Air pollution and airborne pollen can have significant impacts on health and wellbeing. Health effects can be severe; for example, people with hayfever may also suffer from asthma, with complications sometimes leading to hospitalisation. However, most cases - while unpleasant and disruptive to the affected individual - are not severe enough to require formal medical treatment. These milder cases are not currently recorded or identified. This masks the true extent of these health conditions and their impacts on quality of life, making them hard to study and to manage. Meanwhile, the digital revolution is creating huge datasets that can provide rich information. We have successfully pioneered a "social sensing" methodology that uses social media data to detect and locate environmental hazards. Social sensing involves several stages: data harvesting, data cleaning (e.g. filtering for relevance and removing spam accounts), event detection, and data visualisation. One of the most exciting opportunities for social sensing is provision of real-time information, allowing accurate monitoring and early warning of emerging hazards. Social sensing has great potential for tracking pollen, air pollution and associated health impacts such as asthma and hayfever. This new source of data can fill an important information gap and bring benefits to public sector organisations and charities working to improve public health. Outputs can be easily provided to the general public through the web, to help asthma and hayfever sufferers manage their conditions more effectively. However, social sensing also raises ethical issues. Collection and analysis of social media data without user consent may be seen as a breach of privacy, especially where the data concern a sensitive topic such as health and/or wellbeing. Furthermore, since social media users are not necessarily representative of wider society, it is possible that decisions or policies based on social media data will unfairly benefit some sections of society at the expense of others. This project at University of Exeter will evaluate a social sensing prototype focused on pollen, air pollution, asthma and hayfever. The prototype will be assessed for use by several partner organisations working on environment and public health issues: Met Office, Public Health England and AsthmaUK. An integrated ethical investigation will directly address the privacy and fairness concerns raised by social sensing. The project has three aims: (1) Create a prototype social sensing platform to track health and wellbeing impacts of pollen and air pollution; (2) Work with partners to evaluate the usefulness of social sensing in a variety of real-world scenarios; and (3) Investigate ethical concerns around social sensing, in particular, fairness and privacy. These aims will be delivered by achieving four specific objectives: (1) Engage end-users and stakeholders to co-design project goals; (2) Develop a prototype social sensing tool focused on pollen, air pollution, asthma and hayfever; (3) Evaluate the prototype in multiple real-world scenarios identified by partner organisations; and (4) Use academic literature, public engagement and surveys to assess ethical concerns around privacy and fairness. The project team brings together an interdisciplinary mix of academics from University of Exeter, policy partners from Public Health England (PHE), Met Office and AsthmaUK, and members of the public from the Health and Environment Public Engagement (HEPE) group. Expertise in computer science, environment and human health will be combined to solve real-world problems. Outputs will include social sensing software (free for anyone to use) and a comprehensive Case Study Report summarising all project findings. Overall this project will create an essential evidence base to guide future use of social sensing in the context of environment and public health.

Summary In this proposal, we aim to revolutionise the way that pollen is measured, model the spatial and temporal deposition of different species of grass pollen and identify linkages to human health. In the UK population ~5% suffer from allergic reactions (ranging from hay fever to asthma attacks) and further 22% are sensitised to grass pollen (i.e. they have antibodies capable of causing reactions). Grass pollen is the single most important outdoor aeroallergen closely followed by tree pollen. Similar to tree pollen, sensitivity towards grass pollen varies between species. However, we have no way of detecting, modelling or forecasting the aerial-dispersion of pollen from different species of grass. These limitations are due to complete lack of detailed source maps reflecting both the presence and abundance of different species of grass and because grass pollen, contrary to tree pollen, can not be separated into species using traditional observational methods. Therefore, combinations of the approximately 150 different species of grass pollen that are monitored (using approaches that remain unchanged since World War II) are lumped into a single category and form the foundation of the pollen forecast. In this project we will both develop new models and new methods of detection that address these major shortcomings. The present situation means that hay fever suffers and health practitioners do not know what species, or combination of species cause present symptoms. Individuals can be tested for against particular grass species, but there are ca. 16 million people sensitised to grass pollen, allergic reactions are complex and testing the population against 150 different grass species species is an overwhelming task. The alternative is to take an environmental approach by developing exposure models and identify the environmental conditions that induce the allergic response, which then can be profiled to human health. Recent developments in the generation of a UK plant DNA "barcode" library and DNA sequencing technologies have provided a unique and timely opportunity to identify the species, or combinations of species of grass that are associated with the allergic response. The important development of the UK plant DNA barcode library now gives us the ability to not only target individual species in molecular genetic analyses, but also assign identities to sequences derived from very high throughput molecular meta-analyses of complex mixtures of pollen grains. Similarly, recent developments in next generation air quality models and the advancement of computing power, has enabled the extension of these models into aerobiology in order to study the release, dispersion and transformation of bioaerosols and how this affects the environment. Here, a group of multidisciplinary researchers specialising in aerobiological modelling, DNA barcoding/molecular genetic identification and environmental health have teamed up with the UK Met Office in order to (a.) develop a novel and high-throughput molecular genetic way of measuring the geographical spread and abundance of different allergenic species of grass across the summer months, (b.) develop novel pollen bio-aerosol models and (c.) identify which species, or combinations of species are linked to the most severe public health outcomes of the allergic response (i.e. asthma). The work will provide information that healthcare professionals and charities will be able to translate into helping individuals live healthier and more productive lives. The information will help those with long term health conditions effectively self-manage their conditions, contribute more effectively to the workplace and be less reliant on the health system with accompanied economic benefits. Employers will benefit from greater employer productivity and pharmaceutical companies will be able to better target the distribution of their products and therapies.

Lung diseases such as Asthma and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease affect one in five people in the UK and kill someone every 5 minutes. The number of patients with these lung diseases was increasing in the NHS even before COVID-19. We are also learning about serious long-term effects of COVID-19 that will add to the existing burden on the NHS. There have been huge advances in technologies that allow scientists to see inside the lungs and measure what we breathe out. While this information has taught us quite a lot, it is still very difficult to combine different sources of information and turn it into new or improved treatments. Getting that useful information out of large amounts of medical test results requires sophisticated physics-based mathematical and statistical models run on powerful computers - a combination of techniques called data-driven biophysical multiscale modelling. The ability to develop those kinds of models will allow us to better understand how diseases start and how they progress. Our BIOREME network will support new research that uses these techniques to mimic biological and mechanical processes that occur throughout the lung. Using the information from thousands of lung tests, the idea is then to get these models to mimic real diseased lungs. In order to improve and build trust in these models, some of our projects will be focused on comparing their outputs to results from other lung tests. Medical scientists can then use such models to test what might happen in a particular type of lung disease, and to investigate possible responses to new treatments before testing these in patients. Most importantly, this will lead to the design of new drugs and improved trials for new treatments. The first step will be to get medics, imaging experts and mathematicians together with industry and patient group representatives to decide on which specific research areas to prioritise, where this form of modelling will make the most difference. This NetworkPlus award will then allow us to organise multiple events, in different formats, designed to help researchers to collaborate, and to come up with the best initial projects to help achieve our goals. We will then help the researchers to develop these into larger projects that will attract funding from other sources and continue the research into the future. Even after this funding runs out, BIOREME will provide a lively forum for lung researchers to continue solving problems using these advanced computational tools. Finally, BIOREME will support outreach activities to engage and educate communities and young people in the role that mathematics can play in medicine and healthcare, and to inspire a new generation of respiratory scientists from diverse backgrounds.

This network will focus on developing the next generation of advanced technologies for rehabilitation, targeting musculoskeletal, cardiorespiratory, neurological and mental health conditions. It will be connected to the new £70 million National Rehabilitation Centre (NRC), a major national investment in patient care, innovation and technology, due to open to patients in 2024. The NRC is being co-located with the specialist £300m+ Defence Medical Rehabilitation Centre on the Stamford Hall Rehabilitation Estate so that the two centres can benefit from the sharing of a wealth of knowledge, expertise and facilities. This EPSRC networkplus is therefore an exceptionally timely opportunity to capitalise on this significant investment, actively involving the UK Engineering & Physical Science community in this initiative and embedding technology innovation at the earliest stage. Advances in medicine have resulted in a significant increase in survival rates from trauma and injury, disorders and disease (acute and chronic). However, survival is often just the start, and the higher rates have led to an increase in rehabilitation needs, involving many patients with complex conditions. Technology has an increasingly important part to play in rehabilitation, to support a limited number of skilled healthcare professionals, reduce hospital stays, improve engagement with rehabilitation programmes, increase independence and improve outcomes. Speeding up recovery and helping patients get back to work and life has considerable personal, social and economic impact. This network will bring together researchers, healthcare providers, patient & user groups, industrial partners and supporting organisations (e.g. policy makers, charities) to develop a world-class research community and infrastructure for advanced rehabilitation technologies. By connecting new innovative technologies and advanced materials with our growing understanding of mental and physical health, this network will support the provision of novel, transformative, affordable solutions that will address current issues, allowing patients to lead more independent and fulfilling lives and reducing the burden on limited NHS resources. Supported by a core membership of experts from the rehabilitation field, this network aims to introduce researchers who are not typically involved in rehabilitation technology research into a network of rehabilitation experts. Central to the grant will be a series of Grand Challenge Blended Workshops and supported conversations designed to identify critical areas for research, with funding for feasibility projects to build those collaborations and drive forward innovation. The network will explore multimodal approaches that target both physical and mental rehabilitation. Technology innovation will focus around three key areas: 1) advanced functional materials, 2) patient-specific devices & therapy, and 3) closed loop measurement and rehabilitation.

Aerosol science, the study of airborne particles from the nanometre to the millimetre scale, has been increasingly in the public consciousness in recent years, particularly due to the role played by aerosols in the transmission of COVID-19. Vaccines and medications for treating lung and systemic diseases can be delivered by aerosol inhalation, and aerosols are widely used in agricultural and consumer products. Aerosols are a key mediator of poor air quality and respiratory and cardiac health outcomes. Improving human health depends on insights from aerosol science on emission sources and transport, supported by standardised metrology. Similar challenges exist for understanding climate, with aerosol radiative forcing remaining uncertain. Furthermore, aerosol routes to the engineering and manufacture of new materials can provide greener, more sustainable alternatives to conventional approaches and offer routes to new high-performance materials that can sequester carbon dioxide. The physical science underpinning the diverse areas in which aerosols play a role is rarely taught at undergraduate level and the training of postgraduate research students (PGRs) has been fragmentary. This is a consequence of the challenges of fostering the intellectual agility demanded of a multidisciplinary subject in the context of any single academic discipline. To begin to address these challenges, we established the EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Aerosol Science in 2019 (CDT2019). CDT2019 has trained 92 PGRs with 40% undertaking industry co-funded research projects, leveraged £7.9M from partners and universities based on an EPSRC investment of £6.9M, and broadened access to our unique training environment to over 400 partner employees and aligned students. CDT2019 revealed strong industrial and governmental demand for researchers in aerosol science. Our vision for CDT2024 is to deliver a CDT that 'meets user needs' and expands the reach and impact of our training and research in the cross-cutting EPSRC theme of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, specifically in areas where aerosol science is key. The Centre brings together an academic team from the Universities of Bristol (the hub), Bath, Birmingham, Cambridge, Hertfordshire, Manchester, Surrey and Imperial College London spanning science, engineering, medical, and health faculties. We will assemble a multidisciplinary team of supervisors with expertise in chemistry, physics, chemical and mechanical engineering, life and medical sciences, and environmental sciences, providing the broad perspective necessary to equip PGRs to address the challenges in aerosol science that fall at the boundaries between these disciplines. To meet user needs, we will devise and adopt an innovative Open CDT model. We will build on our collaboration of institutions and 80 industrial, public and third sector partners, working with affiliated academics and learned societies to widen global access to our training and catalyse transformative research, establishing the CDT as the leading global centre for excellence in aerosol science. Broadly, we will: (1) Train over 90 PGRs in the physical science of aerosols equipping 5 cohorts of graduates with the professional agility to tackle the technical challenges our partners are addressing; (2) Provide opportunities for Continuing Professional Development for partner employees, including a PhD by work-based, part-time study; (3) Deliver research for end-users through partner-funded PhDs with collaborating academics, accelerating knowledge exchange through PGR placements in partner workplaces; (4) Support the growth of an international network of partners working in aerosol science through focus meetings, conferences and training. Partners and academics will work together to deliver training to our cohorts, including in the areas of responsible innovation, entrepreneurship, policy, regulation, environmental sustainability and equality, diversity and inclusion.