Re:action Winter 2018

Winter 2018 | Issue 10 Research and Enterprise Newsletter

The rise of Agri-Science Industrial partnership working to improve global food security FEATURE: New approaches to fighting breast cancer

FEATURE: The psychology of weightloss in a mobile app

SPOTLIGHT ON: The impact of corporate collaborations

FEATURE: Improving foreign language teaching in primary schools

Introduction

WELCOME TO RE:ACTION We have chosen a theme of collaboration and partnerships for our first edition of Re:action for the 2018/19 academic year.

The edition features a diverse range of partnerships including our strategic partnership with Siemens, work to improve language teaching in primary schools and interdisciplinary approaches to improving treatments for breast cancer.

The importance of working in partnership is well understood. Working with others, with complementary capabilities, or simply a different way of looking at a problem, allows research questions to be tackled that are beyond the scope of any one individual and their immediate research group. On a different axis, working with business, health care organisations, policy makers or academic colleagues focused on more applied research, provides a pathway to our research having greater socio-economic impact.

While the benefits of working in partnership are often recognised, the skills required to form and sustain a partnership are sometimes undervalued. For a partnership to be worthwhile and to endure broadly, three criteria need to be met. First, there has to be a mutual benefit to working together, which is often the ability to achieve outcomes that could not be achieved by any of the partners on their own. Secondly there has to be sufficient trust and respect between the partners to hold the partnership together. Being clear about authorships and finances, being generous in sharing credit for achievements, having a strong sense of

collectively forming a team, are all important elements for maintaining a partnership.

Finally, there must be sufficient resources to sustain the partnership, and the amount and nature these resources needs to be understood and agreed by all parties. There is clearly a financial element to this, but the commitment by all partners to devote the time and effort to making the partnership work is also often vital. This commitment includes the intellectual effort to understand the benefit that the other partners are seeking to achieve, and also learning enough about the partners’ disciplines to ensure that the work across the partnership is indeed complementary.

Colleagues who have managed to develop and maintain effective partnerships that have allowed them to tackle important interdisciplinary research topics or to lead their work to have high impact deserve particular recognition. In many cases they would also tell us that working as part of a team with diverse talents is great fun and a particularly rewarding way to work!

Please enjoy this edition of Re:action. As always, feedback and ideas for inclusion in future issues is very much appreciated.

Best wishes

Professor Mark Spearing Vice-President (Research & Enterprise)

PLEASE SEND US YOUR FEEDBACK We are keen to receive your feedback about Re:action. If you have any ideas, comments or suggestions, please send them to reaction@southampton.ac.uk

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For further information, visit: www.southampton.ac.uk/ris

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IN THIS ISSUE

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FEATURE

The key to success: corporate collaborations

FEATURE

The rise of agri-science An industrial research partnership, working in Zambia, is aiming to improve global food security.

A spotlight on one of the University’s key strategic corporate partnerships and the impact being seen nationally.

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The psychology of weight loss

Breaking language barriers

FEATURE

Psychologists have developed a weightloss app based on behaviour change interventions.

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New approaches to fighting breast cancer Breast cancer charity funds research into therapeutic approaches to fighting secondary breast cancer.

FEATURE

Using research to improve foreign language learning in primary schools.

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News in brief

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Media highlights

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Research award highlights 3

Feature

THE RISE OF AGRI-SCIENCE Across the world we face growing issues of food security and nutrition. Climate change, unpredictable weather and lack of resources are very real problems for farmers and growers worldwide.

A leading-edge industrial partnership between University of Southampton and Syngenta, one of the foremost agriculture companies helping to improve global food security, has been working to produce agricultural scenarios, based on research data, which will assist farmers in decision making around crop planting and harvesting.

Southampton Principal Investigator, Jeremy Frey, Professor of Physical Chemistry, explains, ‘This project focuses on improving outcomes in primary crop production and therefore food security, by using advanced technologies to produce efficiency benchmarking for both productivity and environmental performance.

‘The team have undertaken research in both the UK and Zambia. Data is obtained using Internet of Things (IoT) based sensor networks for the local data and this is integrated with climate, weather and soil data from wider country/global data sources.

‘The data is analysed and categorised, and from it scenarios are drawn and then used to produce a modelling system. This is not about us telling farmers exactly how and when they should plant their crops, it is about illustrating scenarios that take into account as many external factors as possible that can be used to support farmers’ decision making.’

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For further information, visit: www.southampton.ac.uk/ifls

“ This project focuses on improving outcomes in primary crop production and therefore food security, by using advanced technologies to produce efficiency benchmarking for both productivity and environmental performance.”

Jeremy Frey Professor of Physical Chemistry

The three-year long project also involves AGCO, a company in the design, manufacture and distribution of agricultural equipment field, and the University of Aberystwyth. It has been funded though Innovate UK under the Agri-Tech Initiative and the Department for International Development (DIFID). Agriscience is one of the eight great technologies where the UK can link research strength to practical application to farming practices and the food industry.

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Professor Frey predicts there will be more of this type of project going forward, which combines data science and the semantic web to predict outcomes.

‘As the population increases, the global demand for food rises each year making agriculture a pertinent industry to advance through technology. We need to increase food supply, therefore ways need to be identified to maximise crop yield and that’s what this project has achieved.’

01 Zambian colleagues checking the sensors.

02 Solar powered sensor polls embedded in the soil.

03 Low power electronics to drives the sensors and wireless communication.

04 Setting up the solar powered sensor station in the Zambian fields.

Landscape of sunlight with fog, Thung Salaeng Luang National Park, Zambia

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Feature

Professor Crispin’s team is exploring innovative ways to develop anti-cancer antibodies that can detect and destroy breast cancer cells, including secondary breast cancer, without damaging surrounding healthy tissue.

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For further information, visit: www.againstbreastcancer.org.uk

NEW APPROACHES TO FIGHTING BREAST CANCER Charity research partnership breaking new ground in breast cancer research.

Charitable organisation, Against Breast Cancer (ABC), and Max Crispin, Professor of Glycobiology, have a partnership quite unlike any other. Having worked together for the past four years, the charity most recently relocated its research programme to the University of Southampton following Professor Crispin’s move south from the University of Oxford.

The collaboration between Professor Crispin’s team and Against Breast Cancer works because the two have such well aligned goals.

The ultimate aim of ABC is to stop secondary breast cancer from claiming lives, which goes hand in hand with the Glycoprotein Therapeutics Laboratory run by Professor Crispin. This is because the lab is developing new therapeutic approaches for the treatment of cancer based on refocusing of the immune system to destroy cancerous cells.

Professor Crispin explains, ‘Secondary cancer cells are decorated with abnormal sugars which are implicated in their ability to move around the body and establish secondary tumours. These sugars are potential targets for the antibody component of the body’s immune system. People who develop secondary cancer may benefit from antibodies that have been made that stick to these targets on cancer cells and render these secondary cancerous cells detectable by the immune system wherever they are in the body.’

Professor Crispin’s team is exploring innovative ways to develop anti-cancer antibodies that can detect and destroy breast cancer cells, including secondary breast cancer, without damaging surrounding healthy tissue.

Professor Max Crispin

He explains the extent of the collaborative nature of this cutting-edge research: ‘Against Breast Cancer is a remarkable charity. They realise the need for long-term support for challenging research programmes and our relationship has been cemented further by the charity’s continuing commitment to fund breast cancer research here at Southampton well into the future. We are lucky that the Against Breast Cancer research team includes

Professor Steven Beers and Dr Charlie Birts within the Centre for Cancer Immunology who have the expertise to determine the effectiveness of the new drug candidates in pre-clinical models.

‘Against Breast Cancer has also stayed loyal to its Oxfordshire roots and has begun to fund a series of research fellowships at Oriel College, Oxford, where I am a Supernumerary Fellow. This year, two Oxford-based researchers, Dr Simon Lord and Dr Andrew Blackmore, were appointed. These positions really act to strengthen the wider breast cancer community and help forge close links between Oxford and Southampton.’

ABC itself brings important partnerships to bear on the research programme; a donation it received from Cisco has funded a four-year PhD position recently awarded to Hannah Smith, a recent graduate from the University of Bath.

Professor Crispin and the team ensure that the relationship is two way; all of the Southampton team working with ABC have got involved in fundraising and dedicated time for talks and open days to help the charity educate and raise awareness among its donors.

ABC’s Jeanne Chattoe, Chair of Trustees’, told us about the importance of the research at Southampton, ‘We need new treatments that target all types of secondary breast cancer cells before they have the chance to grow into tumours wherever they may be in the body. One of the factors that make us unique for a smaller charity is our history of funding long term projects which is why we have committed £2 million to funding research at Southampton going forward.’

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For further information, visit: www.lifeguideonline.org

Feature

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF WEIGHT LOSS Online weight loss tool becomes mobile app

The psychology of weight loss and the motivations behind it have been well researched over the years. The application of that psychology to an online programme is something a group of researchers from the University have been working on, and it is being developed into a handy mobile app in partnership with a digital SME in order to benefit thousands of people through the NHS. Dr. Judith Joseph is a Senior ResearchEnterprise Fellow in the Department of Psychology and is a member of the Clinical and Community Applications of Health Psychology (CCCAHP) Group. The Group develops interactive health-related behaviour change interventions, and its LifeGuide research programme has attracted over £50 million funding in the past 10 years.

It is the Group’s POWeR (Positive Online Weight Reduction) intervention that has caught the attention of health professionals across the UK, and is currently being rolled out by Hampshire County Council to make it available to 1.8 million people. Solent NHS Trust have made it available to 235,000 people, and Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council will reach over 100,000 people.

POWeR was created by a large team, bringing together collaborations from across the University including Professor Lucy Yardley and Dr. Katherine Bradbury in Psychology, and Professor Paul Little in Medicine.

Dr. Joseph explains the most exciting development for POWeR, ‘We were awarded funding from Innovate UK to develop POWeR into an app, and we are now working with

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Changing Health, an SME who provide digital interventions for diabetes management to the NHS. The POWeR content will be integrated into their diabetes app and made available to the general public through the NHS.’ The POWeR intervention is based on the NICE guidelines for weight management and was carefully developed with users to ensure it is accessible, engaging and effective for a widerange of people, including different genders, ages and education levels, with or without long-term health conditions.

Users log on weekly to track their weight, set and review their eating and physical activity goals, and receive automated personalised advice based on their progress. Users can choose from sessions providing advice and support for behaviour change, including ‘POWeR tools’ which are behaviour change techniques and ‘POWeR stories’ – examples of how other people have successfully changed their behaviour using these methods.

In a large trial, 30% of individuals who used POWeR were able to lose a clinically important weight loss (5% weight loss – sufficient to halve the incidence of diabetes) at twelve months, with minimal support – just three emails and one brief phone call during the year from a practice nurse.

Dr Joseph says, ‘We are really pleased that the intervention is already helping so many people and will reach even more users once rolledout by Changing Health. This is the reason we work so hard to develop interventions that are effective and make a real difference to those that need it.’

The Group develops interactive healthrelated behaviour change interventions, and its LifeGuide research programme has attracted over £50 million funding in the past 10 years.

For further information, visit: www.southampton.ac.uk/supl

Feature

BREAKING LANGUAGE BARRIERS Teaching foreign language literacy in schools in the UK can be challenging and hard to resource. A number of research projects involving Dr Alison Porter, from the Department of Modern Language and Linguistics, are aiming to change all that and the benefits are already being seen UK wide. strategy-based reading materials including extended texts which targeted reading strategy use and specific sound/spelling links. The response from the practitioner community was so positive that we are now disseminating these resources across the UK and beyond.

Dr Porter has a wealth of experience teaching languages to adults and children in the UK and abroad. She knows how hard it can be to not only engage students in foreign language learning but also maintain their interest in the subject area.

‘It is more important than ever that we can communicate in other languages, but the dominance of Global English means that language learning in English-speaking settings can be a hard sell. Finding ways to support language use is likely to encourage learner motivation and, therefore, uptake’ she says.

‘I have been involved in a number of research and impact projects on this subject, all of which are in collaboration with institutions and organisations who have the same end goal as me – to improve and support foreign language literacy teaching and learning in schools. Following my time as a teacher, I undertook a PhD which experimented with creativity and independent language use in foreign language teaching in primary schools.

Over the course of a school year, I conducted research which aimed to trial and evaluate ways of teaching foreign language literacy to young, beginner learners. Despite relatively

limited spoken language proficiency, learners were ready and able to engage in independent and creative literacy practices. Children aged nine to 11 used their prior literacy experiences (in English and additional languages) to understand and produce written texts in French. However it was also apparent, for example when learning French sound/ spelling links, that the dominance of English sometimes complicated the learning process.

Dr Porter’s collaborative research with the Universities of Oxford and Reading (French Language Education: Unlocking Reading – FLEUR) involved working with 36 secondary schools and approximately 1,000 pupils aged 11–13. ‘We undertook what was essentially a teaching experiment, using three different ways of teaching foreign language literacy and observing which performed better in terms of reading aloud, understanding text, motivation to learn, pupil self-confidence, and vocabulary learning’ she says. The results will be published in the final report which is due to be released this month.

‘To conduct the experiment, the research team, in collaboration with participating teachers, produced a wealth of phonics and

‘My involvement in research in primary and secondary schools led to the founding of the University of Southampton Primary Languages Partnership (SUPL). I’m working closely with twenty local primary schools over a period of two years to get teachers thinking about changing practices and exploring issues such as: ‘Can focused literacy teaching improve language learning outcomes?’, ‘How do teachers and pupils react to different ways of teaching?’, ‘How do children learn different sounds?’ Teachers are now engaging in small-scale classroom research to develop, trial and evaluate French and Spanish literacy teaching practice.’

The most recent of Dr Porter’s work into this area, is a collaborative endeavour with several universities, led by the University of Essex. The Research in Primary Languages (RiPL) network aims to promote primary school foreign language learning research findings across the UK and beyond. RiPL is hosting a policy summit in London which is being attended by education stakeholders including The Department for Education, OFSTED, OFQUAL and national associations of headteachers and governors. The purpose of the day is to build sustainable partnerships to explore the opportunities and the challenges that primary foreign language education affords.

Dr Porter believes it’s a significant milestone ‘To be able to bring together all these stakeholders is no mean feat; we have so much to share from research collaborations – and are very much looking forward to discussions and hopefully the change and improvements that will come about as a result.’

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Feature

THE KEY TO

SUCCESS: CORPORATE COLLABORATIONS The University is a go-to partner for an impressive list of global businesses.

These strategic corporate partnerships centre on research, technology development and knowledge exchange, whilst also supporting graduate recruitment and alumni relations.

The Corporate Partnerships team, based in RIS, liaise continuously with industrial partners to understand their strategies, commercial drivers, technology needs

and business culture. It’s an on-going and continuously evolving connection, which has nurtured and developed some impressive collaborations.

Here we shine a spotlight on one such relationship, the exciting work being undertaken and the impact being seen nationally.

A Technology Day hosted by the University, involving 15 of Siemens UK Innovation Managers and around 40 academics from all faculties, was a spring board for both Siemens and Southampton’s academic community to gain an in-depth understanding of where capabilities and innovation needs overlapped.

UK university strategic partnership programme in 2012 to develop long term relationship around key innovation themes. We are very pleased that the University of Southampton has joined the group with a growing a number of strategic themes in Mobility and Digital technologies. We’re looking forward to a fruitful collaborative relationship.’

SIEMENS Our work with Siemens is a good example of the speed with which a strategic partnership can develop and embed because of the mutual benefits to both organisations. It also demonstrates the diversity such a relationship can have. Siemens portfolio includes rail infrastructure, MRI scanning technology, intelligent traffic systems and cutting edge AI applications and the University has been able to support across all these areas.

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Following the day, Professor Paul Beasley, Head of R&D, Siemens plc commented, ‘Siemens established its

For further information, visit: www.southampton.ac.uk/business/collaboration.page

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Feature

PROJECT SHOWCASE Nikki Matthews, Corporate Partnership Manager and the relationship lead between the University and Siemens, takes us through some of the live projects.

Door rig testing at NTAR.

PASSENGER TRAIN DOOR TESTING “ This partnership is one which enables co-creation of impactful research and provides our students with access to a leading global employer.”

Professor Mark Spearing Vice-President for Research and Enterprise

Southampton is ideally located on the doorstep of the Siemens Northam Train Depot, so has been able to work locally with Siemens on this site since 2013.

Nikki says, ‘The depot has hosted ten student projects over the last five years including a Group Design Project in which final year Mechanical Engineering students designed an operational rig to test components from the Siemens passenger train, ‘Desiro’s’, classic doors. The rig provides a versatile structure and a testing plan outlines how to use the rig, providing deeper understanding of the failure mechanisms of train door components.’

Spenser Hufton, Head of Training at Northampton based National Training

Academy for Rail (NTAR) explains, ‘This work has been further developed and is now used by Siemens in NTAR. The door rig has become an integral piece of practical learning for apprentices, service leavers and persons seeking education in traction and rolling.

It allows real time practical fault-finding, removing the risk of conducting such activities on a train that would be used for service.’

There are currently 300 traction and rolling stock apprentices that will be exposed to the door rig at NTAR. These apprentices have touch points with 21 train operating companies and all three major UK manufacturers; Hitachi, Alstom and Bombardier, so all skills learnt on the rig are being put back into the UK rail industry as a whole.

SIEMENS MOBILITY ‘Siemens Mobility Ltd incorporates both the rail and traffic arms of the company.

Our relationship with Mobility is well embedded through several long term collaborations.’ explains Nikki.

‘The UK Rail Research and Innovation Network (UKRRIN) was designed to create a powerful collaboration between academia and industry, providing a step-change in innovation in the sector and accelerating new technologies and products from research into market applications globally. Southampton was one of eight leading UK universities that founded 12

UKRRIN, which has secured £28M funding from HEFCE, boosted by £64 million from 17 industrial partners including Siemens.’

Rod Anderson, Rail Centre Coordinator at the University, explains, ‘Southampton is leading UKRRIN’s Centre of Excellence in Infrastructure which will host collaborative research and development by academic and industry partners. It will link primary railway infrastructure research centres, providing industry with one-stop access to leading facilities around the UK to accelerate improvements from research into practice.’

For further information, visit: www.southampton.ac.uk/business/collaboration.page

PHD STUDENT In 2016 Jonny Evans started his PhD at Southampton, sponsored by Siemens, in the Transportation Research Group – co-supervised by Dr. Ben Waterson and Prof. Tom Cherrett. Focusing on researching the influence of contextual data sources, the impact of such research will help detect incidents more quickly and reduce delays and emissions on the road network.

Paul Brookes, Global Innovation Manager for Siemens Mobility, Intelligent Traffic Systems, explains Siemens decision to get involved, ‘Two years ago, following feedback, we decided that sponsoring PhD research is more than just providing funding and an industrial mentor. We decided to encourage the researchers to interact in our business for part of their PhD and expose them to a wider range of company resources. With Jonny, his integration with the development team has delivered mutual value and allowed for real

world testing to inform both his research and our exploitation strategy.’

Jonny himself found the close links with Siemens invaluable, saying, ‘During my PhD I’ve been able to connect with Siemens in a number of ways, which has helped to bridge the gap between academia and industry. A big part of this has been being able to work at Siemens’ office in my last two years. I have collaborated with Siemens personnel to implement my research’s traffic forecasting algorithm, RoadCast, which has involved meetings with software developers, product managers and senior management, as well as paired programming with software architects. I’ve also been able to connect with industry experts both from Siemens and Siemens’ clients, resulting in a set of interviews which has guided my research.

This connection with Siemens has helped to give my research more relevance and contribution to today’s industry.’

MRI RESEARCH PARTNERSHIP A leader in medical technology, Siemens Healthineers is constantly innovating its portfolio of products and services in its core areas of diagnostic and therapeutic imaging and in laboratory diagnostics and molecular medicine, and is actively developing its digital health services and enterprise services.

Craig Buckley Head of Research at Siemens Healthineers explains, ‘The University, The University Hospital Trust and Siemens Healthineers have a long term partnership involving the supply, use and maintenance of

MRI scanners. This successful partnership is managed through the Siemens Healthineers Managed Equipment Service which allows the hospital access to the latest equipment and software versions providing a very unique opportunity to partner in research.’

Academics from a range of faculties work in partnership with UHS partners to use advanced MRI techniques, utilising the Siemens scanners in research projects focusing on brain injury and disease, psychiatry, neonatal and foetal, liver disease, lung conditions and oncology.

THE ROAD TO THE FUTURE Nikki is continuing the work with Siemens to expand the relationship and undertake more cutting edge research. ‘With Siemens innovations in AI and digital technologies which span all their sectors, there are opportunities for a variety of new research projects, student engagement and innovation activities.

‘It is very gratifying to see this mutually beneficial partnership develop between the University and Siemens.

With our aligned interests and expertise in the industrial applications of AI, machine intelligence, data curation and analytics, and social impacts of digital innovations; there are exciting opportunities to collaborate in research, education and enterprise projects.’

Professor Mark Spearing, VicePresident for Research and Enterprise concludes, ‘We very much welcome becoming a Siemens UK Strategic Partner University. With a solid long term partnership in engineering, we are looking forward to expanding our relationship further through our world class expertise in innovative digital technologies. This partnership is one which enables co-creation of impactful research and provides our students with access to a leading global employer.’

Whole brain tractogram.

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News in brief

NEWS IN BRIEF EPSRC AWARD OVER £1MILLION FOR NEXT GENERATION WEAR SENSING Professor Robert Wood (PI nCATS Engineering), Professor Mehesan Niranjan (Co-I ECS), Dr Nick Harris (Co-I ECS), and Dr Terry Harvey (Co-I nCATS Engineering) have been awarded just over £1m from EPSRC to study the early detection of contact distress for enhanced performance monitoring and predictive inspection of machines.

The project which is a partnership with General Electric Company, Schaeffler KG, Senseye and Shell, is centred around developing and investigating how well electrostatic micro-sensing arrays with embedded electronics detect tribological transitions related to wear and friction in machine component contacts. Tribology is the science and engineering of interacting surfaces in relative motion.

Professor Wood comments, ‘This grant will allow us to build on 20 years of research at Southampton into electrostatic based condition monitoring of tribological contacts to allow far better temporal and spatial resolution and thus earlier detection of distress. We are extremely pleased.’

The grant will build on existing collaborations through the two RAEng Visiting Professors to nCATS from Schaeffler and GE Aviation.

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NATURE OR NURTURE? Dr Mark Chapman, Lecturer in Ecology and Evolution, and Tom Ezard, in Ocean and Earth Sciences, have been awarded over £500,000 from NERC and BBSRC for research that looks at crop domestication as a model to help explain how populations diverge and new species form.

Not only will the project be answering fundamental questions about how new species form, but the findings could help to develop crops that can withstand different environmental stresses. In a future facing climate change and an increasing human population we need this sort of information to plan better strategies to feed more people.

The study will use domesticated Brassica crops such as turnips and cabbages, and compare them with their closest wild relatives. A pilot study revealed wild

turnips look different when grown in crowded and uncrowded conditions, to mimic a wild and cultivated environment, respectively. This suggests that plasticity (the ability to modulate the phenotype) of the wild relative may have been important in the origin of the domesticated species, ‘pushing it’ in the right direction for humans to select.

Dr Chapman comments, “We are excited to be awarded this grant which will use crop domestication as a model to help explain how populations diverge and new species form. Crops differ from their wild relatives in many traits, often making them unrecognisable as the same species, yet have diverged extremely recently in evolutionary terms. We think this is a great model to begin to unravel how plasticity could provide the raw material for population and species divergence.”

For further information, visit: www.southampton.ac.uk/ris

NERC URGENCY GRANT RECEIVED TO ASSIST WITH RESTORATION OF FIRE RAVAGED SADDLEWORTH MOORS The project, headed up by Dr Bjorn Robroek, Lecturer in Ecology, will first identify the immediate effect of the fire on the composition of the plant and microbial communities and how the fire with different intensities have affected microbial activity and ecosystem processes.

Dr Robroek with a meteorological station that collects environmental data. Credit: Dr Robert Mills.

A team in Biological Sciences team has received a NERC Grant, to assist with an urgent project that aims to speed up the recovery of the peatland ecosystem on Saddleworth Moor.

The Saddleworth Moor wildfires consumed 1000 hectares of peatland that contained a few centuries worth of slowly accumulated carbon, resulting in its release back into the atmosphere.

It will then run an innovative and unprecedented experiment where we inoculate the post-fire peatland subjected to disparate fire intensities with peat microbial inoculates from adjacent intact (i.e. unburned) peatlands to test whether such restoration actions can speed-up the recovery of the ecosystem, with emphasis on carbon-related processes.

Dr Robroek says, ‘This project will be the first of its kind to assess the use of inoculum to restore a post-fire ecosystem, with particular attention to the restoration on ecological processes. It’s a vital piece of work in terms of restoring Saddleworth Moor and providing data to help future wildfire sites.’

MULTI-DISCIPLINARY RESEARCH INTO BREAST CANCER AWARDED OVER £600,000 Salah Elias, a lecturer in Epithelial Cell Biology has been awarded the MRC New Investigator Research Grant for a multi-disciplinary research program, bringing together expertise from Stem Cell research and Physics and Mathematical research to uncover the role a cellular process called ‘oriented cell division’ plays in the control of normal breast development to work out what goes wrong in breast cancer.

Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women worldwide. In the UK alone, the number of new cases of breast cancer is estimated at 55,200, and around 11,400 patients die every year. The research will focus on the mechanisms that regulate the normal functions of breast stem cells and how their dysregulation leads to tumour growth.

Salah commented, ‘I am very excited to have been awarded the MRC New Investigator

3D confocal microscopy reconstruction of a breast tissue.

Research Grant at this early stage of my career. The grant will put me in the strongest position to build a multi-disciplinary research group, bringing together expertise from Stem Cell research, Mathematical/Computational Sciences and Cancer research. I am also very grateful for the impressive support of the various dedicated offices at the School of Biological Sciences, as well as of many colleagues who have been immensely helpful.’

Professor George Attard has been appointed as the new Pro Vice-Chancellor (Interdisciplinary Research) for a three-year term.

In his new post, George (pictured above) will be working with Professor Mark Spearing (Vice-President Research & Enterprise) on developing the University’s interdisciplinary research and enterprise strategy. He will also be responsible for supporting the University’s engagement with the Global Challenges agenda and with the UN’s Sustainability Goals.

Professor Attard said he felt privileged to take on the role: “The University has nurtured interdisciplinary research and education for over a decade, so I very much look forward to building on these foundations and to work with colleagues to establish new areas of distinction and distinctiveness for the University.

I am particularly looking forward to helping nurture and develop interdisciplinary research programmes that address the UN’s sustainability development goals. I am convinced that as an academic community we have both the determination and the capacity to make lasting and positive contributions to tackling existing and emerging societal challenges.”

Professor Attard has worked at the University since 1992, conducting research and teaching within the School of Chemistry, and as director of the Natural Sciences degree programme, within the Faculty of Environmental and Life Sciences.

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Media highlights

MEDIA HIGHLIGHTS

Credit: Black Sea Map

WORLD’S OLDEST SHIPWRECK DISCOVERED Researchers in Archaeology Ocean and Earth Science made global headlines after discovering the world’s oldest intact shipwreck in the depths of the Black Sea. Under the leadership of Professor Jon Adams, the Black Sea Maritime Archaeology Project (Black Sea MAP) involved some of the world’s pre-eminent marine archaeologists and maritime scientists from the UK, Bulgaria,

Sweden, the USA and Greece. Coverage extended across 41 countries with notable features broadcast on BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme and World Service, CNN online, Sky News, the front page of The Times, The Guardian, and across National Public Radio outlets across the USA.

OPTOELECTRONICS RESEARCH CENTRE ON BBC4 The many discoveries in optical fibres and data storage pioneered by the ORC featured during the last 10 minutes of a BBC4 TV programme entitled ‘The Secret Story of Stuff’ broadcast on Wednesday, 31 October, available to view on the BBC iplayer. i News gave the programme four stars and said it was a “surprisingly exciting and fun look at material science”.

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For further information, visit: www.southampton.ac.uk/news

Dr Blair Thornton, Chief Scientist of the Adaptive Robotics expedition aboard the vessel Falkor.

Professor Elena Simperel.

LARGEST 3D COLOUR RECONSTRUCTION OF THE SEAFLOOR

WHAT DOES AI MEAN FOR COMPANIES?

Rapid data analysis at sea leads to largest 3D colour reconstruction of the seafloor – a recent expedition led by Dr Blair Thornton has demonstrated how the use of autonomous robotics and artificial intelligence at sea can dramatically accelerate the exploration and study of hard to reach deep sea ecosystems. The 3D colour reconstruction of the seafloor created by the expedition is believed to be the largest – by area – in the world measuring more than 118,000 square metres. The story featured on the Science Daily and AZO Robotics websites.

Professor Elena Simperel shared her views on the digitisation of business processes and the value-add of IT at the SEMANTiCS 2018 conference which were distributed via a press release which has appeared in publications around the world including the Atlanta Times, San Francisco Post, Denver Journal and Chicago News-Journal.

WORLD’S FIRST TRIAL OF NEW THREE-PART CHILDREN’S CANCER TREATMENT Children with an aggressive form of cancer are being given new hope in a world-first trans-Atlantic clinical trial that will test a new three-part treatment. The study, involving doctors and cancer scientists in Southampton, the USA and Germany, will boost the body’s immune system to kill off neuroblastoma, one of the most common childhood cancers. It will be one of many to be conducted at the University of Southampton’s Centre for Cancer Immunology. The trial featured across a range of media including Channel 4 news.

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Research award highlights

RESEARCH AWARD HIGHLIGHTS FACULTY OF ARTS AND HUMANITIES Dr Lucy Blue; School of Humanities Ancient Akrotiri Project, Cyprus 2018 (Shoreline and Underwater Expedition at Dreamer’s Bay) Honor Frost Foundation; £23,810 over 6 months Prof Joanna Sofaer; School of Humanities Journey to the Beginnings European Commission; €200,000 over 24 months Dr Gillian Dow; School of Humanities Women Writers and the Romantic-Period Novel in Britain and France Leverhulme Trust; £48,891 over 12 months Dr Fraser Sturt; School of Humanities Exploring a submerged Pleistocene site off Happisburgh, UK The Leakey Foundation; £13,855 over 2 months Dr Daniel Ashton; Winchester School of Art with Dr Emma Agusita (PI; UWE) and Professor Jon Dovey (Co-I; UWE) Unexpected Enterprises – investigating the pedagogic potential of emerging forms of entrepreneurship for media enterprise education University of The West of England; £1,200 over 12 months FACULTY OF MEDICINE Dr Rebecca Cusack; Faculty of Medicine EMPRESS: A feasilibility study of Early Mobilisation PRogrammES in critical care National Institute of Health Research; £48,830 over 30 months Prof Donna Davies and Dr Chris Brereton; Clinical and Experimental Sciences Dissecting the intracellular and extracellular roles of lysyl oxidase-like 2 in human lung fibrosis AAIR Charity; £10,000 over 24 months Prof Sally Ward; Cancer Sciences Next generation antibody-drug conjugates for cancer therapy Cancer Research UK; £2,143,681 over 60 months

Dr Gabrielle Wheway; Human Development and Health Cellular mutation modelling of pre-mRNA splicing factors to elucidate their function at the primary cilium and their contribution to human disease Wellcome Trust; £49,084 over 24 months Prof Anthony Kendrick; Primary Care and Population Sciences NIHR 17/42/02 – Patient-reported outcome measures for monitoring primary care patients with depression: PROMDEP randomised controlled trial National Institute of Health Research; £831,472 over 36 months Dr Rebecca Cusack; Faculty of Medicine EMPRESS: A feasilibility study of Early Mobilisation PRogrammES in critical care National Institute of Health Research; £48,830 over 30 months Faisal Rezwan and Prof Deborah Mackay; Human Development and Health Wessex Medical Research In tegrating multiple omics data to solve childhood asthma pathogenesis puzzle Wessex Medical Trust; £18,646 over 12 months Faisal Rezwan and Prof Deborah Mackay; Human Development and Health Wessex Medical Research: Integrating multiple omics data to solve the childhood asthma pathogenesis puzzle Wessex Medical Trust; £18,646 over 12 months Prof Richard OC Oreffo; Human Development and Health Acellular / Smart Materials – 3D Architecture: UK RMP Hub MRC; £719,660 over 60 months Prof Delphine Boche; Clinical and Experimental Sciences Interplay between T cell immunity and innate neuroinflammation in primary Tauopathies Alzheimer’s Research UK; £486,372 over 36 months Prof Delphine Boche; Clinical and Experimental Sciences High resolution 3D imaging for Life Sciences Alzheimer’s Research UK; £76,825 over 12 months

Prof Paul Little; Primary Care and Population Sciences Little – Solent NHS RCF (June 2018) Solent NHS Trust; £15,625 over 6 months

Prof Delphine Boche; Clinical and Experimental Sciences Locus coeruleus: its role in cortical and subcortical inflammation in Alzheimer’s disease Alzheimer’s Research UK; £49,197 over 24 months

Prof Christian Ottensmeier; Cancer Sciences Ottensmeier, RWMF, UHS Lead, Wessex Neuroendocrine Tumour Fellow Southampton University Hospitals NHS Trust; £78,947 over 24 months

Prof Anneke Lucassen; Cancer Sciences Deliberating Non-Therapeutic Genetic Test Decisions in a Genomic Environment ESRC; £129,216 over 36 months

Prof Christian Ottensmeier; Cancer Sciences A randomised trial to evaluate optimal duration of anti-PD1 monoclonal antibody treatment in patients with metastatic melanoma Department Of Health; £63,854 over 124 months

Prof Nicholas Cross; Human Development and Health Bloodwise: The molecular pathogenesis of chronic myeloproliferative disorders and related conditions Bloodwise; £298,642 over 36 months

Prof Philip Calder; Human Development and Health PREVENTOMICS – H2020 DT-SFS-14-2018: Personalized Nutrition European Commission; £347,627 over 36 months

Prof Salim Khakoo; Clinical and Experimental Sciences S Khakoo via UHS Liver Stem Cell Research supplement to RP014703 (514843101) Southampton Hospital Charity; £80,869 over 24 months

Prof John Holloway; Human Development and Health Preconception environment and related epigenetic mechanisms in asthma and allergies The Research Council of Norway; £362,532 over 60 months

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For further information, visit: www.southampton.ac.uk/research

Assoc. Prof. Dr Hans Michael Haitchi & Professor Dr Donna E Davies; Clinical and Experimental Sciences, Faculty of Medicine The Impact of the asthma gene, ADAM33, on the innate immunity and susceptibility to allergic airways inflammation British Medical Association – Jon Moulton grant; £64,558 over 12 months Assoc. Prof. Dr Hans Michael Haitchi & Marieke Wandel (PhD student); Clinical and Experimental Sciences, Faculty of Medicine AAIR – Tissue Slicer for precision cut lung slices (PCLS) AAIR Charity; £7,558 over 6 months Dr Elizabeth R Davies & Assoc. Prof. Dr Hans Michael Haitchi; Clinical and Experimental Sciences, Faculty of Medicine AAIR – The role of EGFR inhibitors in neutrophilic asthma AAIR Charity; £10,975 over 12 months Joanne FC Kelly (PhD candidate) & Assoc. Prof. Dr Hans Michael Haitchi; Clinical and Experimental Sciences, Faculty of Medicine Study of proteins, lipids and oxidative stress markers in lungs from ADAM33 knock out mice that were challenged with allergen using proteomics, lipidomics and ‘oxidomics’ AAIR Charity; £5,780 over 3 months

Dr Miriam Santer; Primary Care and Population Sciences Solent NHS RCF – Trial Coordinator support for feasibility study of Andrographis for treatment of respiratory tract infection in primary care Solent NHS Trust; £9,652 over 6 months Dr Miriam Santer; Primary Care and Population Sciences Solent NHS RCF – Trial Coordinator support for feasibility study of SPOTless online intervention to support acne treatment in primary care Solent NHS Trust; £9,652 over 6 months Dr Sean Lim; Cancer Sciences Exploiting the innate and adaptive immune interface for effective cancer therapy Cancer Research UK; £1,647,389 over 60 months Prof Ramsey Cutress; Cancer Sciences BeGIN study BCN Tissue Bank (Ref TB2017SOT) YEAR 3 – 6 months supplement Breast Cancer Campaign; £22,448 over 6 months Prof Robert Read; Clinical and Experimental Sciences NIHR Global Health Research Unit on Mucosal Pathogens National Institute of Health Research; £54,738 over 24 months

Prof Helen Roberts; Human Development and Health Assessment of patients aged 65+ years with an upper limb fracture for frailty and sarcopenia for the prevention of future falls and fractures: a feasibility study National Institute of Health Research; £248,701 over 28 months

Dr Michael Clynes; Human Development and Health Does epigenetic age acceleration predict future musculoskeletal outcomes?

The Academy of Medical Sciences Clinical Lecturer Starter Grant; £30,000 over 24 months

Prof Andrew Lotery; Clinical and Experimental Sciences Monitoring for Neovascular AMD Reactivation at Home: the MONARCH Study National Institute of Health Research; £9,816 over 42 months

Prof Marie-Louise Newell; Human Development and Health The NIHR Global Health Research Group on leveraging improved nutrition preconception, during pregnancy and postpartum in SubSaharan Africa through novel intervention models, Southampton 1000 DaysPlus Global Nutrition, at the University of Southampton National Institute of Health Research; £908,466 over 36 months

Prof Andrew Lotery; Clinical and Experimental Sciences Lotery – Wellcome Trust – Deciphering AMD by deep phenotyping and machine learning Wellcome Trust; £1,430,524 over 60 months Prof Nuala McGrath; Faculty of Medicine Improving adult health in sub-Saharan Africa through couples-focused interventions for HIV, STIs and diabetes National Institute of Health Research; £1,999,990 over 60 months Mr Parwez Hossain; Clinical and Experimental Sciences Hossain – RCS – Real Time Pathogen Identification & Antimicrobial Sensitivties in Human Corneal Infection Using Microfluidic Impedance Cytometry Royal College of Surgeons Edinburgh; £59,628 over 12 months Prof Howard Clark; Clinical and Experimental Sciences Clark/Madsen/Postle – NIHR – The efficacy & mechanisms of surfactant therapy for critically ill infants with Bronchiolitis National Institute of Health Research; £243,143 over 44 months Dr Mark Jones; Clinical and Experimental Sciences AAIR – Mechanical phenotyping of lung mesenchymal cells AAIR Charity; £10,000 over 12 months

Prof Gareth Griffiths & Dr Simon Crabb; Cancer Sciences Clinical Research Committee, Clinical Trials Unit Programme Award Cancer Research UK; £3,551,356 over 60 months Prof Gareth Griffiths & Dr Andrew Cook; Cancer Sciences NIHR CTU Core contract 18–21 National Institute of Health Research; £204,000 over 36 months Prof Gareth Griffiths; Cancer Sciences Feasibility study of exercise and nutritional rehabilitation in patients with advanced cancer Marie Curie Cancer Care; £24,538 over 24 months Dr Yanghee Kim; Human Development and Health Development of Drug Delivery Biomaterials for Bone Regeneration MRC; £10,000 over 12 months FACULTY OF ENVIRONMENTAL AND LIFE SCIENCES

Dr Ingrid Muller; Primary Care and Population Sciences NIHR LaB2 (UEA lead) National Institute of Health Research; £3,217 over 16 months

Dr Sally Wheelwright and Prof Claire Foster; School of Health Sciences Development and pilot testing of a web-based decision aid for people with motor neurone disease considering a gastrostomy Marie Curie in partnership with the Motor Neurone Disease (MND) Association; £189,153 over 36 months

Dr Miriam Santer; Primary Care and Population Sciences Improving outcomes for patients with persistent non-cancer pain: using a holistic pain review (PROMPPT) delivered by clinical pharamcists in primary care correct National Institute of Health Research; £175,780 over 60 months

Prof Craig Hutton and Mr Christopher Hill; School of Geography & Environmental Science, Study for developing a programme addressing waterlogging in southern Bangladesh Department for International Development; £37,521 over 6 months

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Research award highlights Mr Christopher Hill; School of Geography & Environmental Science BRACED-X Building Resilience and Adaptation to Climate Extremes and Disasters – Mercy Corp/IIED Department for International Development; £66,854 over 12 months Dr Ben Ward; School of Ocean and Earth Science Understanding the links between pelagic microbial ecosystems and organic matter cycling in the changing Arctic Natural Environment Research Council; £121,778 over 36 months Prof Jane Hart; School of Geography & Environmental Science Using the latest technology to record to understand the retreat of two contrasting Icelandic Glaciers National Geographic Society; £37,190 over 24 months Dr Ken Collins; School of Ocean and Earth Science MARINEFF European Regional Development Fund; £328,926 over 48 months Professor David Sear PI, Geography and Environmental Science, in collaboration with GeoData.

Influence of valley confinement and floodplain infrastructure on morphological river changes during extreme flows. Defra/EA funded, building on NERC funded research following catastrophic storms in 2009 and 2015 Environment Agency; £29,350 over 9 months Prof Joanna Adams; School of Health Sciences Fatigue – Reducing its Effects through individualised support Episodes (FREE): A feasibility study for a randomised controlled trial National Institute of Health Research; £10,722 over 24 months Prof Lucy Yardley; School of Psychology Movember/Prostate Cancer UK TrueNTH The Prostate Cancer Charity; £12,464 over 35 months Prof Lucy Yardley; School of Psychology NIHR BRC PhD Studentship National Institute of Health Research; £60,111 over 36 months Prof Lucy Yardley; School of Psychology Southern Health NHS Trust 2018/19 Research Capability Funding Hampshire Partnership NHS Trust; £51,962 over 12 months Dr Nicholas Maguire; School of Psychology A values-based intervention in Houston Homeless Healthcare Patient Care Intervention Center; £86,757 over 24 months Prof Catherine Bowen; School of Health Sciences Nurse and AHP Career Development Internship Scheme Arthritis Research UK; £175,000 over 36 months Dr Maggie Donovan-Hall; School of Health Sciences Co-Applicant on the Fit-for-purpose, affordable body-powered prostheses with Salford University EPSRC; over all grant amount £1,390,143.97 over 36 months Prof Bill Keevil; School of Biological Sciences Exploring Novel Strategies for Control of Microbial Biofilm using Non-Thermal Plasmas MRC; £10,000 over 12 months Dr Amritpal Mudher; School of Biological Sciences How does insulin resistance increase risk of Alzheimer’s Disease?

Diabetes UK; £228,132 over 48 months Dr Clive Trueman; School of Ocean and Earth Science Coldfish: Potential benefits and risks of borealisation for fish stocks and ecosystems in a changing Arctic Ocean Natural Environment Research Council; £175,898 over 36 months

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Prof Wendy Adams; School of Psychology Adams Wellcome Trust – Emotion Stimuli (BVS) Wellcome Trust; £2,000 over 2 months Dr Werenfrid Wimmer; School of Ocean and Earth Science Copernicus Sentinel-3 (SLSTR) (SST) validation using FRM service European Space Agency; £111,526 over 24 months Prof Claire Foster; School of Health Sciences Enabling improved access to a key worker around the time of a cancer diagnosis Southampton University Hospitals NHS Trust; £70,744 over 15 months Prof Christina Liossi; Chair in Paediatric Psychology, School of Psychology End-of-Life pain management by carers and healthcare professionals in infants, children and young people in out of hospital settings (PARAMOUNT) Great Ormond Street Hospital’s Charity and Sparks; £116,737 over 24 months Prof Alberto Naveira Garabato; School of Ocean and Earth Science Bottom Boundary Layer Turbulence and Abyssal Recipes Natural Environment Research Council; £335,573 over 54 months Prof Antony Brown; School of Geography & Environmental Science Brown, Waves of colonization in and out of the Sea of Moyle: population history, resilience and landscape change of island communities AHRC; £521,074 over 36 months Mr Peter Worsley; School of Health Sciences Combining physiological sensing and biomarkers with intelligent support surfaces for closed loop prevention of chronic wounds EPSRC; £20,044 over 12 months Dr Anne-Sophie Darlington; School of Health Sciences Dr Arvind Nagra from UHS, Dr Anne-Sophie Darlington, School of Health Sciences, and Dr Alejandra Recio Saucedo, Research Fellow, NIHR Evaluation, Trials and Studies Coordinating Centre (NETSCC) GAME ON! Games and gamification to improve self-management in children and young people with chronic condition British Renal Society; £41,430 over 15 months Prof Daniel Bader; School of Health Sciences Skin Tissue INTegrity under Shear (STINTS) European Commission; £485,073 over 48 months Prof Cynthia Graham; School of Psychology Evaluating the Home-based Intervention Strategy (HIS-UK) to reduce new chlamydia infection among young men aged 16-25 years by promoting correct and consistent condom use: What is the cost effectiveness of two different delivery models (face-to-face and digital delivery)?

National Institute of Health Research; £992,212 over 56 months Prof Cynthia Graham; School of Psychology Feasibility study of the Home-based Exercises for Responsible Sex (HERS) intervention to promote correct and consistent condom use among young women MRC; £136,107 over 18 months Dr Mariana Vargas-Caballero; School of Biological Sciences Alzheimer’s Research UK South Coast Network Centre Grant Alzheimers Research UK; £52,000 over 12 months

For further information, visit: www.southampton.ac.uk/research

Prof Andrew Tatem; School of Geography & Environmental Science Strengthening Afghanistan Institutions capacity for monitoring and analysing of agriculture production” Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations; £222,574 over 18 months Prof Andrew Tatem; School of Geography & Environmental Science Mapping gender-disaggregated migration flows at subnational scales in and between low- and middle-income countries Flowminder Foundation; £87,060 over 12 months Dr Rosalind Coggon; School of Ocean and Earth Science Quantifying the variations in hydrothermal contributions to the Earth System Royal Society University Research Fellowship; £501,665 over 60 months Dr Mark Chapman; School of Biological Sciences The contribution of plasticity to adaptive divergence: domestication as a model Natural Environment Research Council/BBSRC; £473,142 over 36 months Dr Chuang Xuan; School of Ocean and Earth Science Stratigraphy and chronology of IODP Exp. 374 (Ross Sea West Antarctica Ice Sheet History) drill cores: Implications for West Antarctica Glaciations Natural Environment Research Council; £53,596 over 10 months Dr Eli Lazarus; School of Geography & Environmental Science Unnatural dynamics of flood deposits in built environments Leverhulme Trust; £281,029 over 36 months Dr Hannah Siddle; School of Biological Sciences Determining the likelihood of widespread transmission of a newly emerged transmissible cancer in the Tasmanian devil Morris Animal Foundation; £95,522 over 24 months Dr Brian Hracs; School of Geography & Environmental Science with Dr. Roberta Comunian at KCL Understanding and supporting creative economies in Africa: Education, networks and policy AHRC; £8,483 over 24 months Dr Rebecca Morris; School of Biological Sciences B Morris – Oxford lead El Nino Natural Environment Research Council; £3,896 over 6 months Dr Rebecca Morris; School of Biological Sciences Promoting resilience of subsistence farming to El Nino events in Papua New Guinea: an integrated social-ecological approach a/k/a El Nino Natural Environment Research Council; £13,474 over 25 months Dr Salah Elias; School of Biological Sciences Do Oriented Divisions Dictate Fate Decisions in Mammary Stem Cells?

MRC; £537,432 over 36 months FACULTY OF ENGINEERING AND PHYSICAL SCIENCES Prof Abubakr Bahaj; School of Engineering KAU – PV Shading King Abdulaziz University; £18,000 over 24 months Dr Roeland de Kat; School of Engineering Holistic Optical Metrology for Aero-Elastic Research (HOMER) European Commission; £559,235 over 36 months

Prof Dame Wendy Hall; School of Electronics and Computer Science PETRAS-IoT Data Management and Sharing Infrastructure: An Evolution of IoT Observatory (PEDASI) EPSRC; £119,761 over 8 months Prof Jeremy Frey; School of Chemistry Internet of Food Things EPSRC; £44,732 over 36 months for UoS Prof Andrea Russell; School of Chemistry Carbon-supported core-shell and nanowires core-shell nanocatalysts: Synthesis, characterization and in operando XAS study of their catalytic activity towards ethanol oxidation Royal Society; £7,900 over 24 months Prof Lajos Hanzo; School of Electronics and Computer Science H2020 MSCA IF 2017 L Hanzo – WPCN European Commission; £156,364 over 24 months Dr Guasoni; Zepler Institute for Photonics and Nanoelectronics H2020 – NultimODE light Shaping: from optical fibres to nanodevices (MODES) European Commission; £1,160,364 over 60 months Prof Philip Bartlett; School of Chemistry H2020-MSCA ITN-ImplantSens-P Bartlett-17.01.18 European Commission; £242,537 over 48 months Prof George Attard; School of Chemistry Prof Hywel Morgan, ECS evFoundry-G Attard – H2020 RIA European Commission; £359,981 over 36 months Prof Philippa Reed; School of Engineering Commonwealth Rutherford Fellowship Commonwealth Scholarship Commission; £23,024 over 12 months Em Pro Charles Banks; School of Engineering LUTRA OPT BBSRC; £10,000 over 6 months Prof David Thompson; School of Engineering Joint Research into Key Technologies Controlling Noise and Vibration for High-Speed Railways under Extremely Complicated Conditions Southwest Jiaotong University; £102,181 over 36 months Prof Periklis Petropoulos; Zepler Institute for Photonics and Nanoelectronics Photonic Phase Conjugation Systems (PHOS) EPSRC; £574,499 over 36 months Prof Andrea Russell; School of Chemistry Carbon-supported core-shell and nanowires core-shell nanocatalysts: Synthesis, characterization and in operando XAS study of their catalytic activity towards ethanol oxidation Royal Society; £7,900 over 24 months Prof Neil Sandham and Dr Ati Sharma; School of Engineering Extending the buffet envelope: step change in data quantity and quality of analysis EPSRC; £305,180 over 42 months Prof Neil Sandham and Dr Ati Sharma; School of Engineering UK Turbulence Consortium EPSRC; £16,771 over 48 months Dr Jacob Mackenzie; Zepler Institute for Photonics and Nanoelectronics Jacob MacKenzie- H2020-MSCA-ITN-ETN 17.01.18 European Commission; £485,076 over 48 months

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Research award highlights Prof Malcolm Levitt; School of Chemistry H2020 – ERC – FunMagResBeacon European Commission; £2,124,787 over 60 months Prof Jayanta Sahu; Zepler Institute for Photonics and Nanoelectronics Multi-Core Fibre Optic Gyroscope Defence & Security Accelerator; £71,251 over 9 months Prof Stefano Moretti; School of Physics and Astronomy Dark matter phenomenology in three-Higgs doublet models Royal Society Newton International Fellowship; £100,500 over 24 months Masanori Hanada; School of Physics and Astronomy Computational Approach to Quantum Gravity via Holography Science And Technology Facilities Council; £558,470 over 60 months Mr Matthew Himsworth; School of Physics and Astronomy Quantum sensing in dynamic environments at the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (DSTL) Royal Academy of Engineering Industry Fellowship. £17,771 over 12 months

Prof Robert Maunder; School of Electronics and Computer Science AccelerComm: Connected and autonomous vehicles Innovate UK; £12,470 over 18 months Prof Otto Muskens; School of Physics and Astronomy H2020 SMART-FLEX Otto Muskens 06.03.2018 European Commission; £413,126 over 30 months Prof Otto Muskens; School of Physics and Astronomy Extraordinary nonlinearities of light in complex media Leverhulme Trust; £319,290 over 36 months Prof Otto Muskens; School of Physics and Astronomy Maximising use of Chameleon Ultra II equipment EPSRC; £160,795 over 24 months Prof Otto Muskens; School of Physics and Astronomy Hiper-OSR European Space Agency; £23,077 over 12 months Dr Monica Ratoi; School of Engineering Lubrication of Polymers JXTG Nippon Oil & Energy Group; £101,538 over 36 months

Dr Jae-Wook Kim; School of Engineering J W Kim – Madeline – H2020 European Commission; £360,682 over 36 months

Prof Fabrice Pierron; School of Engineering Surgery enabled by ultrasonics EPSRC; £766,312 over 60 months

Prof Liudi Jiang; School of Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) between University of Southampton and Blatchford Products Ltd Innovate UK & Blatchford; £246,341 over 36 months

Dr Kai Yang; School of Electronics and Computer Science Advanced e-textiles for wearable therapeutics EPSRC; £479,282 over 36 months

Dr Benjamin Mills; Zepler Institute for Photonics and Nanoelectronics LEAF-2D – H2020 FET OPEN 2017 European Commission; £467,023 over 36 months Prof Francesco Poletti; Zepler Institute for Photonics and Nanoelectronics H2020 EMPRESS F POLETTI 04/09/2017 European Commission; £49,948 over 36 months Prof Francesco Poletti; Zepler Institute for Photonics and Nanoelectronics Microbend Resistant Hollow Core Fibres Innovate UK; £166,791 over 24 months Prof Sumeet Mahajan; School of Chemistry Affordable Photonic Devices for Healthcare Monitoring: Ultra-sensitive Detection using Laser-fabricated Nanomaterials Royal Society; £11,000 over 24 months Prof Sumeet Mahajan; School of Chemistry Protein-gold Nanoclusters for Highly Sensitive Label-free Cellular Imaging Royal Society; £6,000 over 23 months

Dr Katherine Plant; School of Engineering CRoss-Modal Intervention Training to Improve Cyclist Awareness Levels (CRITICAL) project Road Safety Trust; £111,611 over 18 months Dr Roeland De Kat; School of Engineering HOMER- R de Kat – H2020 RIA MG 2017 European Commission; £559,235 over 36 months Prof Graeme Day; School of Chemistry Active Learning for Computational Polymorph Landscape Analysis EPSRC; £251,034 over 18 months Dr Benno Meier; School of Chemistry Rapid-Transfer Dynamic Nuclear Polarization EPSRC; £796,000 over 48 months Prof Elena Simperl; School of Electronics and Computer Science H2020 MSCA ITN-ETN-2018 – 17.01.2018 European Commission; £485,076 over 48 months Dr Simone De Liberato; School of Physics and Astronomy University Research Fellowships Renewals Royal Society; £302,617 over 36 months

Prof Xunli Zhang; School of Engineering DOSA – Diagnostics for One Health and User Driven Solutions for AMR ESRC; £303,757 over 36 months

Dr Yongqiang Liu; School of Engineering Investigation of an economic and non-invasive ultrasonic sludge treatment technology to improve both biogas production from anaerobic sludge digestion and thickening BBSRC; £9,395 over 6 months

Prof Mahesan Niranjan; School of Electronics and Computer Science The ai corporation UoS KTP Innovate UK; £108,540 over 24 months

Prof Themistoklis Prodromakis; School of Electronics and Computer Science H2020 – MSCA IF 2017 T Prodromakis 14.09.2017 European Commission; £141,119 over 24 months

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For further information, visit: www.southampton.ac.uk/research

Dr Min Kwan Kim; School of Engineering Printed Non-Thermal Plasma Yarn for Plasma Assisted Decontamination of Chemical and Biological Agents Defence & Security Accelerator; £56,677 over 9 months Dr Caitriona Jackman; School of Physics and Astronomy From the Sun to the Outer Solar System: A holistic approach to planetary space weather Royal Society International Exchange; £11,700 over 24 months Dr Diego Altamirano; School of Physics and Astronomy Spectral and Timing Analysis of Black Hole X-ray binaries with China’s first X-ray satellite HXMT Royal Society; £99,000 over 24 months Dr Diego Altamirano; School of Physics and Astronomy Multiwavelength observations of Be/X-ray Binaries displaying giant (Type II) outbursts Royal Society; £99,000 over 24 months Prof Stephen Goldup; School of Chemistry Mechanically Chiral Rotaxanes as Ligands for Gold Catalysis Royal Society; £99,000 over 24 months Dr Poshak Gandhi; School of Physics and Astronomy LSST:UK Pool Travel Fund £500 LSST@Europe3 – Michael Johnson University of Edinburgh; £400 over 24 months Dr Poshak Gandhi; School of Physics and Astronomy LSST:UK Pool Travel Fund (LSST TVS workshop) – Michael Johnson University of Edinburgh; £560 over 12 months Dr Sebastian Hoenig; School of Physics and Astronomy H2020 MSCA IF S Hoenig 14.09.2017 European Commission; £146,764 over 24 months Dr Charles Ryan; School of Engineering High voltage conversion unit for electrospray cubesat propulsion UK Space Agency; £24,365 over 6 months Dr Andrew O’Bannon; School of Physics and Astronomy Universality, Holography, and Boundary Conformal Field Theory.

Royal Society; £283,542 over 36 months Dr Lloyd Fletcher; School of Engineering Imaging Impact: Image-Based Methods for Dynamically Testing Bone – Fletcher, Lloyd – Leverhulme ECR Fellowship Leverhulme Trust; £81,883 over 36 months Dr Blair Thornton; School of Engineering Mapping in the Background: Seafloor Imaging using Fleets of Low-Cost Benthic Drifters EPSRC Innovation Fellowship; £612,102 over 36 months Dr Massimiliano Manfren; School of Engineering HEART Politecnico Di Milano; £44,698 over 48 months Dr Alexander Wittig; School of Engineering Improving Orbital Predictions for Clouds of Space Debris through Differential Algebra Integrators Royal Society; £12,000 over 24 months Dr Alexander Wittig; School of Engineering Space applications of mixed and virtual reality for scientific data visualisation UK Space Agency; £74,457 over 6 months

FACULTY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES Prof Sally Brailsford; Southampton Business School, CORMSIS Evaluation of the Kent Community of Practice for Advancing Applied Analytics using System Dynamics modelling to harness the power of the Kent Integrated Dataset.

Kent County Council; £29,550 over 15 months Prof Nils Andersson; School of Mathematical Sciences Andersson STFC NL- Gravitational-wave Excellence through Alliance Training (GrEAT) Network with China Science And Technology Facilities Council; £5,357 over 24 months Prof Gabriele Durrant; School of Economic, Social and Political Sciences Moore/Durrant – Understanding Society – Survey Methods Fellowship Understanding Society Institute for Social and Economic Research; £57,836 over 12 months Prof Christopher Howls; School of Mathematical Sciences Resurgence and parametric asymptotics: exact results at all scales EPSRC; £483,638 over 60 months Prof Maria Evandrou and Prof Athina Vlachantoni; School of Economic, Social and Political Sciences ESRC Strategic Think Piece on Ageing 8/05/2018-20/06/2018 ESRC; £10,000 over 1 month Dr Elisabeth Schroeder-Butterfill; School of Economic, Social and Political Sciences Understanding Social, Economic and Health Vulnerabilities in Indonesia Australian Research Council; £16,237 over 48 months Prof Patrick Sturgis; School of Economic, Social and Political Sciences Sturgis ESRC An Investigation of Social Mobility Using the ONS Longitudinal Study: sub-national variation and effects of selective education – Westminster leading ESRC; £42,248 over 18 months Miss Willeke Rietdijk; Southampton Education School Mind and Life Francesco J. Varela Award for project titled: A microphenomenological exploration of Vipassana meditators’ experiential shifts into deeper meditation Mind and Life Europe; £11,149 over 24 months Prof Kostas Skenderis; School of Mathematical Sciences Withers Ben URF – Applied gauge-gravity duality beyond equilibrium Royal Society; £439,900 over 60 months Prof Marika Taylor; School of Mathematical Sciences H2020-MSCA-IF-2016-BH-STRING-HOLO-DavidTurton/ MarikaTaylor(PI)-14/09/16 European Commission; £156,364 over 24 months Prof Christian Enemark; School of Economic, Social and Political Sciences Emergent Ethics of Drone Violence: Toward a Comprehensive Governance Framework (DRONETHICS).

European Commission; £1,087,479 over 48 months Dr Andreas Schmitt; School of Mathematical Sciences Dense nuclear and quark matter in neutron stars from holography Leverhulme Trust; £92,587 over 24 months

Prof David White; School of Engineering EPSRC Supergen Offshore Renewable Energy Hub EPSRC; £305,911 over 48 months

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