This project explores how the novel has been used since the late nineteenth century to imagine better forms of community, and the problems and opportunities revealed by such attempts. Insights from this research are employed with local communities, as the utopian imagination is harnessed to help achieve positive, sustainability-related change in the present. While issues such as environmental crisis, the relation of narrative to cognition, and the idea of utopia are established topics in scholarship, they are still often handled in isolation. Critics have also tended to stick to established boundaries of period and genre, such as those which divide the nineteenth-century romance from the early twentieth-century modernist novel, or from late twentieth-century science-fiction. However, this project finds fundamental continuities through the work of four writers who span these categories: R. L. Stevenson, Virginia Woolf, Doris Lessing, and Kim Stanley Robinson. These continuities demand that we look beyond established disciplinary boundaries to analyse how a shared history of atomised communities and environmental destruction led all four writers to use the novel to try and work out alternative ways of living together. The shared problems and possible solutions they encountered not only shed new light on the history of the modern novel, but bring into clearer focus issues which will be central to any future attempts to conceive of better forms of community. Recent ecocriticism has begun to focus on the difficulties in representing a global environmental crisis that spans the individual and communal, local and global. Similar problems of scale have been a longstanding concern for utopian studies, though detached from this environmental context. Meanwhile, researchers investigating the nature of narrative representation have drawn on cognitive science to advance our understanding of the potential and limits of literature. This project fuses together insights from all these fields to trace how issues of scale, cognition and representation are repeatedly encountered by the four writers as they try to imagine more harmonious communities. It argues that this utopian impulse - however qualified or frustrated - overrides established categories of literary study, drawing together varied modes of non-realist fiction such as the romance, the modernist novel, and science-fiction, and demanding that we reconsider the relationship between how we go about trying to change the status quo, and how such changes are imagined and represented. The project's findings will be shared through a major new monograph, completed during the award period. This will build on research already published in major journals and edited books, and a new article prepared during the fellowship. The research ideas will also drive a community engagement project, 'Feast for the Future', in which people come together to hold a series of utopian feasts, with input from experts in sustainable energy, food, architecture and design. These events will harness the power of future-facing narratives to help communities transition to more sustainable behaviour in the present. Multi-media accounts of the Feasts will be disseminated more widely on purpose-built webpages; and the event will generate a further article as I work with a Research Assistance to compare participants' changing understanding of utopian narrative with established descriptions of the genre. The fellowship's key ideas will be discussed further at filmed public lectures connecting arts and sustainability communities in Plymouth; and with practitioners and academics from a variety of disciplines at an international research workshop on 'Imagining Future Communities'. Research in progress will also be presented at major conferences, helping develop an international network of scholars concerned with the link between the imagining of a better future community, and the realisation of one in the present.

The vision for the ORE Hub is to pull together for mutual benefit three related areas; wave, tidal and offshore wind, which share synergies and research challenges. This will bring together shared skills and expertise across ORE and allow transfer of fundamental knowledge, shared learning on similar problems, and shared resource for interdisciplinary research. The different stages of development of the three sectors will allow the different technologies to learn from the experiences of one another and to share best practice in commercialisation and cost reduction. In order to realise the potential of ORE to achieve its aspirations and maintain the UK's leading position in this field; the sector needs to address some significant technical, environmental and interdisciplinary challenges. A coordinated response from different actors at national and regional level is required in order to tackle these challenges successfully. My aim for this 6-month project is to develop a shared vision for the ORE community and agreement on the strategy and design of the ORE SuperGen Hub to achieve that vision. It will be important that the project reflects the differences and synergies between the different sectors within the ORE SuperGen Hub. The specific research challenges facing offshore wind, tidal and wave technologies are quite distinct, but the work in synergic areas will add to existing research and expertise. I believe the collaborative approach will bring added benefits by sharing best practice and exploiting synergy. I will work to build the consortium and bring in expertise to cover all relevant areas. By following the Athena Swan best practice and initiatives, I will support E&D and ECR development so that ORE research has a secure future and continues to develop new research leaders.

Efficient and effective manufacturing supply networks (MSN) are essential to the functioning of the global economy. In line with the EPSRC call, this proposal is premised on the strong belief that appropriate mathematical theory and methods can provide fundamentally new understanding on the behaviour of MSNs and provide an effective investigative toolset for MSN analysis, design and management. In particular we argue that the power of network science can be harnessed to underpin new thinking in MSNs for resilience and robustness. The work will be strongly embedded in real MSNs in three domains - producer-driven inbound MSNs and outbound distribution channels for industrial companies; global MSNs for critical products used in high-valued manufacturing (e.g. titanium or composite pre-preg materials); and evolving MSNs for emerging UK industries such as renewable energy. The project will develop and apply existing and new mathematics specifically in the theory of complex adaptive networks, drawing on techniques from game theory, dynamical systems and Bayesian informatics. It will also learn from related modelling approaches in ecology, metabolism modelling and utility grids. This grant will represent the first attempt to develop an integrated mathematical modelling suite to support effective decision making in MSNs in the context of risk and uncertainty. The work will build on disparate recent developments in network science and complex adaptive dynamical systems, Bayesian statistics and operational research to develop new models and measures to better understand and analyse MSN behaviour and performance. Multiple perspectives and a multi-level view of risks and vulnerabilities in MSNs will be taken, including physical, financial, informational, relational, and governance perspectives at the strategic MSN design and policy levels, and risk mitigating strategies at both strategic and operational levels to support MSN management. This is an adventurous and challenging proposal due to the following reasons: (1) The PIs based in have various domains of expertise, from theory of complex networks and nonlinear dynamics, to applied statistics in domains such as reliability and risk assessment, and development and application of operational research and operations management methods to MSN management and control problems. However, our expertise is complementary and will add a substantial body of new knowledge and bring novelties to the theory of complex networks, network dynamics and Bayesian networks, but also, applications of these new models to real-world MSN problems will ultimately lead to better understanding of complex MSN behaviour and will improve MSN management and control in the presence of risks and uncertainties. (2) This proposal will bring together PIs and PDRAs from 4 universities. The management of the resources involved is a challenge on its own. However, we believe that a very carefully designed project management plan can lead this research collaboration to its success. Furthermore, if funded, this research project can potentially secure the continuation of the collaboration among the four universities. (3) The project will involve a wide array of industrial partners from manufacturing primes (e.g. in Aerospace and Defence) to manufacturing trade organisations and consultants, to representatives of a brand new industry (offshore renewable energy) for which the in-bound MSNn does not yet exist.

eViz uses innovative digital techniques to transform energy decisions and behaviour. People's behaviour can cause energy use to be 30-40% higher than Building experts anticipate. Generally, people are keen on saving energy for financial as well as environmental motives. However, uncertainty remains about the exact benefits of installing energy-efficiency measures and changing household habits. Despite a long tradition of energy advice, energy efficiency measures remain pallid and unconvincing, removed from people's day-to-day experiences. There is a gap between abstract, invisible energy flows and people's desire to understand their energy use and become more energy efficient. We offer a solution that bridges this gap. Our previous work has shown that visualising energy loss by means of thermal images led householders to install more energy-efficiency measures and reduced their energy bills when audited a year later, compared to a conventional energy audit (Goodhew et al., 2012). Building on this, the present research will take a major step forward by using novel digital data visualisation techniques to present intuitive, easily graspable representations of energy flows. Using our virtual reality and data visualisation expertise, we will produce sophisticated interactive 3D and 4D representations of energy flows. We will add and overlay scientific projections of future states to direct observations and employ a range of approaches including webcams, simulation, smartphones, and social media such as facebook. Energy flows will be visualised as a function of house type (e.g., detached), any retrofits undertaken (e.g., loft insulation) and occupant behaviour (e.g., opening windows). Visualisations will be developed with users to evaluate their intuitiveness and motivational properties. We will include interactive tailored visualisations as well as generic "walk-throughs" for domestic and public buildings. The Energy Saving Trust and other partners have agreed to disseminate visualisations through their web-site and dedicated events. The best visualisations will be used in field trials with our UK and International partners to evaluate financial and carbon savings over time. Social media (e.g., facebook) will be exploited to engage a wider range of people with this information. We will evaluate which types of visualisations and data people are willing to share (and which attract most attention and debate in their social network) and examine how people use these to discuss and reduce energy use. Our research programme will increase understanding of energy dynamics as a function of occupant behaviour and building characteristics. It will allow experts to make better predictions of energy efficiency and design buildings around human behaviour, and it will help occupants to change their habitual behaviour (e.g., open windows) to reduce energy use as well as motivate them to take up offers of energy-efficiency measures (e.g., loft insulation). All of these together will contribute to energy demand reduction and help people take charge of their energy use to future-proof their buildings in the face of rising energy cost and climate change. UK newspaper headlines report two issues just as we are finalising the eViz research progamme. First, the UK's carbon emissions have increased for the first time since 2007, one reason being increased home heating in the winter of 2010 (Guardian, 8th February 2011). Second, average household energy bills have doubled in the past six years and are expected to rise by up to 60% more by 2020 (Independent, 10th February 2011). The present research is dedicated to helping people stay warm in the context of attaining the UK's carbon reduction targets.

The UK is currently at the forefront of the Marine Renewable Energy (MRE) sector, with almost 200 MW of installed capacity of wave and tidal stream projects, that are either operational, under construction or in development. Furthermore, the first floating offshore wind farm is being built off the coast of Scotland. In order to realise the potential of MRE to achieve the targets set by the Government and keep the UK's leading position; the sector needs to address some relevant technical, environmental and interdisciplinary challenges. A coordinated response from different actors at national and regional level is required in order to successfully face these challenges. In an attempt to provide this coordination and with an initial focus on the South west of the UK, the Partnership for Research In Marine Renewable Energy (PRIMaRE) was established, bringing together research expertise and access to facilities for MRE developments. PRIMaRE comprises the Universities of Plymouth, Exeter, Southampton, Bristol and Bath, along with the Marine Biological Association and Plymouth Marine Laboratory. Completing the line-up of PRIMaRE is the South West Marine Energy Park and the Wave Hub facilities, acting as conduits between the research community and industry. More recently, PRIMaRE has extended its borders both nationally and internationally by including the Universities of Uppsala, Cardiff and Cranfield as associated partners of PRIMaRE. The core partner institutions have signed up to a partnership agreement to work together on research across the spectrum of MRE and to establish a 'network of excellence' centred in the South of the UK. PRIMaRE has established the annual conference (now in its third year) to showcase the research and provide a forum for discussion with MRE industry and academia, and have organised industry oriented workshops to identify research priorities in order to align research efforts with the requirements of the MRE sector. With the support of the EPSRC Network Grant, PRIMaRE aims to expand the partnership to a new level, making active and effective contributions to the challenges of the MRE sector. The Network brings together academic effort on MRE challenges, but also given the nascent state of the industry, aims to work closely with supply chain and industry partners, by providing training and a forum for sharing and exchange of ideas and through access to academic expertise and facilities. Unlike the academic focus of doctoral training schemes, the proposed network aspires to a broad sector approach, in which training and research collaborations are promoted both for conventional research and academic staff (i.e., post-docs, researchers, academics, PhD students) and for industry staff (developers, supply chain, test centres, regional government agencies). The proposed network has four main pillars of focus: (i) the annual PRIMaRE conference, expanded to become a key National and International event for the sector; (ii) the Key Challenge Workshops, an industry oriented dynamic and proactive forum to ensure alignment of PRIMaRE research priorities, and to focus on key emerging challenges requiring special attention; (iii) travel grants, which are crucial to ensure knowledge transfer and to promote the required mobility between academia and industry needed to develop new research collaborations nationally and internationally; and (iv) the PRIMaRE summer school, a continuing professional development (CPD) high level programme, providing the mechanism for exchange of knowledge between the research, academia, the novel MRE industry and wider sector.