The most abundant form of litter in the marine environment is plastic, and the negative and detrimental consequences of plastic debris on fish, reptiles, birds and mammals are well documented. The hard surface of waterborne plastic provides an ideal environment for the formation of biofilm for opportunistic microbial colonisers; however, our knowledge of how microorganisms interact with microplastics and alter the dispersal behaviour of marine plastics in the environment is a significant research gap. Biofilm at the interface between the plastic surface and the environment has been termed the 'Plastisphere', and although plastics are extremely resistant to decay, variability in composition determines their specific buoyancy and surface rugosity, which will dictate the extent of microbial colonisation and their ability for long distance dispersal. Furthermore, because plastic debris can persist in the marine environment longer than natural substrates, e.g. feathers and wood, it offers an opportunity for the wider dissemination of pathogenic and harmful microorganisms. Microplastics from clothes, cosmetics and sanitary products are now common constituents of sewage systems and they frequently bypass the screening mechanisms designed to remove larger waste items from being exported to coastal waters. Microplastics entering aquatic systems from waste water treatment plants (WWTPs) come in close contact with human faeces, hence providing significant opportunity for colonisation by faecal indicator organisms (FIOs) and a range of human bacterial pathogens. Importantly however, there have never been any studies investigating the ability of enteric viruses binding to microplastics (or binding to the biofilm on the plastic surface), and this now needs critical evaluation in order to understand this potentially novel mechanism for the environmental dispersal of enteric viruses. Furthermore, there is growing evidence that the plastisphere can promote gene exchange, and so determining the potential of plastisphere biofilms for providing the surface for anti-microbial resistance (AMR) gene transfer is of the utmost importance. There is currently a lack of fundamental understanding about the mechanisms by which microorganisms, particularly pathogenic bacteria and viruses, can "hitchhike" on microplastic particles and be transported to beaches, bathing waters, shellfish harvesting waters and high benthic diversity zones. Consequently, it is not yet possible to determine the risk from these potential pathways, or establish environmental monitoring guidelines for informing future policy or environmental regulation. Therefore, the novelty of this project is to quantify the processes that are occurring within the plastisphere, and understand the potential for the vectoring of pathogenic viruses and bacteria. Previous research on chemical co-pollutants present on plastics often fails to consider the likely impacts of plastisphere communities. Microplastics in the environment are potential vectors for these chemicals, which often desorb when ingested by marine species, and can accumulate in the food chain. Microbes in the plastisphere may either mitigate this problem through biodegradation, or enhance it by increased biofilm binding; however, most laboratory-based studies are carried out with pristine non-colonised plastics, and ignore the pivotal role the plastisphere plays on defining the risk of microplastics in the environment. By understanding the multi-pollutant and multi-scale effects of microplastics, the "Plastic Vectors Project" will help to establish a more accurate risk assessment of microplastics by taking into consideration the effects of harmful plastic-associated microbes together with chemical co-pollutants. Therefore, the "Plastic Vectors Project" aims to quantify the significance and function of microbes in the 'plastisphere', and will deliver feasible solutions for reducing these multi-pollutant risks

The wastewater treatment process (WWTP) plays a critical role in providing clean water. However, emerging and predominately unregulated, bioactive chemicals such as steroids and pharmaceutical drugs are being increasingly detected in surface waters that receive wastewater effluent. Although present at low concentrations, their inherent bioactive nature has been linked to abnormalities in aquatic organisms and there are also water reuse and human health implications. As part of the urban water cycle, the WWTP is the gatekeeper to the surface waters e.g. rivers. Pharmaceuticals enter wastewater treatment from inappropriate disposal of unused drugs to the sink/toilet or via landfill. Prescribed or illicit drug use also has the inevitable consequence of being metabolised in the human body (to parent, Phase I / II metabolites) and excreted in urine, which subsequently enters the WWTP. Coupled with naturally produced and excreted bioactive steroids, the challenge for wastewater treatment is that it was never designed to remove these bioactive chemicals and is inefficient. Evaluating the prevalence and fate of a steroid or pharmaceutical in the WWTP is challenging as human enzymatic metabolism causes the bioactive chemical to exist in multiple forms - parent, Phase I and Phase II metabolites. Phase II metabolites predominate urine excretion and are the starting products entering the wastewater environment. They therefore act as the precursors to the biotransformations that take place during treatment and produce the Phase I and/or parent forms of the bioactive chemical. Before treatment technologies can be developed and evaluated for pharmaceutical and steroid removal in the WWTP, our understanding needs to improve on how the different bioactive chemical forms behave, and their relationships to each other. This means identifying the biotransformations between metabolites and parent forms. To achieve this requires a move from targeted analysis - we analyse for what we expect to see - to develop methods that are non-targeted and search for Phase II metabolites and their associated Phase I / parent forms. Drawing on inspiration from metabolomics approaches used in the biosciences, the aim of this proposal is to develop a novel non-target method to identify bioactive chemical Phase II metabolites and their biotransformation products in wastewater. Knowledge of Phase II metabolite occurrence and fate in the wastewater environment is important in assessing the impact of user behaviour, process and environmental factors or bioactive chemical parent removal. This will inform on WWTP efficiency, provide data for optimising models that predict pharmaceuticals and steroids, and evaluate environmental risk.

The NextGen initiative will evaluate and champion innovative and transformational circular economy solutions and systems that challenge embedded thinking and practices around resource use in the water sector. We will produce new understandings to underpin the exploitation of techniques and technologies that enhance our ability to recover, refine, reuse, repurpose, capture value from, and extend the use-life of, an ever-increasing range of resources and products, thereby projecting the European water and allied sectors as global circular economy pioneers. NextGen will demonstrate innovative technological, business and governance solutions for water in the circular economy in ten high-profile, large-scale, demonstration cases across Europe, and we will develop the necessary approaches, tools and partnerships, to transfer and upscale. The circular economy transition to be driven by NextGen encompasses a wide range of water-embedded resources: water itself (reuse at multiple scales supported by nature-based storage, optimal management strategies, advanced treatment technologies, engineered ecosystems and compact/mobile/scalable systems); energy (combined water-energy management, treatment plants as energy factories, water-enabled heat transfer, storage and recovery for allied industries and commercial sectors) and materials (nutrient mining and reuse, manufacturing new products from waste streams, regenerating and repurposing membranes to reduce water reuse costs, and producing activated carbon from sludge to minimise costs of micro-pollutant removal). The project mobilises a strong partnership of water companies, industry, specialised SMEs, applied research institutes, technology platforms, city and regional authorities and builds on an impressive portfolio of past research and innovation projects, leveraging multiple European and global networks guaranteeing real impact.

The management of water quality in rivers, urban drainage and water supply networks is essential for ecological and human well-being. Predicting the effects of management strategies requires knowledge of the hydrodynamic processes covering spatial scales of a few millimetres (turbulence) to several hundred kilometres (catchments), with a similarly large range of timescales from milliseconds to weeks. Predicting underlying water quality processes and their human and ecological impact is complicated as they are dependent on contaminant concentration. Current water quality modelling methods range from complex three dimensional computational fluid dynamics (3D CFD) models, for short time and small spatial scales, to one-dimensional (1D) time dependent models, critical for economic, fast, easy-to-use applications within highly complex situations in river catchments, water supply and urban drainage systems. Mixing effects in channels and pipes of uniform geometry can be represented with some confidence in highly turbulent, steady flows. However, in the majority of water networks, the standard 1D model predictions fall short because of knowledge gaps due to low turbulence, 3D shapes and unsteady flows. This Fellowship will work to address the knowledge gaps, delivering a step change in the predictive capability of 1D water quality network models. It will achieve this via the strategic leadership of a programme of laboratory and full-scale field measurements, the implementation of system identification techniques and active engagement with primary users. The proposal covers aspects from fundamental research, through applications, to end-user delivery, by providing a new modelling methodology to inform design, appraisal and management decisions made by environmental regulators, engineering consultants and water utilities.

Membranes offer exciting opportunities for more efficient, lower energy, more sustainable separations and even entirely new process options - and so are a valuable tool in an energy constrained world. However, high performance polymeric, inorganic and ceramic membranes all suffer from problems with decay in performance over time, through either membrane ageing (membrane material relaxation) and/or fouling (foreign material build-up in and/or on the membrane), and this seriously limits their impact. Our vision is to create membranes which do not suffer from ageing or fouling, and for which separation functionality is therefore maintained over time. We will achieve this through a combination of the synthesis of new membrane materials and fabrication of novel membrane composites (polymeric, ceramic and hybrids), supported by new characterisation techniques. Our ambition is to change the way the global membrane community perceives performance. Through the demonstration of membranes with immortal performance, we seek to shift attention away from a race to achieve ever higher initial permeability, to creation of membranes with long-term stable performance which are successful in industrial application.