Lava flows from eruptions on Reykjanes peninsula in Iceland started burning urban structures on 14 January 2024. Volcanic emissions and urban fires, respectively, are known to contain many chemical compounds that are hazardous to health. While these distinct end member compositions are better known, lava-urban interface (LUI) emissions have not been studied. Key hypotheses: LUI emissions have unique chemistry due to the combination of volcanic and human-made compounds. The interaction impacts the combustion process, the composition of the emissions released into the environment, and the chemical reaction pathways in the atmospheric plume. The LUI interaction may also be modifying the degassing processes in the lava, and release of magmatic volatiles. Eruptions at the urban interface lead to higher human exposures than remote eruptions because of their proximity to communities; and small eruptions can cause severe air pollution in populated areas. Lava encounters urban space quasi-periodically, for example Kilauea, Hawaii 2018, Cumbre Vieja, La Palma 2021 and now on Reykjanes, Iceland (2024 - present). Despite the recognition of the importance of characterising chemistry of air pollution sources, LUI emissions remain unstudied, likely due to a combination of challenging sampling conditions, and the unpredictability and the short duration of each eruptive episode. Globally, the number of people exposed to LUI emissions is growing because of building expansion into previously uninhabited areas. For instance, the homes burned by lava in Iceland in January 2024 were newbuilds, the construction of which began when the volcanic system was already in unrest. We will use the ongoing activity in Iceland as a natural laboratory for the first ever characterisation of LUI emission chemistry at-source and in the near-field (1-40 km distance).

This in an experimental project to investigate the origin and potential for the paramagnetic Meissner effect, the emergence and long diffusion of Cooper pairs and spin triplets at molecular/superconductor (SC) and molecular/metal/SC structures. By measuring molecular layers with and without metal interfaces, we will first determine the role of molecular distortion and the propagation of Cooper pairs in these structures. We will also confirm the presence of a spin ordering in proximity to superconductors and will determine the characteristic length of this effect. Our previous results show evidence for the formation of magnetic interfaces in metallomolecular interfaces [1,2]. Vortex pinning via C60, a paramagnetic Meissner effect, and local magnetic fields in C60/Cu could coexist with an induced superconductivity when deposited on top of a superconductor. The use of superconducting and/or magnetic electrodes to support long-range correlations that could extend throughout the system has the potential for impact on applications such as such eco-friendly high-speed computing and magnetic memories using Cooper pair triplets carrying spin information [3]. Superconducting proximity effects may lift the resistive limitation of normal-state contacts and pave the way to single spin and spin triplet transport in molecules. New methods to engineer electro-optical manipulation [4] (gating) and/or to study the coupling between molecules and topological materials [5] can be considered. Preserving the spin ordering without destroying superconductivity would lead to new paths to quantum computing and other carbon-based devices.

We are faced with meeting the agricultural demands of a growing population estimated to reach 9.8 billion people by 2050 on soils depleted of essential nutrients, with declining yields and a projected reduction in future rainfall in key agricultural regions. A circular economy between agriculture and organic waste streams can recycle essential resources for farming through the recovery of water, biomass, and nutrients from sanitation waste solids, effluents, and livestock manure at scale. This offers benefits to agroecological practices in farming by reducing the reliance on chemical fertiliser inputs with multiple benefits that improve soil health, reduce greenhouse gas emissions from farming, and reduce water pollution in drainage from fields. However, there are potential risks and challenges associated with this solution and these need to be fully understood to enable resource recovery to operate in a safe and sustainable manner in the long term. Firstly, the gastrointestinal tracts of humans and animals are a source of pathogens to the environment and agriculture food chain. So, reusing these wastes could potentially spread these pathogens to the food crops we consume. Secondly, manure and sewage are sources of veterinary and medical chemicals to the environment; these compounds can enhance a microbe's ability to resist treatment drugs, such as antibiotics. This ability to resist treatment drugs can spread to other microbes important for plant, animal, and human diseases. Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a global public health crisis that is predicted to cause 10 million deaths per year by 2050. Currently, livestock and the environment are recognised as reservoirs of antimicrobial resistant microbes and implicated in the dissemination of these AMR microbes. Science-based methods to assess the environmental, livestock and human health risks of combined exposure to antimicrobial selective compounds and AMR microbes are therefore central to fully realising the potential benefits of a sanitation-agriculture circular economy. Models, analytical tools, and quantitative assessment methods to understand, measure and assess the impacts of agricultural exposure routes urgently warrant scientific attention. Through understanding the safety risks recycling waste streams pose, new interventions can be devised to minimise these risks, making resource recycling a viable mechanism to increase soil and farm productivity. Working with water utility companies and the National Pig Centre, we will investigate how water and farm waste can be recycled to be used in agriculture. Using laboratory models, we will identify where pathogens and chemicals aggregate along the different waste streams, thus identify where interventions need to be made. Using this information, we will define a risk assessment analysis to tackle pathogen and chemical buildup. We propose to build on the 'one-health, one environment' approach to AMR by acknowledging the connectivity between humans, animals and the environment. This project will support the development of a UK sanitation-circular economy and build a UK-led innovation network with global reach. The overall aim of the project is to build a community of educational, industry, farming, and government colleagues to increase the capacity of the UK to address global pollution challenges associated with adopting a circular economy to support agricultural production. A circular economy approach is essential in meeting global agricultural needs, especially enhancing the role that farming can play in climate control and our need to move towards Net Zero greenhouse gas emissions. This proposal will pave the way in achieving this goal whilst minimising the impact of utilising waste materials on the environment and animal and human health.

Electroencephalography (EEG) is a powerful non-invasive neuroimaging technique used to measure electrical activity of the brain directly from the scalp. Since its discovery almost a century ago, EEG has been widely used to investigate brain dynamics in health and disease. Yet, despite its long history, popularity and success, questions have been raised recently about the robustness of historical EEG findings and highlighted the limitations of current practices. This is because high-profile results are seldom replicated, experiments typically employ small samples and there is a large variation across laboratories in their approach to analysing the same phenomena. Through the #EEGManyLabs network, we have mobilised a global collection of researchers to replicate 20 of the most influential studies ever published. Our project will capitalise on this unprecedented degree of enthusiasm and engagement from across the research community, leverage the data generated by this network and bootstrap it through the development of a suite of modular openly accessible tools and resources that will transform approaches to experimental design, data collection and analysis. In this project, we will: (i) curate the world's largest open-access EEG data library; (ii) develop tools and resources that facilitate and promote multi-site collaboration, which will support the generation of larger and diverse samples; (iii) generate realistic synthetic datasets that can be used to benchmark and document the impact of analytical choices on outcomes; (iv) create automated analysis pipelines suitable for the most widely employed EEG research designs; (v) define lower-bound estimates of effect sizes for the most commonly reported EEG phenomena; (vi) provide a web-tool to help researchers make well-informed decisions about trial numbers and sample sizes; and (vii) deliver an end-of-project workshop and collection of onboarding video tutorials & documentation. Collectively, these tools and resources will help facilitate a step-change in the robustness of, and confidence in, future EEG research. Through a commitment to open science practices and the development of easy-to-use and accessible tools, we will lower the barrier to entry for new researchers who want to take advantage of the opportunities afforded by EEG and help experienced researchers transition towards open science practices. This work will also support clinicians and the rapidly growing neurotechnology industry who wish to make use of EEG signals to deliver products and services that improve brain health and deliver societal and economic impact.

Solvents tend to dominate the mass balance of manufacturing processes for fine chemicals and a large portion of their use is dedicated to intensive purification procedures. One of the major advantages of flow chemistry is the ability to perform multistep synthesis in a single continuous process which eliminates the need to purify intermediates. The combination of chemical catalysis and enzymatic catalysis in continuous flow has potential to realise unique processes for complex molecules and will be a key contributor for industry meeting net zero challenges. However, seamlessly telescoping these two forms of catalysis is difficult due to their divergent reaction conditions as chemical catalysis is typically performed in organic solvents and enzymatic catalysis often requires an aqueous environment. Deep eutectic solvents (DES) have arisen as reaction media that is mutually compatible with both chemo- and bio-catalysis and may enable new chemoenzymatic cascades to be developed in continuous flow. Additionally, DES are immiscible with most organic solvents which can be used to extract the products from the reaction mixture and allow the DES to be recycled in future reactions. This project focuses on the application of DES to facilitate chemoenzymatic cascades in continuous flow and will explore the use of inline purification technology such as liquid-liquid separators to recycle the DES throughout the process. It is envisaged the combination of multistep continuous flow synthesis and solvent recycling will lead to more sustainable processes for complex products.