The interplay between nutrition, gut microbiota, and its large numberof metabolic and immune mediators plays an essential role in the development of gut immune homeostasis in early life. This interaction needs to be better understood because a disturbed immune function in the neonatal period is harmful for neonatal survival and enhances the risk of chronic inflammatory disease later in life. In particular, preterm infants have an immature gut and an associated intestinal state of dysbiosis, which limits the efficacy of nutritional interventions to 1) support early life nutrition, 2) prevent sepsis and conditions such as necrotizing enterocolitis and intestinal failure, and 3) reduce the risk of chronic inflammatory diseases mediated by the gut. A major barrier to elucidating the critical nutritional-host-microbiome interactions and reducing neonatal mortality is the lack of expertise in this rapidly emerging area of metabolomics. We therefore proposes a multidisciplinary approach making use of a large-scale pre-existing clinical cohort of neonates, and state of the art analytical and bio-informatics tools. GROWTH is an Innovative Training Network focused on European Industrial Doctorates that aims to train young business-oriented researchers in developing pathological insights, biomarker diagnostics and personalized nutritional interventions for intestinal failure in neonates and preterm infants. As a multidisciplinary consortium that will involve the participation of 7 non-academic and 5 academic partners in the life sciences field and will attempt shortening the path from basic research to clinical applications.

This proposal is to establish a research Network in Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) and its applications and diffusion in the supply chains. The network brings together a number of expertise and interest from Universities and industry to explore the research challenges and opportunities in RFID technology and applications. The network will explore a number of key challenges: (1) application of RFID to reduce incidents of empty running to reduce congestion on the roads (2) better and enhanced data storage (and management) capability to deal with huge data deluge that will result from RFID deployment in the supply chains (3) food traceability and integrity as it relates to the need to secure our food from deliberate tampering, contamination and bioterrorism post September 11, 2001 attack (4) RFID-enabled supply chain visibility and capacity allocation or re-allocation on agile and dynamic bases (5) eliminating forecast demand variability and stock outs in pharmaceutical products especially during the lunch of a blockbuster product (6) key business sector applications such as fleet management in road transport industry, baggage handling and asset tracking in ports operations, and asset management and enabling of fast efficient Activity Based Costing (ABC) systems in the healthcare industry. These challenges will be explored by members of the Network with the view to define and take forward new research in RFID-enabled supply chain management.

New methods for the preparation of extended structures are rightly highlighted as being of great importance to the UK. The EPSRC Grand Challenge 'Directed Assembly of Extended Structures with Targeted Properties' (referred to as the DA Grand Challenge) is championed by some of the UK's leading academic scientists. Interest from pharmaceutical companies in this initiative has been excellent, particularly based on the nucleation and crystallisation targets outlined in the Grand Challenge Documentation. Impact of the Grand Challenge Network on other areas is much less evident, although it is clear that the basic premise of the Challenge fits many other sectors. In this Established Career Proposal my vision is to demonstrate, through both transformative science and personal leadership, how the central tenets of the DA Grand Challenge Idea can be translated across disciplines. In particular I will focus on two areas, increasing the impact of the network in the chemicals sector, with a special emphasis on transformative new routes to heterogeneous zeolite catalysts (which strongly fits another EPSRC priority area), and novel multifunctionality in medical delivery agents. The proposed programme is firmly rooted in the EPSRC remit but is designed to be outward looking to maximise transdisciplinary impact cutting across to other important areas of science. The specific science proposed here focuses on nanoporous materials. Zeolites are one of the most important class of industrially applied catalysts we have. Manipulation of zeolites into hierarchical porous structures and ultra-thin layers has also risen to great prominence as a method of introducing new and beneficial features into zeolite catalysts. The journal Science rated this type of research as one of the ten most important current areas of current science, and so its importance is recognised internationally. Metal organic frameworks (MOFs) are some of the most exciting and fast-developing materials that have been prepared in the last decade or so. The great versatility of the chemistry of these solids leads to ultra-high porosity, extreme flexibility, post synthetic modification potential and many other interesting and conceivably useful attributes. Because of this wide ranging chemistry and function, potential applications of these solids range from gas storage, separation and delivery, catalysis, and sensing all the way to biology and medicine.

In developed countries such as the UK, we spend 90% of our time indoors with approximately two thirds of this in our homes. Despite this fact, most air pollutant regulation focuses on the outdoor environment. There is increasing evidence that exposure to air pollution causes a range of health effects, but uncertainties on the causal effects of individual pollutants on specific health outcomes still exist partly due to crude exposure metrics. Nearly all studies of health effects to date have used measurements from fixed outdoor air pollution monitoring networks, a procedure that ignores the modification effects of indoor microenvironments where people spend most of their time. There are consequently large uncertainties surrounding human exposure to indoor air pollution, which means we are currently unable to identify the most effective solutions to design, operate and use our homes to minimise our exposure to air pollution within them. In the UK, there are virtually no data to quantify indoor air pollutant emissions, building-to-building variability of these, chemical speciation of indoor pollutants, ingress of outdoor pollution indoors or of indoor generated pollutants outdoors, or the social, economic or lifestyle factors that can lead to elevated pollutant exposures. Without a fundamental understanding of how indoor air pollution is caused, transformed and distributed in UK homes, research aiming to develop behavioural, technical or policy interventions may have little impact, or at worst be counterproductive. For example, energy efficiency measures are broadly designed to make buildings more airtight. However, given that the concentrations of many air pollutants are often higher indoors than outdoors, reducing ventilation rates may increase our exposure to air pollution indoors and to any potentially harmful effects of the resulting pollutant mixture. Further, if interventions are introduced without sufficient consideration of how occupants actually use and behave in a building, they may fail to achieve the desired effect. To understand and improve indoor air quality (IAQ), we must adopt a systems approach that considers both the home and the human. There is a particular paucity of data for the most deprived households in the UK. There is a facile assumption that poorer homes are likely to experience worse IAQ than better off households, although the reality may be considerably more nuanced. Lower quality housing may be leakier than more expensive homes allowing indoor emissions to escape more easily, whilst large, expensive town-houses converted to flats can be badly ventilated following poor retrofitting practices. Differences in cooking practices, smoking rates, internal building materials and the usage of solvent containing products indoors will also be subject to wide variations across populations and hence have differential effects on IAQ and pollutant exposure. In fact, differences in individual behaviour lead to large variations in indoor concentrations of air pollutants even for identical houses, typically driven by the frequency and diversity of personal care product use. The INGENIOUS project will provide a comprehensive understanding of indoor pollution in UK homes, including i) the key sources relevant to the UK ii) the variability between homes in an ethnically diverse urban city, with a focus on deprived areas (using the ongoing Born in Bradford cohort study) iii) the effects of pollutant transformation indoors to generate by-products that may adversely affect health iv) the drivers of behaviours that impact on indoor air pollution (v) recommendations for interventions to improve IAQ that we have co-designed and tested with community members.

There are around 1900 active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) in use, yet the environmental risks of only a small proportion of these has been assessed. This calls for pragmatic science-based approaches for prioritising existing APIs in terms of their environmental risk. Such approaches could also be used pro-actively, i.e. to identify environmental concerns earlier in the drug development process, thereby contributing to a more sustainable future. The overall aim of PREMIER is to deliver an API information and assessment system for characterising the potential environmental risks of APIs, including relevant human metabolites and environmental transformation products, based on minimal testing. This system will be designed to screen and prioritise legacy APIs for tailored environmental assessment; identify potential environmental hazards associated with APIs in development; and to make the available environmental data more accessible for all stakeholders. The system will be optimized and validated using case studies on approximately 25 APIs. PREMIER will realize its aim by combining world-leading research on the environmental risks of APIs with the principles of co-design and smart knowledge-based IT. Through this combination, we want to be more than a conventional research project. We want to ensure that the results of our ground-breaking research “work” address all the societal concerns about the potential risks posed by the presence of pharmaceuticals in the environment.