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Given the unprecedented demand for mobile capacity beyond that available from the RF spectrum, it is natural to consider the infrared and visible light spectrum for future terrestrial wireless systems. Wireless systems using these parts of the electromagnetic spectrum could be classified as nmWave wireless communications system in relation to mmWave radio systems and both are being standardised in current 5G systems. TOWS, therefore, will provide a technically logical pathway to ensure that wireless systems are future-proof and that they can deliver the capacities that future data intensive services such as high definition (HD) video streaming, augmented reality, virtual reality and mixed reality will demand. Light based wireless communication systems will not be in competition with RF communications, but instead these systems follow a trend that has been witnessed in cellular communications over the last 30 years. Light based wireless communications simply adds new capacity - the available spectrum is 2600 times the RF spectrum. 6G and beyond promise increased wireless capacity to accommodate this growth in traffic in an increasingly congested spectrum, however action is required now to ensure UK leadership of the fast moving 6G field. Optical wireless (OW) opens new spectral bands with a bandwidth exceeding 540 THz using simple sources and detectors and can be simpler than cellular and WiFi with a significantly larger spectrum. It is the best choice of spectrum beyond millimetre waves, where unlike the THz spectrum (the other possible choice), OW avoids complex sources and detectors and has good indoor channel conditions. Optical signals, when used indoors, are confined to the environment in which they originate, which offers added security at the physical layer and the ability to re-use wavelengths in adjacent rooms, thus radically increasing capacity. Our vision is to develop and experimentally demonstrate multiuser Terabit/s optical wireless systems that offer capacities at least two orders of magnitude higher than the current planned 5G optical and radio wireless systems, with a roadmap to wireless systems that can offer up to four orders of magnitude higher capacity. There are four features of the proposed system which make possible such unprecedented capacities to enable this disruptive advance. Firstly, unlike visible light communications (VLC), we will exploit the infrared spectrum, this providing a solution to the light dimming problem associated with VLC, eliminating uplink VLC glare and thus supporting bidirectional communications. Secondly, to make possible much greater transmission capacities and multi-user, multi-cell operation, we will introduce a new type of LED-like steerable laser diode array, which does not suffer from the speckle impairments of conventional laser diodes while ensuring ultrahigh speed performance. Thirdly, with the added capacity, we will develop native OW multi-user systems to share the resources, these being adaptively directional to allow full coverage with reduced user and inter-cell interference and finally incorporate RF systems to allow seamless transition and facilitate overall network control, in essence to introduce software defined radio to optical wireless. This means that OW multi-user systems can readily be designed to allow very high aggregate capacities as beams can be controlled in a compact manner. We will develop advanced inter-cell coding and handover for our optical multi-user systems, this also allowing seamless handover with radio systems when required such as for resilience. We believe that this work, though challenging, is feasible as it will leverage existing skills and research within the consortium, which includes excellence in OW link design, advanced coding and modulation, optimised algorithms for front-haul and back-haul networking, expertise in surface emitting laser design and single photon avalanche detectors for ultra-sensitive detection.

The question of whether Mars could have supported life has driven intensive exploration of the planet's surface through satellite and robotic missions. Complementary research has focused on identifying and understanding meteorites from Mars, which offer the only direct samples of the crust available to science. Together, these studies have not only sought signs of extraterrestrial life and habitable environments, but tried to understand how the planet has changed through time: from an ancient world of oceans and landforms remarkably familiar to Earth, to the cold, dry, barren planet that we see today. Why Mars has followed a dramatically different path to Earth is a major issue in our understanding of terrestrial planet evolution. How has Mars lost heat? Has volcanism and volcanic outgassing changed through time? Is volcanism and seismic activity ongoing? How has impact cratering shaped the planet through time? It has become clear that much of the surface of Mars is very ancient, and that its rocks retain direct evidence of the planet's separation into a crust and mantle. As a result, volcanism is thought to be driven by mantle plumes, rather by tectonic forces at plate boundaries as on Earth, and to have reduced rapidly in intensity to a minimum as the planet has cooled. This relatively simple geological model compared to the Earth suggests declining rates of exchange between the surface, atmosphere and interior through time, including the cycling of potential nutrients, heat loss and volcanism. This view has been challenged by recent evidence for considerable diversity in volcanic and sedimentary rocks and processes on Mars. However, new understanding of the planet is hindered by a mismatch between Martian meteorites and rock types seen on the surface, as well as a lack of reliable age information that can be used to test how the crust, mantle and atmosphere have evolved and interacted through time. Addressing these issues is a primary aim of ongoing and new Mars exploration missions, including NASA InSight and Mars 2020 and the ESA ExoMars Rover, and also requires resolution of conundrums in the Martian meteorite collection. The UoP2 Mars Consortium brings together internationally leading expertise in Martian meteorites, radiometric dating and planetary geology to address these challenges. Two related projects will capitalize on conceptual and analytical advances in the laboratory analysis of planetary materials led by the applicants, as well as the rapidly growing inventory of Martian meteorites in collections around the world, to generate new datasets and knowledge. Project 1, entitled "Secular evolution of Martian magmatism" focuses on placing robust new age constraints on Martian volcanic processes. Previously, this has been very difficult because the samples have experience extreme compression and heating during impact events, which disturb the isotopic systems used for dating. We will overcome this using advances led by Darling in identifying nanoscale deformation features in dateable crystals that can be avoided or targeted for radiometric dating using the latest techniques in mass spectrometry. Project 2, entitled 'Martian Breccias; the missing link in the search for Meteorite Source Regions on Mars?' focuses on linking the meteoritic and remote sensing records to build a more complete picture of the Martian crust. This will be achieved by resolving the origin and spectral signature of newly discovered brecciated rocks that offer uniquely broad sampling of Martian crustal rocks through clasts of different origin, in combination with new and compiled data on the mineralogy and geochemistry for other Martian meteorite groupings. The results will lead to new holistic models for Martian geological evolution. This new knowledge will help to address one of the four Science Challenges of the STFC Science Roadmap1: How do stars and planetary systems develop and is life unique to our planet?

London's dramatic records from the Elizabethan and Stuart periods - the age of William Shakespeare, Ben Jonson, Christopher Marlowe, Thomas Middleton, John Webster, Thomas Dekker, and others - are of unparalleled importance, but have been mostly overlooked by scholarship until now. For too long dismissed as the domain of dour anti-theatrical puritans, a place where playgoing was frowned upon if not explicitly prohibited, the City of London was in fact a hotbed of dramatic activity, and the numerous records that survive of performance within its boundaries are an untapped resource. From the mid sixteenth to the mid seventeenth centuries, theatrical activity was taking place within the City of London at the same time as in the famous suburban playhouses such as the Theatre, the Globe, and the Rose. Indeed, on many occasions the very same writers and performers - including dramatists Ben Jonson, Thomas Middleton, Thomas Dekker, John Webster, Thomas Heywood, and Anthony Munday, as well as high-profile actors like Richard Burbage of the King's Men and Edward Alleyn of the Admiral's Men - were being employed in both domains, a fact which deserves to be better known. 'Civic London 1559-1642' will produce for the first time a full picture of performances at the overlooked City inns such as the Bel Savage on Ludgate and the Bull on Bishopsgate, where, for example, some of Marlowe's plays, and possibly even some by Shakespeare, were likely staged. It will investigate performances in the City's livery company halls and in its schools (such as the Merchant Taylors' School, attended by Thomas Kyd and Edmund Spencer, amongst others), as well as exploring pageantry and drama on the river Thames and on the City streets. 'Civic London 1558-1642' will therefore be the first project to reveal the depth and richness of the City's performance culture in the Renaissance, enabling academics as well as lay researchers to understand the vibrant theatrical traditions of England's capital city in the hey-day of English drama. The project's research findings will be hosted on a searchable, free-to-use pre-publication website, accompanied by user guides and search aids. The research will thus be accessible by local, national, and international audiences and by non-specialists as well as academics. Non-specialist audiences may initially find the project research interesting based on their knowledge of the most famous dramatist of the day, but through 'Civic London 1559-1642' they will learn that there was a great deal more to Renaissance theatre than simply Shakespeare. The project will foreground the important contributions to the drama of this period made by other writers and performers, some of whom will be less familiar but who in this context were actually rather more important. The project has public engagement built in throughout. The cultural history of London is of perennial appeal, especially since some of the forms of performance captured by the research - such as the Lord Mayor's Show, which still draws large crowds annually - continue to this day, and thus speak directly to the lived experience of many people. Part of the project's public engagement work is to develop a mobile app to provide virtual walking tours to enable people to map and locate the performance venues explored by the research, thus enhancing its accessibility still further. The project team also plan a free public exhibition and study day, and a public lecture, at accessible venues in London. In addition, the research will undoubtedly have a substantial impact on teaching and learning at school, college and HE level. Drama from the time of Shakespeare, Marlowe, Jonson, and their contemporaries is central to GCSE, A Level and university English curricula, and being able to draw freely on the project outputs from the project's website will enable teachers and students alike to transform their understanding of the theatre of this crucial period.

This proposal aims to examine the utility of N-heterocyclic carbenes (NHCs) in a number of technologically important areas including corrosion inhibition, etching of metal surfaces and enantioselective heterogeneous catalysis. This is a collaborative project between a catalytic surface scientist (Prof. Chris Baddeley, St Andrews) and experts in organometallic chemistry and materials science (Prof. Cathy Crudden, Queen's University, Ontario) and surface and materials chemistry (Prof. Hugh Horton, Queen's University, Ontario). NHCs are an exciting class of molecules that have been successfully and extensively employed in homogeneous catalysis since the 1990s. There has recently been a rapid increase in interest in the use of NHCs for the stabilisation of transition metal nanoparticles and extended metal surfaces. A very attractive feature of NHCs is their highly flexible synthesis. This makes it relatively straightforward to introduce functionality into the molecular structure of NHCs in order to tailor their properties. A key advance in this area was the development by Crudden's group of synthetic methods to produce bench stable NHCs in the carbonate form. Our work showed that NHCs of this type could be vapour deposited in ultrahigh vacuum onto metal surfaces (Baddeley) as well as being deposited from solution (Horton). Since the 1980s the creation of self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) on metal surfaces has led to many important applications. Commonly, SAMs consist of thiolate modified Au surfaces. Crudden and Horton showed that NHCs on Au outperform their thiolate analogues in terms of chemical and thermal stability. Baddeley was able to measure the strength of the Au-carbene bond and show that it is significantly stronger than the Au-S bond in thiolate SAMs. This project aims to exploit the chemical and thermal stability of NHC modified metals in a number of ways. Baddeley will use the complementary techniques of scanning tunnelling microscopy, high resolution electron energy loss spectroscopy and temperature programmed desorption to quantify the adsorption energy of NHCs on metal surfaces, to characterise the orientation, packing and thermal stability of adsorbed NHC molecules. The ability of NHCs to etch oxide surfaces and to passivate metal surfaces will be investigated with the objective of applying NHCs in the field of corrosion inhibition. The adsorption of chiral NHCs onto metal surfaces will be investigated with the aim of developing enantioselective heterogeneous catalysts - i.e. catalysts capable of producing one mirror image form of an organic molecule and not the other. Enantioselective catalysis is extremely important in the pharmaceutical and agrochemicals industries, but, to date, heterogeneous catalysts have made little impact on an industrial scale.

Arctic sea ice area has been mapped for nearly four decades using the long-term data record provided by successive passive microwave satellite missions; showing an accelerated pace of ice loss since 1979. Less is known about how much the ice has also thinned, in part because of the lack of a similarly long-term and consistent data record on sea ice thickness. Radar altimeters, such as the one flown on the European Space Agency (ESA)'s CryoSat-2 (CS2) since April 2010, and the SARAL/AltiKa satellite, launched in February 2013 as part of a joint mission by the Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales (CNES) and the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), are now providing pan-Arctic (or up to 81.5N for AltiKa) thickness observations. However, one key uncertainty in using these data is how far the radar actually penetrates into the overlying snow cover. The general assumption has been that the radar return is from the snow-ice interface at Ku-band (CS2) frequencies, and from the snow-air interface at Ka-band (AltiKa) frequencies. Using this information together with assumptions on the depth of the overlying snow pack and its density, scientists can then convert the radar returns into total ice thickness assuming hydrostatic equilibrium. However, field evidence has put this general assumption into question, even for a homogeneous snowpack. A further complication is the lack of knowledge on how deep the snow pack is and its density. Typically, snow depth and density information based on a climatology constructed over thick multiyear ice in the 1980s have been used. However, as the total area in the sea ice cover has declined, there is now a larger proportion of first-year sea ice in the Arctic Basin. Snow over first-year ice tends to be more saline than over multiyear ice, and as such it has the potential for a significant impact on the radar returns. In addition, autumn and winter freeze-up has been delayed by several weeks to months in certain regions of the Arctic, shortening the duration for accumulation of snow. Given these current uncertainties, it is difficult to accurately assess how sea ice thickness is changing from year to year and over the long-term. Because sea ice is an important indicator of climate change, plays a fundamental role in the Arctic energy and freshwater balance, and is a key component of the marine ecosystem, it is essential that we improve the accuracy of thickness retrievals from radar altimetry. This project aims to do just that by making ground-based observations of the radar penetration depth over a full annual cycle at both Ku- and Ka-band frequencies, from autumn freeze-up, through winter snow metamorphism and summer melt. This information, together with detailed snow pack characteristics, will allow us to assess how changes in snow accumulation, snow morphology and snow salinity impact Ku- and Ka-band penetration factors. The MOSAiC drifting station provides a unique opportunity, possibly the only opportunity, to obtain a benchmark dataset that involves coherent field, airborne and satellite data. Analysis of this information will enable scientists to better characterize how the physical properties of the snow pack (above different ice types) influence the penetration of Ka and Ku band radar. Importantly, we will be able to evaluate the seasonal evolution of the snow pack over first-year (sea ice greater than a few cm) and multiyear sea ice. MOSAiC additionally provides the opportunity for year-round observations of snow depth and density that will allow for assessment of the validity of climatological assumptions typically employed in thickness retrievals from radar altimetry and provide data for validation of snow depth products. These activities are essential in order to improve sea ice thickness retrievals from radar altimetry over the many ice and snow conditions found in the Arctic.

The policies, strategies and programs introduced to address youth unemployment in Africa (e.g., entrepreneurial skills development, funding young farmers, counseling, investing in accelerators and incubators to support the launch of new businesses) are not working. In sub-Saharan Africa, 64.4 million youth lived in extreme or moderate poverty (less than $3.10 per day) in 2016. Nigeria's youth unemployment rate grew from 11.7% in 2014 to 36.5% in 2018 and youth unemployment rates in Egypt, Kenya and South Africa reached all-time highs in 2017. To design and implement programs that can effectively reduce youth unemployment in Africa, we need to increase the multi-disciplinary research capacity of African university professors, learn from countries that have successfully reduced youth unemployment, engage African youth in the process of identifying the core of the unemployment problem and approaches to solve it, and maintain databases that store and manage large amounts of digital information that is accurate and reliable. The goal of this project is to build significant research capacity across African universities to help reduce youth unemployment in African countries, starting with: Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, Egypt, Senegal and South Africa.The expected outcomes at the end of three years after project start are: i) One high-performing hub that has the capacity to raise external funds, form partnerships, explore entrepreneurial activities, attract excellent mentors worldwide, and anchor a research network across African universities; ii) 12 doctoral students and post-doctoral fellows and 13 faculty members distributed across African universities who can carry out research in how to reduce youth unemployment in Africa; and iii) Models, local best practices and reliable digital data that can be applied to reduce youth unemployment in Africa. To achieve its objectives, the project will carry out five major initiatives: i) Baseline assessment- establishes existing gaps that necessitate research investment; ii) Networking Events - hosts conferences, workshops and seminars; iii) international placement events to develop the capacity to reduce youth unemployed of all the individuals and organizations that are part of the hub-and-spokes network; iv) Research Labs - trains and mentors young academics from the six African countries to define problems, set objectives and priorities, conduct sound research, and identify solutions to high youth unemployment in Africa as well as work collaboratively; v) Infrastructure and Dissemination- documents and updates models, local best practices and digital databases that can be applied to design and implement policies, strategies and programs to reduce youth unemployment in Africa; and shares the reports produced and the digital data that is used and created by the project with all stakeholders. The project comprised of a team of experts drawn from universities in Five African countries (University of Lagos Nigeria, University of Ghana, University of Cape Town, South Africa, University of Nairobi Kenya, and The America University in Cairo, Egypt), three universities in the United Kingdom (Lancaster University, University of Strathclyde , Coventry University and University of Derby) and 2 in North America (Carleton University, Canada and University of Iowa, USA) The investment required is 600 thousand pounds. The funds will be invested in capacity building and networking (70%), scoping studies (20%) and administrative support (10%). This project responds to the urgent need for a multi-country strategic approach to address high youth unemployment rates in African countries. The project greatly benefits young career academics in different African countries because it provides a platform for them to build their research capacities in one or more of the nine focus areas of the ARUA, USD-CoE and the resources that can be leveraged to form partnerships and explore entrepreneurial opportunities

The Peruvian Andes is home to 71% of the world's tropical glaciers, and the meltwater they supply is an essential resource for people downstream who depend on it for irrigation and sanitation. Further, hydropower plants driven by glacial meltwater provide more than 40% of Peru's electricity. However, Peru's glaciers are receding rapidly, threatening this supply, as well as releasing sediment to valley areas and revealing topographic depressions that may become natural reservoirs for glacier runoff. These thawing landscapes are also very active and can pose risks to downstream people and infrastructure. PEGASUS will assess the opportunities and threats that rapidly evolving landscapes, and natural resources, will bring to the people and businesses of three glacierised Cordilleras of the Peruvian Andes - Urubamba, Vilcabamba and Vilcanota - and make recommendations that will maximise the potential prosperity that can be gained in the face of continued environmental change. Modelling the climate of mountain catchments such as those in Peru is complex because of the interaction of large-scale weather systems with local-scale winds and extreme relief. Uncertainties in modelling the climate feed into projections of glacier change, which themselves are limited by a lack of data on previous glacier behaviour for calibration, and downstream river flows for validation. Robust climate modelling is also required for predictions of permafrost (freezing) heights, which are a key control on ice and bedrock stability, and thus avalanche risk. PEGASUS will produce new and refined projections of climate that will drive cutting edge glacier and permafrost models, to yield firm predictions of how the glaciers and freezing levels will change on a 5-yearly interval from now until the end of the century. As the glaciers recede and hillslopes become more active, sediment will be released into the valleys, and lakes will develop where ice existed. Some of the sediment will be trapped within these glacial lakes, and some will be transferred downstream by river flows. The rate of sediment release by glaciers in advanced states of recession is poorly known, and the role of lakes in capturing the sediment is also poorly quantified. PEGASUS will perform field measurements and modelling to improve understanding of the role of glacial lakes in removing, conveying and storing sediment being released from the glaciers, and characterise the impact this will have on downstream water quality and critical hydropower infrastructure. The locations of future glacial lakes can be predicted by modelling the thickness of the current glaciers and identifying subglacial depressions that will be revealed as the ice recedes. Using a Digital Elevation Model (DEM) of this ice-free terrain, it is possible to make a quantitative assessment of the hazard that these new lakes, as well as existing glacial lakes, pose to downstream areas if they were to burst catastrophically. PEGASUS will carry out this assessment for the largest lakes in the Urubamba-Vicabamba-Vilcanota study area and then undertake additional fine-resolution and physically-based numerical modelling to robustly quantify the effects of flooding and debris flows on people, land, the downstream river dynamics, and hydropower infrastructure. PEGASUS will then identify the barriers and opportunities that exist to the use of these lakes for water storage and hydropower development. This assessment will integrate consultations with government (CORECC), a large hydropower company (EGEMSA) and, crucially, communities living in the catchments of the lakes we have analysed. The recommendations that follow will provide information on the sustainability of existing and future hydropower schemes, how to manage water use in future decades and formulate policies that reflect the needs of all stakeholders, and the potential hazards that unstable mountain environments may pose to lives and livelihoods in future years.