Abstracts are not currently available in GtR for all funded research. This is normally because the abstract was not required at the time of proposal submission, but may be because it included sensitive information such as personal details.

Determining the isotopic composition of a breadth of environmental materials underpins our ability to constrain, track and understand a wide range of environmental science processes. Isotopes are used to determine the age of materials, constrain rates of change, integrate disparate environmental records, and assess cause/effects hypotheses. Isotopes are also used to track a range of natural and anthropogenic processes operating across the planet, from the hydrosphere to the biosphere. Isotope science requires infrastructure at the leading edge. This includes not only physical infrastructure such as state of the art equipment and well-established laboratories, but also experienced facility personnel who provide the expertise, drive development, explore new areas of application, and develop systems to ensure data are accessible, interoperable and reusable. The requirements for isotopes in environmental sciences necessitates national delivery of fundamental capabilities for the following reasons: (1) A compelling community need for fundamental and complex isotope analyses; (2) Continued investment in instruments and skilled people is required to remain at forefront of world isotope science; and (3) High demand and delivery required by the UK research portfolio. Where these requirements exist, national facilities are a demonstrably cost-effective mechanism to deliver and underpin environmental science research and innovation, now and into the future. The National Environmental Isotope Facility (NEIF) is a single nationally distributed facility that comprises a range of analytical capabilities and staff expertise for isotope analyses that underpins an array of multidisciplinary, cross themed, environmental science areas. NEIF capabilities are subdivided into three categories: Chronology, and Environmental & Life Science Tracers and Organic Compound Analysis. Combined, these support research in the areas of biogeochemistry, archaeology, palaeoclimatology and climate change, solid Earth processes (inc. natural hazards), human-landscape evolution and interactions (inc. the Anthropocene), evolution of life, ecology, pollution, the hydrological cycle, applied minerals and energy research. NEIF will underpin the UK's environmental research community in areas where isotope analyses are required, facilitating, supporting and encouraging the best research, technology and new ideas. The unified capabilities and expertise delivered by the NEIF team are technically unique within the UK and are delivered to the highest standard and quality. NEIF will deliver against a number of key objectives: to facilitate environmental research to support the provision of training for early career researchers, to deliver innovation, and to promote awareness of NEIF capabilities, their role in environmental sciences, related NERC activities, and public outreach. The benefit of a single national facility is that we are ''greater than the sum of our parts''. The combined strategic nature of NEIF, with clear community input via the Strategy Group, acts as a catalyst for the areas of environmental science covered by NEIF. In addition to the direct support of projects and provision of training, the sustained support of NERC facilities has enabled their evolution to best fit the user community needs enable facility staff to deliver a longer-term perspective, identify challenges and opportunities, in order to best service the environmental science community. The NEIF represents a major evolution in the provision of isotope capabilities and expertise for the UK research community. It will provide increased community innovation and greater scope for flexibility, whilst retaining the core purpose of underpinning UK science, in addition to hosting internationally competitive state-of-the-art capabilities critically underpinned by a vastly experienced, unique staff assemblage.

New omic technologies have transformed biology by allowing scientists to read genomes (genomics) and to measure the amounts of proteins (proteomics) or other chemicals (metabolomics) within living cells and organisms. Tiny amounts of DNA can be collected from the environment (environmental DNA, eDNA) to measure biodiversity and monitor the health of our soils, rivers and seas. This creates a tremendous opportunity to understand the diversity of different individuals and species within the natural environment, their evolution, and the diversity of different characters and forms that allow them to live within their environment. Understanding biodiversity is more pressing than ever, given the rate at which it is being lost from the planet and the central role that it plays in allowing species and ecosystems to respond to, and survive, climate change. Scientists wanting to use omic technologies in their research face significant hurdles: the equipment required costs millions of pounds and few labs can afford it; the expertise to apply these techniques is rare, particularly to species from the natural environment; and there is a lack of the specialist skills present within the environmental science community to design studies using omic technology and to then analyse the resulting data. To overcome these hurdles and equip scientists with the tools and skills they need to address their research questions using omics, we established the NERC Environmental Omics Facility (NEOF) in 2020. This proposal is for a renewal of NEOF until 2031. NEOF is a unique capability within the UK that provides end-to-end support to NERC users from initial project design, through data generation and analysis. Other facilities, including commercial providers, typically provide individual methods, with limited support. There is nothing that compares with the package offered to users by NEOF. We have the expertise and equipment to train scientists in omic methods, help them to understand the potential of the technology and design studies to use it, provide the means to test adventurous ideas, and to support larger-scale NERC research projects. NEOF is run by a team of scientists who are world-leading experts and are able to cover a broad range of omics methods, with experience of applying these to questions in environmental sciences. We use this expertise to train early-stage scientists and to upskill scientists at any stage of their career. We empower the community of NERC scientists to engage with new technologies and approaches and to then use them to address questions using omics that were previously impossible to answer in environmental science. We also have extensive equipment and space that we use to support omic analysis for NERC scientists. We will continue to adopt innovative technologies and methods to allow NERC science to remain at the forefront of environmental omics worldwide. NEOF is excellent value for NERC. We are able to provide >£20m of existing equipment and >£2m of previous refurbishment (from a range of UKRI, charity and institutional funds) so that NERC does not need to buy this for us. This proposal builds on a continuity of provision as a NERC facility; since 2011 with the NERC Biomolecular Analysis Facility (NBAF) and since 2020 in its current form as NEOF. Our team therefore has >10 years' experience of delivering a highly effective facility to NERC, with a host of processes in place to ensure that projects are managed quickly and to budget. We have demonstrated that we can support NERC scientists in accessing cutting-edge genomics capability through our current S&F award, with consistently positive feedback from users. We have been able to generate impact directly ourselves, evidenced through our work detecting SARS-CoV2 in environmental samples, and in enabling users to generate impact within their own research. This track record shows that we can continue to support users and to innovate in the renewal of this award.

Abstracts are not currently available in GtR for all funded research. This is normally because the abstract was not required at the time of proposal submission, but may be because it included sensitive information such as personal details.

High-resolution, spatially-controlled geochemical and isotopic analysis is a specialised area of mass spectrometry that requires the use of highly focussed scientific techniques using lasers or ion beams. The state-of-the-art ion microprobe facility (IMF) at the University of Edinburgh houses two such ion beam instruments that are central to NERC science and not available at other UKRI facilities or institutions. The combination of high-precision isotopic analysis and micron-scale spatial resolution is unique and crucial in earth and environmental-funded science. The IMF supports high quality research of international importance into understanding natural resources, natural hazards, investigating the future green economy and exploring the implications of environmental change on our natural world. As examples, analysis of volcanic materials provides insight into the processes controlling the explosivity of eruptions, a key factor in determining the relative hazards represented by different volcanoes around the world. While the analysis of fish ear bones tracks the evolution of migratory patterns in fish e.g. salmon and tuna, in response to climate change and is informing our understanding of the factors influencing fish condition and affecting fisheries. Finally, research on coral skeletons identifies how the reef-building process in tropical corals responds to ocean acidification and rising seawater temperatures and allows us to predict the future of reef structures on which hundreds of millions of people rely for coastal protection, building materials, fisheries, and tourism. Research such as this is fundamental in tackling the grand challenges that face our communities and directly address UN sustainability development goals. This proposal is to provide continued UK science community support for the world-class Edinburgh IMF that enables the UK to excel in the quantitative microanalysis of earth and environmental materials, and explore fundamental questions that have consequences for the planet, the environment and its population.