Wind storms can cause great damage to property and infrastructure. The windstorm footprint (a map of maximum wind gust speed over 3 days) is an important summary of the hazard of great relevance to the insurance industry and to infrastructure providers. Windstorm footprints are conventionally estimated from meteorological data and numerical weather model analyses. However there are several interesting less structured data sources that could contribute to the estimation of the wind storm footprints, and more importantly will raise the spatial resolution of our estimates. This is important as there are important small-scale meteorological phenomena, such as sting jets, that are currently not well resolved by the current methods. We propose to exploit three additional sources of data (and possibly others during the course of the project). The three sources so far identified identified are amateur observations available through the Met Office weather observations website (WOW), comments made on social media and video recorded on social media or CCTV. Amateur meteorological observations are currently collected by the Met Office but not used in producing the footprint estimates. We will investigate whether we can use them in the estimation of the storm footprint; a useful by-product will be estimates of the uncertainty for each WOW station. Social media, such as twitter or instagram, often contains comments on windstorms. These can range from comments on how windy it is, to reports of damage produced by storms. In some cases the geographical location of the message is provided by the device but in others it has to be inferred. There are very large numbers of messages posted on social media every day and it should be possible to used these to provide more detailed modelling of footprints. In addition to text, social media also records images and video. Video is also recorded extensively in the form of CCTV. Video recordings of trees, say, blowing in the wind include information on the strength of the windstorm. We will analyse such recordings to produce information on wind velocity and gust velocity. Bringing together large quantities of diverse data is a complex procedure. We will develop, test, and compare two approaches in modern data science: statistical process modelling and machine learning. Both methods will aim to synthesise all the data into an estimate of the windstorm footprint (and its associated uncertainty). The former will concentrate on producing a map more like the current estimates based on the maximum gust speed while the latter data based methods will concentrate more on mapping the damage caused by the storm. Once we have estimates of the windstorm footprint from both social media and the modelling we will compare these with the standard products and, in consultation with stakeholder, establish any improvements.

There is increased government, investor, and public support for nature-based solutions to address biodiversity loss, net zero ambitions, climate change and green economy needs, improved ecosystem service delivery, and community benefits, which has led to a rapid increase in active coastal habitat restoration projects. However, these pilot projects typically face the same challenges, particularly related to the integration of biodiversity and finance into seascape restoration projects. Developing a platform that connects individual restoration projects and partnerships, and which builds a network to collectively create solutions that address barriers to a nature-positive future will support the sustainability of the projects and the durability of outcomes. The proposed research network in this proposal will examine practical opportunities to optimise the integration of finance and biodiversity within seascape restoration for a nature-positive future. Our partnership is multidisciplinary, with extensive experience and representation from the academic, applied finance, biodiversity and governance communities. Our project has three main stages. First, we will leverage existing networks and partnerships to establish the Solent to Sussex Bay Seascape Restoration Network which will connect existing seascape restoration projects. We will initiate a series of 'discovery' conversations to co-develop a research agenda for the network. Second, we will utilise the network and, guided by the co-developed agenda, hold themed workshops to identify possible solutions that support the enhanced integration of finance and biodiversity in seascape restoration in the Solent to Sussex Bay area. Given the wealth of experience in seascape restoration generated by the concentration of active restoration activities in the network area, we will adopt 'learning by doing' which will draw from the real-life experience of project partners. This will be supplemented by focused research scoped through network discussions to fill evidence gaps identified by the wider academic community and stakeholder groups. Third, we will combine the results of our intensive study of the Solent to Sussex Bay area with a series of national dialogues with the finance and biodiversity researchers and practitioners around the UK (through four national workshops) to develop a framework for integrating biodiversity and finance into future seascape restoration projects. The result will be 1) a framework to better integrate finance and biodiversity into seascape restoration for a nature-positive future, and 2) increased confidence of investors in biodiversity restoration projects. The national network will be well-placed to contribute to a future unified hub-and-spoke network to support a nature-positive UK.

The Oxford-Warwick Statistics Programme will train a new cohort of at least 50 graduates in the theory, methods and applications of Statistical Science for 21st Century data-intensive environments and large-scale models. This is joint project lead by the Statistics Departments of Oxford and Warwick. These two departments, ranked first and second for world leading research in the last UK research assessment exercise, can provide a wonderful stimulating training environment for doctoral students in statistics. The Centre's pool of supervisors are known for significant international research contributions in modern computational statistics and related fields, contributions recognised by over 20 major National and International Awards since 2008. Oxford and Warwick attract students with competitively won international scholarships. The programme leaders expect to expand the cohort to 11 or 12 per year by bringing these students into the CDT, and raising their funding up to CDT-level using £188K in support from industry and £150K support from donors. The need to engage in large-scale highly structured statistical models has been recognized for some time within areas like genomics and brain-imaging technologies. However, the UK's leading industries and sciences are now also increasingly aware of the enormous potential that data-driven analysis holds. These industries include the engineering, manufacturing, pharmaceutical, financial, e-commerce, life-science and entertainment sectors. The analysis bottleneck has moved from being able to collect and record relevant data to being able to interpret and exploit vast data collections. These and other businesses are critically dependent on the availability of future leaders in Statistics, able to design and develop statistical approaches that are scalable to massive data. The UK can take a world lead in this field, being a recognized international leader in Statistics; and OxWaSP is ideally placed to realize the potential of this opportunity. The Centre is focused on a new type of training for a new type of graduate statistician in statistical methodology and computation that is scalable to big data. We will bring a new focus on training for research, by teaching directly from the scientific literature. Students will be thrown straight into reading and summarizing journal papers. Lecture-format contact is used sparingly with peer-to-peer learning central to the training approach. This is teaching and learning for research by doing research. Cohort learning will be enhanced via group visits to companies, small groups reproducing results from key papers, student-orientated paper discussions, annual workshops and a three-day off-site retreat. From the second year the students will join their chosen supervisors in Warwick and Oxford, five in each Centre coming together regularly for research group meetings that overlap Oxford and Warwick, for workshops and retreats, and teaching and mentoring of students in earlier years. The Centre is timely and ambitious, designed to attract and nurture the brightest graduate statisticians, broadening their skills to meet the new challenge and allowing them to flourish in a focused, communal, research-training environment. The strategic vision is to train the next generation of statisticians who will enable the new data-intensive sciences and industries. The Centre will offer a vehicle to bring together industrial partners from across the two departments to share ideas and provide an important perspective to our students on the research challenges and opportunities within commercial and social enterprises. Student's training will be considerably enhanced through the Centre's visits, lectures, internships and co-supervision from global partners including Amazon, Google, GlaxoSmithKline, MAN and Novartis, as well as smaller entrepreneurial start-ups Deepmind and Optimor.