The vision for Edinburgh's Centre for Mammalian Synthetic Biology (SynthSys-Mammalian) is to pioneer the development of the underpinning tools and technologies needed to implement engineering principles and realise the full potential of synthetic biology in mammalian systems. We have an ambitious plan to build in-house expertise in cell engineering tool generation, whole-cell modelling, computer-assisted design and construction of DNA and high-throughput phenotyping to enable synthetic biology in mammalian systems for multiple applications. In this way we will not only advance basic understanding of mammalian biology but also generate tools and technologies for near-term commercial exploitation in areas such as the pharmaceutical and drug testing industries, biosensing cell lines sensing disease biomarkers for diagnositics, novel therapeutics, production of protein based drugs e.g. antibodies and also programming stem cell development and differentiation for regenerative medicine applications. In parallel we will develop and implement new understanding of the social and economic impact of this far-reaching technology to ensure its benefits to society.

We propose a Centre for Doctoral Training in Integrative Sensing and Measurement that addresses the unmet UK need for specialist training in innovative sensing and measurement systems identified by EPSRC priorities the TSB and EPOSS . The proposed CDT will benefit from the strategic, targeted investment of >£20M by the partners in enhancing sensing and measurement research capability and by alignment with the complementary, industry-focused Innovation Centre in Sensor and Imaging Systems (CENSIS). This investment provides both the breadth and depth required to provide high quality cohort-based training in sensing across the sciences, medicine and engineering and into the myriad of sensing applications, whilst ensuring PhD supervision by well-resourced internationally leading academics with a passion for sensor science and technology. The synergistic partnership of GU and UoE with their active sensors-related research collaborations with over 160 companies provides a unique research excellence and capability to provide a dynamic and innovative research programme in sensing and measurement to fuel the development pipeline from initial concept to industrial exploitation.

This project brings atomic physics and cryogenic research together to establish the Geonium Chip as a pioneering, practical quantum technology. The chip's core element is the Coplanar Waveguide Penning trap, conceived and developed by the PI at the University of Sussex. It has a broad range of applications, including quantum computation and metrology, mass spectrometry and the physics of strongly correlated electrons. The project will focus on one concrete goal: the implementation of a broadband, tuneable, quantum non-demolition detector of single microwave photons. An efficient detector of single microwave (MW) photons is a fundamental tool still missing in quantum technology. Such detectors are essential for determining the quantum state of GHz radiation fields and thus vital for quantum communication/information applications with microwaves. While several alternatives based upon super- and semiconductor technologies are being developed, the first observations of individual microwave photons employed a trapped electron as transducer. We will develop the electrons as functional sensors, with unique capabilities for the observation and coherent manipulation of quantum MW fields, initially within the frequency range 3-60 GHz. Cryogenic Penning traps permit an accurate control of the dynamics of a trapped electron, at the level of inducing and observing quantum jumps between its Fock-states. The rest gas pressure in cryogenic vacuum chambers amounts to 10^(-16) mbar, allowing for a very prolonged capture (months) of the particles. The continuous Stern-Gerlach effect permits the detection and manipulation of the electron's spin, while the Purcell effect enhances the coherence time of its quantum state. Hence, cryogenic Penning traps are excellent quantum laboratories and trapped electrons have been proposed for implementing a quantum processor. A single electron in a Penning trap is also known as a geonium atom, as coined by the 1989 Nobel laureate Hans Dehmelt. It is outstanding for ultra-high precision metrology. Examples are the free electron's g-factor, measured with 10^(-13) relative uncertainty and the proton-to-electron mass ratio with 10^(-10). These, and other advanced Penning trap experiments, invariably employ a big, "room-size", superconducting solenoid. We propose to radically change that concept: integrating the trap and the magnetic field source in a single, scalable (2nd generation) Geonium Chip. Within this project we will develop the 2nd generation Geonium Chip into a practical quantum technology. A functional microwave photon detector must provide the following critical features: a) A tuneable, broadband detection range b) Quantum Non Demolition detection c) High quantum efficiency d) Coherent connectivity to other systems e) Scalability and a cost as low as possible. The currently most advanced Penning traps use superconducting solenoids, requiring highly specialised engineers to tune the trapping magnetic field -and hence the detection range-. Moreover, cooling to 100 mK or lower is done with extremely expensive (> £ 350 000) dilution refrigerators, difficult to install and operate. This contrasts radically with our novel Geonium platform, which will eliminate solenoid and dilution refrigerator altogether. With this pioneering approach, we will reduce the cost and complexity, enabling our chip Penning trap as a useful quantum 2.0 technology, particularly as a single microwave photon detector.

Robots will revolutionise the world's economy and society over the next twenty years, working for us, beside us and interacting with us. The UK urgently needs graduates with the technical skills and industry awareness to create an innovation pipeline from academic research to global markets. Key application areas include manufacturing, assistive and medical robots, offshore energy, environmental monitoring, search and rescue, defence, and support for the aging population. The robotics and autonomous systems area has been highlighted by the UK Government in 2013 as one the 8 Great Technologies that underpin the UK's Industrial Strategy for jobs and growth. The essential challenge can be characterised as how to obtain successful INTERACTIONS. Robots must interact physically with environments, requiring compliant manipulation, active sensing, world modelling and planning. Robots must interact with each other, making collaborative decisions between multiple, decentralised, heterogeneous robotic systems to achieve complex tasks. Robots must interact with people in smart spaces, taking into account human perception mechanisms, shared control, affective computing and natural multi-modal interfaces.Robots must introspect for condition monitoring, prognostics and health management, and long term persistent autonomy including validation and verification. Finally, success in all these interactions depend on engineering enablers, including architectural system design, novel embodiment, micro and nano-sensors, and embedded multi-core computing. The Edinburgh alliance in Robotics and Autonomous Systems (EDU-RAS) provides an ideal environment for a Centre for Doctoral Training (CDT) to meet these needs. Heriot Watt University and the University of Edinburgh combine internationally leading science with an outstanding track record of exploitation, and world class infrastructure enhanced by a recent £7.2M EPSRC plus industry capital equipment award (ROBOTARIUM). A critical mass of experienced supervisors cover the underpinning disciplines crucial to autonomous interaction, including robot learning, field robotics, anthropomorphic & bio-inspired designs, human robot interaction, embedded control and sensing systems, multi-agent decision making and planning, and multimodal interaction. The CDT will enable student-centred collaboration across topic boundaries, seeking new research synergies as well as developing and fielding complete robotic or autonomous systems. A CDT will create cohort of students able to support each other in making novel connections between problems and methods; with sufficient shared understanding to communicate easily, but able to draw on each other's different, developing, areas of cutting-edge expertise. The CDT will draw on a well-established program in postgraduate training to create an innovative four year PhD, with taught courses on the underpinning theory and state of the art and research training closely linked to career relevant skills in creativity, ethics and innovation. The proposed centre will have a strong participative industrial presence; thirty two user partners have committed to £9M (£2.4M direct, £6.6M in kind) support; and to involvement including Membership of External Advisory Board to direct and govern the program, scoping particular projects around specific interests, co-funding of PhD studentships, access to equipment and software, co-supervision of students, student placements, contribution to MSc taught programs, support for student robot competition entries including prize money, and industry lead training on business skills. Our vision for the Centre is as a major international force that can make a generational leap in the training of innovation-ready postgraduates who are experienced in deployment of robotic and autonomous systems in the real world.

Metals have a finite supply, thus metal scarcity and supply security have become worldwide issues. We have to ensure that we do not drain important resources by prioritizing the desires of the present over the needs of the future. To solve such a global challenge we need to move to a circular, more sustainable economy where we use the resources we have more wisely. One of the founding principles of a circular economy is that waste is an unused feedstock; that organic and inorganic components can be engineered to fit within a materials cycle, by the design, engineering and re-purposing of waste streams. In this fellowship I propose to design and engineer bacteria to repurpose our waste streams for us. I plan to use the new tools and techniques provided by advances in biology to engineer a microbe with the ability to upcycle critical metal ions from waste streams into high value nanoparticles. Certain bacteria have the ability to reduce metal cations and form precipitates of zero-valence, pure metals, as part of their survival mechanism to defend against toxic levels of metal cations. I will adopt the modular approach used in Synthetic Biology alongside iterative design, build and test cycles in order to enhance, manipulate and standardise the biomanufacture of these nanosize precipitates as high value products. With training in life cycle assessment, I will determine the financial benefits for business of adopting biological waste treatment methods with high value resource recovery and I will provide biogenic material to other researchers (academic and industrial) free of charge to encourage user pull for the technology.