Relative sea level (RSL) change reflects the interplay between a large number of variables operating at scales from global to local. Changes in RSL around the British Isles (BI) since the height of the last glaciation (ca. 24 000 years ago), are dominated by two key variables (i) the rise of ocean levels caused by climate warming and the melting of land-based ice; and (ii) the vertical adjustment of the Earth's surface due to the redistribution of this mass (unloading of formerly glaciated regions and loading of the ocean basins and margins). As a consequence RSL histories vary considerably across the region once covered by the British-Irish Ice Sheet (BIIS). The variable RSL history means that the BI is a globally important location for studying the interactions between land, ice and the ocean during the profound and rapid changes that followed the last glacial maximum. The BI RSL record is an important yardstick for testing global models of land-ice-ocean interactions and this in turn is important for understanding future climate and sea level scenarios. At present, the observational record of RSL change in the British Isles is limited to shallow water areas because of accessibility and only the later part of the RSL curve is well studied. In Northern Britain, where the land has been rising most, RSL indicators are close to or above present sea level and the RSL record is most complete. In southern locations, where uplift has been less, sea level was below the present for long periods of time but there is very little data on RSL position. There are varying levels of agreement between models and existing field data and we cannot be certain of model projections of former low sea levels. Getting the models right is important for understanding the whole global pattern of land-ice-ocean interactions in the past and into the future. To gather the missing data and thus improve the utility of the British RSL curves for testing earth-ice-ocean models, we will employ a specialised, interdisciplinary approach that brings together a unique team of experts in a multidisciplinary team. We have carefully selected sites where there is evidence of former sea levels is definitely preserved and we will use existing seabed geological data in British and Irish archives to plan our investigations. The first step is marine geophysical profiling of submerged seabed sediments and mapping of surface geomorphological features on the seabed. These features include the (usually) erosional surface (unconformity) produced by the rise in sea level, and surface geomorphological features that indicate former shorelines (submerged beaches, barriers and deltas). These allow us to identify the position (but not the age) of lower than present sea levels. The second step is to use this stratigraphic and geomorphological information to identify sites where we will take cores to acquire sediments and organic material from low sea-level deposits. We will analyse the sediments and fossil content of the cores to find material that can be closely related to former sea levels and radiocarbon dated. The third step in our approach is to extend the observed RSL curves using our new data and compare this to model predictions of RSL. We can then modify the parameters in the model to obtain better agreement with observations and thus better understand the earth-ice-ocean interactions. These data are also important for understanding the palaeogeography of the British Isles. Our data will allow a first order reconstruction of former coastlines, based upon the modern bathymetry, for different time periods during the deglaciation. This is of particular importance to the presence or absence of potential landbridges that might have enabled immigration to Ireland of humans and animals. They will also allow us to identify former land surfaces on the seabed. The palaeogeography is crucial to understanding the evolving oceanographic circulation of the Irish Sea.

The UK is leading the development and installation of offshore renewable energy technologies. With over 13GW of installed offshore wind capacity and another 3GW under construction, two operational and one awarded floating offshore demonstration projects as well as Contracts for Difference awards for four tidal energy projects, offshore renewable energy will provide the backbone of the Net Zero energy system, giving energy security, green growth and jobs in the UK. The revised UK targets that underpin the Energy Security Strategy seek to grow offshore wind capacity to 50 GW, with up to 5 GW floating offshore wind by 2030. Further acceleration is envisaged beyond 2030 with targets of around 150 GW anticipated for 2050. To achieve these levels of deployment, ORE developments need to move beyond current sites to more challenging locations in deeper water, further from shore, while the increasing pace of deployment introduces major challenges in consenting, manufacture and installation. These are ambitious targets that will require strategic innovation and research to achieve the necessary technology acceleration while ensuring environmental sustainability and societal acceptance. The role of the Supergen ORE Hub 2023 builds on the academic and scientific networks, traction with industry and policymakers and the reputation for research leadership established in the Supergen ORE Hub 2018. The new hub will utilise existing and planned research outcomes to accelerate the technology development, collaboration and industry uptake for commercial ORE developments. The Supergen ORE Hub strategy will focus on delivering impact and knowledge transfer, underpinned by excellent research, for the benefit of the wider sector, providing research and development for the economic and social benefit of the UK. Four mechanisms for leverage are envisaged to accelerate the ORE expansion: Streamlining ORE projects, by accelerating planning, consenting and build out timescales; upscaling the ORE workforce, increasing the scale and efficiency of ORE devices and system; enhanced competitiveness, maximising ORE local content and ORE economic viability in the energy portfolio; whilst ensuring sustainability, yielding positive environmental and social benefits from ORE. The research programme is built around five strategic workstreams, i) ORE expansion - policy and scenarios , ii) Data for ORE design and decision-making, iii) ORE modelling, iv) ORE design methods and v) Future ORE systems and concepts, which will be delivered through a combination of core research to tackle sector wide challenges in a holistic and synergistic manner, strategic projects to address emerging sector challenges and flexible funding to deliver targeted projects addressing focussed opportunities. Supergen Representative Systems will be established as a vehicle for academic and industry community engagement to provide comparative reference cases for assessing applicability of modelling tools and approaches, emerging technology and data processing techniques. The Supergen ORE Hub outputs, research findings and sector progress will be communicated through directed networking, engagement and dissemination activities for the range of academic, industry and policy and governmental stakeholders, as well as the wider public. Industry leverage will be achieved through new co-funding mechanisms, including industry-funded flexible funding calls, direct investment into research activities and the industry-funded secondment of researchers, with >53% industry plus >23% HEI leverage on the EPSRC investment at proposal stage. The Hub will continue and expand its role in developing and sustaining the pipeline of talent flowing into research and industry by integrating its ECR programme with Early Career Industrialists and by enhancing its programme of EDI activities to help deliver greater diversity within the sector and to promote ORE as a rewarding and accessible career for all.

The West Antarctic Ice Sheet contains over 2 million cubic kilometres of ice, which if it all melting would raise sea level by over 3 metres. As part of the natural hydrological cycle of the ice sheet, ice flows down to the coast in a number of glaciers and is lost to the ocean as ice bergs. Snowfall across the Antarctic then replenishes the ice in the ice sheet. The two largest and fastest flowing West Antarctic outlet glaciers are the Pine Island Glacier and the Thwaites Glacier, which together drain about 10% of the West Antarctic ice sheet. In recent decades the Pine Island and Thwaites Glaciers have thinned and retreated at a remarkable rate, contributing nearly 10% of the observed rise in global sea level. Air temperatures on these glaciers are almost never above freezing, even during the summer months, so their retreat has not been a result of direct warming from the atmosphere. Instead, an increase of ocean temperature is thought to be responsible for the changes. The area of Pine Island Bay is susceptible to intrusions of relatively warm Circumpolar Deep Water that occurs across the floor of the continental shelves to the north of the region. It is known that the arrival of Circumpolar Deep Water to the area is affected by the weather systems over the ocean to the north of West Antarctica, and particularly to the depth and local of depressions. This research will shed light on why the Pine Island and Thwaites Glaciers have been retreating in recent decades and predict their evolution over the next century and produced improved predictions of their potential contribution to sea level rise. The links between weather patterns, ocean currents, melting under the glaciers and the retreat of the glaciers themselves are very complex and can only be understood by simulating them on computers. We will therefore develop new, detailed atmospheric, ocean and ice models to simulate the environment of the Southern Ocean north of the Pine Island bay. We have a great deal of meteorological data for the last 30 years and this will allow us to understand how changes in weather patterns have influenced the delivery of Circumpolar Deep Water to Pine Island Bay. We will therefore run our models for the period 1980 - 2010. However, satellite pictures of the area and information from the ocean floor of Pine Island bay collected by oceanographic equipment suggests that the glaciers have been retreating from at least the middle of the Twentieth Century. This could be a result of changes in the weather patterns during the last century, but in the remote Antarctic we have very few meteorological observations for this period. We will therefore reconstruct the weather patterns across this sector of the Southern Ocean during the Twentieth Century using the chemical signals locked into ice cores. The 21 nation International Trans Antarctic Scientific Expedition has collected many ice cores across West Antarctic and they will form the basis of our reconstruction. How the Pine Island Glacier and the Thwaites Glacier will change over the next century is an extremely important question because of the consequences for sea level rise. We will produce improved predictions of their change during the next century by using our knowledge of glacier retreat in terms of atmospheric circulation. We will use the predictions of atmospheric change across the ocean north of West Antarctica produced by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Their predictions of atmospheric change for different increases of greenhouse gases will be used and will allow us to determine changes in Circumpolar Deep Water and therefore melt of the glaciers over the next century.

Worldwide, seaweed aquaculture has been developing at an unabated exponential pace over the last six decades. China, Japan, and Korea lead the world in terms of quantities produced. Other Asiatic countries, South America and East Africa have an increasingly significant contribution to the sector. On the other hand, Europe and North America have a long tradition of excellent research in phycology, yet hardly any experience in industrial seaweed cultivation. The Blue Growth economy agenda creates a strong driver to introduce seaweed aquaculture in the UK. GlobalSeaweed: - furthers NERC-funded research via novel collaborations with world-leading scientists; - imports know-how on seaweed cultivation and breeding into the UK; - develops training programs to fill a widening UK knowledge gap; - structures the seaweed sector to streamline the transfer of research results to the seaweed industry and policy makers at a global scale; - creates feedback mechanisms for identifying emergent issues in seaweed cultivation. This ambitious project will work towards three strands of deliverables: Knowledge creation, Knowledge Exchange and Training. Each of these strands will have specific impact on key beneficiary groups, each of which are required to empower the development of a strong UK seaweed cultivation industry. A multi-pronged research, training and financial sustainability roadmap is presented to achieve long-term global impact thanks to NERC's pump-priming contribution. The overarching legacy will be the creation of a well-connected global seaweed network which, through close collaboration with the United Nations University, will underpin the creation of a Seaweed International Project Office (post-completion of the IOF award).

The most sensitive glaciers to climate warming in the 21st century are situated in tropical mountain regions, and thus, serve as valuable sentinels of climate change. Most attention to date has focused on the quantity of meltwater released from these glaciers, because of the impact on global sea level and water security. The concurrent changes in water quality are much more poorly constrained, but have implications for drinking water, agriculture and industry. Peru holds 71% of all tropical glaciers, all of which have undergone high rates of mass loss and retreat in the last two decades. However, certain rivers fed by glacial meltwater are becoming acidic, with concentrations of metals often above World Health Organisation standards. This is thought due to the exposure of metal-rich (sulphidic) rocks in retreating glacier forefields, which release sulphuric acid and metals once oxidised - this acidity can no longer be neutralized by the intense chemical weathering which takes place beneath glaciers. The overarching hypothesis that CASCADA will test is that glaciated catchments in the Cordillera Blanca are evolving along a trajectory from pristine conditions, where glacial runoff is an important nutrient source for downstream ecosystems ("treat"), to those in which the same runoff is toxic to ecosystems and human health ("toxin"). CASCADA unites Peruvian experts in water resources, glaciology and ecology with UK geochemists, glaciologists and technologists to investigate and generate solutions to the cascading impacts of glacier retreat on water quality in Cordillera Blanca rivers. It employs cutting edge in situ monitoring technologies to capture first time data on the year-round quality of Cordillera Blanca rivers and to develop and test a novel wetland management model to remediate rivers with high metal toxicity. A strong partnership with local water users' committees under a citizen science scheme and the formation of an engagement board with governmental institutions and local communities will ensure capacity building and the transfer of technology for integrated wetland management and water quality reporting. Thus, CASCADA provides the transformative process understanding required to deliver a step jump in our ability to predict water quality evolution in deglaciating terrains and to develop effective solutions to toxic catchments.