The laws of quantum mechanics are the most fundamental laws of physics that we know of. They have been stringently tested in a variety of situations. Even so, there are still basic unanswered questions concerning our understanding and interpretation of some of the results. Despite this, it is very important to make practical use of what we already know about quantum mechanics. In this sense, quantum physics is both a fundamental science and new engineering. It seems a certainty that in the forthcoming century we will progress in our understanding and technical mastery of quantum effects as quickly as we have done with electricity in the last. Our research proposal is based on one of the most exciting recent results. In 1999 Japanese researchers, building on other work, showed that it is possible to make an electrical circuit that obeys the laws of quantum physics. Normally objects that obey quantum mechanics are 'natural' single particles such as electrons and photons, never before have we had the opportunity to study or exploit an artificial quantum circuit. Presently such circuits are made from Aluminium, they operate at very low temperatures, below 100mK where the Aluminium is superconducting and at very high frequencies, typically 10 GHz. It is now possible to observe the discrete (quantised) changes in energy, to manipulate the circuit at will into its different quantum states, and to perform all the basic atomic physics experiments on these man made electrical circuits. Five research groups in the world have so far been able to reproduce and improve on the early results using different designs of circuits and with varying degrees of success. However, it is now clear that none of these five experiments operate perfectly. It has proven difficult to measure reliably the quantum state of the circuit for reasons that are not yet fully understood, this is known as the readout problem. In addition the circuits are not completely stable in the sense that microscopic changes in the environment around them interfere with their operation, an effect known as environmental decoherence. Our research is dedicated to solving these problems. We plan to take the best available readout technology, a quantised photon cavity resonator developed at Yale University in the USA and use it on the best available quantum circuit, the quantronium circuit developed at the CEA-Saclay, France. The fastest way to establish a serious independent research effort in the UK is to collaborate with one of the best current research groups. With this in mind, the proposer of this research has spent the past year working with the CEA-Saclay group. Now we will initiate a new research effort at Royal Holloway, University of London, already well known for its contributions to quantum computing. The collaboration with the CEA-Saclay will continue and there will be distinct but complementary research programmes.The research programme is dedicated to understanding and eliminating the problems referred to above and to building better circuits. Quantum circuits offer a very promising route to building a quantum computer and superconducting qubits are presently the best available solid state qubits. We wish to produce a device that couples two qubits together, this is the necessary next step in the production of a quantum computer. Such a device would also allow us to make systematic studies of quantum entanglement, perhaps the least well understood area of quantum mechanics. We also plan to explore how it is that quantum mechanics makes the transition to classical mechanics. It is thought that this proceeds through the process of environmental decoherence, which is precisely the effect to which a quantum circuit is most vulnerable, hence presenting a unique opportunity to study this problem in a very direct way.

Chlorophyte "snow algae" and Streptophyte "glacier algae" are found across the cryosphere, forming widespread algal blooms in snowpacks and on glacier ice surfaces during spring/summer melt seasons. These blooms hold significant potential to exacerbate the already rapid loss of snowpack and glacial ice resources driven by climate change because they establish albedo feedbacks that amplify melt. Their presence also leads to the construction of active microbial food-webs that provide important ecosystem functions, e.g. carbon sequestration, nutrient cycling and export of resources to down-steam systems. The algae themselves are also important analogs for what life was like on Earth during past mass glaciations, and for how life may exist on other frozen planets across our solar system. Driven by these series of novelties, the snow and glacier algal research community has significantly expanded over recent years, with active projects now spanning Arctic, Alpine and Antarctic regions of the cryosphere. To-date, however, research projects have tended to work in isolation, employing different methods for the analysis of blooms. This has prevented comparisons of findings between regions of the cryosphere and an overall appreciation for the global role and impacts of blooms at present. In turn, we cannot yet project the fate of snow and glacier algal blooms into the future under climate change, or back to the past during key periods of Earth's history. Yet the critical mass achieved in the snow and glacier algal research community also presents an opportunity to pool knowledge and resources, and align methods to drive the field to new achievements. The CASP-ICE project brings together leaders in the field of snow and glacier algal research (x2 UK investigators and x12 international partners) to undertake the foundational work needed to align efforts across the research community and unlock the next generation of science on snow and glacier algal blooms cryosphere-wide. Specifically, we will tackle the following four major tasks: 1. Define consistent methods for sampling and mapping snow and glacier algal blooms within field sites, so that datasets produced into the future will be completely comparable across different regions and times of sampling. 2. Apply these methods in study sites that the CASP-ICE team are currently working to produce the first set of standardized samples and maps of blooms for the community to work with. 3. Undertake the nuts-and-bolts validation of both laboratory-based methods for analyzing field samples as well as computational methods for integrating field measurements and mapping datasets with larger-scale satellite imagery that is needed to monitor blooms at global scales. 4. Establish a list of field sites that can form the backbone of an ongoing cryospheric algal bloom monitoring network and secure the funding to continue monitoring into the future. CASP-ICE will achieve these tasks through a series of networking and knowledge exchange activities as well as hands-on science. An initial workshop in spring 2024 will provide the platform to define best practice methods for the community and start talks on future network structure and direction. All partners will then undertake sampling and sample/data analysis across their respective study regions to produce the first fully validated datasets on snow and glacier algal blooms across the cryosphere. The protocols defined and datasets produced will be leveraged in subsequent funding bids that will be prepared during a series of networking visits and partner meetings led by the project PI, providing the support needed for ongoing monitoring of blooms into the future as climate change proceeds. CASP-ICE will provide the network and scientific foundation needed to tackle the large-scale questions about the role of cryospheric algal blooms in the Earth System at present, into the future under climate change, and back into the past.

Nuclear power is arguably the only option for large-scale baseload electricity generation that is compatible with the UK Government's commitment to an 80% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. The safe operation of current and future generations of nuclear reactors requires the development and refinement of materials to be used in the construction of reactors and in materials (glass and glass-ceramic wasteforms) to be used for the long-term safe disposal of radioactive wastes. The inevitable irradiation of such materials with energetic particles such as neutrons and alpha particles can have extremely deleterious effects on their structural strength and even their physical dimensions. Ballistic effects cause atoms to be knocked off their normal positions creating vacant sites (vacancies) and displaced atoms (interstitials). Nuclear reactions induced by neutron irradiation can create alpha particles (which are just helium nuclei) causing a build-up of helium gas in these materials. Helium has very little solubility in most materials and will generally combine with vacancies (or accumulate in other regions of lower than average electron-density) to form bubbles. These can have very significant unwanted effects on the properties of the materials by, for instance, building up at the boundaries between grains in polycrystalline materials and making them much more brittle and likely to fracture. Bubbles will also result in highly undesirable changes to the physical dimensions of components. The high temperatures at which reactors operate, and to which wasteforms will be subjected for the first 500 years-or-so of storage, can greatly exacerbate these problems, particularly in the reactor materials by enabling the vacancies, interstitials and helium atoms to combine in different ways and form extended defects such as voids, dislocations and stacking faults. This project aims to explore systematically the effects that varying the amount of displacement damage, the helium concentration and the temperature has on the damage that develops in a range of structural materials and wasteforms. Different combinations of these parameters pertain to different types of material (both structural and wasteforms), different reactors and even different locations within a reactor. In addition, aspects of the waste glasses, such as alkali content and the presence of glass ceramic interfaces will also be varied in order to determine their role in the development of bubbles and other defects. The project exploits the unique attributes of the MIAMI facility (constructed with EPSRC funding) that permit the ion irradiation of thin foils of materials in-situ within a transmission electron microscope. By varying the ion energy, the ratio of injected helium to the amount of displacement damage can be varied over the range of values relevant to reactor and wasteform materials without the necessity of using two separate ion beams. The ability to irradiate at a range of temperatures from -150 to +1000 degrees Celsius means the that the entire relevant parameter space (helium content, damage and temperature) can be explored. In this way, transmission electron microscopy (and also electron energy-loss spectroscopy for the nuclear glasses) will be used to build up a comprehensive dataset of the form and structure of defects (defect morphologies) resulting from the various combinations of these parameters. The main aim is then to develop a phenomenological picture of the processes occurring. For the structural materials, the dataset will be calibrated and validated by comparisons with neutron-irradiated materials which will give the dataset greater power to predict defect morphologies likely to result under reactor conditions. Finally, through collaboration with computer modellers, we will seek to obtain a fundamental understanding of the underlying physical processes which drive the behaviour of these materials under irradiation.

Electronic technologies such as computers, mobile phones and tablets have emerged from understanding and manipulation of electronic and magnetic materials. Complex correlated electron materials such as superconductors and magnets provide a challenge for chemists, physicists and materials scientists to discover new materials and ground states that will guide theory and underpin future electronic technologies. The use of extreme physical conditions is very important to electronic materials research. High temperatures and pressures are used to synthesise and crystallize dense new materials with strongly connected atoms, while property measurements at multiple extremes (combinations of high pressure, low temperatures and high magnetic fields) enable the electron correlations to be explored. These methods will be applied to topical materials such as high temperature and exotic superconductors, spintronic materials, magnetic monopoles in spin ices, and topological electronic materials. The proposed Platform grant will enable us to take a more coherent and strategic view of our research. It will ensure that we make the best use of expensive and demanding materials preparation facilities (Walker press for high pressure and temperature synthesis and Czochralski growth of crystals). Measurements at multiple extremes are a particular common interest, and Platform support will enable us to coordinate and integrate the activities of our team of PDRA's who design, build and use pressure cells for electronic transport, magnetization and neutron scattering measurements. It will also enable our PDRA's and students to gain a broader experience and training by working with colleagues with backgrounds in other disciplines.

A thriving nuclear industry is crucial to the UKs energy security and to clean up the legacy of over 50 years of nuclear power. The research performed in the ICO (Imperial Cambridge Open universities, pronounced ECO!) CDT will enable current reactors to be used longer, enable new reactors to be built and operated more safely, support the clean up and decommissioning of the UKs contaminated nuclear sites and place the UK at the forefront of international programmes for future reactors for civil and marine power. It will also provide a highly skilled and trained cohort of nuclear PhDs with a global vision and international outlook entirely appropriate for the UK nuclear industry, academia, regulators and government. Key areas where ICO CDT will significantly improve our current understanding include in civil, structural, mechanical and chemical engineering as well as earth science and materials science. Specifically, in metallurgy we will perform world-leading research into steels in reactor and storage applications, Zr alloy cladding, welding, creep/fatigue and surface treatments for enhanced integrity. Other materials topics to be covered include developing improved and more durable ceramic, glass, glass composite and cement wasteforms; reactor life extension and structural integrity; and corrosion of metallic waste containers during storage and disposal. In engineering we will provide step change understanding of modelling of a number of areas including in: Reactor Physics (radionuclide transport, neutron transport in reactor systems, simulating radiation-fluid-solid interactions in reactors and finite element methods for transient kinetics of severe accident scenarios); Reactor Thermal Hydraulics (assessment of critical heat flux for reactors, buoyancy-driven natural circulation coolant flows for nuclear safety, simulated dynamics and heat transfer characteristics of severe accidents in nuclear reactors); and Materials and Structural Integrity (residual stress prediction, fuel performance, combined crystal plasticity and discrete dislocation modelling of failure in Zr cladding alloys, sensor materials and wasteforms). In earth science and engineering we will extend modelling of severe accidents to enable events arising from accidents such as those at Chernobyl and Fukushima to be predicted; and examine near field (waste and in repository materials) and far field (geology of rocks surrounding the repository) issues including radionuclide sorption and transport of relevance to the UKs geological repository (especially in geomechanics and rock fracture). In addition, we will make key advances in development of next generation fission reactors such as examining flow behaviour of molten salts, new fuel materials, ultra high temperature non-oxide and MAX phase ceramics for fuels and cladding, thoria fuels and materials issues including disposal of wastes from Small Modular Reactors. We will examine areas of symbiosis in research for next generation fission and fusion reactors. A key aspect of the ICO CDT will be the global outlook given to the students and the training in dealing with the media, a key issue in a sensitive topic such as nuclear where a sensible and science-based debate is crucial.