Reducing carbon emissions and securing energy supplies are crucial international goals to which energy demand reduction must make a major contribution. On a national level, demand reduction, deployment of new and renewable energy technologies, and decarbonisation of the energy supply are essential if the UK is to meet its legally binding carbon reduction targets. As a result, this area is an important theme within the EPSRC's strategic plan, but one that suffers from historical underinvestment and a serious shortage of appropriately skilled researchers. Major energy demand reductions are required within the working lifetime of Doctoral Training Centre (DTC) graduates, i.e. by 2050. Students will thus have to be capable of identifying and undertaking research that will have an impact within their 35 year post-doctoral career. The challenges will be exacerbated as our population ages, as climate change advances and as fuel prices rise: successful demand reduction requires both detailed technical knowledge and multi-disciplinary skills. The DTC will therefore span the interfaces between traditional disciplines to develop a training programme that teaches the context and process-bound problems of technology deployment, along with the communication and leadership skills needed to initiate real change within the tight time scale required. It will be jointly operated by University College London (UCL) and Loughborough University (LU); two world-class centres of energy research. Through the cross-faculty Energy Institute at UCL and Sustainability Research School at LU, over 80 academics have been identified who are able and willing to supervise DTC students. These experts span the full range of necessary disciplines from science and engineering to ergonomics and design, psychology and sociology through to economics and politics. The reputation of the universities will enable them to attract the very best students to this research area.The DTC will begin with a 1 year joint MRes programme followed by a 3 year PhD programme including a placement abroad and the opportunity for each DTC student to employ an undergraduate intern to assist them. Students will be trained in communication methods and alternative forms of public engagement. They will thus understand the energy challenges faced by the UK, appreciate the international energy landscape, develop people-management and communication skills, and so acquire the competence to make a tangible impact. An annual colloquium will be the focal point of the DTC year acting as a show-case and major mechanism for connection to the wider stakeholder community.The DTC will be led by internationally eminent academics (Prof Robert Lowe, Director, and Prof Kevin J Lomas, Deputy Director), together they have over 50 years of experience in this sector. They will be supported by a management structure headed by an Advisory Board chaired by Pascal Terrien, Director of the European Centre and Laboratories for Energy Efficiency Research and responsible for the Demand Reduction programme of the UK Energy Technology Institute. This will help secure the international, industrial and UK research linkages of the DTC.Students will receive a stipend that is competitive with other DTCs in the energy arena and, for work in certain areas, further enhancement from industrial sponsors. They will have a personal annual research allowance, an excellent research environment and access to resources. Both Universities are committed to energy research at the highest level, and each has invested over 3.2M in academic appointments, infrastructure development and other support, specifically to the energy demand reduction area. Each university will match the EPSRC funded studentships one-for-one, with funding from other sources. This DTC will therefore train at least 100 students over its 8 year life.

The impacts of recent catastrophic disasters, including the 2013-14 UK winter flooding, Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant accident, Deepwater Horizon oil spill and Hurricane Sandy, reach well beyond the immediate, direct structural, environmental and health risks. In a complex system, a localised initial failure may quickly spread to other systems and create "hyper-risks" or "networked risks" through "networks of networks", and cause unpredictable failures in other economic or social networks. Classical quantitative and qualitative risk management frameworks are inadequate for emerging and unforeseen threats. More specifically they cannot handle the uncertainties of low-probability and high-consequence events and of their impacts on environmental, economical and social systems due to high interdependencies between complex systems. This project will develop a shared, multi-disciplinary vision of how to build resilience into networked risk management for highly complex engineered systems. It will address the challenges encompassed in understanding of complex interdependencies, cascade effects, tipping points of engineered systems. It is expected that this project will engage the community to develop a double helix framework that integrates risk and resilience analysis for complex systems management. We will organise a series of managed events, such as workshops, sandpits, study groups, which will help frame research questions, develop collaborative projects and disseminate outcomes. We will provide resources for feasibility studies and a number of mechanisms to promote research that focuses on developing novel modelling tools and adaptive frameworks to understand the interdependencies of complex systems and enhance overall system resilience.

SWEEP brings together a unique blend of academics, businesses and policymakers to place 'natural capital' - those elements of nature producing value for people - at the heart of regional decision-making and business processes in the South West (SW). Focussing on the Heart of the South West and Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) regions, SWEEP will radically transform the extent to which NERC science drives sustainable economic growth, improves policy, decision-making and resilience, delivers value for money and enhances health and wellbeing. The UK Government has placed sustainable use of natural capital at the centre of its 25 Year Environment Plan (25YEP). With 800km of spectacular coastline and over a quarter of land within National Parks/Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty, the SW is rich in natural capital. It is particularly reliant on these natural assets and the ecosystem services deriving from them to power economic growth, attracting more domestic tourists and with higher employment in direct natural capital usage (e.g. agriculture, fisheries) than any other UK region. However, there is also more potential for natural capital-led economic growth; productivity is low, with Gross Value Added 20% below national average and the lowest mean incomes nationally. Heavy reliance on natural capital also brings economic vulnerability and challenges from increasing occurrences of storms, flooding, degradation and pollution that damage that capital and limit economic growth. SWEEP and its business and policy partners have co-designed a work programme utilising NERC-funded research to develop an integrated, cross-sectoral, 'whole system' approach to natural capital-led growth. The region's natural assets are inextricably linked, so traditional decision-making focussing on one sector at a time can result in unintended negative consequences for others. For example agricultural subsidies can lead to. contaminants from land bordering rivers lowering downstream water quality, affecting aquaculture, fisheries, tourism and health. SWEEP will address these problems, realising the benefits of integrated, whole system decision making through five interwoven 'Impact Themes', aiming to: 1) co-build tools to help business and government understand both the economic and environmental consequences of decisions; and 2) co-develop new business opportunities and natural capital markets giving both private and public sector organisations the means and incentive to improve nature's services, reducing their costs and risk exposure and improving their benefits. With partners we have developed an initial set of 'Impact Cases', each addressing one or more Impact Themes, which will commence at the outset for rapid delivery of impact. They include development of new tools for natural hazard prediction and evaluation of economic/social benefits of enhancing natural capital. Careful integration across these Cases will demonstrate how the SW's high dependence on its natural environment can provide unprecedented opportunities to deliver transformative economic benefits. The SWEEP consortium brings together a uniquely strong mix of environmental scientists, economists, social and health scientists. A team of 'Impact Fellows' will be embedded with partners to deliver the Impact Cases and scope new SWEEP activities. Partners will be integral to design, management and delivery, ensuring that all activities are aligned with user needs and fully integrated, maximising return on NERC's investment. Further value comes from alignment with the new 'Pioneers', which will be exemplars for the Government's 25YEP. Of only five 'Pioneers' nationally, two will be in the SW, providing the only integrated terrestrial-marine testbed for the 25 YEP. By working with the business and policy institutions involved in the Pioneers, SWEEP will act as a national flagship for environment-led regional growth.