We propose to implement an online research lab to synthesize findings from the four studies and explain the variation in teacher accountability across the four studies. Online research labs are collaborative research initiatives structured around a set of webinars with further research activities in between sessions to analyse and share data from existing studies and work towards a joint outcome. The data we will analyse are existing transcripts from interviews and school/policy documents from our current RLO-funded studies. We will analyse these sources for differences in teachers' professional qualifications and professional development, and the school and system context in which teachers operate. The webinars are used to organize the work, starting with the development of a framework for the synthesis and comparative analysis, discussing preliminary findings and comparing and contrasting findings across countries to answer our research questions. In a final writers' retreat we will finalize the synthesis paper and also prepare for dissemination to other stakeholders through a set of webinars.

South Africa has a long history of oppression and apartheid which have led to great inequalities, despite South Africa's classification as an upper-middle income country (World Bank, 2008). 26 years after the fall of apartheid, the systematic racial segregation practiced under apartheid, in conjunction with an overtly white supremacist ideology still has a profound impact on South Africa's society as well as its education system (Spaull, 2012). Howie (2012) explains how South Africa struggles with a widening performance gap between rich and poor students and high levels of drop out, particularly among black Africans. Spaull's (2012) analysis of SACMEQ III data shows that students in the 25% wealthiest schools are far more likely to have their own textbook, receive homework frequently and experience less teacher absenteeism compared to the poorest 75% of schools. The distribution of resources and capital still privileges white South Africans, according to Nattrass and Seekings (2001) and Spaull (2012) and essentially divides the country and the education system into two nations. Several authors point to problematic accountability relationships and a lack of trust and capacity in the South African education system as key issues in the lack of improvement of learning outcomes. Spaull (2001) for example explains how the national, provincial and local levels of government are not held accountable for their use of public resources, and how there are few (if any) tangible consequences for non-performance or to address the high rates of teacher absenteeism and low rates of curriculum coverage. Eddy Spicer, Ehren et al's (2016) systematic review also points to lack of teacher accountability in South Africa as school-based registers of teachers' attendance are not checked and national government fails to sanction teachers who are often absent. Lack of trust inhibits the implementation of effective assessment and inspection systems as teacher unions, for example, reject inspections of teachers and block the publication of assessment data, while lack of capacity subsequently prevents district managers, area managers, principals, heads of department and teachers to effectively use the data that is available (see Eddy Spicer, Ehren et al, 2016; Howie, 2012). This 'vicious' cycle of distrust, lack of accountability and lack of capacity renders the system powerless to improve and creates a series of 'binding constraints' (e.g. weak institutional functionality, undue union influence) that need to be addressed in order to improve learning outcomes, according to Van der Berg et al (2016). These examples highlight the need to understand the intricate relations between accountability, capacity and trust and how these relations produce (or fail to produce) a pattern of change in learning outcomes over time and create a divided unequal system. We aim to study these relations in South Africa's public primary education system in three phases: 1) Social network analysis of the (accountability and trust) relations and flow of resources in a low and high performing school in quintile 1 and 5 (20% of schools in most deprived and wealthy areas), 2) A focus group in which we will map the causal loops which describe how trust, capacity and accountability interconnect through a series of balancing and/or reinforcing feedback loops and how these loops have (in the past) produced (or failed to produce) a pattern of change in learning outcomes and have created large inequity in the system, and 3) Collecting quantitative (assessment and questionnaire data) to test the causal loops via longitudinal path models and multiple-indicator multiple-cause (MIMIC) models.

We will develop a world-class science platform relevant to political decision-makers responsible for housing, transport, employment and urban development in the world's biggest mega-city region, the Pearl River Delta Greater Bay Area. This platform integrates work on inequality indicators and predicting future land use and transport developed in western Europe in London and the Randstad with related work in Shenzhen and Guangzhou, producing a system that will use state-of-the-art simulation models, big data from routine transport, and new ways of using information technology for participatory governance. We argue that such a platform is essential for the very largest cities which are qualitatively different from smaller cities. The platform developed here would be a world first. The 21st century will be dominated by very large urban agglomerations, qualitatively different from those big cities that our contemporary analytical understanding and models of governance are able to handle. The growth of these mega-city regions is heavily influenced by the fusion of existing cities as well as by rapid continental scale migration. This growth is generating severe problems of social segregation, connectivity, mobility, and income inequalities that require new and powerful methods of analytical understanding such as those being developed using real-time 'big' data sources and new information technologies. We propose to develop the platform for prediction and urban governance using the Pearl River Delta 'Greater Bay Area' mega-city region as a demonstrator, bringing sustainability indicators and simulation models from the Greater London and urban Holland (the Randstad) regions to inform the development of an urban data and simulation platform relevant to designing and testing scenarios for new modes of transport and the alleviation of socio-economic inequalities in the Bay Area. These problems, we believe, will be key to mega-city regions during the rest of this century. The project will: (1) integrate already developed Land Use Transportation Interaction (LUTI) models for London and the Randstad with ongoing cellular development and transport models for the Greater Bay Area, (2) develop new indicators for measuring spatial efficiency and equity, (3) develop analytics to inform innovative policy analysis and governance, and (4) demonstrate these tools in association with planning agencies and government across the region. CASA (The Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis) in University College London (UCL) will coordinate and lead the project and the consortium of seven partners will be based on the GIS group at Birkbeck University of London (BBK), the Geocomputation group at King's College London (KCL), the School of Business and Economics, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (VUA), the Geomatics Department and Smart Cities Institute at Shenzhen University (SZU), the Shenzhen Institute of Research and Innovation in the The University of Hong Kong (HKU-SIRI) at Shenzhen, and the Department of Geography at Sun Yat-sen University (SYSU).

Networks of coupled dynamical nodes are ubiquitous in science and technology and influence many parts of our everyday lives. Indeed, ecological networks of interacting species, neurons in the brain and coupled rotors as a model for a power grid are examples of networks of coupled oscillatory nodes. Such networks can give rise to a wide range of collective dynamics - the joint dynamics of the coupled nodes - such as synchrony. Crucially, the network function or dysfunction often depends on the collective dynamics. For example, neurological diseases, such as Parkinson's disease, have long been associated with excessive neural synchronization. The collective dynamics of a network, that is, whether the nodes synchronize or show other dynamical behaviour, depends on the network structure and interactions. The network structure determines whether a node influences other nodes. The network interactions determine how a node influences other nodes. In many real-world networks, the network interactions include "higher-order" coupling, for example, the influence of one node onto another may depend on the state of a third node. However, such interactions are often omitted in commonly studied networks. The proposed project will elucidate the collective dynamics of coupled oscillator networks. The main question we address here is how network structure and interactions - with a particular focus on higher-order interactions - shape the collective dynamics. We will investigate objects called heteroclinic structures and elucidate how they organize the dynamics for interactions that are relevant for real-world networks. The project will yield new results in dynamical systems theory and their application. Moreover, we will investigate how the results can lead to new ways to control dynamics. Insights into how network structure and interactions shape the dynamics can be employed to understand what part of the network one has to tune to get oscillators to synchronize (or not). Since Parkinson's disease has been associated with excessive synchrony, this could eventually lead to new ways to tune network parameter to restore healthy brain functionality.

Research Context. Waste is a significant problem facing a rapidly urbanising world, with challenges at every stage including waste prevention, treatment/management, recycling and reuse, and the health and ecosystem impacts of poorly managed waste. Rising to these challenges, particularly in relation to sustainable cities, is high on the policy agenda at local, national and international levels. For example a recent (2013) UK Government report on waste noted that: We need to develop further the concept of a circular economy, where one person's waste becomes another's valuable resource...Making the changes needed may require innovation and creative thinking... Aims and Objectives The aim of the Network is to develop a forum for knowledge exchange and debate across art & humanities and science disciplines and subject areas with a common focus on waste treatment, management and innovation. This will seek to develop responses to the question: how can arts based approaches inform waste management innovation techniques and processes; and secondly, (how) does place (local context, identity, culture, governance) make a difference to waste generation, waste innovation delivery and uptake? This aim will be met through the following objectives: i)To establish an interdisciplinary network of Europe-wide academics, artists, scientists, practitioners, stakeholders, and interested end-users. We will run four workshops in 4 European cities (London, Amsterdam, Maastricht, Bangor in Wales) to explore and develop ideas, issues and possible solutions and learn from each other, and also run a number of 'pop-up' events piloting arts-based approaches to public engagement and waste. A 'wiki style' open source website will provide network support. ii) to identify particular sorts of waste (e.g. industrial/domestic, organic/manufactured, chemicals/metals, waste-energy, water) and to identify specific 'intervention points', which have good potential for creative interdisciplinary innovation. Applications and Benefits Bringing together different disciplines and different 'communities of place and practice' to address a common problem will have the primary benefit of structured knowledge exchange and capacity building across a number of divides (e.g. academic/practitioner, geographical, artists and scientists). The process of creating and participating in the network will therefore be its key outcome/benefit. The network will also make connections (through the pop up events and through the website) with 'the general public', enabling 'local and lay expertise' to inform the network. We aim to identify, through an iterative process of workshops and facilitated discussion, not only how 'good practice' in one area can be uptaken in another, but to identify what sorts of waste, and what sorts of 'intervention points', may be best suited for taking forward creative interdisciplinary solutions, and to seek future funding to develop these, ensuring a legacy for the network. We also anticipate a number of smaller 'spin off' innovations, which may be quite simple, such as better recycling leaflet design and event management. We aim for the long term benefits to be more sustainable waste management and treatment innovation systems and improved governance including citizen participation, enabling waste to be more sustainably treated and for more value to be extracted from waste streams. This would have clear benefits for the health, wealth and wellbeing of cities and their citizens.