The purpose of this collaborative research is to further develop the theory of polynomially solvable cases for computationally hard problems of combinatorial optimisation; to investigate special structures in real-life vehicle routing applications; and, in collaboration with practitioners from Coventry City Council, to design, implement and test algorithms that would use the identified special structures to find efficient solutions to practical problems.Combinatorial optimisation (CO) is a field of mathematical programming dealing with optimisation problems defined on discrete structures. The applications of CO are varied, including operations management and logistics, computer-aided design and manufacturing, computational biology and linguistics, etc. The Roadmap for Mathematics in European Industry identifies CO as one of the main research priority areas for the scientific community.The vehicle routing problem (VRP) is one of the classical problems of CO. In simple terms, it can be defined as the problem of designing optimal routes for a fleet of vehicles that has to perform a set of transportation tasks. A large number of businesses and public sector agencies have to deal with the VRP on a regular basis. For instance, Coventry City Council, which is a collaborator in this proposal, has a fleet of vehicles performing various transportation tasks, including domestic waste collection, highway gritting, catering (home meals, school deliveries), as well as various passenger transport services. Most CO problems, including the VRP, are quite simple to define but extremely difficult to solve. In theory, such problems are known as NP-hard, and most likely can only be solved by an exhaustive search if an exact optimal solution is required. All known exact algorithms for such problems have super-polynomial time complexity. Despite great efforts, no polynomial-time algorithm has been found for any NP-hard problem, nor has it been proved that such an algorithm does not exist. Given an NP-hard CO problem, one has essentially the following three options:1. to solve small instances of the problem using a super-polynomial exact algorithm;2. to solve special cases of the problem using a specially designed polynomial-time algorithm;3. to solve the problem approximately, using a polynomial-time approximation algorithm, often called a heuristic.Real-life instances of the VRP are usually sufficiently large to rule out option 1. Moreover, they usually contain various additional constraints that would be difficult (or even impossible) to incorporate into the exact procedure and, therefore, some solutions obtained can be in fact infeasible. Polynomially solvable cases required by option 2 are currently known only for some restricted versions of the VRP, in particular for the traveling salesman problem. So, typically, there is little hope that a real-life vehicle routing problem would fit a known special case. For these reasons, option 3 often remains the only choice. Research papers describing heuristics for the VRP are frequently being published in various journals. The reason is in the practical significance on one hand, and in theoretical difficulties of the problem on the other hand. Since the VRP itself is NP-hard, there is not much hope to find an algorithm which would work satisfactorily for a wide range of problems. The approach we are proposing to investigate in this project aims to identify special structures in real-life VRP applications and to use these structures in designing efficient algorithms. We are planning to combine the advances in the investigation of polynomially solvable cases of NP-hard problems with the practice of constructing heuristics for the VRP, and to develop algorithms and prototype software that would efficiently exploit the identified structures to achieve the best possible solutions.

Coventry UK City of Culture 2021 is a year-long programme of cultural activities and participation. It is being delivered in a partnership between the City of Culture Trust, Coventry and Warwick Universities, and Coventry City Council. UK Cities of Culture are held every four years, the last one was Hull in 2017. What is argued as different about Coventry's year is how it is targeting its activity especially to, first, increase long-term cultural participation in the city and, second, in the belief that such cultural participation can deliver longer term social, economic and environmental benefits to the city. It is argued that the year is a 'city change model', through culture targeted at residents and citizens throughout the city. Activities are much more community-based around the city than the usual big city centre-based spectaculars. Residents are co-creating their ideas of culture and participating in all sorts of local activities in community centres, pubs, clubs, parks and streets - even a graveyard - as well the usual theatres, galleries and other venues. Given the scale, scope and nature of this 'mega-event', there is great interest as to whether Coventry's version of culture-led social and economic development will achieve the benefits and changes for the city it is seeking. Will it become a model of culture-led social and economic development? Led by the two universities, a very large range of research and evaluation studies and quantitative and qualitative data collection has been put in place to research what has happened. Much of this research is innovative in how it will collect evidence and the types of evidence it will use to see if Coventry City of Culture 2021 has made a (lasting) difference to the city. There is much interest across towns, cities and regions as to the experience of Coventry, its research and the evidence it has found - because many places are very interested in culture as a way of regenerating and/or growing their local places as places where residents and people can happily work, rest and play. One example is that twenty places across the UK have submitted Expressions of Interest to be the next City of Culture in 2025. This project will support all this research material on City of Culture 2021 to be engaged with, understood and discussed. A programme of engagement activity is targeted at those organisations and people who bid for and or spend public money on places. Both locally, like Coventry City Council and partners in the city interested in culture but, also, places around the country such as the City of Culture 2025 bidders. The aim is for them to use the new knowledge from the research on culture-led development in their plans and bids for spending on their places. These organisations have been involved in planning a range of knowledge exchange activities for the project which include activities like their own Knowledge Exchange Champions, Lightning Talks, Demonstration Events, Knowledge Cafes/Sandpits, and the facility to ask specific questions of researchers. Led by Coventry University in partnership with the University of Warwick, the project will employ a specialist Knowledge Exchange Officer for 2021 - 2022 with a budget to support this range of activities with local and regional partners such as Coventry City Council, Culture Change Coventry and the City of Culture Trust.

Individuals experience significantly more stress from the fear of crime than from any direct experience of it. Sources such as Health Canada maintain that the physical environment (e.g. unused and empty spaces, poorly lit areas, areas obscured with trees and shrubs) contributes to these experiences. As an example, on university campuses, opportunities for attackers to hide can increase student fears. It is extremely challenging, however, to design public spaces that fully alleviate the public's concerns over their safety. This is due to a number of reasons: (i) even the best design processes cannot fully anticipate a user group's needs; (ii) usage patterns by the public are not fully known until the public space has been in use for some time; (iii) usage patterns naturally change over time as the role of the space in the community evolves. As a consequence, despite notable attempts at considering safety in the design of public environments - e.g., Vivacity 2020 - a priori design will never be able to fully satisfy the public's needs.This proposal argues that users of a public space know the space best. It further contends that, at present, only a small proportion of users' views are taken into account during design. Design processes typically include public consultations before construction and post-occupancy evaluation surveys. However, relatively speaking, very few users provide input into these processes. On the other hand, all users have opinions about the spaces in which they live and work. As an example, a worker may mentally note that a pedestrian crossing is required at a busy intersection, but the pressures of modern life mean that s/he is unlikely ever to feed back this comment to the local council. This kind of knowledge - which people possess but may not realize its importance to others - is termed tacit knowledge. The VoiceYourView project aims to mobilise the tacit knowledge of a community to transform public spaces to be safer and more inclusive. The VoiceYourView concept is best illustrated by example. Imagine a park in central England. Mary is 72 years old and walks her dog every day. On her route, at dusk, she hesitates as she walks past a large shrub, fearing what is behind. Judy is 26. Her jogging route takes her into areas of the park that are poorly lit and she is afraid. Paul is 43 and takes his children to the park but is concerned that the bandstand is becoming a magnet for teenage drinking parties. Today, Mary, Judy and Paul each have limited ways of communicating their tacit knowledge to the appropriate people. They would need to compose a letter - which is unlikely given the time stresses on their daily lives. The goal of VoiceYourView is to provide Mary, Judy and Paul with a way to record their feedback in real-time at the moment it occurs to them in the park rather than having to wait until it is forgotten about. In this way, VoiceYourView will collect real-time information that can then be structured, stored in an online repository, and exchanged with appropriate stakeholders: other users, local community groups, local authorities, etc. The hypothesis is that, by so doing, VoiceYourView will lead to public space designs that are more attuned to the needs of their users and, in particular, do a better job at alleviating their safety concerns.We will design inclusive input devices for the collection of tacit knowledge in public spaces and will implement a repository that will use techniques from artificial intelligence (AI) to filter, structure and classify this knowledge. We will conduct a series of trials in key public areas - including Derry city walls and Coventry underpass - to drive and evaluate VoiceYourView research. We will undertake basic research to understand how VoiceYourView requirements are impacted by existing crime trends and how VoiceYourView fits into and influences existing design processes. VoiceYourView is a partnership between five universities and associated partners and will take place over a three year period.

This 5-month project will establish a West Midlands Local Policy Innovation Partnership (WM LPIP). This will involve connecting local policy and research partners across the region to deliver a programme of activity that supports inclusive and sustainable local growth. We will achieve this through the provision of research, evidence, data and expertise to take advantage of opportunities and to find place-based solutions to challenges that matter to local people and communities. Our emphasis in the Phase 1 period which is the subject of this application is on building, strengthening and diversifying partnerships between research organisations and local stakeholders in the West Midlands to identify local priorities and formulate a plan for addressing them in the coming years in the WM LPIP Phase 2 programme. Insights and solutions will be developed within and across policy domains relating to economy (inclusive and sustainable local economic performance, innovation, skills), community (communities in their places, felt experiences and pride in place, cultural recovery) and environment (living and working sustainably in a greener economy) themes. Our ambition is to make inroads towards tackling 'wicked problems' across geographical scales (hyper-local, local, regional, national) that are challenging to address because of their complex and interconnected nature, as well as more straightforward challenges where the prospects for people and places can be improved more quickly. To achieve this, we will map relevant local and national administrative data to outline data sources that are available for analysis and insights into thematic priorities. We will also undertake a rapid evidence review of the academic and grey literature on the challenges relating to achieving inclusive and sustainable economic growth, with a particular emphasis on place. We will also draw on academic and policy literature and strategies relating to circumstances and activities in the different sub-regions in the West Midlands. Alongside this we will design and deliver a series of place-based stakeholder and community workshops across the West Midlands. Each stakeholder workshop will bring together local stakeholders from across the public, private and third sectors to discuss key challenges and priorities for the local area and the region, with local universities drawing on their networks to enable this. A public engagement event will follow to help us to further understand the needs of local communities and to receive feedback on the priorities identified in the place-based workshops. In this way priority areas of focus will be established in consultation with local stakeholders and communities and we will develop a platform for sustained engagement with them. Together the place-based and policy prioritisation workshops will inform the design of our model and work programme for Phase 2 of the WM LPIP.

The Centre for Doctoral Training in Diversity in Data Visualization (DIVERSE CDT) offers an innovative and ambitious programme that will deliver cohort-based training to 60 PhD students who will become critical, multidisciplinary leaders at the forefront of data visualization research and practice. Complex quantitative and qualitative data lie at the heart of every organisation. Data visualization is increasingly central to the analysis and communication of these data and to decision making across organisations. It opens up new ways of understanding problems, reveals new questions, highlights new possibilities and allows data to be understood by new audiences. But it requires new knowledge, diverse perspectives and advanced expertise and visualization experts are in short supply and lack diversity. DIVERSE CDT will deliver high-quality doctoral training through four key innovations that are designed to increase the diversity of researchers involved in and approaches taken by data visualization: 1) Connected Components: students undertake and relate a series of applied studies with industrial and academic partners through a structured internship programme and an international exchange programme. 2) Interactive Documentation: students use an interactive digital notebook for recording, reflection and reporting that becomes a "thesis" for examination. 3) Cohort Reflection: students engage collaboratively in reflection and learning within and across cohorts, developing a knowledge base and a community of practice. 4) Supportive Inclusion: enriching and inclusive processes for admission, and progression that address barriers for students from under-represented backgrounds and open up new opportunities for study that speak to students' substantive interests. Outline doctoral training programme: Year 1: Bespoke training covering core topics in data visualization design and production, research methodologies, diversity and inclusion and an innovative Visualization Design Labs module where students collaborate to address real-world visualization problems provided by partner organisations. This is complemented by interdisciplinary masterclasses and a four month scaffolded replication study project. Year 1 concludes with co-creation in which students engage with potential supervisors and external partners to select and iteratively refine an initial PhD focus and plan. Years 2-4: Structured as two 1-year phases of research and reflection, followed by a final year of cross study synthesis as findings and claims are developed. The research and reflection phases will be grounded in 3-6 month internships where students address challenging research topics in collaboration with a range of academic and industrial partners (across public, private and not-for-profit fields). Complementary training across the 4 years will provide wider research and professional skills based on regular needs analysis, e.g. training in responsible innovation, EDI, entrepreneurship, research ethics and other topics from the comprehensive doctoral programmes at City and Warwick. We will develop communities of practice across and between cohorts through activities including an annual inter-cohort data hackathon, ongoing reflective groups, 1-day reflective retreats and an annual residential retreat. Partners will provide industry mentors and we will host a series of engagements with EDI role models. Students will actively contribute to a vibrant and inclusive research environment through co-creation and delivery of these activities as well as by identifying topics to address that speak to personal, community or social justice concerns. Finally, DIVERSE CDT establishes unique international collaborations through an exchange programme with the world's leading visualisation labs. All students will have the option of a funded research visit, and we will host students from participating labs, enhancing the doctoral experience.