Lignin is a polymer found in plant cell walls, and is the most abundant source of renewable aromatic material on Earth. Lignin therefore represents a valuable raw material for generation of renewable chemicals, which will help society to reduce its dependance on crude oil for production of chemicals and materials such as plastics. Converting lignin into renewable chemicals is a very difficult challenge, because it is very hard to break down, and it is very heterogeneous (mixture of different structural units). Researchers at Warwick University have recently discovered several soil bacteria that can break down lignin, and specific enzyme biocatalysts that can oxidise lignin, and through a BBSRC/FAPESP FAPPA award have collaborated with CTBE in Brazil to identify new lignin-degrading enzymes through genome sequencing, and to develop new "biosensors" that could be used to engineer recombinant lignin-degrading micro-organisms that could break down lignin to high-value chemicals. The proposal brings together expertise in cellulosic ethanol production and metagenomic DNA sequencing (CTBE) with expertise in biocatalytic lignin valorisation (Warwick) and biocatalysis for high value chemicals production (Manchester, UCL). The overall aim is to use synthetic biology to break down lignin to intermediate ferulic acid, which has been generated from lignin via bacterial fermentation in previous work, and then to convert ferulic acid via biocatalysis into high-value chemicals. The project will : 1) optimise a lignin stream for the project from cellulosic bioethanol production at the CTBE pilot plant; 2) convert lignin into ferulic acid from lignin using synthetic biology; 3) enzymatically convert ferulic acid into a high-value pharmaceutical chemical, L-Dopa; 4) generate high value fragrance chemicals (coniferyl acetate, isoeugenol) from ferulic acid; 5) scale up chemicals production from renewable feedstocks; 6) assess the technical and sustainability impact of the methods developed in the project.

This century is set to be the century of the city. Ever-increasing urbanisation is proceeding against a backdrop of advances in digital technologies and data availability and analysis, which are having profound effects on the ways that the future of cities is unfolding. Emerging from this intersection of urban growth and 'big data' is the discipline of urban science which can assist governments, industry and citizens to move beyond imperfect understanding and use data to undertake tasks such as optimising operations (e.g. service delivery, traffic flow), monitoring the condition of infrastructure (e.g. bridge conditions, water leaks), planning new, more efficient, infrastructure (e.g. public transport, utilities provision), responding to abnormal conditions (e.g. hazard detection, emergency management), developing new and effective policies (e.g. road pricing, energy efficient buildings), enhancing economic performance and, informing and communicating with citizens to improve quality of life. This Centre for Doctoral Training (CDT) is designed to play a leading role in the emergence and development of urban science. It will establish urban science as a field of study and focus of scientific inquiry. This new field needs trained cross-disciplinary researchers, who have the skills to integrate diverse branches of knowledge to address a range of important current and future policy drivers. It will build capacity within the UK HE sector to deliver novel solutions in the urban science domain, both nationally and internationally. Importantly, it will do so in an interdisciplinary environment, e.g. by exploiting synergies between computer science, engineering, mathematics and social science. Solutions to urban issues require a tri-partied relationship between academia, public bodies and the private sector. This CDT will work alongside government agencies and industry partners in the UK and abroad. The importance of urban science and appropriate cross-disciplinary research is central to our CDT approach. The potential benefits and impact are listed by the leader of Birmingham City Council as including "mak[ing] a real difference to tens of thousands of Birmingham residents", "saving £Ms in operating costs", and "deliver[ing] a legacy of change through the training of individuals who have real expertise in their area". The deputy mayor of New York states that the centre can "develop scientific solutions that will have direct impact on billions of the world's population." This CDT provides a UK training environment that is part of a wider international programme, which offers training alongside international city experts, and benefits from the support of leading industry practitioners. No one in the world is tackling urban challenges at this scale. By leading the research agenda on the science of cities, educating the next generation of experts in how to apply that research, bringing innovative ideas to a world market, and creating new, fast-growing industry solutions and the many jobs that go with them, this UK-led CDT will be at the centre of the global stage in this field. The CDT will adopt a 1+3 (MSc+PhD) training model that is high-quality and rigourous, to produce multiple cohorts of successful, highly-employable graduates. It promotes an international student experience; students will work alongside a larger student cohort from NYU, CUNY, Carnegie Mellon University, University of Toronto and IIT Mumbai; it allows our students unprecedented access, in the UK and overseas, to existing city operations, to utilize existing and newly emerging data streams, and to explore and deploy novel urban sensors; it enables students to work alongside industry luminaries, leaders in public service and citizens, to understand, measure and improve urban systems; and it provides value for money to the UK through 50+ PhDs who will receive discipline-defining training from world-class institutions.

Advances in healthcare IT systems have resulted in complex socio-technical architectures, which deliver integrated and patient-centered services. All these transformations, in addition to clinical benefits, they also introduce risks including security risks that need to be understood and managed, reduced to acceptable levels. There are numerous reports of new types of security vulnerabilities for this kind of architectures, which challenge the effectiveness of the current security tools. MEDSECURANCE will conceive novel methodologies, infrastructures, and technologies that enable an effective, harmonious and continuous development and evolution of secure system engineering management activities in Internet of Medical Things (IoMT). Our objective is to advance knowledge and basic understanding of decision making in diverse IoMT threat landscapes based on different system and component level interactions. This is accomplished via the development of a novel holistic strategy that considers the interdependence of several IoMT subsystems, information exchange, risk thresholds, and regulatory ramifications. We provide scalable and verifiable secure system engineering management solution(s) that capture, communicate, and act on these complexities in order to improve decision-making in cyber defence while automating cybersecurity assurance. Our solution(s) will be co-developed and validated with our medical industry user partners, and complemented by engagement of healthcare industry stakeholders in support of the recommendations to existing guidelines that will also be developed in the project.

Humans are built from lots of cells. Rather than being boring building blocks, the interior of each cell is a busy world where proteins are made and go to work, constantly moving around. This allows each cell to eat, drink, reproduce, and much more. We are interested in the cell's membrane trafficking system: a transport network of different types of membrane vesicles that important proteins can travel in. Membrane trafficking ensures that cargo proteins go to the right place at the right time. This keeps cells functioning healthily and normally. We recently found a new type of vesicle and we now want to understand it in more detail. These vesicles are called intracellular nanovesicles, or INVs for short. In cells, when a vesicle is formed, it gathers the proteins that it will take and buds from its origin. It must then be transported to its destination where it fuses with the target membrane. You can think of this as the vesicle's life cycle: they are born, they travel and then they die when they deliver their important cargo. In this project we want to document the life story of INVs. We will focus on their "early years". How are they born? How do they travel? Which friends do they carry along the way? Very little is known about INVs because they were only recently discovered. The details of the life story of INVs is likely to change how cell biologists think about the membrane traffic system.