With escalating climate impacts, adapting to climate change is an increasingly urgent global priority. The UNFCCC Paris Agreement committed signatory nations to a step change in adaptation finance. This is likely to be accelerated by the 2021 global climate negotiations in Glasgow which are anticipated to usher in a huge increase in international financing for climate change adaptation, with tens of billions of additional dollars committed annually. This significant rise in climate finance is a huge opportunity to prioritise longer-term adaptation in the face of pressing socio-economic challenges. Yet, adaptation investments have not always reduced vulnerability: in some cases they have even led to increased risk, especially for marginalised groups. It is vital this is addressed before the next wave of finance is distributed. Alongside the urgency to act and to scale up adaptation, there is a need to work harder at including marginalised groups and building accountability, both to those affected by climate change and to the international community providing finance. These goals do not always align well, with a risk that accountability and inclusion will be trumped by the demands for rapid and large-scale action. This Fellowship will open a new research agenda on the tensions between urgency and scale, and inclusion and accountability in climate change adaptation, and will generate research, networks and capabilities to increase the effectiveness and equity of new funds. Metrics offer an original lens to analyse these tensions. Metrics are not just neutral measurement tools: they can influence policy and practice, as seen for example in how the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) have consolidated a global understanding of extreme poverty. Within adaptation, metrics define what constitutes success in processes and outcomes, who should benefit, and over what timeframe. For example, success might be defined as putting in place a new adaptation policy or increasing awareness of climate impacts within a community. These concepts of success are often defined through international processes, without engagement from national policymakers or marginalised groups. There has now been over a decade of experience of applying adaptation metrics, offering an as-yet unexplored body of empirical evidence; with the coming large increase in adaptation finance now is a crucial juncture to leverage this data, and open metrics up to focused scrutiny. The Fellowship will apply theory rarely used in adaptation research from Science and Technology Studies (STS) to analyse the development and application of adaptation metrics, and their influence on decision-making. This will build understanding of how tensions around accountability are being navigated, and how they might be addressed through new approaches. The Fellowship will also advance STS theory through analysing qualities of adaptation that offer new perspectives, for example, the interactions between international and national finance and policy, the under-explored empirical contexts in the Global South, and the multiple forms of knowledge embedded within adaptation decision-making. This will develop STS theory on how knowledge production influences decision-making across international and national finance and policy and will also be of interest to scholars of public finance and accountability in other fields where funds are rapidly scaled up. The Fellowship will not only advance scientific knowledge but also influence how climate finance is framed, implemented and evaluated to support more effective adaptation. Research will be coproduced through iterative engagement with policymakers and practitioners and will develop and test new approaches to accountability. The Fellowship will convene an international community of practice of academics and practitioners to develop research and policy advances beyond the Fellowship and through which it will offer global leadership on this topic.

1) Brief description of the context of the research including potential impact The first 2 years of life are critical for the development of the neural connections and functions responsible for normal motor and cognitive functioning in humans. Perinatal injury to the developing brain often refers to as birth asphyxia, continues to remain a significant cause of neurodevelopmental disability. We need objective, non-invasive, hospital and outpatient clinic friendly, easy to operate brain imaging tools to inform early detection of newborn brain injury; to support neurobehavioural interventions in young infants and toddlers, ultimately leading to the best possible brain development. To answer this need, this PhD will build upon technological advancements in brain imaging and computational techniques; these include (i) magnetic resonance spectroscopy (or MRS) that can quantify bioproducts of metabolism; (ii) optical imaging, with broadband near-infrared spectroscopy (or bNIRS) and diffuse correlation spectroscopy (or DCS); a non-invasive brain imaging instrument that can map cortical oxygenation, haemodynamics, blood flow and metabolic changes from birth; and (iii) machine learning approaches for classification and prediction of newborn brain injury. The ambition of this project is to innovate neuroimaging and redefine what can be investigated in the developing brain of infants at risk of neurodevelopmental disability. 2) Aims and Objectives - Optimise a multimodal neuroimaging platform for neuronal functional assessment from the neonatal intensive care unit to the outpatient clinic. - Translate and enable the use of this platform to map localized cortical responses, in infants from birth up to 5 years old, correlating with a range of abnormalities including seizures and cerebral palsy. - Implement computational techniques such as machine learning methods for feature extractions and image analytics for classification of brain functional activity (oxygenation/flow and metabolism) and neurodevelopmental outcomes, towards biomarkers of brain health. 3) Novelty of Research Methodology The project uses a novel combination of imaging modalities (bNIRS, DCS and MRS) combined with machine learning approaches to advance what can be investigated in the brains of neonates with brain injury in terms of real-time brain health as well as neurodevelopmental outcomes. The imaging platform will provide monitoring of blood flow, saturation and metabolism over extended time scales and will use portable equipment that can be brought to the neonatal's bedside rather than requiring moving of the patient (e.g. for an MRI). 4) Alignment to EPSRC's strategies and research areas This project aligns with and falls under the EPSRC's research themes of "Healthcare technologies" and "Medical imaging" 5) Any companies or collaborators involved N/A

Being able to communicate is something most of us take for granted. Speaking, and finding the right words to express ourselves is a skill that we use everyday. But when a person has aphasia (acquired communication disorder) after a stroke these everyday communication skills become a source of profound frustration and anxiety both for the person with aphasia and their families. While some people do recover many don‘t The proposed research aims to understand why only some patients recover spoken language after stroke and for those who don‘t recover identify potential methods to help make treatment more effective. Much has to be learnt about how the brain connects speech and language and how the brain recovers after stroke. To illustrate the brain connections that are important for spoken language production I will use brain-imaging techniques with healthy populations and people with aphasia, some days, others years after their stroke. The benefit of understanding this brain connectivity is that it will allow researchers and clinicians to make specific testable predictions about how spoken language production and the organisation of the brain will be after aphasic stroke, and how we can try to rehabilitate it. The proposed research will test these predictions.

Immunotherapy has greatly improved outcomes in patients who have relapsed with refractory leukaemias. This has relied mostly on manipulating patient's own immune cells, known as T cells, and arming them with a chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) to recognise and kill tumour. However, obtaining enough cells from patients or of sufficient quality, especially in from children, remains a key obstacle driving the search for alternative cell sources from healthy donors. One major issue is the need to match donors/recipients to prevent immune rejection. Recent developments in genome editing have allowed for 'universal' CAR T cells from healthy volunteers to be made by removing flags from the surface of T cells that would otherwise be recognised as foreign. A single 'universal' CAR T cell product has the potential to treat >20 patients. thereby eliminating variability of bespoke manufacture, reducing costs to the healthcare system and importantly increasing timely accessibility to multiple patients who have otherwise failed all other treatments. Early phase clinical trials at UCL GOSH have demonstrated their potential to eliminate B cell leukaemia in several patients. Initial versions used TALEN genome editing tools to create targeted breaks in the DNA for the removal of the T cell receptor, a key driver of rejection, and of a surface marker recognised by a therapeutic antibody used for pre-conditioning. The first modification acts to make the cells 'invisible' whereas the second protects the CAR T cells from being destroyed by the antibody. We have generated newer versions using CRISPR/Cas9 technology that are currently being tested in clinic. While mostly successful, in some cases the 'universal' CAR T cells were cleared by the patient before they could eliminate the leukaemia. Increasing stealth by removing additional foreign flags from their surface could help tackle these hurdles and allow CAR T cells to persist long enough to clear disease. We now have cutting-edge genome editing tools, known as base editors, that offer a safer way of making multiple modifications to the DNA without compromising on safety. This project will test this strategy and compare different routes to efficiently and safely manufacture stealthy 'universal' CAR T cells for application in leukaemias and solid tumours.

Doctoral Training Partnerships: a range of postgraduate training is funded by the Research Councils. For information on current funding routes, see the common terminology at https://www.ukri.org/apply-for-funding/how-we-fund-studentships/. Training grants may be to one organisation or to a consortia of research organisations. This portal will show the lead organisation only.