The world is facing some of the greatest challenges in terms of environmental welfare and energy supply. The latest EU directives on energy appliances dictate lower power consumption even on standby operation. At the forefront of publicity, Hollywood is driving towards greener movie productions. The Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen (COP15) has failed to commit the largest fossil fuel consumer nations in limiting greenhouse gas emissions. Despite this there is still increased enthusiasm towards renewable energy production. This is clearly because fossil fuel combustion is costly and cutting back on carbon emissions is even more expensive; renewables on the other hand are freely available. A sustainable energy portfolio should include a range of carbon-neutral and renewable energy technologies. Microbial fuel cells (MFCs) represent vitally developing technology for sustainable energy production and waste treatment. They convert chemical energy of feedstock into electricity by using micro-organisms, which act as biocatalysts. MFCs are still in their early stages of development but with great potential to bring about innovation and become true alternatives to fossil fuel energy generation. The applicant has already demonstrated world first results (EcoBots and small scale-multi unit efficiency improvements) in this multi-disciplinary technological area, demonstrating that he is leading the way globally both in research and application of MFCs. Interest from the scientific and industrial communities is rapidly increasing, leading to collaborations with wastewater treatment industry and robotics. Investment both in this pioneering applicant and this burgeoning area is ripe. MFCs offer advantages such as simultaneous waste clean-up and electricity production; this Fellowship therefore directly addresses national and international priorities. Current research in the field is showing that individual units are thermodynamically limited, producing relatively low energy output levels, emphasising the need for scale-up. The applicant was the first to demonstrate (see attached Publications list Nos. 2, 5, 13) that more efficient energy harvesting takes place in small-scale MFC units and thus there is a natural drive for miniaturisation and multiple-unit stack development. More importantly, it is becoming apparent amongst the international MFC community that one of the technology's bottlenecks is the cathodic half-cell, which can be significantly improved using micro-algae. In the field of sustainable energy production , this proposal will integrate three major areas: (i) Multi-MFC unit stack; (ii) Self-sustainable cathodes; (iii) Waste clean-up.This Fellowship will both consolidate research findings and break into new areas, enabling cross-fertilisation of research results and thereby achieving developments faster than consecutive research projects would allow. It will develop the career of the applicant as a world leading researcher and budding academic, as well as developing the research skills of the research team he will build around him. This is built on the solid foundation of research to date. The Fellow will continue to collaborate with his mentors, ensuring his personal career development plan can be realised, maximising his potential as a research leader.The long term Vision of this Fellowship is twofold; 1) to develop MFCs into a mature sustainable energy technology with a direct application in everyday life that could change the way people think about energy and human waste; 2) to develop a team of researchers skilled in multi-disciplinary approaches led by the applicant who is already at the forefront of this research area globally.

In this CASE Studentship PhD project we aim to understand the drivers of elevated VOC production (Geosmin and 2-MIB) in drinking water reservoirs within the Wessex Water catchment. Episodic outbreaks of Geosmin and 2-MIB have occasionally, though not always, been associated with planktonic cyanobacterial blooms in Wessex reservoirs, but more recently, benthic communities have been identified as potential and significant sources of the VOCs, (Wessex Water, unpublished data). Focussing on three reservoirs and their associated catchments, we will analyse the distribution, transport and fate of these VOCs and their response to water treatment processes. The specific aims are: i) to isolate potential VOC producing microorganisms from the benthic and pelagic regions of the three reservoirs (and from the immediate catchment); ii) to examine intra-and interspecific variability in Geosmin and 2-MIB production under a range of experimental regimes; iii) to determine the degree of compartmentalisation between dissolved and particulate fractions of VOCs; iv) identify conditions that lead to the exudation of VOCs with a specific focus on the role(s) of viral lysis, protozoan and crustacean grazers, using isolated benthic and pelagic VOC-producing microorganisms.

Mitigating the rapid global spread of Covid-19 requires real-time data on community infection prevalence in order to guide targeted intervention measures on regional, national and global scales. Individual diagnostic testing is of paramount importance for short- and long-term management of the pandemic, but limits on capacity (both of kits and trained workers) mean that healthcare settings are prioritised over the community. Here we propose a novel supplemental low-resource approach for broad community-wide surveillance of SARS-CoV-2 infection prevalence. We aim for a real-time Covid-19 risk prediction platform for community-wide diagnostics via wastewater-based epidemiology (Figure 1). Disease markers present in domestic wastewater can reveal the health status of contributing population, and we propose that this includes the infection prevalence by SARS-CoV-2. Real-time spatiotemporal estimation of this novel coronavirus in urban water across several sites in South Africa (Cape Town) and Nigeria (Lagos) will provide a broad picture of community infection prevalence, even for asymptomatic cases, as well as the level of acquired immunity, thus identifying hotspots for priority testing, contact-tracing and quarantine and will provide more accurate projections of the spread of the virus and the infection fatality rate. As communities contribute directly to wastewater, we will be able to estimate true infection rate at the community level, including also asymptomatic and pre-symptomatic people. The virus loading levels will be used to establish status and time trends. This would enable rapid identification of hot spots for management via targeted intervention measures and potentially support important decisions regarding entry into and exit from 'lockdown' periods as well as focussed screening of selected communities.

All living organisms that make up life on Earth are made from a profusion of elements in the periodic table, including trace metals. However, in addition to oxygen (O) and hydrogen (H), the constituents of water, the three most important are Carbon (C), Nitrogen (N) and Phosphorus (P). These have become known as the Macro-Nutrients. These macronutrients are in constant circulation between living organisms (microbes, plants, animals, us) and the environment (atmosphere, land, rivers, oceans). Until human intervention (circa post industrial revolution and even more so since WWII) these 'cycles' were largely in balance: plants took up CO2 and produced O2 and, in order to do so, took up limited amounts of N and P from the environment (soils, rivers) and, on death, this "sequestered" C,N,P was returned back to the Earth. The problem is that human or anthropogenic activity has put these key macro-nutrient cycles out of balance. For example, vast quantities of once fossilised carbon, taken out of the atmosphere before the age of the dinosaurs, are being burnt in our power stations and this has increased atmospheric CO2 by about 30 % in recent times. More alarmingly, perhaps, is that man's industrial efforts have more than doubled the amount of N available to fertilize plants, and vast amounts of P are also released through fertilizer applications and via sewage. As the population continues to grow, and the developing world catches up, and most likely overtakes, the western world, these imbalances in the macro-nutrient cycles are set to be exacerbated. Indeed, such is the impact of man's activity on Earth that some are calling this the 'Anthropocene': Geology's new age. The environmental and social problems associated with these imbalances are diverse and complex; most people would be familiar with the ideas behind global warming and CO2 but fewer may appreciate the links to methane and nitrous oxide or the potential health impacts of excess nitrate in our drinking water. These imbalances are not being ignored and indeed a great deal of science, policy and management has been expended to mitigate the impacts of these imbalances. However, despite our progress in the science underpinning this understanding over the last 30-40 years or so, too much of this science has been focused on the individual macro-nutrients e.g. N, and in isolated parts of the landscape e.g. rivers. To compound this even further, such knowledge and understanding has often been garnered using disparate, or sometimes even antiquated, techniques. Anthropogenic activity has spread this macro-nutrient pollution all over the landscape. Some of it is taken up by life, some is stored, but a good deal of it works its way through the landscape towards our already threatened seas. We need to understand what happens to the macronutrients as they move, or flux, through different parts of the landscape and such understanding can only come about by a truly integrated science programme which examines the fate of the macronutrients simultaneously in different parts of the landscape. Here we will for the first time make parallel measurements, using truly state-of-the-art technologies, of the cycling and flux of all three macronutrients on the land and in the rivers that that land drains and, most importantly, the movement of water that transports the macro-nutrients from the land to the rivers e.g. the hydrology. Moreover, we will compare these parallel measurements across land to river in different types of landscapes: clay, sandstone and chalk, subjected to different agricultural usage in order to understand how the cycling on the land is connected, via the movement of water, to that in the rivers.

This project aims to understand and address the impact of stereoisomerism of antimicrobial agents in their environmental cycle on mechanisms behind the development of antimicrobial resistance. The risk of promotion of antibiotic resistant bacteria is by far the greatest human health concern with regards to medicinal products in the environment. The continuous introduction of sub-inhibitory quantities of antimicrobial agents (AAs) to the environment is believed to be directly linked with antimicrobial resistance (AMR). Unfortunately, there is little knowledge of mechanisms in the environment and influencing factors due to the multi-dimensional nature of the AMR problem. There are several research gaps that need to be addressed including research into contaminated habitats (e.g. wastewater) where AAs, co-selecting agents, bacteria carrying resistance determinants and favourable conditions for bacterial growth prevail at the same time. Furthermore, the stereochemistry of AAs (which is key in defining their biological potency) has never been studied in the context of their environmental fate and effects. This is an oversight as changes in stereoisomeric profile of AAs throughout their environmental cycle will lead to (and be influenced by) changes in the composition and structure of microbial communities present in the environment. This might further contribute to the development of AMR, a phenomenon that has never been the subject of investigation in the context of stereochemistry of AAs. This project postulates that stereochemistry of AAs determines their environmental fate and biological effects. It also hypothesizes that two enantiomers of the same AA should be recognised as two different substances that can elicit different responses leading to changes in the environmental fate and effects of the drug. The project will: 1. Verify the mechanisms of (stereoselective) transformation of chiral antimicrobial agents and their metabolites during wastewater treatment and in receiving waters 2. Identify resistant bacterial taxa responsible for (stereoselective) degradation of antimicrobial agents and to study the development of antimicrobial resistance at stereoisomeric level 3. Recommend changes to ERA via inclusion of AAs (and their stereochemistry) and ARGs as AMR indicators The stereochemistry of AAs is complex, as many of the semi-synthetic agents are marketed as mixtures of diastereomers and a number of synthetic agents are used as racemates. In this project we will focus on ofloxacin and chloramphenicol, but we will also consider other synthetic quinolones, Beta-lactams (e.g. amoxicillin) and carbapenems (e.g. meropenem). Considering the importance of better understanding environmental and human health impacts from chiral pollutants such as AAs and the need for the development of new solutions tackling AMR, this project has the potential to lead to groundbreaking research with long term scientific, technological and societal impact.