Summary Recent work by Plastow (AHRC/MRC grant 'Maternal Mortality in East Africa; AHRC/MRC grant 'Promoting sexual and reproductive health education among adolescents through creative and youth-led practice in India, Malawi and Uganda; British Academy grant 'Engendering equality: working holistically in a Ugandan slum neighbourhood to challenge gendered inequalities, sexual ignorance and abusive sexual behaviours'; AHRC/MRC grant 'Family Planning: Fact or Fiction?') has demonstrated that poor, and especially rural, communities in East Africa suffer from an acute lack of accurate knowledge in relation to sexual and reproductive health, and that widespread myths and misinformation are stopping people being able to make good choices for themselves and their families on a range of issues in relation to these topics. We also found a great hunger for good information, which when delivered in a relevant manner, allowing time for questions and discussion, can quickly lead to significant behaviour change. Although health authorities and schools are meant to disseminate this information we have found a mixture of ignorance, embarrassment, lack of cultural sensitivity and lack of time means that people from poor rural communities have an almost universal lack of sources of reliable information. Although Kenya has excellent policies in relation to sexual and reproductive services our research found that there is a huge gulf between policy and implementation which was notably lacking in terms of both education and delivery of services in all health facilities. Numerous ills flow from this poverty of information. Maternal mortality rates are some of the highest in the world across East Africa; unwanted and teenage pregnancy is exceptionally high; many girls are missing school due to issues related to menstruation and there is a great danger of sexual exploitation due to a lack of the most basic knowledge about reproductive facts. We have found that using a practical, embodied approach, employing local cultural vernaculars, enables communities to feel at ease and to readily take part in arts-based activities exploring their knowledge and questions about reproductive and sexual matters. When married to good clear information from public health experts; notably allowing plenty of time for debate and questions, without a preconceived moral or message-based agenda, and communicating as co-community members rather than as a health elite, a wide range of community members, from across age and gender boundaries are eager to engage and wish for knowledge that often leads to behaviour change. This creative engagement strategy facilitates strong public engagement and dissemination of relevant, accurate health education. Unexpected learning from the projects listed above was how open older members and men were to taking on board new information and changing their thinking when they could clearly see how this would benefit their wider families. We also found that, contrary to many projects which focus on a particular constituency; i.e. most commonly girls, a far more profound impact is made when the wider community is included in engagement, discussion and learning. We also found, unexpectedly, that Traditional Birth Attendants (TBAs) and Voluntary Community Health (VCH) workers freely acknowledge that they lack good information about reproductive and sexual health. Since in rural communities these are the first line of advice for many people it is imperative that they are confident that they have good basic knowledge and know where to refer clients on. During evaluation, numerous members of these groups spoke of their desire for better education and training. Finally, we wish to train a core group of Kenyan arts facilitators in a replicable methodology for researching and then delivering the information needed in poor communities in relation to sexual and reproductive health so that our work can be multiplied in similar settings nationwide

The politics of debt refers to complex and contested politics of debt that defines much of economic and cultural life in present-day Britain. This knowledge exchange project explores the role the Third Sector plays in shaping the wider politic conversations around access to affordable credit and problems associated with indebtedness. We know that in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis a growing number of civil society initiatives sought to engage individuals and communities as a way of shaping political debate. For some civil society groups the focus is on the wide range of people adversely affected by austerity measures; for others it is articulating the profound loss of trust in political and economic elites or using political action to experiment with ways individuals and communities could take back power over their own lives to reinvigorate the very practice of exercising political power. This project explores the resilience of civil society networks and their efforts to shape the wider debate about finance, debt and the UK economy. In particular, the interface between the digital and real-life spaces of the everyday political action. In other words, how these groups can be located in places like large-scale protests, offices, or church halls, which of course are not entirely bound by space; but increasingly use digital platforms to inform/foment the new forms of political engagement. This is accomplished through four interrelated work packages designed in collaboration with project partners: (1) mapping the network of digital and real-world actors and creating a network of networks 'Debt-CN'; (2) collaborative research on debt inequality; (3) Create and support a hashtag experiment documenting the roll-out of the Credit Union Service Organisation 'CURES' and alternative credit provider 'Fair for You'; (4) Collaborative research investigating digital transformations in small-scale lending. Offering a flexible package of knowledge exchange activities is a relatively new approach to impact that is not simply about demonstrating how academic social research contributes to the national economy and drives improvements in government policy. We adopt an embedded approach to research that involves working closely with a network of individuals and organisations to deliver tangible contribution to organisational practice. Importantly we are experimenting with new digital forums that remain underexplored in social science research. For example, the #ReinventCU experiment replicates projects like #EnfieldExperiment between academics from the University of Manchester and London Borough council to develop local economic development strategy and the #BBCBudget that attempted to understand how BBC-users interact with digital content. Impact can be more local and more tangible than this. Where possible, we should aim to adopt a more 'embedded' approach to research which involves working more closely with the public, and public institutions, at a local level. The crucial common thread is the existence of a partnership between researchers and practitioners that generates a mutual exchange of knowledge which, in turn, improves the quality of the research and some aspect of service provision in tandem.

Against the backdrop of the dramatic social and economic divides characterizing contemporary South Africa, my research on Zionist Christianity offers the South African public an in-depth example of religion's role in pioneering equitable societies. My AHRC Fellowship examines the democratic resources of a transatlantic Protestant faith healing movement called Zionism. I show that in both the United States and South Africa, the Zionist church has been favoured by working-class individuals marginalized by those in power and who, in their conversion to Zionism, found new possibilities for self-assertion. For example, its doctrine encouraged adherents to eschew the expertise of medical professionals in favour of the simple prayer of ordinary people. By the early twentieth century, Zionism had been transmitted to South Africa via American missionaries. Its teachings regarding the equality of all humanity - regardless of race, class or education - meant Zionism found great success amongst black South Africans seeking to claim status and dignity amidst the strictures of a racially segregated state. While the movement declined in the USA, Zionism is today South Africa's largest religious group, with over 12 million believers. I argue Zionism continues to powerfully shape visions of egalitarian society within contemporary South Africa. While conducting research in South Africa, I encountered the prize-winning photographer, Sabelo Mlangeni, himself a life-long Zionist believer. Over the past year, Mlangeni and I have developed a proposal for a photographic exhibition at the renowned Wits Art Museum (WAM) in Johannesburg, displaying Mlangeni's 60 black and white photographs on contemporary Zionists. The exhibition will be entitled Amakholwa, isiZulu for 'The Believers'. The photographs foreground the intimate, affectionate ties between Zionist believers. Mlangeni uses close-up perspectives and full-frontal portraits to portray the bonds of support between fellow believers. These photographs also emphasize the egalitarian nature of Zionist community; they depict 'the believers' as a group of people amongst whom clerical hierarchies are largely invisible. The overall sense is of a horizontal gathering of young men and women. In this way, Mlangeni's photographs engage with my research's exploration of the importance of religious affiliation in transcending social divides by reconstituting individuals as 'believers', erasing former divisions of class, ethnicity and socio-economic status. In conversation with WAM, the project partner, I have identified four user communities who will benefit from creatively engaging them with the exhibition and the research underpinning it. These include 1000 secondary school students, 200 Zionist believers, 40 photography students and at least 3000 members of the Johannesburg public. With respect to the school audience, we have identified a need for high-quality discourse on the role of Zionism in the public sphere as this is largely absent from religious education curricula. The second audience - Zionist believers - would benefit from a visual representation of their religious identity by an 'insider' voice such as Mlangeni. Zionists' knowledge of their origins would be enhanced through their engagement with the exhibition's text panels and the catalogue. Photography students in South Africa need teaching on the intersection between photographic practice and depiction of religious life, while the South African public would benefit from thoughtful commentary on the significance of religious communities such as Zionism (which receives little coverage in the national media) for transcending social divides. These four audiences will be engaged via walk-arounds, a photography workshop and participation in religious rituals dynamically interacting with the exhibition. Audiences' engagement will be assessed through follow-up questionnaires, focus groups and media monitoring.

Compressed Air Energy Storage (CAES) uses compressors to produce pressurised air while excessive power is available; the pressurised air is then stored in air reservoirs and will be released via a turbine to generate electricity when needed. Compared with other energy storage technologies, CAES has some highly attractive features including large scale, long duration, and low cost. However, its low round trip energy efficiency (the best CAES plant currently in operation has a 60.2% round trip efficiency) and low energy density cause major concerns for commercial deployment. The conversion of electricity to heat and storing the heat via thermal storage is a relatively mature and a highly efficient technology; but the conversion of the stored thermal energy back to electricity has a low energy efficiency (less than 40%) through (conventional and organic) Rankine cycles, thermoelectric generators, and recently proposed thermophotovoltaics. The project aims to develop a Hi-CAES technology, which integrates the CAES with high-temperature thermal energy storage (HTES) to achieve high energy conversion efficiency, high energy and power density, and operation flexibility. The technology uses HTES to elevate CAES power rate and also convert high-temperature thermal energy to electricity using compressed air - a natural working fluid. The proposed technology is expected to increase CAES's electricity-to-electricity efficiency to over 70% and overall energy efficiency to over 90% with additional energy supply for heating and cooling. The proposed Hi-CAES will also increase the storage energy density and system power rate significantly. Meanwhile, the technology can convert the stored thermal energy into electrical power with a much higher energy conversion efficiency and lower system cost than current thermoelectrical energy storage technologies. With the integration of HTES with CAES, the system dynamic characteristics and operation flexibility can be much improved in terms of charging and discharging processes. This will place Hi-CAES in a better financial position as it can generate revenue through certain high market value fast response grid balance service. The goal of the project is to improve both the CAES efficiency and energy density considerably through the integration with a HTES system. The research will address the technical and scientifically challenges for realisation of the Hi-CAES system and societal challenges of deep power system decarbonisation.

People living on the coast of East Africa are amongst the World's poorest. They rely heavily on local ecosystems for their livelihoods and security; for example mangrove forests provide them with firewood, fish, medicines and protection from floods and coastal erosion. Despite the importance of mangroves they are suffering high rates of destruction. This project will pioneer new ways of studying, evaluating and managing mangroves, and will communicate the lessons learnt to groups working in other types of ecosystems. Mangrove forests are highly productive and efficient at capturing carbon, much of which ends up buried below ground and can therefore be permanently stored away from the atmosphere. This opens up possibilities for using payments for carbon credits to help mangrove conservation and to bring revenue for local people. This project will initiate a real demonstration of how to achieve this, combining the expertise of Kenyan and UK scientists, accreditation by a third party charity and the commitment and organisation of the Gazi Womens' Mangrove Boardwalk Committee. A Kenyan sociology student will make a detailed study of the development of this project to record the lessons learnt. She will particularly focus on how different groups, such as men and women and old and young, become engaged and benefit, on how the management of the mangrove resource works and on how this project can inform others in the region that use payments for ecosystem services. The value of mangrove ecosystems to local people, and particularly to the poor, is often underestimated by developers and politicians. Full estimations of economic value for individual sites can be difficult and expensive - one option is to transfer the results from well studied areas to other sites, but this approach is untested for mangroves and may lead to large errors. We will test this 'benefit transfer' approach by measuring a range of direct use values (including for fuelwood, timber, crabs and shrimp) at seven different sites in Kenya. By looking for correlations between these results and variables that can help predict them, such as levels of poverty and population density, and by comparing what local people say about the value of their mangrove resources, we will determine the reliability of benefit transfer between sites, which will allow us to calculate the economic value of the mangrove resource in Kenya. Since carbon storage is a key benefit of mangroves it is important for developing countries to know the extent of their forests and the biomass of carbon in them, but measuring this on the ground is expensive and difficult. We will use remote sensing techniques to develop 'carbon landscapes' for East Africa that identify the biomass of carbon (including that stored below-ground) in different areas. We will combine these maps with 'risk maps' and 'value maps' that show areas under high threat and with high value, and present these on a user-friendly platform that can be accessed by government and NGOs when developing projects and policy. It is essential that developing countries have the capacity to identify threats to their people's livelihoods and to respond to international opportunities for conservation financing, such as those coming from climate change negotiations. Unfortunately there is often an over-reliance on expensive, overseas consultants. This project builds on eight years of collaboration between Kenyan and UK scientists with a track record of training for African colleagues. We will continue this tradition by training three students to masters level, by giving bespoke business and entrepreneurial training to help ensure follow-on funding and by working together on papers and new proposals. We have established an East African forum to ensure good regional communication on the science and practice of payments for ecosystem services. This will be further developed and new links with relevant experience in West Africa will be established.