The original objectives of the Platform grant were:1. development of new materials2. characterisation3. theory and modelling development4. device developmentOur achivements against these objectives were:1 Microwave dielectric ceramics / Niobates / Pb Free pezoelectrics based on silver niobate / multiferroic/magnetoelectric materials including BiFeO32 First characterisation of BiFeO3 at microwave frequencies, rigorous models to determine properties in thin ferroelectric films, scanning evanescent wave microscopy3 Density Functional Perturbation Theory, mode matching for accurate values of loss and permittivity4 Devices / piezoelectrically tuned dielectric resonator filters Extra Outputs not anticipated: Development and patenting of core-less transformers (no ferromagnetic core at all) using layered pcb geometry.The Forward LookIn the new Platform the objectives are:1 To use the Platform flexibility to carry out speculative and adventurous research2 To develop thin film multilayers with particular emphasis on interfaces3 To develop novel devices, prototypes and applications4 To ensure that the expertise is maintained and that key postdoctoral staff can develop their careers and move to more senior positionsThe areas of research that we intend to explore are:* Fundamental chemistry of functional ceramicsThere is a need to focus on and understand the chemistry, crystal structure and physical properties of ceramics. This knowledge is vital as a reference point for the production of thin films, which are after all made from bulk ceramics targets. We will concentrate on three main groups of ceramics:I. Microwave dielectrics: II. Piezoelectrics: III. Multiferroics / magnetoelectrics: This builds on the group's expertise in the solid state chemistry and reactions of electronic and magnetic ceramics.* Thin functional oxide films / advanced characterisation methodsThe future trend will be towards nanoscale structures. Our core areas of research are: Materials development; thin film deposition; structural and electrical characterisation; device development. The future strategy requires extra expertise in the area of TEM (Professor McComb), electron holography (Harrison). * New device structures to test material propertiesWhilst a material's structural and electrical properties can and will be tested during development, a very useful method of testing a material is to assess its performance in a prototype device. This enables us to evaluate the different influences on performance. We will examine ultra High Q structures and frequency agile devices* Modelling of structures using density functional theoryLinear scaling DFT codes will faciltiate the study of the electrical properties of large superlattices and multilayered thin-films. The influence of substitutions and defects in bulk ceramic systems will also be accessible as will be the properties of large unit-cell crystals such as spinels and ferrites. Modelling will also complement the advanced characterisation techniques and fundamental solid-state chemistry areas of research.

The project aims to reach an important milestone towards the development of innovative healthcare technologies: all-optical delivery of dense, high-repetition ion beams at energies above the threshold for deep-seated tumour treatment and diagnosis (~200 MeV/nucleon). Driven from an immediate impact in accelerator science, the flexibility and compactness of the planned solutions, jointly with other potential advantages of laser-based systems, could revolutionise cancer treatment methods. The extreme conditions reached during the interaction of an ultra-intense laser pulse with matter can lead, if suitably controlled, to the rapid acceleration of beams of ions with unique properties. The study of these laser-initiated acceleration mechanisms, and the characterization and optimization of the ion beams produced, have been, over the past decade, one of the most active and fruitful areas of high-field science. UK scientists have been at the forefront of the development of laser-driven ion sources. During the final stages of LIBRA, novel acceleration mechanisms have emerged, mostly based on the enormous pressure exerted by powerful laser pulses onto irradiated matter, which promise a step change in particle acceleration capabilities. A key area of application of high-current ion beams (proton and carbon) is in cancer therapy. Through a series of coordinated and interlinked activities over a 6 year period, we aim to advance laser-ion acceleration to the point at which laser-driven beams will become a serious alternative to conventional RF accelerators for medical therapy. Besides offering a reduction in cost and footprint of particle therapy centres (major factors limiting their growth worldwide), a laser-driven approach would offer a number of advantageous features currently unavailable: on-demand switching between species (H and C, with options for other light ions such Be and Li) and energy control; enhanced diagnosis, with synchronized proton and x-ray pulses, and on-site isotope production for Positron Emission Tomography. Our ambition is for UK science to play a leading role in the development of high-energy ion sources, by capitalizing on the exceptional pool of expertise available to our consortium.

It is estimated that more than one in three of us will develop cancer in our lifetime, and for one in four it will be the cause of death. Scientists play an important role in combating this illness. Worldwide activities range from basic research into understanding the causes of cancer to the subject of this proposal, which is the development of new anticancer treatments.This research is concerned with the study of new drugs that have metal atoms as important constituents (metallodrugs), and which only become toxic to cancer cells upon irradiation of light (photoactivation). The combination of light-sensitive drugs and lasers as light sources means that the site of treatment can be carefully controlled, minimising side effects and avoiding killing healthy cells. To optimise the treatment, this research will also develop new ways to irradiate cancer cells using modern lasers with optical fibre delivery, thereby allowing any part of the body to be irradiated. In addition, new ways to deliver the drugs to the cancer cells will be studied. The drug-delivery method that will be investigated is the use of liposomes, which act as microscopic spherical containers. These can be used to store large amounts of the metallodrug and to preferentially bind to cancer cells by modifying the surface of the liposome. It may even be possible to burst open and release the drugs upon demand by activating light-sensitive molecules in the liposome.Modern science invariably requires increasingly sophisticated instrumentation and technology, and cancer research is no exception. The research described in this proposal is reliant on state of the art laser systems and advanced microscopes, which are available at the specialist COSMIC centre within the University of Edinburgh. This research will also involve close collaboration with biologists and clinicians, and the longer-term view would be for these photoactivated metallodrugs and liposome delivery systems to be in clinical trials in the next 5-10 years. In this respect, this area of research is well positioned to benefit from the rapidly expanding UK biotechnology sector, thereby maximising the potential for exploitation.

A spatial context to aid interpretation is fundamental to all sample analysis: whether those samples are rocks, medical tests, or police evidence, we need to know where they came from to interpret the results. Meteorites are our only samples of a protoplanetary disk; the only surviving physical record of the formation of our own Solar System (including the variety of local stellar sources that contributed to our disk, and the chemical processes that occurred within it); the only record of how differentiation and core formation occurs in planetesimals. And yet we have virtually no constraint on where they come from. Until we get sample-return missions to numbers of asteroids, what we need are orbits for specific meteorites. Unfortunately, out of tens of thousands of meteorites, we have good orbits for only four, and reasonable orbits for a couple more. The aim of this project is to determine orbits for numbers of meteorites. The results potentially have implications for every area of meteorite study, just as a knowledge of spatial context of any other sample has implications for all subsequent analyses of it. Meteoroids produce a bright fireball as they transit our atmosphere. By photographing the fireball from different angles, the atmospheric track of the object can be determined with great accuracy. If material survives to the surface as a meteorite, this allows us to work out what its orbit was before it entered the atmosphere, and also where it landed on the Earth's surface. This technique has been employed a number of times over the last 50 years, all in temperate regions of the northern hemisphere, but although hundreds meteorite falls have been observed, only four were recovered. The poor success rate is down to the difficulty in recovering a small rock in an area of several square kilometres when there is significant undergrowth. Our solution was rather simple. Over the last few decades, tens of thousands of meteorites have been found in the world's deserts. Put a fireball network in a desert and it should be much easier samples. We have designed a fireball observatory that can operate automatically in the harsh environment of the Australian desert. Based on previous fieldwork in this area, looking for old weathered meteorites, we should have about a 70% chance of finding meteorites that we see land. Our first grant, to put a small network of 3 observatories out in the desert, and test both the technology and concept, began June 2005. Two years on, fireball observatories have been built, deployed in the Australian desert, and successfully integrated with satellite internet and solar power. In addition to fully-functioning autonomous observatories, logistics to maintain them in operation, and support regular fieldwork, are in place. The UK now has a fireball camera network operating in the Australian desert. Orbits have been calculated from 22 fireballs - the first orbits to be determined from southern hemisphere fireballs. And most important: at least one of these fireballs has produced a meteorite on the ground. An expedition to recover this sample - and any others that fall in the meantime - will be mounted in the next field season. Our initial trial network has proven a success. We now need the support that will let us translate this success into a growing collection of meteorites with orbits, finally providing meteorite scientists with that most basic information: a knowledge of where their samples come from.

There is growing evidence that extreme events such as heatwaves, rather than increases in average temperatures, will have the most immediate and harmful effects on plants and animals as the climate changes. This is particularly true for species-rich tropical ecosystems, where recent heatwaves have already caused severe population crashes for some species. Most studies investigating the impact of extreme climatic events on biodiversity focus on individual species in isolation. However, natural communities are complex, interacting networks of species, linked by competition, mutualism, predation and parasitism. We therefore need to understand what happens when whole communities of interacting species are subjected to a heatwave or other extreme climatic event, and how these effects change depending on the duration and intensity of the event. How resilient will the surviving populations and species be in the longer term, when faced with further extremes? The answer is likely to depend on both ecological responses (changes in the abundance and interactions of different species depending on their ecological tolerances), and evolutionary processes (the evolution of novel tolerances through natural selection). To understand fully how and why ecological communities are altered by extreme events, we need to carry out experiments simulating extreme conditions and follow the consequences over multiple generations. In most contexts such experiments would be practically or ethically impossible. However, we can design experiments that do exactly this by focusing on a special study system: food webs of Drosophila fruit flies and the parasitic wasps that consume them. At our study site in the rainforests of tropical Queensland, Australia, these flies and wasps form discrete ecological communities within individual rotting fruits. They have short generation times, allowing us to observe community responses to climate extremes in real time. Australian tropical rainforests are a high-diversity ecosystem that is threatened by climate change, and we expect rainforest insects to be particularly vulnerable because they are already operating close to the upper limits of their thermal tolerances: modest further increases in temperatures could make populations and communities unviable. These characteristics make our study system ideal for understanding the resilience of ecological systems to extreme climatic events. In our experiments, we will use heating cables in the rainforest to simulate heatwave conditions that are expected to affect Australian rainforests in the coming decades. We will then investigate the ecologically and evolutionary responses of individual species and the food web of interactions among them to further perturbations. By challenging communities that have previously been subjected to heat waves with further heat waves, we will be able to test under what conditions climatic extremes make communities more or less resilient to future shocks and understand the ecological and evolutionary mechanisms that underpin community resilience.