Public opinion on complex scientific topics can have dramatic effects on industrial sectors (e.g. GM crops, fracking, global warming). In order to realise the industrial and societal benefits of Autonomous Systems, they must be trustworthy by design and default, judged both through objective processes of systematic assurance and certification, and via the more subjective lens of users, industry, and the public. To address this and deliver it across the Trustworthy Autonomous Systems (TAS) programme, the UK Research Hub for TAS (TAS-UK) assembles a team that is world renowned for research in understanding the socially embedded nature of technologies. TASK-UK will establish a collaborative platform for the UK to deliver world-leading best practices for the design, regulation and operation of 'socially beneficial' autonomous systems which are both trustworthy in principle, and trusted in practice by individuals, society and government. TAS-UK will work to bring together those within a broader landscape of TAS research, including the TAS nodes, to deliver the fundamental scientific principles that underpin TAS; it will provide a focal point for market and society-led research into TAS; and provide a visible and open door to engage a broad range of end-users, international collaborators and investors. TAS-UK will do this by delivering three key programmes to deliver the overall TAS programme, including the Research Programme, the Advocacy & Engagement Programme, and the Skills Programme. The core of the Research Programme is to amplify and shape TAS research and innovation in the UK, building on existing programmes and linking with the seven TAS nodes to deliver a coherent programme to ensure coverage of the fundamental research issues. The Advocacy & Engagement Programme will create a set of mechanisms for engagement and co-creation with the public, public sector actors, government, the third sector, and industry to help define best practices, assurance processes, and formulate policy. It will engage in cross-sector industry and partner connection and brokering across nodes. The Skills Programme will create a structured pipeline for future leaders in TAS research and innovation with new training programmes and openly available resources for broader upskilling and reskilling in TAS industry.

Synaptic terminals are the connections that allow information to flow from one nerve cell to the next. Synaptic terminal proteins, including one called SV2a, are key to this information flow & consequently for overall brain function. Loss of synaptic terminal proteins is thought to contribute to a number of illnesses, including schizophrenia. This highlights the importance of understanding potential mechanisms & effects of synaptic terminal protein loss. We focus on schizophrenia, although findings are likely to be relevant to other brain disorders, normal neurodevelopment & ageing as well. Schizophrenia affects 1 in 100 people & is characterized by psychotic & negative symptoms, & cognitive impairments. It is a top ten cause of disability in working-age adults. A leading hypothesis proposes that synaptic terminal protein loss underlies impaired brain function to lead to the cognitive & other symptoms of schizophrenia. Complement proteins are produced by brain cells & regulate levels of synaptic terminals by tagging them to be broken down by immune cells called microglia. Some complement proteins are elevated in schizophrenia, & it is thought this leads to loss of SV2a, & other synaptic terminal proteins, in schizophrenia. However, it remains unknown if the complement & SV2a changes underlie the symptoms & cognitive impairment in schizophrenia, or if further SV2a loss occurs during the course of the disorder. Moreover, it is not known if modulating SV2a impairs brain function in schizophrenia, as predicted. Finally, we lack approaches to measure synaptic terminal proteins at multiple time points, or to measure post-synaptic proteins. We plan to address these critical gaps in understanding in three related work-packages. The first tests whether SV2A levels are altered at illness onset in schizophrenia relative to controls and if they reduce further during the course of schizophrenia using brain scans. It will also test if complement levels at presentation predict increasing cognitive impairment & other symptoms over time & if this is linked to altered SV2a levels. The second tests if reducing SV2A activity impairs brain function & leads to symptoms in schizophrenia. This is important to understand the functional consequences of reductions in SV2A. We will use a drug called levetiracetam to reduce SV2A activity and compare its effects on brain function against a placebo using brain scans. The third involves developing new approaches to image synaptic proteins. The current approach to image SV2A involves a small amount of radiation. This limits the number of scans someone can have, particularly in adolescence. It is necessary to scan adolescents & at multiple time-points to fully understand what happens to synaptic terminals during brain development & many brain disorders, which often begin in adolescence. To overcome this limitation, we aim to develop an ultra-low radiation approach & compare it to the current standard scan approach. This will involve scans in healthy volunteers. In addition to synaptic terminal proteins, post-synaptic proteins are also important to brain function, and affected in schizophrenia & other brain disorders. However, there is currently no way of studying them in live humans, so it is not possible to test if post-synaptic proteins are involved in these disorders. To address this, we aim to develop a new PET tracer for post-synaptic markers. We will evaluate potential ligands & select the most promising ligand to take forward. If this experiment supports progression, we will then conduct a study to determine the reliability of the ligand in humans. These studies have the potential to identify new approaches to treat schizophrenia, & other disorders with similar cognitive impairments & symptoms, including Alzheimer's disease, mood & autistic disorders. They also have the potential to develop new tools to further understanding of brain disorders.

Earth's climate has changed considerably in the past, and is predicted to change in the future. By studying past climates we gain a broader understanding of what climates are possible and likely in the future. In this proposal we focus on the very warm climates of the past and their relationship to global warming. In the far past, some 60 million years ago, the planet was very warm. However, the warming was not distributed uniformly over the globe. Rather, the high latitudes warmed much more than low latitudes, to the extent that palm trees grew in Wyoming and crocodile-like animals roamed Northern Canada. The evidence for this is very robust, since fossil remains are unambiguous. Crocodilians are intolerant to cold, meaning there were no long periods of very cold weather, even in winter, in northern North America. This is a complete mystery that current climate models cannot explain. We will study this problem using a novel suite of models, and apply what we learn to better understand the global warming ahead of us.

Materials scientists have been studying crystals - large and small - for many years. However, very tiny crystals - crystals only a few atoms across - exhibit some really surprising properties, which we are only just starting to understand. In terms of their optical properties, these very small crystals, which we call quantum dots, exhibit behaviour more similar to that of an individual atom, than that of a large crystal. This surprising observation - which is a consequence of the confinement (or trapping) of charge carriers within a very small region - is more than just a weird academic curiosity. Scientists hope to exploit quantum dots to allow improved performance in light sources such as laser diodes, and to develop completely new light sources which might be used in novel computers or in secure communication. For light sources emitting in the red or infra-red, researchers are already starting to realise some of these goals using a material called indium gallium arsenide. However, for light emission in the blue - which is particularly relevant to applications such as high density data storage and satellite-based communications networks - quantum dots made from different materials are required. For light emission in the blue spectral region, quantum dots made from indium gallium nitride (or InGaN) could be used. Quite apart from their convenient wavelength of emission, InGaN quantum dots might be rather flexible, since their emission can be adjusted by applying an external electric field. Also, by surrounding the InGaN quantum dots with an optimal matrix material, it may be possible to force them to exhibit their peculiar properties at room temperature, whereas quantum dots emitting in the red usually have to be cooled down to temperatures more than 200 degrees below freezing before they work properly. Unfortunately, InGaN quantum dots also have disadvantages. They are usually formed on top of layers of another semiconductor - gallium nitride. Gallium nitride is quite difficult to make, and contains many mistakes, or defects, in the crystal. The defects may become electrically charged, and the presence of this charge alters the properties of the quantum dot. Since the electrical charge on the defect varies with time, so does the behaviour of the quantum dot - leading to problems with the operation of a quantum dot device. In order to try to understand the properties of the InGaN quantum dots more thoroughly, and to improve the properties of quantum dot devices, we have decided to incorporate the quantum dots into optical cavities. An optical cavity is a structure within which light may be confined. By trapping the light emitted by the quantum dot within a small volume, we can force the quantum dot and the light to interact strongly, and this can lead to more efficient emission from the quantum dot. By understanding the interactions between the light and the quantum dot, we can also use the cavity as a tool to probe the details of the quantum dot's behaviour and its interactions with any defects in its immediate surroundings. We hope to use the cavities to tailor the quantum dots' properties so that they are easier to exploit in future applications. However, making the cavities is very challenging, particularly since we have to find routes to do this which do not damage the quantum dot. Since this is a very complex problem, we have set up an international collaboration in order to attack it more effectively. Two British research groups with expertise in InGaN quantum dots will collaborate with an American research group which has world-leading capability in cavity fabrication. Together, we hope to be able to develop quantum dot - cavity systems which allow very strong interactions between the quantum dot and the cavity. In the future such systems will be used not only as a probe to study the quantum dot properties but as a major building block of novel light sources.

Over 200 million children under the age of 5 years in low-resource settings are exposed to adverse environmental factors, such as inadequate nutrition, physical illness and a lack of stimulation. This can have consequences for their ability to achieve important developmental milestones and, as a result, for subsequent school performance. While this is recognised as an important issue, there is very little research that aims to identify the earliest signs of risk and how it shapes development. Identifying early signs of risk in infancy is crucial for developing interventions to help children achieve optimal outcomes. It is also important to better understanding how specific aspects of a child's environment, such as nutrition and caregiving practices, contribute to their development. With this work, we will be better able to understand how certain risk factors impact on development and also how to best promote enriching elements within the family and broader community that can offset the impact of risk. The aim of this research is to investigate the development of cognitive skills from infancy to preschool age among a group of children from a rural region of The Gambia, West Africa. The data for this project comes from the Brain Imaging for Global Health project (BRIGHT; globalfnirs.org), a study that has been following a group of children in The Gambia from the prenatal period to preschool age to measure their brain and cognitive development during early childhood. The specific aims of this study are to: (1) Examine cognitive development from infancy to preschool age among this group of children in the rural Gambian setting. Our goal is to study individual differences in development, which may help to identify children who show delayed development compared with the rest of the group. (2) Investigate whether the ability to regulate attention and respond to social input during infancy predicts cognitive development during preschool age. We will use assessments of behavioural and neural responses to measure these skills in infancy and explore how they relate to outcomes during preschool age. (3) To understand how both adverse and enriching elements of a child's environment contribute to their cognitive development. In particular we are interested in examining how exposure to adversity early in life impacts on development. The adverse factors that we will investigate are poverty, poorer physical growth and maternal mental health difficulties. We are also interested whether enriching factors, including maternal engagement and broader caregiver support, can promote healthy cognitive development and offset some of the impacts of risk. (4) In addition to our research aims, we will also engage members of the Gambian community (parents, healthcare professionals) to ask for their input in our work. Moreover, we will establish a network of researchers from African institutions and across the globe, who study early childhood development in Africa, to share our findings and form collaborations. Our work has the potential to have important impacts for research, as well as the development of interventions. Firstly, this study can help us better understand the general development of children in The Gambia. It can also help identify early signs and risk factors for developmental difficulties. Finally, our findings will help to identify and promote elements of the family and broader community that provide enrichment. With this work, we aim to make a lasting contribution to the research community and society in The Gambia and broader global health settings.