Almost half of food plants are vegetatively propagated including four of the ten most economically important species worldwide. Yet we know very little about vegetative crop history - for example, how long they have been cultivated, and where - because vegetative tissues rarely preserve in the archaeological record. In this project we will develop new methods combining phytoliths (silica microfossils that exist inside most plant cells) with macro-botanical archaeological methods, as well integrating ethnohistoric, genomic and biogeographical information to reveal the evolutionary history of vegetative agriculture in Ethiopia. Ethiopia is potentially Africa's most important center of crop diversity, characterised by both the evolution and domestication of multiple vegetative species. We will specifically focus on the major food security crop enset, or "Ethiopian false banana" (Ensete ventricosum), a tree-like perennial banana relative. Enset supports some of the densest populations in sub-Saharan Africa and is the staple for 20 million people. It is cultivated over a wide elevational range and ecological gradients, exists at very high biomass densities and has a deep cultural association with multiple ethnic groups. As such enset offers an ideal model for studying long-term adaptation, diversification and interaction with culture. Our major objective is to test whether vegetative landrace patterning (i.e. the distribution of enset crop diversity) is primarily evolved through: i) Environmental adaptation - meaning that crop diversity is generated through adaptation to environmental diversity such as cooler and drier locations; ii) Cultural mechanisms - for example management traditions and variety preferences such as taste, or; iii) The antiquity of exploitation - in other words, enset could be most diverse where it has been cultivated the longest. Long-term evidence for enset in agriculture will come from key archaeological sequences, already collected across a series of sites in the Ethiopian Highlands, and being processed by partners in Ethiopia, USA and Germany. But we must refine the methods to interpret these remains by undertaking a comparative study of phytoliths considered against phylogenetic position and potential plasticity due to growth environment. We will complement this with analysis of charred food remains recovered from macrobotanical assemblages using methods developed at UCL. At Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, we will develop additional lines of evidence using herbarium collections, 50-200 years old, to build a dated phylogenetic tree using DNA data from ~ 900 contemporary landraces. These data will provide new hypotheses to explore archaeologically in terms of the cultural and adaptational history of this crop. Finally, ethnobotanical fieldwork will document present-day diversity across different cultural regions in the southwestern highlands and the extent to which agricultural and cultural changes in recent decades have altered patterns of local landrace diversity. Accounting for these changes will help us distinguish the influence of introduced crops and the agricultural revolution from long term historical patterns. This research addresses key issues at the interface of indigenous agrobiodiversity and its role in future resilience to climate change, through better understanding rates of knowledge and landrace loss, as well as drivers of change. The project will create a better understanding of both the past development and future potential of vegeculture from a global perspective. Vegetative species are amongst the least studied 'orphan crops', with major knowledge gaps about their biology, cultivation, processing and domestication. The project will specifically contribute to debates concerning food security and climate change resilience in the Ethiopian highland centre of diversity.

The World Health Organization (WHO) model of 'age-friendly cities' emphasizes the theme of supportive urban environments for older citizens. These defined as encouraging 'active ageing' by 'optimizing opportunities for health, participation and security in order to enhance quality of life as people age' (WHO, Global Age-friendly Cities, 2007). The goal of establishing age-friendly cities should be seen in the context of pressures arising from population ageing and urbanisation. By 2030, two-thirds of the world's population will reside in cities, with - for urban areas in high-income countries - at least one-quarter of their populations aged 60 and over. This development raises important issues for older people: To what extent will cities develop as age-friendly communities? Will so-called global cities integrate or segregate their ageing populations? What kind of variations might occur across different types of urban areas? How are different groups of older people affected by urban change? The 'age-friendly' city perspective has been influential in raising awareness about the impact of population ageing. Against this, the value of this approach has yet to be assessed in the context of modern cities influenced by pressures associated with global social and economic change. The IPNS has four main objectives: first, to build a collaborative research-based network focused on understanding population ageing in the context of urban environments; second to develop a research proposal for a cross-national study examining different approaches to building age-friendly cities; third to provide a systematic review of data sets and other resources of relevance to developing a research proposal on age-friendly cities; fourth, to develop training for early career resarchers working on ageing and urban issues. The network represents the first attempt to facilitate comparative research on the issue of age-friendly cities. It builds upon two meetings held at the Universities of Keele and Manchester in 2011 that sought to establish the basis for cross-national work around the 'age-friendly' theme. The IPNS represents brings together world class research groups in Europe, Hong Kong and North America, professionals concerned with urban design and architecture, and leading NGOs working in the field of ageing. A range of activities have been identified over the two-year funding period: (1) Preparation of research proposals for a cross-national study of approaches to developing age-friendly urban environments. (2) Two workshops to specify theoretical and methodological issues raised by demographic change and urbanisation. (3) A Summer School exploring links between data resources of potential relevance to the ageing and urbanisation theme and which might underpin research proposals. (4) Master classes for network members from key researchers in the field of urbanisation and ageing. (5) A workshop with a user-based theme developing older people's participation in research on building age-friendly communities. (6) Themed workshops (face-to-face and via video-link) to identify research and policy gaps drawing on inter-disciplinary perspectives The IPNS will be sustained in a variety of ways at the end of the funding period. A collaborative research proposal as well as one to maintain the network will be major outputs from the project and work with potential funding bodies will continue after 2014. Dissemination activities will continue through professional networks, symposia at major international conferences, and involvement in expert meetings. The project will continue to be advertised through the maintenance of a website maintained by the host UK HEI. The project will continue to make a contribution to policy development around the theme of age-friendly cities, notably with the main NGOs working in the field.

This project addresses the current uncertainty in 20th Century global sea level rise estimates (1.5-2.0 mm/yr). These estimates of global sea level rise and its water mass contributors are primarily derived from space geodetic (altimetry, time-variable gravity, etc.) and tide gauge measurements. Accurate measurements of these are, however, complicated by a lack of confidence in accurately correcting global tide gauge (TG) measurements for their vertical motion which prevent true sea level rise from being measured. Likewise, accurate, precise and geographically widespread surface velocity measurements are needed to constrain models of Earth's rebound from previous ice melting (glacial isostatic adjustment, GIA), for example in Antarctica. Uncertainty in GIA measurements are, perhaps most importantly, a limiting factor in obtaining accurate ice mass gain/loss estimates from GRACE (a recent satellite mission that 'weighs' the Earth). In both cases, Global Positioning System (GPS) time series offer important constraints and, indeed, have been installed in many of the critical locations. However, to date there is still uncertainty and bias in GPS time series at the 1-2mm/yr level in the vertical site velocity, mainly due to insufficient GPS signal modelling (e.g., troposphere) and resulting reference frame issues. However, recent advances in GPS error modelling mean that vertical site rates may now be obtained with a step-change in precision and accuracy compared to those currently routinely generated by the International GNSS Service. Reprocessing these raw data therefore allows even the earliest data to be used to produce coordinates of similar accuracy and precision as the most recent data. In addition, radical improvements in computational capabilities based on clustering technologies now allow what was previously impossible: the reprocessing of tens-of-thousand site-years of GPS data quickly and, therefore, in an experimental manner. Here, we propose to place improved constraints on GIA models and TG observations through a global reprocessing campaign featuring hundreds of sites globally, thereby allowing a significant advance in our understanding of global sea level rise estimates and climate-related driving mechanisms.

The science behind climate change has been established, and now the mitigation of climate change has become a political puzzle. We need to act quickly to mitigate the worst impacts of climate change, and so this project is designed to find and then share effective policy solutions that can be used across society. Until very recently, attempted solutions for climate change were 'top down': for example, the United Nations organised annual conferences, and those countries responsible for producing the most greenhouse gases dominated these negotiations. However, this approach for dealing with climate change has failed to generate effective change quickly enough, and academics are looking for new governance solutions for this most pressing and significant of issues. Increasingly, scholars argue that we need to be improving policy-making the local level, and empowering a wide range of people take a lead in responding to climate change. In particular, they argue we need 'polycentric governance'. Polycentric governance involves businesses, NGOs and government agencies working independently of each other, while also overlapping and coordinating with one another, as part of complex, multi-level networks. The outcome should be that no individual group or organisation is solely responsible for mitigating climate change, and so every 'node' in the network is encouraged to fulfil its part without fearing being exploited by others. Yet, despite growing support amongst academics for polycentric governance, there is limited research into how these networks can be created, or whether they even have a positive impact in mitigating climate change. This research project seeks to address that lack of knowledge by pursuing two research objectives. First, the project will explain how and why polycentric models are developed, by analysing three key factors: the role of the European Union; the impact of a country's national governance model, such as the presence of federalism; and a city's status as a country's capital or not. To do so, the project will map out the interconnecting networks of different groups and individuals within six city regions in Germany, Sweden and the UK. These three countries were similarly ambitious towards climate change in the early 2010s, and the six city regions have been carefully selected to be as similar as possible, while also showing differences in the three key factors under exploration. Second, the project will then determine how and why these different city regions' polycentric practices affect the creation of ambitious climate change policies. This goal will be achieved by analysing the climate policy documents of a wide range of actors within each city region, as well as interviewing key individuals. Here, a useful extra outcome of the research will be the ability to explore how changes in the UK's political landscape during the Brexit negotiations have influenced local climate change policy too. Having then analysed how and why different governance models shape the ambitiousness of local climate policy, guidance will be created for policy-makers across Western Europe. This advice will inform policy-makers about which types of governance initiatives are most effective for helping to create more ambitious climate policy. The advice will seek to improve climate policy at the local level, and it will be designed with multiple audiences in mind, depending on whether policy-makers and practitioners work at the local, national or European level. As a result, this project aims to help every level of governance to be more effective at mitigating climate change. Finally, this project will also seek to inform and empower citizens about how they can effect change themselves, by sharing the results of the study via a wide range of media outlets, pitching a TV programme on the topic, and by giving several public lectures.

The World Health Organization (WHO) model of 'age-friendly cities' emphasizes the theme of supportive urban environments for older citizens. These defined as encouraging 'active ageing' by 'optimizing opportunities for health, participation and security in order to enhance quality of life as people age' (WHO, Global Age-friendly Cities, 2007). The goal of establishing age-friendly cities should be seen in the context of pressures arising from population ageing and urbanisation. By 2030, two-thirds of the world's population will reside in cities, with - for urban areas in high-income countries - at least one-quarter of their populations aged 60 and over. This development raises important issues for older people: To what extent will cities develop as age-friendly communities? Will so-called global cities integrate or segregate their ageing populations? What kind of variations might occur across different types of urban areas? How are different groups of older people affected by urban change? The 'age-friendly' city perspective has been influential in raising awareness about the impact of population ageing. Against this, the value of this approach has yet to be assessed in the context of modern cities influenced by pressures associated with global social and economic change. The IPNS has four main objectives: first, to build a collaborative research-based network focused on understanding population ageing in the context of urban environments; second to develop a research proposal for a cross-national study examining different approaches to building age-friendly cities; third to provide a systematic review of data sets and other resources of relevance to developing a research proposal on age-friendly cities; fourth, to develop training for early career resarchers working on ageing and urban issues. The network represents the first attempt to facilitate comparative research on the issue of age-friendly cities. It builds upon two meetings held at the Universities of Keele and Manchester in 2011 that sought to establish the basis for cross-national work around the 'age-friendly' theme. The IPNS represents brings together world class research groups in Europe, Hong Kong and North America, professionals concerned with urban design and architecture, and leading NGOs working in the field of ageing. A range of activities have been identified over the two-year funding period: (1) Preparation of research proposals for a cross-national study of approaches to developing age-friendly urban environments. (2) Two workshops to specify theoretical and methodological issues raised by demographic change and urbanisation. (3) A Summer School exploring links between data resources of potential relevance to the ageing and urbanisation theme and which might underpin research proposals. (4) Master classes for network members from key researchers in the field of urbanisation and ageing. (5) A workshop with a user-based theme developing older people's participation in research on building age-friendly communities. (6) Themed workshops (face-to-face and via video-link) to identify research and policy gaps drawing on inter-disciplinary perspectives The IPNS will be sustained in a variety of ways at the end of the funding period. A collaborative research proposal as well as one to maintain the network will be major outputs from the project and work with potential funding bodies will continue after 2014. Dissemination activities will continue through professional networks, symposia at major international conferences, and involvement in expert meetings. The project will continue to be advertised through the maintenance of a website maintained by the host UK HEI. The project will continue to make a contribution to policy development around the theme of age-friendly cities, notably with the main NGOs working in the field.