The hadal zone, with depths of 6000-11000 m, accounts for nearly half of the ocean's depth range, but has only recently been recognized as potential hotspot for organic carbon turnover and microbial activity. To understand the carbon mineralization and the related biogeochemical processes in hadal sediments is of global importance as carbon recycling in sediments can have critical implications for ocean chemistry, redox conditions, nutrient availability and hence for life in the oceans and on land. Due to inherent difficulties of retrieving samples for later analyses from hadal depths, a key element to make step changes in this field of research is the ability to use sensor technology to measure the important biogeochemical parameters directly in the hadal sediments and water column, i.e. without retrieving samples. The National Oceanography Centre (NOC) are world-leaders in developing autonomous miniaturized chemical sensors for use in the open ocean. Their existing technology has been tested to 6000 m depth and can measure a wide range of chemicals in environments from the polar regions to the tropics. This project will bring together NOC experts with researchers from the newly created centre of excellence for ultra-deep sea research: the Danish Center for Hadal Research (HADAL) at the University of Southern Denmark (SDU) to jointly improve our knowledge about the processes governing organic carbon degradation in deep-sea trenches. In order to achieve this, we will share resources with the HADAL Center participants, to: i) conduct a knowledge exchange and a collaborative design workshop with both partners to decide on required sensor adaptations ii) test the sensors at the HADAL pressure testing facility to depths > 6000 m to study their limitations and required improvements, and iii) develop the first proof of concept data set of nutrients measured directly in hadal sediments during joint field work to a deep-sea trench off Japan. The outcomes of this project will answer exciting research questions about organic carbon degradation processes in deep-sea trenches and their impact on the surrounding ecosystem and will provide a proof-of-concept data set that will position us to strengthen the collaboration by writing joint proposals for future collaborations.

This project examines how the current changes in the political information environments in European democracies affect the conditions for a healthy democracy. As a theoretical background we employ the concept of ‘political information environment’ (PIE) that includes both the supply and demand of political news and information. Supply refers to the quantity and quality of news and public affairs content provided through traditional and new media sources, demand captures the amount and type of news and information the public wants or consumes. Recent changes in the political information environment may lead to a growing number of uniformed, misinformed and selectively informed citizens, potentially endangering the functioning of democracy. To examine these concerns, the study aims at investigating the following: (1) how do citizens today gain political information and how does this relate to their political attitudes and behaviour; (2) what is the content and quality of the information citizens are exposed to; (3) where do divides between being informed and not being informed exist, across and within European societies, and (4) how can citizens be empowered to navigate and find valuable information. We will do this through a series of comparative, innovatively designed studies, including web tracking, comparative surveys, focus groups and survey-embedded experiments in 14 European countries and the US. These countries vary on a number of key contextual factors relevant for the study, covering both “young” and established democracies with different democratic traditions, media systems, and news consumption habits.

Radicals are ubiquitous short-lived reaction intermediates that contain a single unpaired electron and are usually created in pairs in a well-defined electronic spin state, either singlet ("anti-parallel spins") or triplet ("parallel spins"). For chemical reactions involving such pairs of radicals, quantum effects can induce a remarkable sensitivity to the intensity and/or orientation of external static magnetic fields as weak as the Earth's magnetic field. The underlying mechanism, the so-called Radical Pair Mechanism, has attracted widespread interest from the scientific community and general audiences owing to its putative relevance to animal magnetoreception and possibly adverse effects of weak electromagnetic fields on human health. Indeed, a multitude of studies have suggested an association between weak magnetic field exposure and increased levels of oxidative stress, genotoxic effects and apoptosis/necrosis. While detailed interaction models are still lacking - a factor that severely impedes the assessment of partly controversial literature on this subject and the advancement of guidelines for magnetic field exposure - the oxidative degradation of phospholipids appears as an overarching motif in many exposure studies. Indeed, reactive oxygen species and the free radicals they induce are known to attack polyunsaturated fatty acids in phospholipid membranes, thereby initiating lipid peroxidation reactions, which alter membrane characteristics and induce cell damage. Through termination and degenerate chain branching steps of this free-radical chain reaction, magnetosensitivity is feasibly imparted. Unfortunately, mechanistic details and a sound theoretical understanding of these effects are still lacking: the Radical Pair Mechanism has not yet been developed for systems confined to two dimensions, such as lipid bilayers, and the properties of the involved radicals have not been characterized with respect to magnetosensitive pathways and spin relaxation. Here, I propose a theoretical and computational investigation of intricacies of the radical pair mechanism at two-dimensional interfaces and the exploration of related amplification mechanisms beyond the standard Radical Pair Mechanism that I have recently suggested in the field of magnetoreception, but which are utterly unexplored in this context. In particular, I will focus on: a) the effect of confining the diffusion of coupled radical pairs to two dimensions, b) the potential for molecular motion to result in noise-enhanced magnetic field effects (MFEs), and c) the so-called chemical Zeno effect, by which MFEs are amplified by scavenging reactions with spin-carrying reaction partners. I envisage to find support for the hypothesis that unexpectedly large MFEs could ensue in these confined systems, intrinsically and as a consequence of the abovementioned secondary amplification effects. In addition to providing a better, more complete understanding of MFEs, our work will also reveal how subtle quantum effects can be sustained and amplified in noisy environments. These insights are essential to the emerging field of Quantum Biology and could pave the way to enhanced quantum devices and sensors with improved resilience to environmental noise. Furthermore, if such amplification schemes are found to apply to biologically relevant reactions, it could prompt a reassessment of the health risks of weak magnetic field exposure and future research into the use of MFEs as therapeutics to boost the immune response via the radical pair mechanism. Abbreviations: MFE = Magnetic Field Effect; RPM = Radical Pair Mechanism.

The 20th Century was characterised by a massive global increase in all modes of transport, on land and water and in the air, for moving both passengers and freight. Whilst easy mobility has become a way of life for many, the machines (planes, automobiles, trains, ships) that enable this are both highly resource consuming and environmentally damaging in production, in use and at the end of their working lives (EoL). Over the years, great attention has been paid to increasing their energy efficiencies, but the same effort has not been put into optimising their resource efficiency. Although they may share a common origin in the raw materials used, the supply chains of transport sectors operate in isolation. However, there are numerous potential benefits that could be realised if Circular Economy (CE) principles were applied across these supply chains. These include recovery of energy intensive and/or technology metals, reuse/remanufacture of components, lower carbon materials substitutions, improved energy and material efficiency. While CE can change the transport system, the transport system can also enable or disable CE. By considering different transport systems in a single outward-looking network, it is more likely that a cascading chain of materials supply could be realised- something that is historically very difficult within just a single sector. CENTS will focus on transport platforms where CE principles have not been well embedded in order to identify synergies between different supply chains and to optimise certain practices, such as EoL recovery and recycling rates and energy and material efficiency. It will also be 'forward looking' in terms of developing future designs, business models and manufacturing approaches so that emergent transport systems are inherently circular. More specifically, our Network will carry out Feasiblity and Creativity@Home generated research that will develop the ground work for future funding from elsewhere; provide travel grants to/from the UK for both established and Early Career Researcgers to increase the UK network of expertise and experience in this critical area; hold conferences and workshops where academics and industrialists can learn from each other; build demonstrators of relevant technology so that industry can see what is possible within a Circular Economy approach. These activities will all be supported by a full communication strategy focusing on outreach with school children and policy influence though agencies such as Catapults and WRAP.

It is well established that the ocean is of enormous importance as it has an impact on climate, weather, global food security, public health and the economy; however, currently the increasing pressure on the ocean results in unseen levels of pollution and alterations of globally important chemical cycles. From the coast to the deep sea the ocean floor is largely covered by loosely aggregated sediments. These sediments form one of the largest bioreactors on Earth and play a crucial role in the state and health of the marine environment as they convert, store and release chemical compounds that affect and control life. For example, they promote the production of potent greenhouse gases and are a major sink for oxygen, but also recycle nutrients and retain pollutants. These biogeochemical reactions lead to steep gradients of chemical compounds in the upper centimetre to decimetre of the sediments, which can be used to understand the processes proceeding in the sediment, their effects on the global biogeochemical cycles and their impact on the marine environment. However, with traditional analysis methods these gradients can often not be properly resolved, both spatially and temporally, and they are often disturbed during the collection of the sediment; in addition, these measurements are costly and time-consuming. In the SANDMAN project I will develop a new instrument to measure gradients of important biogeochemical compounds, such as nutrients (nitrate, phosphate), metals (iron) and carbonate system parameters (total alkalinity) directly within the seafloor sediment, in particular the porewater, by combining cutting-edge Lab-on-Chip sensors with deep sea platform technology that can operate in extreme environments in the oceans over longer periods of time. The Lab-On-Chip sensors, which use miniaturized standard laboratory analyses on an automated microfluidic platform, are developed at the National Oceanography Centre and only recently became available for longer-term applications. These sensors are ideal for measuring the chemistry of porewater directly in the sediment as they are very energy efficient and can be deployed for up to a year and only use very little sample volume, hence the steep gradients in the sediment can easily be resolved. During the SANDMAN project I will lead the sensor adaptation and adjustment of the hardware for conditions in sediments, the design of a fluid sampling system to separate the porewater from the solid phase of the sediment and the combination of these components in a unique seafloor instrument. The functionality of this instrument will first be tested in a controlled laboratory environment, then in a costal test station and afterwards it will be used to answer scientifically important questions about the processes linked to nutrient and metal recycling and carbon degradation in currently underexplored areas such as permeable costal sediments and deep-sea trenches. This unique observing instrument can transform our capacity for the urgently needed benthic biogeochemical analysis from a human-dependent, single-point and costly sampling to a technology-based long-term, high-quality and reliable approach for remote biogeochemical measurements. The SANDMAN system will be widely applicable from the coast to the deep sea and from pole to pole for marine monitoring and industrial applications. Thus it will pave the way to novel synoptic seafloor observations, providing data to support and inform stakeholders, such as government/non-governmental organisations, industries, scientists and the general public, on environmental health and potential hazards.