Every day we see the development of new "smart" things and come closer and closer to the moment when the perfect "smart" home of the future becomes a reality. A "Smart" home, is one in which each appliance (thing) is not only controllable but is also "intelligent", ie. tailored to our individual needs. Yet, smart objects and smart homes often consider the individual as a passive entity to be 'served', rather than an empowered individual who can make smart decisions based on information. This is often because of the assumption that human cognition isn't able to take on the massive amount of information that could be generated from such smart objects. Indeed, very little is known about how people interact with data and how much of the data which we generate can actually inform our day-to-day decision making. We also do not know whether data generated within a home can change our consumption habits and behaviour. Finally, we are uncertain about whether and to what extent the data that we produce influences other decision makers in our household. Our project offers a new approach to answering these questions by observing actual household behaviour "in the wild" and developing a personal resource planning system (PRP) to support decisions made by individuals, ie. a smart 'me'. Our approach is different from existing IoT research in the following ways. First, while traditional research views the customer, who either accepts or rejects the product/service developed by businesses, to be outside the supply system, our approach offers a new perspective in which the customer is also viewed as an inside component of the supply system. This means that the customer, through his/her behaviour, becomes an inherent component of the supply system, and thereby transforms this system into a collaborative exchange system. This collaborative exchange system allows customers to interact with businesses and make decisions about how much customisation they would like to see in each product/service they themselves consume (e.g., Crowcroft et al., 2011; McAuley et al., 2011; Ng. et al., 2013). Second, since our approach has a person (customer) in the centre, the main focus of this project is to understand how "smart" things interact with human behaviour, and possibly how this behaviour can be informed by the new data from "smart" things to catalyse the appearance of a more informed "smart" consumer (e.g., Ng, 2012). Finally, our third contribution to existing research is to create data architecture through the IoT which would allow customers to make more informed "smart" decisions. In a way, the main output of this project will be a proof of concept that customers could be "nudged" into making "smarter" consumption decisions which would optimise business-customer interactions and create more value for each household.

Public services are presently going through huge changes in response to a range of issues such as the Big Society agenda, increased localisation, greater demands for service user voice and control, increased public expectations and a greater mix in terms of the economy of welfare services. Public service organisations are grappling with significant changes at a time when they are also making significant cuts to budgets. The public service organisations of today are no longer large public sector organisations such as the local authorities of the past but are likely to be smaller in size and increasingly likely to exist in the commercial sector or the third sector. These changes have significant implications in terms of the types of roles that public servants undertake and their career trajectories. Whereas in the past an individual might start out in a junior role in a public sector organisation and work their way through various parts of that organisation, today it is more likely that individuals will work in a range of different organisations and institutions over the course of their career and also cross sectoral boundaries. Even where individuals may remain in the same organisation it is likely that they will be required to work more closely with those from other organisations, institutions and sectors as public services become ever more diversified. The existing knowledge and practice around career development of public servants is yet to catch up with these developments. There is no common and shared route through which public servants are developed or through which they can gain access to information about the types of roles available and the skills and competencies they may need to develop. The training of public servants has traditionally focused too much on the core civil service, whereas the majority of people who work in public services may not fit this model. Whilst those who work outside of the public sector are often trained and developed through different routes. This is compounded by the fact that professionals within the public service workforce (e.g. doctor, social worker, teacher, accountant, lawyer) are trained specifically for that role to a certain set of standards and expectations. Further, the notion of the 'public sector ethos' has been too associated with those working in the public sector which does not well reflect the myriad of organisations who today are involved with designing and delivering public services. Neither does this effectively take account of the shifting role of service users as co-designers, co-producers or citizens. This project aims to build on the findings of the University of Birmingham's Policy Commission into the 'Future of Public Services' which identified the desperate need to pay attention to the changing nature of the roles undertaken by public servants and the associated support and development needs. This project is a partnership arrangement between the University of Birmingham and Birmingham City Council and aims to establish: the existing knowledge base on this topic; undertake new research into public service roles; and, to establish a knowledge portal which should support other public servants and public service organisations. The knowledge portal will set out details about the context of public service, the range of roles which are developing in public service, the skills and resources that are needed to fulfil these roles, an indication of where existing development opportunities are available and detail on the sort of local and national government support that might be required for public servants and public service organisations.

This proposal is to stage two separate seminar events in the UK and Japan during 2012/13 organised jointly by the University of Birmingham and Waseda University. The principal aim of the seminars is to examine theory and practice on regional resilience and the role of redundancy in adapting to 'shock' and 'slow-burn' events. The two core concepts 'resilience' and 'redundancy' are well developed in the physical and natural sciences. The aim of the seminar is to explore the relevance of these concepts to socio-economic systems (planning, economy, housing markets etc..) across cities and regions. Resilience has been defined as the capacity to withstand and rebound from disruptive challenges or shock, and is a concept that has largely grown out of the natural and physical sciences. It was defined in the 1970s by Buzz Holling as a system's ability to "absorb change and disturbance and still maintain the same relationships between populations or state variables" (Holling, 1973, p.14). At the individual human level, social psychology has emphasised the behavioural adjustments necessary to maintain resilience to life events (divorce, disability etc.) and daily 'hassles'. There has therefore emerged a synthesis of definitions from social psychological and physical science that has defined resilience as the capacity to withstand change and resist shocks by maintaining a steady state and returning quickly to 'equilibrium'. The concept of 'redundancy' is recognised as a key component of maintaining equilibrium in ecological and engineering systems. However, most people would probably associate redundancy with unemployment and job loss. That's because redundancy can mean that something is superfluous. Redundancy in ecological systems has been identified as the way in which elements of a system can be substituted during a shock or something which adapts to satisfying functional requirements in the event of disruption. Examples may include the role that bacteria played in the cleansing of the Gulf of Mexico following the oil spill of 2010 or back-up electronic navigation systems in aircraft which come in to play when there is system failure. Redundancy can therefore be viewed as an insurance policy against disaster which acts as a means of establishing equilibrium during shock events. But, determining redundancy is a question of time and judgment - who decides what is redundant and when it is redundant is crucial to determining resilience in social and economic systems. Therefore there are important policy considerations and resources at stake in this research and the events will explore these concepts and the potential policy outcomes responses to shock at the urban-regional scale. Holling was concerned about major ecological and biological systems and the response of these systems to 'shocks'. The purpose of measuring equilibrium following a sudden shock event such as 9/11 or the Tohoku (Japan) earthquake is undoubted: getting people back on the streets and reducing fear, restarting businesses and re-housing and reallocating people affected by flood are all valid measures of rebound and equilibrium. But what about at the regional and city scale and the role of redundancy for cities and regions in arriving at equilibrium or evolving to a new state? We are concerned with the relevance to cities and regions and the longer term responses necessary. We will look at the experience following the 2011 earthquake in Japan as well 'slow-burn' shocks such what has happened in Longbridge (UK) and recent austerity and recession. By looking at the features of regional planning and economy in contexts that have been affected by different shocks we can begin to answer some of these important questions. The globally significant events of Japan will be explored first-hand and compared with slow-burn shocks within the UK to understand what elements of the urban-regional planning system can assist in the process of resilience.

We propose to implement and extend a Scientific Art competition to spark a meaningful and targeted public engagement process. The science and ethos underlying this bid is defined by the 'Birmingham Science City' (BSC) project, which was initiated by our current Prime Minister Gordon Brown MP when he designated 6 Science Cities in 2005. As a result, the Regional Development Agency, Advantage West Midlands (AWM), was in receipt of a large grant, which it chose to invest (since 2007) in the capital research infrastructure of the region within the two Russell-group research-intensive universities, Birmingham (UB) and Warwick (UW). The big-picture is the ambition to make the West Midlands region a major hub for science, technology and innovation on the world-stage with the cultural, educational and economic benefits to the people of the region that will follow. By combining AWM's funding with investment from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), it has been possible to invest across three major Themes: Advanced Materials (20M), Energy Futures (17M) and Translational Medicine (20M) in UB/UW. The PI is the Research Director of these projects for the two universities. Crucially, the appreciation by the public of the importance of Science in our every-day lives, is a major outcome of the wider BSC programme, which has the motto Ideas for Life . Public engagement activity is a key element of the overall Science City package; hence the willingness of BSC to partner with us in this proposal.The scientific research encapsulated by the three Themes is some of the most visually inspiring of all science. The 80 or so researchers who work directly within the Science City projects on these themes at UW and UB will be contacted and asked to submit entries to the SciArt competition. The scope of the call will cover photographs, graphical depictions of results of simulations or experiments, micrographs or even pages from notebooks. The criterion by which SciArt entries will be judged is: the images must be visually striking with artistic merit independent of their scientific interest, however the story behind the picture , the technical expertise and scientific merit will also be taken into consideration. shortlisted entries by Nick Barker and Ally Caldecote.The six winning images, produced as professional posters, will be exhibited , as part of the British Festival of Science, which is to be hosted in Birmingham in September 2010. Science City Research Fellows will contribute their time to staff the exhibition, explaining the science behind the images, and the impact of that science, to the members of the public who attend it. A composite poster will be constructed from the six images by a graphic designer and this will be mailed to 500 schools for Year 6 with an example lesson plan suggesting how it could be integrated into their regular classroom activities. We expect responses in the form of prose, poems, pictures, photographs, and possibly even experiments of their own .These responses will be judged in the SciArt schools competition with a prize ceremony hosted in prominent venue, to be decided in consultation with partner Birmingham City Council, in December. Most importantly, Teaching Fellows based in Chemistry and Physics will proactively engage with schools in Delivering the Science behind the images through their regular visits to school classes at all stages of the education process, and across the full range of socio-economic backgrounds and through working on curriculum-based material to be delivered both on-site and more widely via the web. Visits to UB/UW to experience experiments connected to the images will be hosted as a follow-up. The final output will be a calendar for 2011 featuring the 6 winning images and 6 winning school responses - the aim is to distribute this at no charge to participating schools and to sell it at a commercial rate to other interested parties.

The issue: There are currently more people over the age of 60 than ever before. The Office of National Statistics have projected that the number of people age 60 years and over will increase by 50% in the next 25 years. These demographic changes are important because people generally become less physically active as they grow older. This can be detrimental to their health and well-being and has subsequent health and social care costs. Researchers have been investigating the relationship between physical activity and health for a long time. Consequently, much is known about which diseases can be prevented through physical activity, and how much and how often activity should be undertaken. This information is useful, but it does not negate the fact that there are still lots of older people who are inactive. Recently, leading scientists have said that if we are to encourage people to integrate health behaviours like physical activity into their everyday life, conducting research to reconfirm that physical activity is beneficial is not enough. Instead, they say that we need to know more about the different environments, which can enable or deter physical activity in older age and shape how it is experienced. This includes people's physical environments (e.g. their access and proximity to woodlands, parks etc.) and also their social and cultural environments (e.g. the impact of their ethnicity, gender, interaction with healthcare etc.). Social scientists are well qualified to investigate issues like these. Our response: Our seminar series will bring together academics from different subject areas (e.g. sociology, psychology, geography, sport and health sciences), policy makers, health and social care practitioners, physical activity and sport providers, and those working within the voluntary and statutory sectors. Each seminar will focus on a specific issue relevant to the physical, social and cultural environments that can impact upon physical activity (PA) in older age. Specifically; (i)competitive sport in later life, (ii)physical activity during lifecourse transitions, (iii)how gender impacts upon physical activity involvement - and vice versa, (iv)experiences of physical activity amongst hard to reach groups (e.g. ethnic minorities), (v)community based initiatives to promote physical activity, (vi)E-health, (vii)PA in the outdoor natural environment, (viii)the process of using research to inform policy and practice. Leading experts from the UK and abroad will share their knowledge and direct discussions with seminar participants. This process will advance what we currently know about the topic and also identify aspects that we don't know about that require more research. It will also enable a large group of people (from research, policy and practice backgrounds) with a shared commitment to healthy ageing to establish themselves as a 'network'. The network members will continue to communicate and collaborate with each other both during and beyond the lifetime of the seminar series. Who will benefit and how: The seminar series is intended to have strong and distinctive impacts in academic, policy and user communities. This will be achieved by advancing understanding of (i)physical activity engagement in older age in ways that go beyond 'how much' and 'how often', (ii)the value of using different disciplines (i.e. subject areas) and research methods to generate knowledge about this topic. Policy contributions will be made regarding how best to promote healthy ageing, through physical activity involvement. Impact will also occur through the inclusion of older participants in the co-production of research knowledge, and in the training of early career researchers to continue championing this research area. Working closely with Core Partners (British Heart Foundation, Birmingham Public Health, Sporting Equals) will enhance the research teams understanding of the relationship between research and policy.