Methane oxidising bacteria are very important in the environment since they are a key link in the global biogeochemical methane cycle and oxidise methane in many environments such as wetlands, paddy field soils and landfills before this methane is released into the environment. They thereby mitigating the effects of this potent greenhouse gas and reduce global warming. Methane monooxygenase (MMO) is a bacterial enzyme that catalyses the first step in methane oxidation by bacteria. It is of great interest to chemists because it oxidises methane to methanol at ambient temperatures and pressures, a reaction normally requiring high temperatures and pressures and expensive catalysts. MMO is very unusual in that it will also oxidise very many other alkanes, alkenes and aromatic compounds and their substituted derivatives and therefore it has great potential for use as a biocatalyst in biotransformations and bioremediation in 'green chemistry' reactions that are less polluting than traditional chemical routes. The structure of MMO has been the subject of considerable interest for biologists because of this broad substrate specificity and one aim has been to try to understand how the structure of the enzyme allows the catalysis of such a wide range of compounds and how changing its structure by mutagenesis, forced evolution or construction of mutant and hybrid enzymes will alter its catalytic utility. This is an ambitious grant proposal from world experts in the molecular biology and biochemistry of MMO. We propose to construct key mutants in the active site of MMO and to examine the effects on catalysis of key substrates and to manipulate this enzyme in order to be able to define the pathway of entry of substrates into the active site and to generate novel recombinant enzymes which are able to oxidise new substrates. We also aim to define how the different components of the enzyme interact with each other and how the mechanisms of substrate entry and electron transfer pathways to the site of oxidation in MMO are carried out. In a novel approach, we also wish to carry out 'gene mining' from the environment to capture DNA sequences that encode MMO or related di-iron centre monooxygenases in order to be able to construct new and exciting biocatalysts. This will involve the use of a technique called DNA-Stable Isotope Probing (DNA-SIP) which we originally developed in order to be able to define the population structure of active methane oxidising bacteria in the environment. This involves feeding 13C-substrates such as methane to bacteria contained within environmental samples such as soils. Only the active methanotrophs with MMO will be labelled with this heavy stable isotope. We can then isolate the heavy DNA (containing the whole genomes of methanotrophs and related bacteria) encoding MMO and its relatives from all of the DNA from the thousands of non-methanotrophic bacteria present in soil by density gradient centrifugation. By use of the polymerase chain reaction (PCR), we can then isolate novel MMO sequences from previously uncultivated bacteria which can subsequently be stitched into plasmids that we have developed which allow us to recreate novel MMOs with unusual biocatalytic properties. Analysis of these recombinant enzymes will shed light on the mechanism of action of MMO and also generate new and novel biocatalysts with potential for use in industry in non-polluting biotransformation reactions.

State-of-the art Virtual Reality (VR) technologies designed for gaming offer new opportunities for social and economic benefits in their application to education. This project will pioneer the use of mainstream PlayStation VR technologies for innovative educational applications which engage world-wide audiences in the Europe’s rich historical and scientific heritage. Supported by the R&D team at Sony Interactive Entertainment Europe (SIEE), it will actively inform and map the processes and technologies required for SMEs to successfully bring new gamified VR applications to Sony’s online PlayStation Store. The resulting technology and tools will provide an infrastructure for creating educational VR experiences and generate new business opportunities outside of traditional gaming activities on the PlayStation platform. In the process it will create inclusive narrative-driven VR experiences which improve the social and physical accessibility of cultural heritage and contribute to the digital preservation of historical sites.

We welcome the AHRC's identification of Design as a strategic priority. The Art and Design research centre at Sheffield Hallam University has a rich tradition of design research and practice spanning over 20 years. Over the last 5 years this expertise has been brought to bear on the complex and hitherto untapped potential of design in Health and social care. This critical mass of work has been centred around two specific collaborations within the research centre. Firstly Lab4Living, which is a partnership between researchers in health and design, between practitioners and designers and, most importantly between individuals who use products and services and the designers of these (www.lab4living.org.uk). Secondly the National Institute of Health Research (NIHR) funded User-centred Healthcare Design (UCHD). UCHD is another multidisciplinary project specifically exploring the use of design theory and practice in healthcare (www.uchd.org.uk). These collaborations have resulted in the International Design4Health conference being held in 2011 and 2013 (http://www.design4health.org.uk/) This conference and associated activities have provided an excellent focus for the discussion around the translation of design research into healthcare and have linked business, university and third sectors around a bewildering array of projects. The conversations around the key challenges for this area of design have started in this forum, but the AHRC funding would allow a literature review and a series of seminars to explore the key themes identified at the close of the last conference, namely: Languages of evaluation across design and health projects How to articulate Design's unique contribution to the field of healthcare innovation The range of modes of engagement with health care that designers can have The first stage of the proposed project would be to commission a comprehensive literature review to determine the range and amount of activity already underway in the UK and internationally in design for health. This would provide a sound evidence base for the second phase of the work. The conference steering committee already has excellent representation from across the UK design academic landscape, who alongside those with experience of Healthcare and Health research, would be able to start to frame and then answer the questions, and ground the answers in the practical experience of delivering projects. The latter part of the project will translate the outputs of the literature review and workshops into an engaging digital form of dissemination All of these activities will have a natural outlet in the Design4Health conference 2015.

The FORESIGHT project aims to develop a federated cyber-range solution to enhance the preparedness of cyber-security professionals at all levels and advance their skills towards preventing, detecting, reacting and mitigating sophisticated cyber-attacks. This is achieved by delivering an ecosystem of networked realistic training and simulation platforms that collaboratively bring unique cyber-security aspects from the aviation, smart grid and naval domains. The proposed platform will extend the capabilities of existing cyber-ranges and will allow the creation of complex cross-domain/hybrid scenarios to be built jointly with the IoT domain. Emphasis is given on the design and implementation of realistic and dynamic scenarios that are based on identified and forecasted trends of cyber-attacks and vulnerabilities extracted from cyber-threat intelligence gathered from the dark web; this will enable cyber-security professionals to rapidly adapt to an evolving threat landscape. The development of advanced risk analysis and econometric models will prove to be valuable in estimating the impact of cyber-risks, selecting the most appropriate and affordable security measures, and minimising the cost and time to recover from cyber-attacks. Innovative training curricula, guiding cyber-security professionals to implement and combine security measures using new technologies and established learning methodologies, will be created and employed for training needs; they will be linked to professional certification programs and be supported by learning platforms. Aside from the development of skills, the project aims at a holistic approach to cyber-threat management with the ultimate goal of cultivating a strong security culture. As such, the project puts considerable emphasis on research and development (i.e. research on cyber-threats, development of novel ideas, etc) as the key to increasing training dynamics and awareness methods for exceeding the rate of evolution of cyber-attackers

Abstracts are not currently available in GtR for all funded research. This is normally because the abstract was not required at the time of proposal submission, but may be because it included sensitive information such as personal details.