This project brings together a team of researchers at the University of Hull and three external stakeholder groups - Hull City Council; Groundwork and Probe - to explore how Citizen Inquiry methodologies and digital technologies can improve the quality of research that has public value. An important part of our work is to ensure our research is informed and used by the people who live in the communities around us. Citizen Science is a way of designing research that involves the general public or 'citizens' as contributors and collaborators in the project. There are various methods that we can use to carry out these inquiries but there are also many barriers and challenges that typically hinder academic researchers in universities from engaging the general public with Citizen Science. One of these is small participation rates and participation which is biased towards white, middle-aged and higher-income people (Defra, 2015) This is an issue that the project will challenge by exploring how researchers and the public can co-design research designed that meets the needs of a more diverse range of the population, particularly hard to reach and under-represented communities - the communities that we most want to work with. One approach is called Citizen Inquiry which is more participatory in nature and can involve the public is designing the research, collecting and analyzing data and sharing the findings. Digital technologies, such as mobile phones, often play a significant part in this process and this project will explore their effectiveness in engaging groups that are seen as hard to reach and traditionally reluctant to engage in citizen science, such as young people. The primary aim of the project is to explore how to convince academic researchers that Citizen Science is worthwhile and can add value to their research. We contend that Citizen Inquiry with its greater participatory approach is more likely to achieve this, through, for example, helping researchers to design more effective research questions that focus on issues of greater value to the public. To explore and verify this assumption the project will work with a specific cohort of researchers at the University of Hull who are currently exploring the issue of plastics waste as part of a larger project on plastics funded by the EPSRC. These researchers are part of a team working in what is referred to as the Plastics Collaboratory at the University of Hull. The project will investigate the barriers that traditionally inhibit these researchers from engaging more with the public in the research process itself and those that inhibit the three stakeholder groups themselves from working more closely with the research community. In the first phase of the project (January - February 2020) this will involve interviews and focus groups with a cross-section of participants from these different communities, leading to a project report and set of recommendations. In the second phase of the project (March-April, 2020), the research community and the three stakeholder groups will be brought together in a collaborative half-day workshop to share their collective wisdom on the issue and to explore how they might use Citizen Inquiry methodologies in the future. This workshop will include practical, hands-on-sessions to explore how mobile technologies and particular apps can be used to undertake Citizen Inquiry projects, laying down a foundation for further activities and engagement beyond the lifetime of the project itself which, if funded, will run from January to April, 2020. The project will conclude in April 2020 with an open conference bringing together researchers and interested stakeholder groups to share the findings from the research and to explore further opportunities to design collaborative research projects and seek additional funding.

To develop communications ? low cost live link to remote door controllers and internet based interface allowing residents to 'view' their own blocks via 'interactive' map.

The Thirty Years War (1618-48) was one of the most destructive conflicts in European history and claimed around 8 million lives. Its causes are associated with long-term changes in European political, economic and religious life. Its settlement at the Peace of Westphalia is widely seen as the birth of the modern international order of sovereign states. While there are a large number of specialist studies of many aspects of the war, there has not been a substantial single­ authored volume in English since 1938 and general treatment in other languages is patchy. This project fills this important gap. The book will provide comprehensive analysis of the war's causes, conduct and consequences. It will argue that it was neither a narrow 'German war', nor a general international struggle, but a distinct conflict over the political and religious balance within Central Europe that was related to other competition for regional dominance in western, northern and eastern Europe. In addition to discussing the political, military and religious dimensions, the analysis will draw on new approaches, notably the concept of 'war experience' that investigates the personal and psychological impact of fighting in early modern Europe.

The beds of most alluvial river channels are not flat, but comprise a series of undulating sedimentary accumulations termed 'bedforms' that include ripples and dunes. These bedforms exist over a range of scales, and are constantly moving and changing their shape, size and form in response to changes in flow discharge. These bedforms are the primary roughness elements that provide resistance to the water flow. The response of bedforms to a changing discharge is therefore critical for predicting flood inundation levels. Changes in flow discharge are more rapid than changes in the bedforms, such that bedforms are commonly out of equilibrium with the flow. This is very important as the vast majority of our bed-phase diagrams (stability field predictors that relate flow velocity and sediment size to the bedform types likely to be present), morphodynamic simulations, and numerical model predictions assume simplified bed morphologies that are based on equilibrium bed states and constant discharges. Consequently, many feedbacks within our models and predictions are either ignored or highly simplified. This is a significant shortcoming as it is these models that are used, especially in more populated and urban areas, to meet demands on safety against flooding, navigation, hydropower, aggregate mining and water supply. The astute management of these rivers is paramount, putting high demands on accuracy in design, implementation and monitoring. If such models are to be improved, then new fundamental understanding is required of the processes that underlie the dynamics of bedform adjustment to unsteady flow and ways of integrating such knowledge into modelling practice. As a step towards this goal, there is a need to link hydraulic controls, the response of sediment transport processes and morphological adjustment, and the changes in form drag and bed resistance to a range of unsteady flows. Once established, these relations can be used to help improve our understanding of these dynamic processes and predict better the river stage for a set of given discharge changes. This project will delineate these processes using a combination of (i) novel laboratory investigations in a state-of-the-art flume that will quantify the flow structure and sediment transport over fixed and mobile beds as stage varies, (ii) intense fieldwork during flood events in the Mississippi River that will map and quantify changes in bed morphology, flow structure and sediment transport, and (iii) development and application of an innovative numerical model of unsteady flow over a deformable 3D boundary. This modelling work will ensure that the results are generic and have a wider appeal, notably in the improvement of models that provide flood predictions and inform environmental management decisions. All data and output will be made freely available via scientific outlets but also through public dissemination events, the internet and via a GoogleEarth based XML interface.

Since the start of the current century the world at large has experienced uncertainty as a result of climate changes, epidemics, terrorist threats and increasing amount of economic upheaval. These uncertainties create risks for the proper functioning of supply chains. The implications for any organization faced with potential risks such as fire, theft, flood and terrorist attacks are huge. Recently, the toy industry has faced issues with sourcing from China and the recent outbreaks of Foot and Mouth disease in the UK have again affected the food sector. Most companies recognise the importance of risk assessment and management programs but invest little time and money into proactively managing the risks. The main concern is that if a risk never materialises it is difficult to justify to the stakeholders, the time and resources spent on developing contingency plans. There is a need to develop a system that can then enable a company to consider various risk scenarios to determine whether a reactive or proactive strategy is required. This research will consider the food sector as a case study for developing this tool-kit. This research will use qualitative research to investigate factors affecting selection of risk management strategies. The scenario planning methodology will be used to construct risk scenarios relevant for the distribution chain of the collaborating company and the food sector supply chain in general. A methodology will be developed to identify the appropriate risk management strategy for the respective scenario. This knowledge will then be converted into a tool-kit which can be used by companies in the food sector.