Future Earth is a major global research programme, which evolved from previous international programmes on human development, climate change, global environmental change and biodiversity. The integrated Land Ecosystem Atmosphere Process Study (iLEAPS) is a core project of Future Earth. As humans are now one of the strongest influences on climate and the environment, this second phase of iLEAPS (2014- 2024) is moving from research on natural pristine environments to investigating the interactions between natural and human environments. The project will also investigate the complex set of interactions that exist between the climate system, atmospheric composition/air quality, land use and land cover changes, socioeconomic development, and human decision-making. The research will provide information of relevance to the 8 key focal challenges identified by Future Earth in its 2014 Strategic Research Agenda: 1. Deliver water, energy and food for all. 2. Decarbonize socio-economic systems to stabilize the climate 3. Safeguard the terrestrial, freshwater and marine natural assets 4. Build healthy, resilient and productive cities 5. Promote sustainable rural futures to feed rising and more affluent populations 6. Improve human health through the improvement of human-environment interactions 7. Encourage sustainable and equitable consumption and production patterns 8. Increase social resilience to future threats iLEAPS acts as a communication hub and coordinator of world-wide scientific research in the field of ecosystem-atmosphere exchanges and the impact of those exchanges on the 8 societal challenges. iLEAPS promotes scientific excellence through developing international science initiatives that are multi-disciplinary, through bringing together the modelling community with satellite, experimental and field observational experts and through enabling communication and networking across the international science community. iLEAPS promotes leadership in science through capacity building in developing countries and support to young or Early Career scientists by hosting workshops, ensuring timely and relevant science to be available through their website and through training programmes. The NERC Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (CEH) is taking over the iLEAPS International Project Office during 2016. CEH will undertake the activities below to enhance the impact of the iLEAPS project: 1 .IPO Operation and Co-ordination Activities * Work with the iLEAPS Scientific Steering Committee to deliver the iLEAPS Science Plan and Priority Research Topics * Maintain and enhance connections with relevant international projects, regional and national iLEAPS offices, providing advocacy and enlisting wide international participation * Promote capacity building through support of the Early Career Scientist network and supporting workshops and regional networks in the developing world * Work with Future Earth through national and international committees to deliver their vision * Secure additional funding to support these activities 2. Communication * Maintain and co-ordinate input to the iLEAPS website * Host, support and fund workshops and conferences 3. Science leadership * Start new, and maintain existing, Science Initiatives and Projects 4. Science Products * Generate integrated products for the world-wide community * Create new analysis tools for analysing data from experimental and field observations, satellites and computer models

The aim of this research is to fabricate microwave radiating antennas and substrates using nanomaterials. These novel dielectric substrates will facilitate electromagnetic advantages.Antennas are becoming increasingly prevalent in our modern, wireless and digital society; they are crucial for voice and data communication, GPS information and the provision of wireless communication between components of larger integrated systems. Antennas are subject to constant market forces which demand that products and their antennas become cheaper and smaller with improved functionality. With multiple antennas with multiband and MIMO capabilities whilst in very close proximity, for example on a mobile phone, the isolation between the different antennas also requires technological advances for improvement. The establishment of a novel technique to create antennas with improved radiation efficiency would reduce energy consumption.Nanoparticles are typically smaller than one millionth of a metre in at least one dimension and can be combined to form nanomaterials. Yet because the size of nanoparticles is so small and their resultant surface area-to-volume ratio so extremely large, nanomaterials possess a range of very useful and exciting properties. These include proportionately increased electrical conductivity, strength, heat and scratch resistance. Note, we will not be using nano-powders so the health risks will be minimal - and we will take all necessary steps to further minimise them.The use of nanomaterials will fundamentally allow increased versatility and improve functionality by design innovations. This area of research is highly novel as the use of nanomaterials as proposed here has not previously been reported at the application-rich microwave frequencies (wavelength ~ 30cm >> 1 micron). Using such nanomaterials for microwave antennas would allow manufacturing benefits as the antenna, the substrate and RF circuitry can be constructed together and integrated into one process. Currently, antennas designs are limited to certain specific fixed substrate properties. By constructing the substrate from non-metallic nanomaterials, advantageous, novel and heterogeneous substrates, with low losses and desirable electric and magnetic properties, can be produced, which can then be tailored for specific applications. Creating antennas from nanomaterials enables highly conductive and thinner than conventional layers.Intensive simulations using high performance computers will enhance Loughborough University's (LU) recent pilot study of how these novel antennas can behave. When these preparatory stages have been completed, prototype samples and antennas will be fabricated. Initially, geometrically simple antenna designs such as dipoles and patches will be used, enabling extrapolation to more complex antenna geometries later in the project. Once these are created their characteristics will be measured using LU's anechoic chamber, and compared with the simulation results.LU is ideally placed to research this exciting new area. The Communications Group has extensive expertise of simulating, design and measuring antennas and metamaterials. We have assembled an extremely strong multi-disciplinary team which has over 700 journal publications and more than 100 patents and book chapters. The Centre for Renewable Energy Systems Technology (CREST) has the capabilities to produce and characterise our specially made nanostructures. We also have close contacts with Patras University in Greece, which can fabricate nanostructures by an alternative (but viable) method using polymers.

The project brings together complementary expertise from several leading research groups of the University of Essex, namely Robotics, Brain-Computer-Interfaces (BCI), Computational Intelligence and the Embedded and Intelligent Systems group to address significant challenges in autonomous systems for space applications. It seeks to significantly enhance and widen an existing collaboration for the design of autonomous embedded systems, robotics,evolutionary computing and BCI with the California Institute of Technology / NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Pasadena, USA and the European Space Agency (ESA), in utilising the combination of a dedicated research programme combined with networking activities, including short-term and longer exchange visits of both academic staff and researchers, student placements and joint workshops to be held as part of conferences. In order to achieve our primary aim of engineering a robust and reliable autonomous robotic systems capable of adapting to a rapidly changing dynamic environment, we will explore employing hybrid techniques that are better able to face the issues emerging from space applications than any technique in its own right. For example, very limited work has been carried out to use the concept of empirical non-intrusive monitoring that drives the self-healing process of an embedded robotic system that operates in a potentially hostile environment, such as space. This project will explore this. A further major factor to address is that of secure communications. Security of communication is of paramount importance in space applications. The scientific impact and the investment associated with them are simply too great to risk an unauthorised breaking into a satellite or a spacecraft, or remotely taking a rover for a joy ride on a planet. While data encryption techniques are now highly sophisticated and well established, encryption itself cannot necessarily protect against fraudulent data manipulation when the security of encryption keys cannot be absolutely guaranteed. So, additionally, the programme will explore enhancing the significant existing research collaboration between the partners in deriving encryption keys directly from properties of digital systems (ICmetrics, this term stems originally from NASA JPL). Also, the possibility of controlling external devices using brain-computer interface technology could have a tremendous influence on strategic plans for future space missions. Indeed there is interest both at ESA and JPL in this area. Essex has historically been leading in this area. The Essex BCI group was one of the three partner institutions who were contracted by the European Space Agency in 2006 to produce a critical review of non-invasive BCI with a look at future perspectives for space applications. This study was one of the first of its kind. The possibility of using BCI in space applications has since been explored by a small number of studies. In this project we will explore a number of avenues with a top quality research team of BCI researchers, computer scientists and space experts.

Future Earth is a major global research programme, which evolved from previous international programmes on human development, climate change, global environmental change and biodiversity. The integrated Land Ecosystem Atmosphere Process Study (iLEAPS) is a core project of Future Earth. As humans are now one of the strongest influences on climate and the environment, this second phase of iLEAPS (2014- 2024) is moving from research on natural pristine environments to investigating the interactions between natural and human environments. The project will also investigate the complex set of interactions that exist between the climate system, atmospheric composition/air quality, land use and land cover changes, socioeconomic development, and human decision-making. The research will provide information of relevance to the 8 key focal challenges identified by Future Earth in its 2014 Strategic Research Agenda: 1. Deliver water, energy and food for all. 2. Decarbonize socio-economic systems to stabilize the climate 3. Safeguard the terrestrial, freshwater and marine natural assets 4. Build healthy, resilient and productive cities 5. Promote sustainable rural futures to feed rising and more affluent populations 6. Improve human health through the improvement of human-environment interactions 7. Encourage sustainable and equitable consumption and production patterns 8. Increase social resilience to future threats iLEAPS acts as a communication hub and coordinator of world-wide scientific research in the field of ecosystem-atmosphere exchanges and the impact of those exchanges on the 8 societal challenges. iLEAPS promotes scientific excellence through developing international science initiatives that are multi-disciplinary, through bringing together the modelling community with satellite, experimental and field observational experts and through enabling communication and networking across the international science community. iLEAPS promotes leadership in science through capacity building in developing countries and support to young or Early Career scientists by hosting workshops, ensuring timely and relevant science to be available through their website and through training programmes. The NERC Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (CEH) is taking over the iLEAPS International Project Office during 2016. CEH will undertake the activities below to enhance the impact of the iLEAPS project: 1 .IPO Operation and Co-ordination Activities * Work with the iLEAPS Scientific Steering Committee to deliver the iLEAPS Science Plan and Priority Research Topics * Maintain and enhance connections with relevant international projects, regional and national iLEAPS offices, providing advocacy and enlisting wide international participation * Promote capacity building through support of the Early Career Scientist network and supporting workshops and regional networks in the developing world * Work with Future Earth through national and international committees to deliver their vision * Secure additional funding to support these activities 2. Communication * Maintain and co-ordinate input to the iLEAPS website * Host, support and fund workshops and conferences 3. Science leadership * Start new, and maintain existing, Science Initiatives and Projects 4. Science Products * Generate integrated products for the world-wide community * Create new analysis tools for analysing data from experimental and field observations, satellites and computer models

Space technologies, data and services have become indispensable in our everyday lives. Communications satellites (COMSATs), alongside optical fibre, are the main means of global data transmission. In fact, for a vast number of users, such as marine and airways fleets, autonomous cars, remotely located aid camps, and hospitals and schools in less developed areas, satellite communication is the only way to broadcast, navigate or access broadband services. Earth observation satellites provide immediate information in the event of natural disasters, and allow better coordination of emergency and rescue teams. Satellite-based technologies help increase the efficiency of fisheries and agriculture, and play an important role in transport by controlling air and maritime traffic. Both COMSAT and surveying services are critically dependent on the communication links between satellites in orbit and ground control stations. Increasing data capacity of these links and allowing frequency flexibility, which cannot be easily provided by established RF solutions, is long overdue. It is clear that industry needs a step change in technology. Against this backdrop, the project focuses on using key advances in photonic integrated solutions to revolutionise satellite payloads (modules). An integrated photonics approach allows for several optoelectronic functionalities (lasers, photodiodes, etc.) to be monolithically integrated on a single chip. Such integration improves robustness, reduces losses between individual devices and, most importantly, offers ease of scalability, low mass and small footprint, creating great prospects to reduce the cost of satellites. Through close collaboration with academic and industrial partners, this project will develop the world's first integrated, broadly tuneable, photonic-based Frequency Generation Unit (FGU) which can be the heart of satellite communication payloads. The advantage of a photonic FGU over the conventional RF-based solution comes from the great frequency agility of the photonic system, which will allow for the FGU to be included both in communication and earth observation satellites. Firstly, the FGU will form part of innovative communication payloads in communication satellites (transponders), allowing for high-throughput data links from satellites to ground stations and, in the future, between satellites. Furthermore, the FGU will also be deployed in earth observation satellites, allowing for reference-signal distribution inside the satellite using a flexible, lightweight optical fibre rather than a conventional coaxial cable. The use of a photonic FGU would dramatically reduce the weight of a satellite, eliminating the need for tens to hundreds of kilograms of coaxial cables (depending on satellite type), and make a significant monetary saving, given the cost of launching into orbit of $25,000/kg. Secondly, a novel architecture for a complete communications payload based almost entirely on photonics is going to be investigated. Replacing conventional RF components with integrated photonic sub-systems will result in an unprecedented mass and volume reduction, which, in turn, will lead to a reduction in the cost of in-orbit-delivered data capacity.