Since the start of the industrial revolution the CO2 concentration in the atmosphere has steadily risen. Scientists have confirmed that the recent loss of Arctic sea ice in summer directly follows this rise in human-induced CO2 emissions, reducing from about 7 million km2 of Arctic sea ice in the late 1970s to around 3.5 million km2 in the 2010s. While climate models suggest Antarctic sea ice extent should also reduce in response to rising CO2, satellite observations reveal that during 1979-2015 the opposite was in fact true. The trend in Antarctic sea ice extent has been a small increase of approximately 1.5% per decade. In 2016, however, this increase was abruptly interrupted by a dramatic reduction in sea ice extent that was far outside the previously observed range. Since the extreme event in 2016, Antarctic sea ice extent has almost returned to its pre-2016 values, highlighting the significant variability in Antarctic sea ice conditions that can occur from one year to the next. These variations in sea ice are important to the whole Earth's climate, because they affect the melting of the glacial Antarctic Ice Sheet, and the capture of atmospheric heat and CO2 by the Southern Ocean. The recent extreme swings in Antarctic sea ice extent, and the challenge of accurately predicting, understanding and modelling them, emphasise the need to: (i) increase our knowledge of the processes that drive Antarctic sea ice variations, including extreme events, and (ii) understand the drivers and climate implications of Antarctic sea ice loss over different time-scales, from weeks to decades. To address this knowledge gap requires a significant research programme, one that takes year-round observations, including throughout the harsh Antarctic winter, and is effective in improving the underlying processes in the latest computer climate models. Our project, known as DEFIANT (Drivers and Effects of Fluctuations in sea Ice in the ANTarctic), will embark on one of the most ambitious observational campaigns aimed at understanding Antarctic sea ice variability. Scientific measurements from the German research ship Polarstern, the UK's new polar research ship Sir David Attenborough, the British Antarctic Survey's Rothera research station, aircraft overflights and satellites will work seamlessly together with cutting-edge robotic technologies (including the underwater vehicle Boaty McBoatface and a suite of on-ice buoys) to provide us with comprehensive, year-round measurements of atmosphere, sea ice and ocean. The knowledge gained from these observations will enable our team to develop new ocean and climate models in order to more accurately represent Antarctic sea ice processes. The analysis of these improved models will allow us to better understand the underlying drivers of the sudden decrease in Antarctic sea ice, determine the impact of these extreme events on the global ocean circulation, and forecast the implications for the movements of heat and CO2 through the climate system. By developing new observations, new satellite records, and new models, DEFIANT will deliver a major advance in our understanding of the Antarctic sea ice system and its wider impacts on global climate.

As our planet warms the ice cover shrinks, a process that transfers water from land to ocean and thereby raises sea level. The result, which could ultimately raise global sea level by 10s of metres, seems intuitively obvious. However, in the case of the Antarctic Ice Sheet, the processes at work are less than obvious. The atmosphere over the ice sheet is too cold to drive significant melting, so all the snow that falls in the interior is returned to the ocean as ice that only melts once it is afloat. The cold atmosphere creates cold surface waters, so most of the heat that melts the ice comes from deep within the ocean's interior. As it melts the floating ice from underneath, the thinning of the so-called ice shelves allows ice to flow off the land more rapidly, hence raising sea level. So, the underlying process is clear, but why should it drive a loss of ice from Antarctica as the climate warms? The waters that melt the ice are too deep in the ocean to feel atmospheric warming. However, as the atmosphere warms the circulation patterns change, influencing the winds that drive the ocean currents, and that delivers more of the deep warm water to the ice. Understanding how the processes work has been challenging. It is not immediately obvious why a change in the winds should deliver more, rather than less, warm water to the ice. Nevertheless, observation and modelling give us a consistent answer and our understanding of the processes grows as we focus our research on key unknowns. However, there is another puzzle that has received much less attention to date. More warm water leads to more rapid melting of the ice shelves, they thin and the flow of ice off the land accelerates. That acceleration of the flow delivers more ice to the ice shelves, and they should therefore start to grow, or at least thin less rapidly, unless the ocean heat delivery continues to grow. Until recently it was assumed that that is exactly what was happening, but as our record of ocean observations has lengthened, we have seen decadal cycles of warming and cooling. Why then should the ice shelves continue to thin? The answer must lie in the way in which the thinning of the ice shelves themselves affects the melt rate. Again, it is not immediately clear why the change in the ice should increase rather than decrease the melt. However, in this case observation of the key processes is exceptionally difficult because they take place beneath 100s or even 1000s of metres of ice. That is the challenge we will address with this project, by sending an autonomous submarine beneath the ice to make the critical measurements of the ocean, including the temperature of the water and the currents. Those direct observations of the ocean beneath the ice will allow us to verify that the ocean models we use to simulate the processes are correct, or to improve them if they are not. This will not be the first time such measurements have been made, but the new observations will differ in two important respects from the very few that have been made in the past. Some will be repeats of earlier measurements, so we will have observations from before and after a significant change in the extent of the ice shelf. Thus, we can directly answer the question of what change in the ocean circulation accompanied the change in shape of the ice cover. Other observations will target regions where the ice was grounded until recently. Because radar signals penetrate ice, but not seawater, we are able to map the topography only when the ice rests on the land and not when it is afloat. Thus, we paradoxically know the geometry of newly formed ocean cavities with much greater accuracy than we do the cavities that have been there since humans first explored the south polar regions. Our ability to understand the links between cavity geometry and ocean circulation is therefore enhanced in the newly opened cavities that are among the targets of our field campaign.

This fundamentally interdisciplinary PhD project aims to investigate pedestrian yielding behaviours in public spaces by utilising theories of joint action. With the increasing density of urban centres (Haase et al, 2018) and subsequent challenges in pedestrian infrastructure (Barr et al, 2021), understanding how individuals navigate crowded environments is crucial for safety, comfort and overall efficiency. The project focuses on enhancing computer simulations of movements by incorporating more realistic interpersonal processes (Kothari et al, 2021) particularly physical negotiation and yielding behaviours while fundamentally improving our knowledge of joint action in psychology (Sebanz & Knoblich, 2021)

Elizabeth Robinson Montagu rose to notability after her publication of An Essay on the Writings and Genius of Shakespear (1769) in which she defended the value of Shakespeare's writings against the criticisms of Voltaire. Her highly popular publication can be used as a key to Montagu's philosophy on education. However, it is her manuscript legacy which truly speaks to her unfiltered and unedited opinion on education. Montagu was a prolific correspondent, with over 4,000 of her letters still surviving in various archives and personal collections around the world. Her correspondence has been noted as one of the most 'important surviving collections from the eighteenth century' (ODNB). She frequently wrote to leading intellectuals of the eighteenth century such as Edmund Burke and David Garrick, while also corresponding extensively with members of the Bluestockings, including Elizabeth Carter, Frances Burney, Mary Hamilton, and many more. Elizabeth Carter was one of Montagu's closest friends, to whom she sent over 700 letters over the span of many years, and the two exchanged letters about their lives, covering everything from family trouble to overseas politics and Greek mythology. The correspondence has rightly been considered as a means of gauging Montagu's knowledge and networks, her reading, learning, and the strength of her proto-feminist approach to women's education. But the Bluestocking circle was a metropolitan phenomenon, and Montagu's skills of husbandry, mentorship and entrepreneurship were also required to manage her husband's estates, where she put into practice her ideologies of education.

Abstracts are not currently available in GtR for all funded research. This is normally because the abstract was not required at the time of proposal submission, but may be because it included sensitive information such as personal details.