The proposed new network will generate interdisciplinary research collaboration and bring together mechatronics/robotics researches from the UK and Japan, to share experiences and formalise discussions for defining a common strategy for future R&D and collaborations at all level of research, teaching and technology transfer. Such a network is vital if the different communities in Japan and UK are to work together for mutual benefit. The network will also act as a knowledge base from the existing mechatronics/robotics community to create a new research community in human adaptive mechatronics able to address the many common challenges (e.g. Pollution / CO2 issue, Aging population issue, etc) in UK and Japan. In particular, the network will explore a number of key challenges: such as a) Investigating the modelling of a man-machine system that explicitly includes all necessary functions of humans as machine operators with sufficient accuracy; b) Implementation of human adaptive behaviour in autonomous systems; c) Application of human adaptive mechatronics to upgrade UK high-tech products; d) Development of human adaptive mechatronics into biomedical applications; e) Development of mathematics to model and analysis human adaptive mechatronic processes in productions.

Covid-19 has upset development progress and paradigms in Mongolia and Kyrgyzstan. Yet the pandemic also has created new opportunities to innovate, evaluate and redirect policy and practice across rural communities and customary livelihoods in these steppe nations. To address post-Covid-19 challenges, experienced Japanese and UK researchers will combine their expertise, shared experience and insights to explore, evaluate and inform inclusive and sustainable policy responses in Mongolia and Kyrgyzstan. As lower-middle income countries, the pandemic intersects with complex environmental and socio-economic factors impacting traditional rural mobile pastoralists and agro-pastoralist livelihoods which are centers for food production and cultural heritage. The project brings together eight Japanese universities with the University of Oxford, building on over 77 years of combined experience working in Mongolia and Central Asia. Original field research will center on rural livelihoods, governance and community engagement to understand the multi-scalar socio-economic and geographic dimensions of Covid-19 responses in rural areas. Challenges include citizen engagement and participation in decision-making, local government capacity, trade and markets, access and availability of information and public services, including health, restrictions on movement and financial support prioritising sustainable economic activity. By advancing a collaborative research agenda, our project aims to advance civic engagement, democratic participation, social well-being and an inclusive Covid recovery through evidence-based, collaborative and multi-stakeholder approaches and will empower researchers at every stage of their career through a comprehensive capacity building and skills development programme. Joint research will identify post-pandemic opportunities to address key issues, transition and improve rural livelihoods, governance and support services. Through fieldwork-based evidence and engagement activities, the project will seek to empower rural communities as they transition into post-Covid response. Strengthened communication (ICT) and markets, sustainable lives and movement and more resilient and equitable systems will be emphasised. This includes opportunities for women, respect for herding and farming, viable education and lifestyle opportunities to build inclusive and enduring rural societies.

The intensity of the Earth's magnetic field is currently decaying at a rate of ca. 5% per century. This recent evolution is unexplained and has led to speculation that our geomagnetic field may be in the preliminary stages of a reversal or substantial excursion. The consequences of such a reversal/excursion are, however, far from understood. The Earth's magnetic field shields the upper atmosphere from constant bombardment by galactic cosmic rays (GCRs). Consequently, any weakening in the geodynamo means that the rate at which such rays enter our atmosphere will increase. It has been suggested that a major geomagnetic excursion or reversal could result in a stripping of the ozone layer, leading to significantly increased UV-B radiation. This has the potential for serious environmental and human impacts. The last major geomagnetic excursion occurred ca. 41,500 years ago and is known as the Laschamps Event. It has been proposed that increased UV-B during this period, as a result of the low geomagnetic field strength, may even have played a role in Neanderthal extinction. However, the lack of observational reconstructions means that such controversial hypotheses cannot be reliably tested currently. In this project we take the first steps towards understanding the impact of geomagnetic reversals on UV-B radiation at the Earth's surface and investigate the subsequent effects on climate and ecosystems. We aim to reconstruct UV-B absorbing biomarkers from four species of fossilised pollen that have been recorded in the unique Lake Suigetsu sediment core (Japan). We will compare the pollen responses during the low magnetic field strength Laschamps Event to a period of known high geomagnetic field strength ca 2000 cal yr BP. This will allow us to understand consistency in UV-B biomarker response across species and also to geomagnetic field strength. This pilot work will provide the critical foundations to support a long-term global partnership between the seedcorn participants to obtain high temporal-resolution reconstructions of UV-B radiation in response to geodynamo evolution, and to rigorously test key hypotheses on the impacts of geomagnetic reversals on plants and animals.

Explosive volcanic eruptions have devastating impacts in near-vent areas where pyroclastic density currents can cause significant loss of life, yet the injection of large volumes of ash into the atmosphere and its subsequent dispersal over hundreds to thousands of kilometres, pose significant and far-reaching hazards. Ash fall is a severe and wide-ranging volcanic hazard; causing roof collapse, health (respiratory) and agricultural issues and wide-scale interruptions to essential infrastructure. Even ash emitted during moderately explosive eruptions can ground air traffic as was demonstrated by the 2010 Eyjafjallajökull eruption (Iceland). As such widespread volcanic ash dispersals present huge economic and societal costs. Disturbingly, 800 million people live within 100 km of active volcanoes globally, yet statistical studies of global eruption databases indicate significant under-recording of past volcanic eruptions deeper in time. For instance, this analysis would indicate up to 66% of VEI 5 eruptions, equivalent in scale to the 1980 Mount St Helens eruption, are missing within the geological record spanning the last 200,000 years. Our understanding of the magnitude and frequency of eruptions at a particular volcano is typically skewed to recent activities, because records of older eruptions are fragmentary often owing to erosion and/or burial by more recent eruptions. The better-preserved, shorter-term records, however, do not necessarily reflect the full range of volcanic activity, or variations in the tempo of activity. This is a major obstacle for long-term volcanic hazard assessments and hampers our ability to: i) determine changing eruption-rates through time, ii) evaluate magnitude-frequency relationships and iii) project the recurrence intervals of hazardous ash dispersals. This research has overcome this impasse by reconstruct comprehensive long-term records of explosive volcanism for volcanoes in southern and central Japan. This research exploits the under-utilised record of volcanic ash layers preserved in dense networks of marine and lake sediment cores away from the volcano. These continuous sediment sequences present unprecedented repositories of ash fall (preserved as visible and microscopic deposits), which are not susceptible to destructive near-source volcanic processes. Using state-of-the-art chemical 'fingerprinting' techniques, it is possible to pinpoint the volcanic source of the distal ash layers, whilst tracing these ash fall events across a network of cores provides the opportunity to computationally model and map past ash dispersals, and calculate eruption magnitudes. Integrating cutting-edge dating techniques (40Ar/39Ar/14C) to date the ash deposits, enables us to reveal the timing and tempo of past explosive eruptions at an individual volcano, and importantly determine the recurrence intervals of widespread hazardous volcanic ash dispersals from these volcanoes. Our research in south and central Japan has been successfully tackling eruption un-reporting and plugged the gaps in the eruption records of numerous volcanoes. In the next phase of our research we will expand the application of our methods to address the volcanoes of NE Japan and the Kurile Arc, utilising newly available marine cores from International Ocean Discovery Programme (IODP) and Japan Agency For Marine-Earth Sciences and Technology (JAMSTEC). In addition, using our ability to produce comprehensive eruption records, we will explore volcano-climate interactions. The distal volcanological records generated in this project will continue to be examined in partnership with those directly responsible for volcanic hazard assessments at individual volcanoes, and policy-makers working in the field.

Explosive volcanic eruptions have devastating impacts in near-vent areas where pyroclastic density currents can cause significant loss of life, yet the injection of large volumes of ash into the atmosphere and its subsequent dispersal over hundreds to thousands of kilometres, pose significant and far-reaching hazards. Ash fall is a severe and wide-ranging volcanic hazard; causing roof collapse, health (respiratory) and agricultural issues and wide-scale interruptions to essential infrastructure (e.g., electricity, food/water supplies; roads and rail closures). Even ash emitted during moderately explosive eruptions can ground air traffic as was demonstrated by the 2010 Eyjafjallajökull eruption (Iceland). As such widespread volcanic ash dispersals present huge economic and societal costs. Disturbingly, 800 million people live within 100 km of active volcanoes globally, yet statistical studies of detailed eruption databases (e.g., Japan) reveal significant under-recording of past volcanic eruptions deeper in time. Our understanding of the magnitude and frequency of eruptions at a particular volcano is typically skewed to recent activities, because records of older eruptions are fragmentary often owing to erosion and/or burial by more recent eruptions. The better-preserved, shorter-term records, however, do not necessarily reflect the full range of volcanic activity, or variations in the tempo of activity. This is a major obstacle for long-term volcanic hazard assessments and hampers our ability to: i) determine changing eruption-rates through time, ii) evaluate magnitude-frequency relationships and iii) project the recurrence intervals of hazardous ash dispersals. This research will overcome this impasse and reconstruct comprehensive long-term records of explosive volcanism for productive arc volcanoes. It will exploit the under-utilised record of ash layers preserved in dense networks of marine sediment cores. These continuous sequences represent unprecedented repositories of ash fall (preserved as visible and microscopic deposits), which are not susceptible to destructive near-source processes. Using state-of-the-art geochemical 'fingerprinting' techniques, it is possible to pinpoint the volcanic source of the marine ash layers, whilst tracing these ash fall events across a network of cores provides a unique opportunity to computationally model and map ash dispersals, and calculate eruption magnitudes. Cutting-edge argon-argon dating techniques to directly date the ash deposits, will reveal the tempo of past explosive eruptions at an individual volcano, and importantly determine the recurrence intervals of widespread hazardous volcanic ash dispersals from these volcanoes. With evidence for near-source under-reporting of explosive volcanic activity emanating from Japanese eruption records, this research will begin by utilising a wealth of marine sediment records from around the Japanese Islands, including those of the International Ocean Discovery Programme (IODP) and the Geological Survey of Japan (AIST). This research will then look to expand into other productive volcanic arc settings, particularly those that are vulnerable owing to inadequate records of explosive volcanism (e.g., circum-Pacific volcanic arcs). These new offshore volcanological records will be examined in partnership with those directly responsible for hazard/risk assessments at individual volcanoes and policy-makers working in this field.