Concrete is the most used construction material worldwide for infrastructure projects. Due to deterioration, regular maintenance works are necessary to seal the concrete cracks and restore durability. In Europe, infrastructures such as tunnels and earth retaining walls alone cost approximately 5 billion EUR per year. Self-healing strategies (particularly bacterial-based self-healing) are regarded as a promising solution to reduce the high maintenance and repair cost of concrete infrastructures. It is believed if self-healing concrete had been used for all these structures, up to 120 million EUR could be saved annually on their maintenance. The research to date has tended to focus on the self-healing process in air or water environment. However, infrastructures (i.e. bridges, buildings, tunnels) are built on or in the ground, where part of their concrete structures are inevitably embedded in soil environment with all sorts of ground conditions such as different types of soil, saturation regimes, and chemical exposures. It is not clear if the process of self-healing is efficient within concrete elements exposed to such complicated ground conditions. The project aims to explore the efficiency of the bacterial-based self-healing (bio-hydrogels) in underground concrete structures. By using a novel interdisciplinary approach, the research combines state-of-the-art technologies applied in materials/concrete, geotechnical engineering, and microbiology to conduct a series of lab-scale experiments on mortar specimens incubated within various soil environments. Purpose-built experimental tools are used to investigate the effect of several factors including the type of soil, saturation regime and class of (chemical) exposures, on the bio-self-healing process. The outcomes of this research are highly relevant to the construction industry and the knowledge produced by the project will have an economic, financial and societal impact in EU and other regions.

Inquiries into the ethics of the UK press, prompted by a series of scandals associated with newspapers, have hitherto been far too parochial: too focussed on the UK itself, they have missed opportunities to learn from parallel developments and concerns overseas. This project, in contrast will develop knowledge and understanding of how press councils in comparable jurisdictions from around Europe approach the difficult questions in media ethics of balancing freedom and responsibility. Significantly, it will also examine news work itself and explore the extent to which ethical codes impact on the daily working practices of journalists, news workers and those directly affected by the activities of the press. The isolationism that has characterised the debates about press ethics has hitherto hindered the possibility of benchmarking and learning from other societies in which problems of ethics and regulation have been addressed by legislators, journalists and the general public. By examining the top European nations in the World Press Freedom rankings, this project will develop a set of evidence based recommendations to the UK regulator (IMPRESS) that can be used to provide a benchmark for the UK press code of ethics. This project will directly help IMPRESS and other organisations review and update future iterations of their codes and related guidance. It will help establish norms of journalism ethics in these areas. Moreover, by examining how the press councils in these countries intersect with the law (e.g., do they have statutory status or recognition; are their judgments recognised by the courts; how do their codes overlap with the law?), we will gain a much richer understanding of how press regulation operates in practice, rather than in theory. This would then offer the possibility of learning from best practice as to what can work and what can be viable in addressing issues around press self-regulation. By holding them accountable to more comprehensive standards, this research will allow regulators to support publishers in achieving a new status and profile, which will allow them to both pursue the classical liberal rationale for journalism as 'watchdog' or 'fourth estate' - and challenge the hegemony of the corporate press. This could have far-reaching social impact given the technological and societal changes that that the news landscape faces not only in producing viable and sustainable codes of conduct but also helping to strengthen this new sector of the news media and protect groups that have hitherto been subject to press abuses.

To develop the new next generation of contact-less/low friction Slip Ring Systems with minimal or zero deterioration.

A critical theme emerging from three scoping studies conducted as part of the Connected Communities programme is that, in relation to marginalised young people and their "connections and disconnections" with communities, key individuals ['connectors'] working within and across multiple communities often play a significant role in mediating many of the critical issues facing their lives. The scoping studies suggest that it is these 'connectors', who are positioned at the intersections of sometimes overlapping communities, who act as conduits of connectivity. In relation to Muslim youth, as a result of significant policy and practice focus upon preventing and responding to Al Qaeda linked terrorism, young Muslims have come under increasing scrutiny and suspicion, identified as the most susceptible to AQ ideology and in need of support. A generation of young Muslims have experienced their formative years in a post-9/11 world in which state and non-state violence - a 'war on terror', on Afghanistan, on Iraq, on 'Islamism', and a stream of terror attacks across the world - have been linked to their own beliefs and identities by the most dominant discourses of their day (McDonald, 2011). White, working class, marginalised youth have experienced similar demonization around issues of criminalisation/gangsterisation alongside 'radicalisation' (Davis and Bourhill, 1997; Squires and Stephen, 2005). Initially mobilised through political rhetoric and legislation designed to tackle 'anti-social' behavior (Squires and Stephen, 2005), the criminalization of poor youth escalated quickly and eventually encompassed significantly more serious criminality including knife and gun crime (Squires and Goldsmith, 2010; Goldson, 2011). Within these contexts, key 'connectors' have been working with marginalised youth, often in areas marked by poverty, exclusion and gang violence, to support and develop young people and to prevent their 'violent radicalisation' (Baker, 2011; Bulloch and Tilley, 2008). On the streets and in the homes of poor neighbourhoods intricate networks of connection are used by young people to manage the impact of a degraded and disconnected welfare state and as an attempt to ameliorate poverty and exclusion and resist further marginalisation, victimisation and processes of criminalisation (Cavalcanti et al 2011). These connections primarily operate through kith and kin relationships, particularly in more established communities, but can also include others; such as trusted youth workers, sports leaders, and community activists. Despite the seeming significance of 'connectors' when exploring modes of connectedness and disconnectedness amongst young people, to date very little research has been conducted specifically on the role that 'connectors' play in relation to working and connecting with marginalised youth. This study has the following objectives: (1) To better understand who 'connectors' are, how they work with marginalised young people, and how they are viewed by wider communities. (2) To examine how 'connectors' claim and sustain legitimacy and influence. (3) To examine some of the limits to the connector role and possible pressures to move connectors to the role of 'grass'. (4) To explore the role of 'connectors' from an historical perspective, exploring key cases in the past where interventions in relation to disaffection and violence might be conceptualized as involving 'connectors'. These objectives will be pursued by focussing on the following key research questions: How are individual connectors viewed within the communities they bridge? How have they been viewed through time? How are individuals 'chosen' by those with whom they interact? What tensions are felt and/or created by these individuals, and how may they alter the boundaries of communities? Can connectors critique government policy, and if so, what are the implications for their work with young people?

Abstracts are not currently available in GtR for all funded research. This is normally because the abstract was not required at the time of proposal submission, but may be because it included sensitive information such as personal details.