Quantum technology enables tasks that aren't possible with classical methods, promising advances in a variety of scientific fields impacting our everyday lives: biology, medicine, material, and physical sciences. Photons are a particularly suitable carrier for quantum information because they can be used for virtually all quantum information tasks, and they are comparatively simple to create, manipulate and detect. In this fellowship I will speed up current state-of-the art quantum photonics by 4 orders of magnitude, to deliver gigahertz clocked photonic "quantum bytes"-8-photon cluster states in the telecommunications regime. This improvement will be achieved by combining recent advances in quantum photon source engineering with cutting edge ultra-fast laser technology and superconducting photon detectors. In collaboration with the two recently funded EPSRC Quantum Technology hubs in Quantum Communication and Quantum Enhanced Imaging, I will apply these photonic qubytes to a range of quantum tasks: secure quantum encryption with trusted devices, quantum-enhanced imaging, and all-optical quantum networking protocols.

The threat of antibiotic resistance has been compared to that posed by climate change and global terrorism by the Chief medical Officer Dame Sally Davies. Bacterial resistance to antibiotics has existed for hundreds of millions of years, as it evolved to combat antibiotics produced by bacteria and fungi. Resistance is conferred either by mutation or by uptake of DNA from other bacteria which may not even be closely related. This horizontal resistance gene transfer is one of the most important issues facing the fight against infection in the clinic. Novel resistance genes that are taken up by clinical pathogens originate in environmental bacteria, and once in human pathogens or even harmless commensal bacteria, will be selected for by clinical use of antibiotics. However, little is known about the conditions under or locations in which these genes are mobilised into human associated bacteria, or what the human exposure routes for transmission of these resistance genes are. Increasing evidence suggests that the use of antibiotics in agriculture contributes to the increase in resistance seen in the clinic, however much less research has focused on evolution of resistance in farm animals than in humans so less evidence is available. Even less is known regarding reservoirs of resistant bacteria in the natural environment, particularly locations heavily polluted by human or animal waste. 11 billion litres of waste water are discharged into UK rivers every day; critically much of this treatment does not significantly reduce numbers of resistant bacteria. Millions of tons of animal faecal wastes are spread to agricultural land every year, providing additional inputs of resistant organisms into the wider environment. Our previous work has shown that the use of a marker gene, which is predictive of levels of antibiotic resistance genes in sediments, varies by up to 1000 times between clean and dirty sediments. Our data also shows that waste water treatment plants are responsible for the majority of this effect (about 50%), and 30% is associated with diffuse pollution from land adjacent to the river. Other data generated by the consortium suggests that there are real human exposure risks to these environmental reservoirs of resistant organisms, with several million exposure events occurring each year in England and Wales through recreational use of coastal waters alone. This project will, for the first time, use cutting edge high through put DNA sequencing technologies and computational analyses to increase our understanding of the human activities that drive increased levels of antibiotic resistant bacteria across the River Thames catchment. Abundance and identity of over 3000 different resistance genes will be determined at 40 sampling sites, in triplicate at three time points over one year, to capture impacts of seasonality and flow. We will also measure a range of antibiotic residues, metals and nutrients. We will use graphical information system data on waste water treatment plant type, size and location and land use throughout the catchment. Together this data will be used to produce a model which will reveal the main drivers of resistance gene abundance and diversity at the catchment scale. We will also identify novel molecular markers associated with different sources of pollution that can be used as source tracking targets. We aim to analyse the effects of specific mitigation strategies that are able to reduce levels of resistant bacteria, this will enable estimates of reduction in resistance levels that can inform policy and regulatory targets. A translational tool will be developed for surveillance of the most important marker genes identified from the DNA sequence analyses and modelling work. This will be an affordable test that will help identify key factors for human health risk assessment.

This project develops new sensing technology for use in power electronic systems, helping the UK to better compete with global leaders in power electronics. Power electronics is a key electrification technology: it is needed in electric vehicles, renewable energy generation, our electricity grid, and anywhere where the flow of power needs to be accurately dosed. This dosing is carried out by rapidly switching currents on and off to create the desired average. This technology reduces our carbon footprint and contributes nearly £50bn per year to the UK economy and supports 82,000 skilled jobs in over 400 UK-based companies (2016 data). The power electronics industry is undergoing significant change, as ultra-fast transistors made from silicon carbide (SiC) or gallium nitride (GaN) have recently emerged, to replace silicon transistors. These new transistors switch 10x faster, which results in 75% less energy being lost in power converters, and enables converters to be shrunk to less than half their previous size. This makes it much easier to build them into other systems, e.g. electric vehicles, resulting in lighter cars with more space for batteries. This project is about helping to maximise the potential of the new transistors. Many companies are struggling to adopt them, because whilst the very fast switching provides the benefits of improved efficiency and radically smaller system size, it also creates problems with electromagnetic interference, and device and system reliability. The transistors switch current on or off so fast (in less than ten nanoseconds, the time it takes light to travel 3 meters), that engineers cannot accurately measure how the voltages and currents change during this time, even with their best equipment, which means it is difficult to fix problems such as interference. Because of this, even the leading companies are slowing down these new transistors, and losing some of their efficiency potential. Our project develops small, low-cost sensors, that make these nanosecond-scale changes visible. They will allow engineers to see exactly how the transistors are switching, helping them develop better, smaller, lighter, and more reliable power electronics. They will allow computer-controlled SiC and GaN power converters to sense when they are creating too much electromagnetic noise, and reduce this by switching more intelligently. It will allow power circuits to detect external short circuits and isolate these before they damage the power converter. We are also developing sensors that provide engineers, or control systems, directly with information that they need (e.g. device temperature), rather than having to infer this indirectly from volts and amps, making the measurements faster and more efficient. The sensors work by detecting electric or magnetic fields via coils, conductive plates, or antennas. The received signal is fed into a chip inside the sensor that computes the required parameter. These new SiC and GaN transistors have made small field sensors on circuit boards viable for the first time, because as signal speeds increase, the wavelengths of these signals become shorter (cm-scale), meaning that their fields can be picked up with millimetre-size coils or antennas. In order to ensure that we develop what industry needs, we are working with 12 partners across automotive, renewable energy, semiconductors, commercial R&D organisations with deep sector experience, and we are accepting new collaborators on request. Our project provides partners and other UK companies and universities with sample sensors. Their feedback, and discussions with partners helps us prioritise our research, and ensures that we are using our research funds to solve the most important problems. We are providing workshops to help keep engineers up-to-date with advanced measurement techniques, and keeping our results online (publications and a dedicated website) for companies to use as desired.

Autonomous Systems (AS) are cyberphysical complex systems that combine artificial intelligence with multi-layer operations. Security for dynamic and networked ASs has to develop new methods to address an uncertain and shifting operational environment and usage space. As such, we have developed an ambitious program to develop fundamental secure AS research covering both the technical and social aspects of security. Our research program is coupled with internationally leading test facilities for AS and security, providing a research platform for not only this TAS node, but the whole TAS ecosystem. To enhance impact, we have built a partnership with leading AS operators in the UK and across the world, ranging from industrial designers to frontline end-users. Our long-term goal is to translate the internationally leading research into real-world AS impact via a number of impact pathways. The research will accelerate UK's position as a leader in secure AS research and promote a safer society.

Digital technologies and services are shaping our lives. Work, education, finance, health, politics and society are all affected. They also raise concomitant and complex challenges relating to the security of and trust in systems and data. TIPS (Trust, Identity, Privacy and Security) issues thus lie at the heart of our adoption of new technologies and are critical to our economic prosperity and the well-being of our citizens. Identifying and addressing such issues requires a coherent, coordinated, multi-disciplinary approach, with strong stakeholder relationships at the centre. SPRITE+ is a vehicle for communication, engagement, and collaboration for people involved in research, practice, and policy relevant to TIPS in digital contexts. Since launching in 2019, we have established ourselves as the go-to point of contact to engage with the broadest UK network of interdisciplinary, cross-sector digital TIPS experts. The second phase of SPRITE+ ('SPRITE+2') will continue to build our membership, whilst expanding the breadth and depth of our innovation, and deepen our impact through proactive engagement. SPRITE+2 will have the following objectives: 1. Expand our TIPS community, harnessing the expertise and collaborative potential of the national and international TIPS communities 2. Identify and prioritise future TIPS research challenges 3. Explore and develop priority research areas to enhance our collective understanding of future global TIPS challenges 4. Stimulate innovative research through sandpits, industry led calls, and horizon scanning 5. Deepen engagement with TIPS research end users across sectors to accelerate knowledge Exchange 6. Understand, inform, and influence policy making and practice at regional, national and international level These will be delivered through four work packages and two cross cutting activities. All work packages will be led by the PI (Elliot) to ensure that connections are made and synergies exploited. Each sub-work package will be led by a member of the Management Team and supported by our Expert Fellows and Project Partners. WP1 Develop the Network We will deliver a set of activities designed to expand, broaden, and engage the network, from expert meetings and workshops to student bootcamps and international conferences. WP2 Engage stakeholders to enhance knowledge exchange and deliver impact. We will be greatly enhancing our purposive engagement activity in SPRITE+2. This activity will include a new business intelligence function and PP engagement grants, designed to enhance mutual understanding between researchers and stakeholders. WP3 Identify, prioritise, and explore future TIPS challenges We will select and then investigate priority areas of future TIPS. Two areas are pre-scoped based on the work we have done so far in SPRITE+ (TIPS in digital cities; trustworthy digital identities) with a further two be identified during the lead up to SPRITE+2. WP4 Drive innovation in research This WP concerns the initiation and production of high-quality impactful research. Through horizon scanning, sandpits and industry-led calls, we will steer ideas through an innovation pipeline ensuring SPRITE+2 is future focused. Cross cutting activities The first cross-cutting activity will accelerate the translation of TIPS research into policy and practice for public and private sector end uses. The second focuses on mechanisms to facilitate communication within our community. The experiences of SPRITE+ and the other DE Network+s demonstrate that it takes years of consistent and considerable effort for a new network to grow membership and develop productive relationships with stakeholders. In SPRITE+2 grant we would hit the ground running and maximise the impact of four additional years of funding. A successful track record, a well-established team, and a raft of ambitious new plans provide a solid foundation for strong delivery in 2023-27.