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The cells that make up the tissues of your body are surrounded by a matrix of proteins and sugars. Cells interact with this matrix environment helping organs fulfil their function reacting to the elasticity and stiffness of the matrix and secreting messenger molecules into the matrix leaving specific information for other cells. This complex communication is crucial during development of an embryo driving the segmentation of the body into organs and to divide organs into functional regions. The matrix also plays an important role in disease progression where cells digest proteins or sugars within the matrix to release cryptic fragments that can instruct cells to multiply or to migrate, both features that are exaggerated in the progression to cancer. Scientists have specialised techniques that can interpret messages within cells, these are often carried out in human cells grown on plastic (2D) which would not include matrix interactions. To understand 3D matrix-driven signalling they often rely on animal-derived artificial matrices that can be hard to work with due to high variability or use animal models including the growth of human cells transplanted as a xenograft into a mouse. Although these 3D assays are an improvement from 2D culture neither fully reproduce the complex human tissue matrix. There is a need to improve the 3D growth of cells within the laboratory and reduce the need for animal models that do not represent human tissue. To this end we have developed a fully synthetic, highly reproducible gel that can be decorated with proteins and sugars to mimic the matrix of human tissues. Cancer cells, along with other cells types found in native tissues, can then be encapsulated in the gels and easily grown in the lab. The development of our bespoke human matrix will provide scientists with cheap, functional and robust test environments where cancer cell behaviour can be studied in a human body mimick. This allows researchers to test theories of how cancers develop, discover new targets for intervention and additionally will provide more realistic test environments for screening therapeutics. To test our bespoke gel environments we are using breast cancer as a model system, which can we investigated in its normal, pre-invasive and invasive cancer forms. We will characterise the differences in matrix between dense and non-dense breast tissue (normal and cancer) as evidence shows that dense breast tissue is a major risk factor for breast cancer. We will then use this information to decorate gels with specific proteins and sugars to mimic these distinct matrix environments, by encapsulating cancer cells and pre-cancerous cells in the gels (along with other cell types typical of the tissue) we hope to better understand why this is and what role is played by specific proteins and sugars in the matrix. This project brings together an interdisciplinary team of cancer biologists, materials scientists and clinicians to develop a new solution that we hope will have impact for the study multiple cancer types once proven as a robust model for breast cancer we anticipate significantly reducing the numbers of animals used in xenograft studies across the world.

Our programme focuses on the care needs of adults living at home with chronic health problems or disabilities, and seeks sustainable solutions to the UK's contemporary 'crisis of care'. It is distinctive in investigating sustainability and wellbeing in care holistically across care systems, work and relationships; addresses disconnection between theorisations of care in different disciplines; and locates all its research in the context of international scholarship, actively engaging with policy partners. It will fill knowledge gaps, contribute new theoretical ideas and data analyses, and provide useful, accurate evidence to inform care planning, provision and experience. It develops and critically engages with policy and theoretical debates about: care infrastructure (systems, networks, partnerships, standards); divisions of caring labour/the political economy of care (inequalities, exploitation); care ethics, rights, recognition and values (frameworks, standards, entitlements, wellbeing outcomes); care technologies and human-technological interactions; and care relations in emotional, familial, community and intergenerational context. Our team comprises 20 scholars in 7 universities, linked to an international network spanning 15 countries. Our programme comprises integrative activities, in which the whole team works together to develop a new conceptual framework on sustainable care and wellbeing, and two Work Strands, each with 4 linked projects, on 'Care Systems' & 'Care Work & Relationships'. 'Care Systems' will: (i) study prospects, developments and differentiation in the four care systems operating in England, N. Ireland, Scotland & Wales, comparing their approaches to markets, privatisation and reliance on unpaid care; (ii) model costs and contributions in care, covering those of carers and employers as well as public spending on care; (iii) assess the potential of emerging technologies to enhance care system sustainability; and (iv) analyse, in a dynamic policy context, migrant care workers' role in the sustainability of homecare. 'Care Work & Relationships' will: (i) develop case studies of emerging homecare models, and assess their implications for sustainable wellbeing; (ii) focus on carers who combine employment with unpaid care, filling gaps in knowledge about the effectiveness of workplace support and what care leave and workplace standard schemes can contribute to sustainable care arrangements; (iii) explore how care technologies can be integrated to support working carers, ensuring wellbeing outcomes across caring networks; and (iv) investigate care 'in' and 'out of' place, as systems adapt or come under pressure associated with population diversity and mobility. Each project will collaborate with our international partners. These scholars, in 26 collaborating institutions, will ensure we learn from others about ways of understanding, measuring or interpreting developments in how care is organised and experienced, and keep up to date with latest research and scholarship. Our capacity-building strategy will build future scholarly expertise in the study of sustainability and wellbeing in care, and ensure our concepts, methods, and research findings achieve international standards of excellence. Universities in our partnership are contributing 5 UK & 12 overseas PhD studentships, enabling us to form an international early career scholar network on sustainable care, supported by our senior team and partners. Our impact strategy, led by Carers UK, involves leading UK and international policy partners. Informing policy, practice and debate, we will co-produce analyses and guidance, enhance data quality, promote good practice and engage decision-makers, policymakers, practitioners in the public, private and voluntary sectors, carers, people with care needs, and the media. Our Advisory Board of leading academics, policy/practice figures and opinion formers will guide all our work.

Nature has optimised structures over billions of years through natural selection, a process which will forever exceed any 'trial and error' optimisation routine carried out by ourselves. Engineers can learn much from these achievements. The Cabbage white (Pieris brassicae) and Glasswing (Greta-Oto) butterflies have uniquely lightweight reflective and transparent wings which has been previously proven to be 17x lighter than current optical materials. Solar Concentrators (such as magnifying lenses designed for focusing the suns light) are a developing technology, which can utilise cheap glass or plastic optics to concentrate sunlight onto photovoltaic panels (these Concentrator photovoltaic systems are called CPV systems). These systems can reduce the amount of expensive heavily mined photovoltaic material required whilst maintaining the overall power output. CPV's can however be cumbersome, and so there lies a great opportunity to marry these disciplines of concentrator photovoltaics (optics+Solar panels) and natural lightweight structures (butterfly wing nanostructures) via biomimicry to gain significantly higher power-to-weight ratios for solar energy technology. Renewable energy, integrated into smart grids, buildings, vehicles and surrounding infrastructures, is an important pathway to reducing carbon emissions and advancing a sustainable lifestyle within society. This complex challenge demands interdisciplinary research and innovative design. This fellowship aims to manufacture novel bio-inspired optics capable of at least tripling the power-to-weight ratio of concentrator solar energy technology. The surface structure of optics has significant effects on the light redirection and absorption. Micro-structured optics and coatings have shown rewards of increased power output and reliability for CPV devices but reduced weight designs require exploring. Fresnel lenses -an already lighter truncated version of convex lenses- only became popular with the discovery of lightweight poly(methylmethacrylate) (PMMA), making them more affordable and practical. This was a breakthrough for CPV in its very early years, and encourages further breakthroughs to entail new weight reduction methods matched to specific concentrator designs, as proposed here. This will be done on a nano, micro and macro level of engineering to obtain optimal performance and ensure outputs and impact. The production of high performing lightweight CPV panels which are more discreet than current PV panels and even invisibly integrated into buildings is the ultimate objective. This fellowship outlines theoretical and experimental methods, with strong focuses on materials and manufacturing characterisation aided by industrial collaboration and exploitation to credit the wide-spread impact of this pioneering research. Interdisciplinary research such as this will provide new solutions and understanding to firstly the disciplines of solar energy, optics, manufacturing, nanotechnology and biology but also branching off to incorporate the public perceptions of energy through collaborations with artists and companies to increase the impact of this research as well as showcasing and encouraging interdisciplinary research itself.

Earth is a Noisy Planet. Human activity means that from megacities to oceans, most places are infected with noise and tranquility is disappearing. This was starkly illustrated during the Covid-19 pandemic lockdowns when transport and industry largely stopped, and we glimpsed what a better-sounding future might be. Noise is a health problem for one in five European citizens. At high levels it causes hearing loss. At moderate levels it creates chronic stress, annoyance, sleep disturbance and heart disease. Noise makes it harder to communicate, harming learning in schools and increasing withdrawal of older people from social situations. The 2023 House of Lord's Science and Technology Committee report called noise a "neglected pollutant" and recommended more research to reduce harms. Noise also increases mortality in marine and terrestrial wildlife. The CDT will go beyond noise control to research how to engineer positive sounds. From using sound to improve the accessibility of products, through to enhancing cultural events that boost well-being, there are many ways of creating a better aural future. The CDT focuses on the user need of businesses, society and government to create a more Sustainable Sound Future. In EPSRC's Tomorrow's Engineering Research Challenges, the sound of drones and environmental noise are highlighted as needing innovative solutions. This CDT will not only cover this challenge, but will also contribute to seven out of eight Tomorrow's Engineering Research Challenges, because noise and vibration cuts across many sectors such as transport, energy, environment, construction and manufacturing. Through the CDT, we will address recruitment issues faced by the UK's £4.6 billion acoustics industry. Our partners tell us they struggle to find doctoral-level graduates in acoustics. Cohort training will empower our CDT graduates with an unprecedented depth and breadth of knowledge. This is needed because of the complexity of the challenge, from re-engineering machines, systems and buildings, through to understanding how sound affects the health and well-being of humans and other animals. Current PhD training in acoustics is too piecemeal to tackle a problem that cuts across sectors, regulators and society. The CDT will create a unique cohort of future research leaders and innovators, with the ability to create a step-change in how sound is tackled working across disciplines. This CDT brings together four powerhouses in acoustics: the Universities of Salford, Bristol, Sheffield and Southampton; along with industrial partners, regulatory bodies, public and third sector. This provides CDT students with access to an extraordinary range of laboratories and breadth of expertise for their training. This includes domain and application knowledge across many disciplines; state-of-the-art simulation, measurement and auralisation capabilities; datasets and case studies, and routes to impact. The CDT builds on EPSRC's UK Acoustics Network that has over 1,700 members including 500+ early career researchers. Challenging interdisciplinary research projects and cohort-based training will develop the much-needed postgraduates. A mixture of week-long residentials, group project and online activities are planned. These will develop technical skills for acoustics (simulation, measurement, machine learning, psychoacoustics, etc. and key skills for research (project planning, entrepreneurship, public engagement, policy influencing, responsible innovation, etc.). Partner placements will play an important role in ensuring the cohort learns about context and how to create impact. The learning outcomes of the training have been co-created between academics and partners, to ensure CDT graduates have the skills, knowledge and understanding to create a more sustainable sound future for all.