modified-chemokine in transplant patient samples. We will also use a second detection method using mass spectrometry in order to corroborate the results. This will allow transplant patient stratification.

Fewer and fewer children now play outside. This reduction in outdoor active play - or 'playing-out' - has led to a whole range of concerns around health, wellbeing and development as well as continued international calls-to-action to address the issue. Factors behind reductions in playing-out include an increased reluctance of parents to allow children to be unsupervised outside due to concerns about the safety of their neighbourhoods, and in particular, increasing traffic and 'strangers'. As fewer children play outside, neighbourhoods, towns and cities are becoming 'play deserts', places where there are neither formal nor informal opportunities for outdoor play, and where play is simply not welcome anymore. While children play outside less and less, children play online more and more. The under 9s use the internet to search for information, to socialize and to play games. But, while the under 9s are readily understood to consume increasing amounts of content online, they continue to have little opportunity to create and share their own digital content about their lives. This is made worse by an extensive focus on video media for sharing experiences using social media platforms such as YouTube and Vine, where parents and society share many concerns around children's internet safety, and where formal services such as YouTube Kids emphasizes the child as a content consumer, rather than producer. We respond to these real-world interrelated problems by investigating the opportunity for Internet of Things (IoT) technologies to enable children to transform their neighbourhoods into digitally enhanced playgrounds and adventures. IoT refers to the idea that objects within our environments can be continually connected with the environment and the internet to offer new kinds of services. We think about IoTs as an entirely new mode of digital content that children (or anyone) can create and share. We imagine, for example, how IoT technologies can scaffold a child's play - e.g. a child can create an IoT to augment bricks in a wall to provide temporal targets for her football practice - as well as provide alternative modes to document and share play - e.g. a child can share media of her football practice, and her play's meta-data can be used to program another child's IoT to test and compare their own skills. We propose that by creating new opportunities for play which draw on children's interests and use in digital and social technologies that we can motivate children to play out more. In order to facilitate these kinds of interactions we need to understand and test the kind of support children would need to set-up their own IoTs for playing out, as well as how children would negotiate and create stories around this content which they could safely share. We think making use of the data sensed and collected about a child's play with IoTs could be an interesting way to both record the experience of a child's play while preserving a child's anonymity, and help them share that play with others to try out. This project will pursue an action orientated 'in the wild' program of research, working directly with the Cedarwood Trust in Meadow Well, BeChange in Aylesham, Playing Out CIC in Bristol and SAMLabs. Together we will co-design and develop technologies which support the under 9s in creating digitally-augmented outside play. We will use participatory design methods to achieve this, working closely with under 9s in both communities to design the tools and the kinds of play they facilitate. We are keen to know whether our 'Playing Out' IoT changes children's play behaviours, changes a child's relationship with their neighbourhood, impacts on the play opportunities in a community, or improves parent-child interactions. To help us understand the impact of our technology we will undertake observations, interviews and questionnaire surveys in both locations. We will also undertake a content analysis of the kinds of play created.

Request for financial support to cover the additional costs that researchers/staff members with disabilities face due to the increased costs of their mobility and/or to ensure necessary assistance by third persons or for adapting their work environment.