The ethical and moral values of cultural organisations have been in the spotlight recently, including for example public debates over the ethics of museums accepting commercial sponsorship from international oil companies whose own business practices have been morally scrutinised, and on the ethical responsibility of arts and cultural organisations to respond and contribute to political issues including Brexit. Museum and library sectors in England both have codes of ethics prescribed by their respective professional bodies the Museums Association and the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals. Both codes describe a set of principles that are particular to each sector, including responsibilities to information and its users; stewardship of collections; and individual and institutional integrity. The Museums Association's revised code of ethics published in 2015 was described as its "social contract" with the public. At the same time, there has been growing momentum across the cultural sector behind a more integrated, active role in fulfilling public policy and cross-government agendas by working in collaboration with different organisations and public services. This has been embraced by museum and library sectors, with many examples of collaborative projects making a real difference in terms of outcomes relating to health, wellbeing and other social indicators. What happens to the ethical values and codes of practice of one sector when they collaborate with other professional groups? How does this impact upon their shared collaborative objectives and achievements? These are the type of questions that will be addressed by the 'Instrumental Values' project. Focusing on museums working in health care settings and prison library services, the research will create two case studies on cross-sector communities of practice and their shared values, knowledge, practices and skills. A series of in-depth interviews will be undertaken with museum, library and collaborating professionals to explore the impact of public policy agendas on collaborative professional learning and the outcomes and implications for relevant sectors. Research findings will be shared throughout with participating professional and research communities via various knowledge exchange activities and events, culminating in a published book on professional ethics in collaborative cultural work.

Metal-ligand multiple-bonds represent fundamental aspects of chemistry and underpin chemical structure, bonding, reactivity, and catalysis. Indeed, transition metal-carbon multiple bonds are the basis for the 2005 Nobel Chemistry Prize and transition metal-nitrogen triple bonds are well established and important intermediates in biological processes (nitrogenases) and ammonia synthesis. For uranium, the heaviest naturally occurring element, double bonds to oxygen, exemplified by the ubiquitous linear uranyl dication, and nitrogen are well known, and the area of uranium-carbon double bonds is burgeoning. A molecular uranium-nitrogen triple bond, known as a uranium nitride, was for decades the ultimate target in synthetic actinide chemistry; however it eluded all attempts to prepare it. Very recently, we made a landmark advance and prepared the first example of a molecular uranium-nitride triple bond (Science, 2012, 337, 717). Our breakthrough method utilises a very bulky ligand which generates a pocket at uranium in which to install the nitride, coupled to stabilisation during synthesis using a sodium cation, followed by gentle removal of the sodium to furnish the terminal nitride linkage. This project aims to exploit our advance in order to develop this exciting area so that we may map out the intrinsic structure and reactivity of the uranium-nitride triple bond. We will expand the range of uranium-nitride triple bonds with our proven method to generate a family of compounds so that meaningful comparisons can be made. Surprisingly, the 1909 Haber-Bosch patent for ammonia synthesis, where nitrides are implicated, clearly references uranium as the best catalyst. We therefore seek to assess the role of uranium-nitrides in ammonia synthesis to answer long-standing questions regarding the role of uranium. Furthermore, we will assess the potential of uranium-nitrides in atom-efficient N-atom transfer reactions which may straightforwardly be 15N-isotopically labelled. We will establish the intrinsic reactivity character of the uranium-nitride linkage and will test the hypothesis that our nitrides represent a hitherto unavailable entry point to long-targeted, high value uranium-carbon triple and heteroatom-free double bonds that have no precedent. We also seek to extend this chemistry to heavier analogues where the nitride nitrogen is replaced by a phosphorus or arsenic atom which will afford an opportunity to compare trends within a chemical group. We will combine synthetic and structural studies with interdisciplinary magnetometric, computational, and spectroscopic studies (EPSRC EPR National Service at Manchester University, far-IR at Stuttgart University, and XANES at Canberra University) to give a comprehensive understanding of uranium-nitrogen bonding. Our uranium-nitride linkage provides a unique opportunity to probe the nature and extent of covalency in uranium-ligand bonding. The issue of covalency in uranium chemical bonding is long-running, still hotly debated, and important because of the nuclear waste legacy which the UK already has. Spent nuclear fuel is ~96% uranium and the official Nuclear Decommissioning Authority figure for nuclear waste clean-up bill is 70 billion pounds. If we can better understand the chemistry of uranium this higher platform of knowledge may in the future contribute to ameliorating the UK's nuclear waste legacy.

The theory of plate tectonics revolutionised the Earth sciences and had impacts across society, by providing a framework to understand the motion of Earth's surface. However, plate tectonic theory does not tell us about the processes deeper in the Earth that drive plate motions, nor does it explain some of the most dramatic events in Earth history: the breakup of plates and outpouring of huge volumes of lava. The next required breakthrough is to make this leap, from a 2D description of plates to understanding the truly 4D nature of Earth's interior processes. Motion of the Earth's interior, its circulation, involves both upwelling and downwelling. The upwelling flow in the Earth remains enigmatic, occurring in the present-day as both hot focused plumes, which are only just observable through modern seismic imaging techniques, and a hypothesised diffuse flow, which has evaded detection entirely. A third mode of mantle upwelling is currently dormant, making its mantle flow signature unknown. However, this dormant mode of flow drives massive outpourings of lava, and has been associated with continental breakup and mass extinction events. Our project's overall goal is to constrain how mantle upwellings operate within the Earth. We will investigate how plate tectonics is linked to mantle circulation, by combining the history of plate movements across Earth's surface with observations drawn from across the geosciences, and use these to constrain state-of-the-art 4D computational models of mantle flow. These advances are made possible by recent progress in disciplines from across the Earth sciences, expertise we bring together here in geodynamics, seismology, geomagnetism, geochemistry, petrology, and thermodynamics. We will constrain present mantle flow by gathering new seismic imaging data of the Earth's deep interior. We will constrain past mantle flow using newly collected data on the mantle's composition, past magnetic field, and the history of Earth's surface uplift. We will use these multidisciplinary approaches to generate the most spatially and temporally complete set of observational constraints on mantle circulation yet assembled. These observations will be used to constrain and improve models that calculate mantle circulation in an Earth-like 3D geometry, driven by plate motion histories (mantle circulation models, MCMs). This is a timely development capitalising on the only recently available record of plate motion over 1 billion years of Earth History. The MCMs predict the mantle's temperature, density, and velocity through time, providing a 4D model of the Earth. Uncertain inputs in these models such as mantle viscosity and composition will be investigated within the bounds provided by the project's geochemical and thermodynamic work packages that will develop new models of Earth's high pressure mineralogy and physical properties. We will test the present-day predictions of the MCMs by converting model outputs to predict density and material properties within the Earth, using our developments on mineral physics modelling. With these inputs and constraints, we will create the first accurate computational models of mantle circulation over the last 1 billion years, which will provide dynamical insight into what drives the diversity of upwellings in the Earth. This tightly integrated multidisciplinary project is absolutely essential to achieve the best constrained MCMs and advance our understanding of Earth's interior processes. The result will be a coherent mantle circulation record of one quarter of Earth's history, and a major advance in our understanding of how mantle upwellings have impacted planetary evolution over this period.

Research context Human language is the most complex communication system on earth. Why did it evolve only in humans? Other animals share some of our capacities: birdsong has complex syntax, vervet monkeys have 'semantic' alarm calls, and bees communicate the location of nectar, but none come close to human language. While genetics and cognition are part of the story, perspectives from anthropology and archaeology make it increasingly clear that our ancestors found themselves in critical social, economic and ecological situations which provided the selective pressures for the evolution of complex language. Some primates can learn symbolic communication systems via intense training in captivity, but their natural habitats do not provide the right selective pressures for these latent abilities to develop. Theories explaining language evolution are scattered across biology, linguistics, psychology, anthropology and archaeology. What is missing is an attempt to pull these theories together and test them systematically against each other. Solving the mystery of language evolution is important. It changes the way we see ourselves as a species: not as a predestined pinnacle of creation, but as evolved animals shaped by our history and environment, and on a continuum with other species. Now more than ever it is important to demonstrate that researchers can work together across fields to resolve debates and tell meaningful stories that capture people's imaginations. Aims and objectives This project aims to develop the Causal Hypotheses in Evolutionary Linguistics Database (CHIELD, https://chield.excd.org). This uses formal tools from the field of Causal Inference to represent hypotheses as a series of causal connections (a causal graph). This clarifies theories and allows researchers to spot connections between them. Causal inference has revolutionised fields like epidemiology, and the time is ripe for its application to language evolution and the social sciences more generally. The aim is to provide a model for scientific theory building that can be applied to many other questions. The second aim is to develop and use a "common task framework" to test competing theories of language evolution. In a pilot study, the project team tested the proposal that the use of symbolic signals emerged to help early humans build structures together (Irvine & Roberts, 2016). We ran an experiment where human participants had to build a shelter together in a virtual world (Minecraft) without using natural language. Unexpectedly, participants chose to rely on simple pointing rather than innovate a symbolic communication system. We concluded that collaborative construction would not provide a selective pressure strong enough for symbolic communication to emerge. Several theories suggest alternative scenarios such as the division of labour or collaborative hunting. A common task framework would allow us to manipulate the number of participants or the resources available while keeping everything else constant. Objective 1: Collect and formally describe theories of how a particular linguistic ability evolved as a response to particular social, economic or ecological factors. The CHIELD database will be public and open access. Objective 2: Develop open-source tools for a common task framework. Objective 3: Test three case-studies from the set of identified theories through experiments using the common task framework. Objective 4: Communicate the results to researchers. Objective 5: Communicate the results to the general public. Applications and benefits: This project will provide a new way of solving one of humanity's greatest mysteries: why we evolved a capacity for language. It will create impact by engaging science fiction authors. More generally, this project will provide a model for how to develop theory in interdisciplinary research. Source code will be freely available for other fields to utilise.

This project will advance our ability to quantify the influence of phosphorus limitation and temperature on plant tissue respiration. The carbon balance of an organism and of an ecosystem is strongly dependent on the balance between photosynthesis and respiration. Globally, respiration on land is at present very slightly smaller than photosynthesis, meaning that terrestrial ecosystems are thought to be a 'sink' for atmospheric carbon dioxide, slowing the continual rise in carbon dioxide concentration in the atmosphere. A large fraction of the total respiration from land is thought to come from trees, so understanding what determines plant respiration is central to understanding how the terrestrial component of the Earth system works. However, despite its importance, only a limited amount of data are available to help us quantify plant respiration over large regions of the world. For example, although we know that the most important nutrients for plant growth (nitrogen and phosphorus) limit plant metabolism, we have almost no information on how phosphorus deficiency limits plant respiration, and hence the carbon balance. We also know only a little about how plant respiration responds to temperature: currently our global models of terrestrial ecosystems make large assumptions about this that may be wrong. When we consider that: (i) 30% of the global land surface may be phosphorus-deficient; (ii) the global phosphorus supply may seriously decline in under 100 years; and (iii) global climatic warming is likely to increase plant respiration this century (but by how much we don't know), there is clearly a strong and urgent need to address this issue. We will make measurements of respiration on a wide range of plant species. We will first use controlled-environment chambers to control the supply of nutrients to plants. We will then couple this with field measurements made in selected forested regions where phosphorus and nitrogen are differentially limiting, in order to compare the data from our experimental work to real ecosystems. The choice of our fieldsites in tropical South America and New Zealand makes use of existing knowledge about likely phosphorus limitations and will allow us to also address the issue of how biodiversity affects the phosphorus-respiration relationship. Finally we will analyse our data to enable us to incorporate our findings into mathematical models used to calculate how the land surface and our climate interact. Our project will enable us: (i) to quantify how phosphorus deficiency affects respiration; (ii) to quantify the influence of phosphorus deficiency on the temperature dependence of plant respiration. We will be able to link our results to existing work on the relationship between plant tissue metabolism and nitrogen concentration, and to incorporate the results into site-specific and global modelling frameworks. The project is highly cost efficient to NERC, making use of international facilities and project partner time supplied at zero cost to this project. This work will also link directly into existing research programmes funded by NERC of which the project investigators are already a part. The project will fill a signficant gap in our understanding of global ecology and the functioning of the Earth system.