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M-ERA.NET 3 aims at coordinating the research efforts in the participating EU Member States, Regions, and Associated States in materials research and innovation, including materials for future batteries, to support the circular economy and Sustainable Development Goals. A large network of national and regional funding organisations from 25 EU Members States, 4 Associated States and 6 countries outside Europe will implement a series of annual joint calls to fund excellent innovative transnational RTD cooperation, including one call for proposals with EU co-funding and additional non-cofunded calls. Continuing the activities started under the predecessor project M-ERA.NET 2 (3/2016-2/2021), the M-ERA.NET 3 consortium will address emerging technologies and related applications areas, such as - for example- surfaces, coatings, composites, additive manufacturing or integrated materials modelling. Research on materials supporting the large scale research initiative on future battery technologies will be particularly highlighted as a main target of the cofunded call (Call 2021) with a view to supporting in particular SDG 7 (“Affordable and clean energy”) by enabling electro mobility through sustainable energy storage technology and SDG 9 (“Industrial innovation and infrastructure”) by enhancing scientific research and upgrading the technological capabilities of industrial sectors. Several relevant action plans and initiatives will serve as programmatic guides for M-ERA.NET 3 when defining the joint activities, such as the Circular Economy Action Plan, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its 17 Sustainable Development Goals, the EC communication “A clean planet for all”, and the “European Green Deal”. The total mobilised public call budget is expected to reach 150 million € with additional private investment of 50 million €. Thus, the leverage effect of the EU contribution will reach a factor of 13, exceeding by far the minimum required factor of 5.

Machine learning offers great promise in helping us solve problems by automatically learning solutions from data, without us having to specify all details of the solution as in earlier computational approaches. However, we still need to tell machine learning systems what problems we want them to solve, and this is currently undertaken by specifying desired outcomes and designing objective functions and rewards. Formulating the rewards for a new problem is not easy for us as humans, and is particularly difficult when we only partially know the goal, as is the case at the beginning of scientific research. In this programme we develop ways for machine learning systems to help humans to steer them in the process of collecting more information by designing experiments, interpreting what the results mean, and deciding what to measure next, to finally reach a conclusion and a trustworthy solution to the problem. The machine learning techniques will be developed first for three practically important problems and then generalized to be broadly applicable. The first is diagnosis and treatment decision making in personalized medicine, the second steering of scientific experiments in synthetic biology and drug design, and the third design and use of digital twins in designing physical systems and processes. An AI centre of excellence will be established at the University of Manchester, in collaboration with the Turing Institute and a number of partners from the industry and healthcare sector, and with strong connections to the networks of best national and international AI researchers.

Shipping is the largest means of moving freight globally. Ships consume dirty fuels, making them one of the most important sources of anthropogenic aerosol in the marine atmosphere. Aerosols from shipping can affect the climate directly through absorption and scattering of radiation, with an overall cooling effect to the atmosphere. They can also indirectly influence the climate by changing cloud properties, e.g., albedo and lifetime, which further cools the atmosphere. Two key challenges for assessing future climate impact of shipping emission are (i) knowing the status of the present-day aerosol system - as a baseline from which any climate predictions are made and (ii) quantifying the amount of pollutants emitted. Currently little consensus exists on the impact of shipping emissions in the Arctic and North Atlantic Atmosphere (ANAA) primarily due to a lack of observations and insufficient model skills. Recent modelling work suggests that the Arctic aerosol baseline should account for a disparate range of natural sources. Few models are sufficiently comprehensive, and while some models can reproduce aerosol in some Arctic regions, there is evidence that models can produce similar results via different sources and processes. An inability to reflect the aerosol baseline processes can have significant impact on the reliability of future climate projections. Shipping is also undergoing significant changes. In January 2020, a new International Maritime Organisation (IMO) regulation comes into force, which reduces, by more than 80%, the sulphur content in maritime fuel oils. Superimposed on that, recent climate induced changes in Arctic sea ice are opening up new seaways enabling shorter sea passages between key markets. Significant growth in shipping via the North West Passage (NWP) is anticipated in the coming years. Thus, there is a short window of opportunity to define current atmospheric conditions, against which the impact of these changes must be determined. SEANA will take advantage of the above-mentioned opportunity to make multiple atmospheric measurements over multiple platforms to understand the present-day baselines - sources of aerosol particles including the contribution from shipping - and to determine the response of ANAA aerosol to new fuel standards after 2020. Extended measurements will be conducted at two stations adjacent to the NWP enabling the source of particles to be apportioned using receptor modelling approaches. In addition, SEANA will participate in a Korean cruise to the west side of the NWP, and a NERC cruise to the east, to measure both natural and anthropogenic particles and aerosol processes in two contrasting Arctic environments. These new observations will be integrated with recent / ongoing measurements at partner ANAA stations to generate a benchmark dataset on aerosol baseline in ANAA to constrain processes in the UK's leading global aerosol model, ensuring that the model is reproducing the baseline aerosol in the ANAA faithfully. We will then test the models' response to significant reductions in shipping sulphur emissions using observations taken during the transition to low-sulphur fuels in 2020. The revised model, which can reproduce current "baselines" and accurately predict the response of emission changes in the ANAA, will then be used to predict the future impact of shipping on air quality, clouds and radiative forcing under multiple sea-ice and shipping scenarios. SEANA will deliver a major enhancement of UK's national capacity in capturing baseline ANAA aerosol and responses to emission regulations, results of which will inform shipping policy at high-latitudes.

At near-noon local times, at locations in the high arctic near 80 degrees North and South, the magnetic fields which originate in the conducting core of our planet extend upwards and are magnetically connected to the dayside magnetopause. This subsolar magnetopause is the point where the magnetic field of the Earth first touches the highly supersonic solar wind flow, and the interplanetary magnetic field of solar origin which is embedded in it. This creates the magnetospheric cusps, which are the primary entry points for energy of solar wind origin into the regions of space controlled by the terrestrial magnetic field, and the atmospheric regions which underlie them. This energy transfer occurs through a process called magnetic reconnection. As such, this crucial region of near-Earth space is fundamental to understanding the flow of energy, mass and momentum throughout the Earth's magnetosphere, ionosphere and upper atmosphere, and hence in our understanding of "space weather". The magnetospheric cusps are longstanding areas of research interest, but their highly variable nature, in both space and time, makes them a highly challenging region to fully understand. Here we describe a multi-instrument research programme based around an exciting new NASA space mission, TRACERS, due for launch in late 2022, on which the proposal PI is a named collaborator. The TRACERS programme relies on coordination with ground-based instrumentation. Of particular interest for TRACERS is the Svalbard region, an area of the high arctic uniquely well instrumented with, for example, numerous optical instruments and the NERC-funded EISCAT Svalbard radar. Around northern winter solstice Svalbard is in darkness at noon, and for ~10 days the moon is below the horizon. Such conditions offer a unique opportunity for multi-instrument cusp experiments involving cusp auroral optical observations. Our multi-instrument research programme requires the construction and deployment of a new state-of-the art digital imaging radar system, the Hankasalmi auroral imaging radar system (HAIRS). HAIRS will look northwards from Hankasalmi in Finland, having a field of view centred over the Svalbard region, revealing the ionospheric cusp region electrodynamics at high spatial and temporal resolution over a ~1 million square kilometre region of the ionosphere. In this programme, low earth orbit measurements of energetic ions precipitating from the cusp region taken by the twin TRACERS spacecraft will provide measurements of the temporal and spatial structuring of the cusp reconnection processes. Magnetically conjugate measurements of the footprint of the reconnection line from HAIRS and associated ground-based instrumentation, will measure the length and the location of the reconnection line. HAIRS will provide an analysis of the boundary motion, and of the convection velocities detected near the boundary, allowing a calculation of the reconnection rate mapped down to the ionosphere. Such a combination of instrumentation will provide an unprecedented opportunity to understand the temporal and spatial behaviour of cusp reconnection and its role in controlling terrestrial space weather. Outside of the science programme described here, HAIRS will offer vital complementary datasets to support the upcoming NERC-funded EISCAT 3D radar system at lower latitudes in Scandinavia, coming on stream in 2021 which will also lie in the HAIRS field of view. HAIRS will also directly complement the Solar wind Magnetosphere Ionosphere Link Explorer (SMILE), launching in 2023, a joint mission between the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). The innovative SMILE wide-field Soft X-ray Imager (SXI), provided by the UK Space Agency and other European institutions, will obtain unique measurements of the regions where the solar wind impacts the magnetosphere, regions which are directly magnetically connected to the area under study in this programme.

Atrial fibrillation (AF) and stroke are major health care problems in Europe. They are most often the clinical expression of atrial cardiomyopathy, which is under-recognised due to the lack of specific diagnostic tools. Multidisciplinary research and stratified approaches are urgently needed to prevent, diagnose, and treat AF and stroke and preempt the AF-related threat to healthy ageing in Europe. MAESTRIA is a European consortium of 18 clinicians, scientists and Pharma industrials who are at the forefront of research and medical care of AF and stroke patients. It will create multi-parametric digital tools based on a new generation of biomarkers that integrate artificial intelligence (AI) processing and big data from cutting edge imaging, electrocardiography and omics technologies. It will develop novel biomarkers, diagnostic tools and personalized therapies for atrial cardiomyopathy. Digital Twin technologies, a rich data integrator combining biophysics and AI will be used to generate virtual twins of the human atria using patient-specific data. Unique experimental large-animal models, ongoing patient cohorts and a prospective MAESTRIA cohort of patients will provide rigorous validation for new biomarkers and newly developed tools. A dedicated core lab will collect and homogenize clinical data. MAESTRIA will be organized as a user-centered platform, easily accessible via clinical parameters routinely used in European hospitals. A Scientific Advisory Board comprising potential clinician users will help MAESTRIA meet clinical and market needs. Dissemination and visibility of the MAESTRIA consortium mission will benefit from participation of the German Competence Network on Atrial Fibrillation (AFNET), and support from the European Society of Cardiology, clinicians, scientists, and other professional societies. MAESTRIA will be ready to tackle the major challenges of data integration and personalized medicine focused on atrial cardiomyopathy, AF and stroke.

The ecosystems of the dry tropics are in flux: the savannas, woodlands and dry forests that together cover a greater area of the globe than rainforests are both a source of carbon emissions due to deforestation and forest degradation, and also a sink due to the enhanced growth of trees. However, both of these processes are poorly understood, in terms of their magnitude and causes, and the net carbon balance and its future remain unclear. This gap in knowledge arises because we do not have a systematic network of observations of vegetation change in the dry tropics, and thus have not, until now, been able to use observations of how things are changing to understand the processes involved and to test key theories. Satellite remote sensing, combined with ground measurements, offers the ideal way to overcome these challenges, as it can provide regular, consistent monitoring at relatively low cost. However, most ecosystems in the dry tropics, especially savannas, comprise a mixture of grass and trees, and many optical remote sensing approaches (akin to enhanced versions of the sensors on digital cameras) struggle to distinguish changes between the two. Long wavelength radar remote sensing avoids this problem as it is insensitive to the presence of leaves or grass, and also is not affected by clouds, smoke or the angle of the sun, all of which complicate optical remote sensing. Radar remote sensing is therefore ideal to monitor tree biomass in the dry tropics. We have successfully demonstrated that such data can be used to accurately map woody biomass change for all 5 million sq km of southern Africa. In SECO we will create a network of over 600 field plots to understand how the vegetation of the dry tropics is changing. and complement this with radar remote sensing to quantify how the carbon cycle of the dry tropics has changed over the last 15 years. This will provide the first estimates of key carbon fluxes across all of the dry tropics, including the amount of carbon being released by forest degradation and deforestation and how much carbon is being taken up by the intact vegetation in the region. By understanding where these processes are happening, we will improve our knowledge of the processes involved. W will use these new data to improve the way we model the carbon cycle of the dry tropics, and test key theories. The improved understanding, formalised into a model, will be used to examine how the dry tropics will respond to climate change, land use change and the effects of increasing atmospheric CO2. We will then be able to understand whether the vegetation of the dry tropics will mitigate or exacerbate climate change, and we will learn what we need to do to maintain the structure of the dry tropics and preserve its biodiversity. Overall, SECO will allow us to understand how the vegetation of the dry tropics is changing, and the implications of this for the global carbon cycle, the ecology of savannas and dry forests, and efforts to reduce climate change. The data we create, and the analyses we conduct will be useful to other researchers developing methods to monitor vegetation from satellites, and also to those who model the response of different ecosystems to climate and other changes. Forest managers, ecologists and development practitioners can use the data to understand which parts of the world's savannas and dry forests are changing most, and how these changes might be managed to avoid negative impacts that threaten biodiversity and the livelihoods of the 1 billion, mostly poor, rural people who live in this region.

Development of materials has underpinned human and societal development for millennia, and such development has accelerated as time has passed. From the discovery of bronze through to wrought iron and then steel and polymers the visible world around has been shaped and built, relying on the intrinsic properties of these materials. In the 20th century a new materials revolution took place leading to the development of materials that are designed for their electronic (e.g. silicon), optical (e.g. glass fibres) or magnetic (e.g. recording media) properties. These materials changed the way we interact with the world and each other through the development of microelectronics (computers), the world wide web (optical fibre communications) and associated technologies. Now, two decades into the 21st century, we need to add more functionality into materials at ever smaller length-scales in order to develop ever more capable technologies with increased energy efficiency and at an acceptable manufacturing cost. In pursuing this ambition, we now find ourselves at the limit of current materials-processing technologies with an often complex interdependence of materials properties (e.g. thermal and electronic). As we approach length scales below 100s of nanometres, we have to harness quantum effects to address the need for devices with a step-change in performance and energy-efficiency, and ultimately for some cases the fundamental limitations of quantum mechanics. In this programme grant we will develop a new approach to delivering material functionalisation based on Nanoscale Advanced Materials Engineering (NAME). This approach will enable the modification of materials through the addition (doping) of single atoms through to many trillions with extreme accuracy (~20 nanometres, less than 1000th the thickness of a human hair). This will allow us to functionalise specifically a material in a highly localised location leaving the remaining material available for modification. For the first time this will offer a new approach to addressing the limitations faced by existing approaches in technology development at these small length scales. We will be able to change independently a material's electronic and thermal properties on the nanoscale, and use the precise doping to deliver enhanced optical functionality in engineered materials. Ambitiously, we aim to use NAME to control material properties which have to date proven difficult to exploit fully (e.g. quantum mechanical spin), and to control states of systems predicted but not yet directly experimentally observed or controlled (e.g. topological surface states). Ultimately, we may provide a viable route to the development of quantum bits (qubits) in materials which are a pre-requisite for the realisation of a quantum computer. Such a technology, albeit long term, is predicted to be the next great technological revolution NAME is a collaborative programme between internationally leading UK researchers from the Universities of Manchester, Leeds and Imperial College London, who together lead the Henry Royce Institute research theme identified as 'Atoms to Devices'. Together they have already established the required substantial infrastructure and state-of-the-art facilities through investment from Royce, the EPSRC and each University partner. The programme grant will provide the resource to assemble the wider team required to deliver the NAME vision, including UK academics, research fellows, and postdoctoral researchers, supported by PhD students funded by the Universities. The programme grant also has significant support from wider academia and industry based both within the UK and internationally.

Digital scores utilising computational technology and digital media are emerging worldwide as the next evolutionary stage in the concept of the music score (Vear 2019). Yet there has been no scientific study of digital scores; nor their effect upon creativity and musicianship. This is remarkable for two reasons: First, because digital scores are generating new music experiences, innovative compositional approaches, novel performance opportunities, and broader accessibility for a vast number of musicians and music cultures around the world. Second, because many topics immediately adjacent or informing digital scores have been theorised thereby liberating these subjects and innovating creative practices, e.g. digital media art, digital performance, electro-acoustic music. This project will launch the first scientific investigation into the transformation of the music score through computational technologies. The core aims of the project are to: (1) determine scientific knowledge of how digital scores stimulate new creative opportunities and experiences within a range of music practices, (2) develop a theoretical framework for digital scores as an important transdisciplinary area of research, (3) build a scientific study of inclusive digital musicianship through the transformative potential of the digital score. This project will investigate these questions through an innovative combination of artistic and scientific research methods, undertaken by a transdisciplinary and international team of scientists and artists, led by a world expert of digital scores: Prof. Dr. Craig Vear. This is real “frontier research”, the benefits of which extend beyond music studies into computer science, new media research, digital humanities, performance studies and creative practice.