Quadrature (or in higher dimensions cubature) is a classical method for calculating areas and historically related to the development of the integral calculus. In its modern form it goes back to the work of Gauss and refers to the approximation of the definite integral of a function by a weighted sum of function values at a finite number of carefully chosen points. The work of Lyons and Victoir has combined this fundamental idea with the machinery of modern stochastic analysis and applied it on infinite dimensional path spaces. This has resulted in a novel particle method that can be used to track the evolution of a large class of random systems. The approximation convergences rapidly and is robust as the particles evolve unlike in classical methods (Euler) along admissible trajectories. Moreover, while the underlying ideas are probabilistic the approximation is deterministic. In filtering problems, we aim to make reasonable inferences about the evolution of complex phenomena based on partial observations of the system. Such problems are natural and come in virtually all shapes and sizes: from the focus of a camera in a mobile tracking a moving object, via the imaging produced by a modern MRI scanner in hospital, to the prediction of next week's weather by means of a supercomputer. The aim of the proposed research is to help to transform cubature on Wiener space from a promising and novel approach to numerical integration "in the lab" to a powerful method that can easily be adopted by practitioners to help solve such problems that impact our lives. The proposed research will bring together ideas from probability, numerical analysis and algebra to gain a more systematic understanding of the construction of cubatures on path space. These cubatures result in highly efficient particle methods that combine rapid convergence with transparent bounds on the complexity of the particle descriptions of the evolving measures. As part of this project we want to lower the hurdle for other researchers working in academia and industry to adopt our ideas. Hence, we propose to develop efficient and accessible C++ implementations of the numerical methods and to contribute them to the existing open source computational rough path library.

Against the backdrop of the dramatic social and economic divides characterizing contemporary South Africa, my research on Zionist Christianity offers the South African public an in-depth example of religion's role in pioneering equitable societies. My AHRC Fellowship examines the democratic resources of a transatlantic Protestant faith healing movement called Zionism. I show that in both the United States and South Africa, the Zionist church has been favoured by working-class individuals marginalized by those in power and who, in their conversion to Zionism, found new possibilities for self-assertion. For example, its doctrine encouraged adherents to eschew the expertise of medical professionals in favour of the simple prayer of ordinary people. By the early twentieth century, Zionism had been transmitted to South Africa via American missionaries. Its teachings regarding the equality of all humanity - regardless of race, class or education - meant Zionism found great success amongst black South Africans seeking to claim status and dignity amidst the strictures of a racially segregated state. While the movement declined in the USA, Zionism is today South Africa's largest religious group, with over 12 million believers. I argue Zionism continues to powerfully shape visions of egalitarian society within contemporary South Africa. While conducting research in South Africa, I encountered the prize-winning photographer, Sabelo Mlangeni, himself a life-long Zionist believer. Over the past year, Mlangeni and I have developed a proposal for a photographic exhibition at the renowned Wits Art Museum (WAM) in Johannesburg, displaying Mlangeni's 60 black and white photographs on contemporary Zionists. The exhibition will be entitled Amakholwa, isiZulu for 'The Believers'. The photographs foreground the intimate, affectionate ties between Zionist believers. Mlangeni uses close-up perspectives and full-frontal portraits to portray the bonds of support between fellow believers. These photographs also emphasize the egalitarian nature of Zionist community; they depict 'the believers' as a group of people amongst whom clerical hierarchies are largely invisible. The overall sense is of a horizontal gathering of young men and women. In this way, Mlangeni's photographs engage with my research's exploration of the importance of religious affiliation in transcending social divides by reconstituting individuals as 'believers', erasing former divisions of class, ethnicity and socio-economic status. In conversation with WAM, the project partner, I have identified four user communities who will benefit from creatively engaging them with the exhibition and the research underpinning it. These include 1000 secondary school students, 200 Zionist believers, 40 photography students and at least 3000 members of the Johannesburg public. With respect to the school audience, we have identified a need for high-quality discourse on the role of Zionism in the public sphere as this is largely absent from religious education curricula. The second audience - Zionist believers - would benefit from a visual representation of their religious identity by an 'insider' voice such as Mlangeni. Zionists' knowledge of their origins would be enhanced through their engagement with the exhibition's text panels and the catalogue. Photography students in South Africa need teaching on the intersection between photographic practice and depiction of religious life, while the South African public would benefit from thoughtful commentary on the significance of religious communities such as Zionism (which receives little coverage in the national media) for transcending social divides. These four audiences will be engaged via walk-arounds, a photography workshop and participation in religious rituals dynamically interacting with the exhibition. Audiences' engagement will be assessed through follow-up questionnaires, focus groups and media monitoring.

This project critically examines the advancement, projection, and negotiation of "values" by Western aid donor officials in Africa. Defined here as ethical and normative principles that influence and inform political beliefs, interactions, and policies, "values" have always undergirded Western aid relationships with Africa. They have, however, recently received renewed emphasis in the policies of many Western states. Prominent among these is the UK - the focus of this study - where ministers have presented the promotion of values - "British" or otherwise - as a key plank of ensuring that post-Brexit "Global Britain" retains international influence. For "frontline" UK officials in Africa - in the case of "national" staff, African citizens themselves - this presents fundamental challenges. Donor officials are expected to uphold international aid effectiveness norms on partnership and recipient "ownership" of aid. The same officials are also, however, under domestic (UK) pressure to champion (notional) UK values abroad. In some cases, these values may be shared by African interlocutors. In others, however, UK - and other Western - officials and African stakeholders may take directly oppositional stances, departing sharply from a partnership approach. Moreover, some non-Western powers have sought to undercut Western influence through presenting their own engagement as respectful of African sovereignty. This has intersected with criticisms by African leaders of Western value promotion as "neo-colonial meddling", inconsistent, and hypocritical, which resonate with many African peoples. A recent example of how these pressures play out can be found in the international response to Uganda's draconian 2023 "Anti-Homosexuality Bill". Western officials' public condemnations were rejected by Ugandan policymakers as "arrogant" and "imperialist", while rumours of Western aid cuts were met with assurances from Beijing that Chinese aid would remain without "political strings". This project will interrogate how UK officials in Africa experience and seek to balance such challenges, constraints, and countervailing forces in their everyday work and interactions. Drawing on research in Cameroon, Kenya, Rwanda, and South Africa, the research will combine interviews, oral history, focus-group discussions, (non-/)participant observation and archival research to answer the following questions: How are "values" understood by UK officials in Africa - and by African host governments, NGOs and civil society groups, and other aid donors? How do both UK officials and their in-country interlocutors assess the effectiveness, or even desirability, of value promotion? Moreover, how does the meaning, significance, and prioritization of different values evolve for UK officials themselves, and with what implications? The research will significantly advance our knowledge of the critical role of frontline diplomatic and development staff in the negotiation of deeply sensitive and consequential areas of policy (dis)agreement and exchange. In doing so, it will refocus scholarly attention on the normative and relational dimensions of UK-Africa policy, including the wider question of what kind of "partner" post-Brexit Britain wishes to present itself as in Africa - a continent which receives over half of UK bilateral aid. Informed by an on-going engagement with practitioners from Africa, the UK, and elsewhere from inception, the research will illuminate the circumstances under which UK - and, by extension, wider Western - donor engagement can effectively amplify the work of African activists. Equally, the research will underline how and when UK and Western value promotion can not only be problematic, but actually backfire, undermining the interests of both the UK and African partners.

The aim of the project is to grow capacity for cross-sector design collaboration in placemaking through the use of a creative approach called 'cross-pollination'. The approach was developed and tested in a variety of research-based and practice-based projects in different settings and has proved successful in bringing people together to share and connect their assets (human, economic, cultural, social) as a basis for forming partnerships with the capacity to lead design initiatives. The idea is to scale up collaboration by providing spaces that can enable and empower placemaking actors (local authorities, civic sector organisations, community groups, academic institutions, cultural institutions and businesses) to incubate cross-sector collaborative design initiatives in local areas. The project will engage with three locally based partners who represent three different types of stakeholders or routes to placemaking in different locations in the three nations of Wales, Scotland and England: a local authority (Merthyr Tydfil in Wales), a place commission (Glasgow in Scotland) and a business improvement district (Clapham Junction in England). The activities of the project will help capture and share local knowledge, develop skills and capacity among individuals and organisations, and deliver local impacts.

Compressed Air Energy Storage (CAES) uses compressors to produce pressurised air while excessive power is available; the pressurised air is then stored in air reservoirs and will be released via a turbine to generate electricity when needed. Compared with other energy storage technologies, CAES has some highly attractive features including large scale, long duration, and low cost. However, its low round trip energy efficiency (the best CAES plant currently in operation has a 60.2% round trip efficiency) and low energy density cause major concerns for commercial deployment. The conversion of electricity to heat and storing the heat via thermal storage is a relatively mature and a highly efficient technology; but the conversion of the stored thermal energy back to electricity has a low energy efficiency (less than 40%) through (conventional and organic) Rankine cycles, thermoelectric generators, and recently proposed thermophotovoltaics. The project aims to develop a Hi-CAES technology, which integrates the CAES with high-temperature thermal energy storage (HTES) to achieve high energy conversion efficiency, high energy and power density, and operation flexibility. The technology uses HTES to elevate CAES power rate and also convert high-temperature thermal energy to electricity using compressed air - a natural working fluid. The proposed technology is expected to increase CAES's electricity-to-electricity efficiency to over 70% and overall energy efficiency to over 90% with additional energy supply for heating and cooling. The proposed Hi-CAES will also increase the storage energy density and system power rate significantly. Meanwhile, the technology can convert the stored thermal energy into electrical power with a much higher energy conversion efficiency and lower system cost than current thermoelectrical energy storage technologies. With the integration of HTES with CAES, the system dynamic characteristics and operation flexibility can be much improved in terms of charging and discharging processes. This will place Hi-CAES in a better financial position as it can generate revenue through certain high market value fast response grid balance service. The goal of the project is to improve both the CAES efficiency and energy density considerably through the integration with a HTES system. The research will address the technical and scientifically challenges for realisation of the Hi-CAES system and societal challenges of deep power system decarbonisation.