Evolution over the eons has made Nature a treasure trove of clever solutions to sustainability, resilience, and ways to efficiently utilize scarce resources. The Centre for Nature Inspired Engineering will draw lessons from nature to engineer innovative solutions to our grand challenges in energy, water, materials, health, and living space. Rather than imitating nature out of context or succumbing to superficial analogies, research at the Centre will take a decidedly scientific approach to uncover fundamental mechanisms underlying desirable traits, and apply these mechanisms to design and synthesise artificial systems that hereby borrow the traits of the natural model. The Centre will initially focus on three key mechanisms, as they are so prevalent in nature, amenable to practical implementation, and are expected to have transformational impact on urgent issues in sustainability and scalable manufacturing. These mechanisms are: (T1) "Hierarchical Transport Networks": the way nature bridges microscopic to macroscopic length scales in order to preserve the intricate microscopic or cellular function throughout (as in trees, lungs and the circulatory system); (T2) "Force Balancing": the balanced use of fundamental forces, e.g., electrostatic attraction/repulsion and geometrical confinement in microscopic spaces (as in protein channels in cell membranes, which trump artificial membranes in selective, high-permeation separation performance); and (T3) "Dynamic Self-Organisation": the creation of robust, adaptive and self-healing communities thanks to collective cooperation and emergence of complex structures out of much simpler individual components (as in bacterial communities and in biochemical cycles). Such nature-inspired, rather than narrowly biomimetic approach, allows us to marry advanced manufacturing capabilities and access to non-physiological conditions, with nature's versatile mechanisms that have been remarkably little employed in a rational, bespoke manner. High-performance computing and experimentation now allow us to unravel fundamental mechanisms, from the atomic to the macroscopic, in an unprecedented way, providing the required information to transcend empiricism, and guide practical realisations of nature-inspired designs. In first instance, three examples will be developed to validate each of the aforementioned natural mechanisms, and simultaneously apply them to problems of immediate relevance that tie in to the Grand Challenges in energy, water, materials and scalable manufacturing. These are: (1) robust, high-performance fuel cells with greatly reduced amount of precious catalyst, by using a lung-inspired architecture; (2) membranes for water desalination inspired by the mechanism of biological cell membranes; (3) high-performance functional materials, resp. architectural design (cities, buildings), informed by agent-based modelling on bacteria-inspired, resp. human communities, to identify roads to robust, adaptive complex systems. To meet these ambitious goals, the Centre assembles an interdisciplinary team of experts, from chemical and biochemical engineering, to computer science, architecture, materials, chemistry and genetics. The Centre researchers collaborate with, and seek advice from industrial partners from a wide range of industries, which accelerates practical implementation. The Centre has an open, outward looking mentality, inviting broader collaboration beyond the core at UCL. It will devote significant resources to explore the use of the validated nature-inspired mechanisms to other applications, and extend investigation to other natural mechanisms that may inform solutions to problems in sustainability and scalable manufacturing.

Our vision is to rejuvenate modern electronics by developing and enabling a new approach to electronic systems where reconfigurability, scalability, operational flexibility/resilience, power efficiency and cost-effectiveness are combined. This vision will be delivered by breaking out of the large, but comprehensively explored realm of CMOS technology upon which virtually all modern electronics are based; consumer and non-consumer alike. Introducing novel nanoelectronic components never before used in the technology we all carry around in our phones will introduce new capabilities that have thus far been unattainable due to the limitations of current hardware technology. The resulting improved capability of engineers to squeeze more computational power in ever smaller areas at ever lower power costs will unlock possibilities such as: a) truly pervasive Internet-of-Things computing where minute sensors consuming nearly zero power monitor the world around us and inform our choices, b) truly smart implants that within extremely limited power and size budgets can not only interface with the brain, but also process that data in a meaningful way and send the results either onwards to e.g. a doctor, or even feed it back into the brain for further processing, c) radiation-resistant electronics to be deployed in satellites and aeroplanes, civilian and military and improve communication reliability while driving down maintenance costs. In building this vision, our project will deliver a series of scientific and commercial objectives: i) Developing the foundations of nanoelectronic component (memristive) technologies to the point where it becomes a commercially available option for the general industrial designer. ii) Setting up a fully supported (models, tools, design rules etc.), end-to-end design infrastructure so that anyone with access to industry standard software used for electronics design today may utilise memristive technology in their design. iii) Introduce a new design paradigm where memristive technologies are intimately integrated with traditional analogue and digital circuitry in order to deliver performance unattainable by any in isolation. This includes designing primitive hardware modules that can act as building-blocks for higher level designs, allowing engineers to construct large-scale systems without worrying about the intricate details of memristor operation. iv) Actively foster a community of users, encouraged to explore potential commercial impact and further scientific development stemming from our work whilst feeding back into the project through e.g. collaborations. v) Start early by beginning to commercialise the most mature aspects of the proposed research as soon as possible in order to create jobs in the UK. Vast translational opportunities exist via: a) The direct commercialisation of project outcomes, specifically developed applications (prove in lab, then obtain venture capital funding and commercialise), b) The generation of novel electronic designs (IP / design bureau model; making the UK a global design centre for memristive technology-based electronics) and c) Selling tools developed to help accelerate the project (instrumentation, CAD and supporting software). Our team (academic and industry) is ideally placed for delivering this disruptive vision that will allow our society to efficiently expand the operational envelope of electronics, enabling its use in formidable environments as well as reuse or re-purpose electronics affordably.

Our vision is to rejuvenate modern electronics by developing and enabling a new approach to electronic systems where reconfigurability, scalability, operational flexibility/resilience, power efficiency and cost-effectiveness are combined. This vision will be delivered by breaking out of the large, but comprehensively explored realm of CMOS technology upon which virtually all modern electronics are based; consumer and non-consumer alike. Introducing novel nanoelectronic components never before used in the technology we all carry around in our phones will introduce new capabilities that have thus far been unattainable due to the limitations of current hardware technology. The resulting improved capability of engineers to squeeze more computational power in ever smaller areas at ever lower power costs will unlock possibilities such as: a) truly pervasive Internet-of-Things computing where minute sensors consuming nearly zero power monitor the world around us and inform our choices, b) truly smart implants that within extremely limited power and size budgets can not only interface with the brain, but also process that data in a meaningful way and send the results either onwards to e.g. a doctor, or even feed it back into the brain for further processing, c) radiation-resistant electronics to be deployed in satellites and aeroplanes, civilian and military and improve communication reliability while driving down maintenance costs. In building this vision, our project will deliver a series of scientific and commercial objectives: i) Developing the foundations of nanoelectronic component (memristive) technologies to the point where it becomes a commercially available option for the general industrial designer. ii) Setting up a fully supported (models, tools, design rules etc.), end-to-end design infrastructure so that anyone with access to industry standard software used for electronics design today may utilise memristive technology in their design. iii) Introduce a new design paradigm where memristive technologies are intimately integrated with traditional analogue and digital circuitry in order to deliver performance unattainable by any in isolation. This includes designing primitive hardware modules that can act as building-blocks for higher level designs, allowing engineers to construct large-scale systems without worrying about the intricate details of memristor operation. iv) Actively foster a community of users, encouraged to explore potential commercial impact and further scientific development stemming from our work whilst feeding back into the project through e.g. collaborations. v) Start early by beginning to commercialise the most mature aspects of the proposed research as soon as possible in order to create jobs in the UK. Vast translational opportunities exist via: a) The direct commercialisation of project outcomes, specifically developed applications (prove in lab, then obtain venture capital funding and commercialise), b) The generation of novel electronic designs (IP / design bureau model; making the UK a global design centre for memristive technology-based electronics) and c) Selling tools developed to help accelerate the project (instrumentation, CAD and supporting software). Our team (academic and industry) is ideally placed for delivering this disruptive vision that will allow our society to efficiently expand the operational envelope of electronics, enabling its use in formidable environments as well as reuse or re-purpose electronics affordably.

High Performance Embedded and Distributed Systems (HiPEDS), ranging from implantable smart sensors to secure cloud service providers, offer exciting benefits to society and great opportunities for wealth creation. Although currently UK is the world leader for many technologies underpinning such systems, there is a major threat which comes from the need not only to develop good solutions for sharply focused problems, but also to embed such solutions into complex systems with many diverse aspects, such as power minimisation, performance optimisation, digital and analogue circuitry, security, dependability, analysis and verification. The narrow focus of conventional UK PhD programmes cannot bridge the skills gap that would address this threat to the UK's leadership of HiPEDS. The proposed Centre for Doctoral Training (CDT) aims to train a new generation of leaders with a systems perspective who can transform research and industry involving HiPEDS. The CDT provides a structured and vibrant training programme to train PhD students to gain expertise in a broad range of system issues, to integrate and innovate across multiple layers of the system development stack, to maximise the impact of their work, and to acquire creativity, communication, and entrepreneurial skills. The taught programme comprises a series of modules that combine technical training with group projects addressing team skills and system integration issues. Additional courses and events are designed to cover students' personal development and career needs. Such a comprehensive programme is based on aligning the research-oriented elements of the training programme, an industrial internship, and rigorous doctoral research. Our focus in this CDT is on applying two cross-layer research themes: design and optimisation, and analysis and verification, to three key application areas: healthcare systems, smart cities, and the information society. Healthcare systems cover implantable and wearable sensors and their operation as an on-body system, interactions with hospital and primary care systems and medical personnel, and medical imaging and robotic surgery systems. Smart cities cover infrastructure monitoring and actuation components, including smart utilities and smart grid at unprecedented scales. Information society covers technologies for extracting, processing and distributing information for societal benefits; they include many-core and reconfigurable systems targeting a wide range of applications, from vision-based domestic appliances to public and private cloud systems for finance, social networking, and various web services. Graduates from this CDT will be aware of the challenges faced by industry and their impact. Through their broad and deep training, they will be able to address the disconnect between research prototypes and production environments, evaluate research results in realistic situations, assess design tradeoffs based on both practical constraints and theoretical models, and provide rapid translation of promising ideas into production environments. They will have the appropriate systems perspective as well as the vision and skills to become leaders in their field, capable of world-class research and its exploitation to become a global commercial success.

Cancer is the second most common cause of death globally, accounting for 8.8 million deaths in 2015. It is estimated that radiotherapy is used in the treatment of approximately half of all cancer patients. In the UK, one new NHS proton-beam therapy facility has recently come online in Manchester and a second will soon be brought into operation in London. In addition, several new private proton-beam therapy facilities are being developed. The use of these new centres, and the research that will be carried out to enhance the efficacy of the treatments they deliver, will substantially increase demand. Worldwide interest in particle-beam therapy (PBT) is growing and a significant growth in demand in this technology is anticipated. By 2035, 26.9 million life-years in low- and middle-income countries could be saved if radiotherapy capacity could be scaled up. The investment required for this expansion will generate substantial economic gains. Radiotherapy delivered using X-ray beams or radioactive sources is an established form of treatment widely exploited to treat cancer. Modern X-ray therapy machines allow the dose to be concentrated over the tumour volume. X-ray dose falls exponentially with depth so that the location of primary tumours in relation to heart, lungs, oesophagus and spine limits dose intensity in a significant proportion of cases. The proximity of healthy organs to important primary cancer sites implies a fundamental limit on the photon-dose intensities that may be delivered. Proton and ion beams lose the bulk of their energy as they come to rest. The energy-loss distribution therefore has a pronounced 'Bragg peak' at the maximum range. Proton and ion beams overcome the fundamental limitation of X-ray therapy because, in comparison to photons, there is little (ions) or no (protons) dose deposited beyond the distal tumour edge. This saves a factor of 2-3 in integrated patient dose. In addition, as the Bragg peak occurs at the maximum range of the beam, treatment can be conformed to the tumour volume. Protons with energies between 10MeV and 250MeV can be delivered using cyclotrons which can be obtained `off the shelf' from a number of suppliers. Today, cyclotrons are most commonly used for proton-beam therapy. Such machines are not able to deliver multiple ion species over the range of energies required for treatment. Synchrotrons are the second most common type of accelerator used for proton- and ion-beam therapy and are more flexible than cyclotrons in the range of beam energy that can be delivered. However, the footprint, complexity and maintenance requirements are all larger for synchrotrons than for cyclotrons, which increases the necessary investment and the running costs. We propose to lay the technological foundations for the development of an automated, adaptive system required to deliver personalised proton- and ion-beam therapy by implementing a novel laser-driven hybrid accelerator system dedicated to the study of radiobiology. Over the two years of this programme we will: * Deliver an outline CDR for the 'Laser-hybrid Accelerator for Radiobiological Applications', LhARA; * Establish a test-bed for advanced technologies for radiobiology and clinical radiotherapy at the Clatterbridge Cancer Centre; and * Create a broad, multi-disciplinary UK coalition, working within the international Biophysics Collaboration to place the UK in pole position to contribute to, and to benefit from, this exciting new biomedical science-and-innovation initiative.