This research investigates the blame avoidance strategies employed by the Conservative Government during the COVID-19 pandemic and explores their influence on news media content during this period. It focuses on the dynamics between journalists and political actors shaping the newsmaking process, specifically in relation to the agenda setting of crises, policy outcomes and narratives of accountability. It engages with salient questions regarding the extent of media dependence on party-sponsored messaging and the susceptibility of journalism to methods such as spin, distraction and obscurantism. By investigating the recent history of Boris Johnson's premiership, during which pandemic management was the media's predominant policy focus, this study takes advantage of a unique period in British politics to further the understanding into crisis communications, the influence parties have over media agendas and the importance of structural media factors in determining party strategy. Through a content analysis of print publication and broadcast output spanning a two-year period, this research will produce statistical data showcasing the efficacy of different media strategies for blame management purposes. Measures such as the exporting of frames and the variability of issues' salience will be theorised as evidence of a strategy's success. Time-series analysis will examine flows between sources, in turn identifying influential arbiters of discursive power. In addition, interviews with party strategists, communications officers and journalists will complement content analysis to help provide a more nuanced understanding into how the 'blame game' works in practice. The hypotheses developed in conjunction with the coding scheme will draw upon existing research which finds factors such as press partisanship and incumbency to be strong determinants of media representation. Furthermore, in light of growing concerns that the Government has regularly employed divisive, populist techniques to evade accountability, this research aims to explore the role of certain methods - e.g. personal attacks, 'dead cat policies' - within the Government's wider PR arsenal. Whilst there are multiple studies which explain how populist communications can be an effective tool for insurgent parties in terms of agenda-setting and visibility-seeking, this project explores whether a broadly populist style is auspicious for a mainstream, governing party, and considers the impact it may have on the wider state of political news reporting. Lastly, it addresses questions concerning the media's ability to hold governments to account when confronted by public relations techniques, and will inform recommendations for the strengthening of regulatory frameworks and the improvement of newsroom practices.

Background With 3.35 million children aged 5-15 participating across England (The FA, 2015), football has facilitated holistic health benefits (Krustrup et al., 2010). However, a bullying culture within adolescent football is currently highly prevalent, contributing to substantial dropouts (Steinfeldt et al., 2012), with adolescent participation levels significantly decreasing across the UK from 2011-2019 (Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport, 2020). Negative behaviours associated with reduced participation are characterised chiefly by bullying and victimisation, yet they are commonly masked as 'banter' (Newman, 2019). The Football Association (FA) sought to address bullying issues by initiating their 2007 Respect Programme to ensure a 'safe, inclusive and fun environment' (The FA, 2007). Despite this action, NSPCC (2017) indicates that negative behaviours of teasing and bullying still occurs in community sport, which driven by teammates and coaches. Moreover, a large body of research has investigated these issues in elite youth football but limited research on community youth football (Taylor & Bruner, 2012). The concern for the presence of negative behaviour that discourages participation is indicative of a need for further research on young peoples' experience of community football for a safer sport. Aims and Objectives This research will impactfully address the dichotomies and gaps in bullying literature and mirrors my interests in positively influencing football culture. (Phase 1) qualitatively explores how young community footballers define bullying compared to banter and its relationship with dropping-out, (Phase 2) designing an intervention that targets nationwide bullying in youth community football and (Phase 3) qualitatively test the feasibility in community football. Methods The Medical Research Council's (MRC) guidance on formulating interventions underpins the research methods in this study by establishing empirical evidence, designing an intervention, and testing its feasibility (Moore et al., 2015). Phase 1 will be achieved by qualitatively exploring how players define bullying and banter in youth community football by utilising an Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) and semi-structured interviews. IPA methodology is a practical approach suitable for examining the individual and collective bullying and banter experiences (Smith & Shinebourne, 2012). Phase 2 will then be achieved by designing an intervention using iterative development cycles to reflexively analyse the intervention to positively impact emerging issues visible in the first phase (Moore et al., 2015). Phase 3 will then address the intervention's feasibility by conducting semi-structured interviews and focus groups with players, coaches and policymakers. Interviews and focus groups allow the researcher to evaluate an intervention's feasibility with in-depth individualised and collective views (Bowen et al., 2009). Analysis As the study will take an IPA methodology approach and a review of an intervention, a thematic analysis will be used to gage the retrospective recollection of the lived experience. This allows the researcher to interpret the data comprehensively and concisely while systematically following Vaismoradi, Jones, Turunen and Snelgrove's (2016) phases of initialisation, construction, rectification and finalisation.

Loughborough University's EPSRC DTP represents a major £3M investment in postgraduate research (PGR) training. It is a significant component of our research strategy for engineering and the physical sciences, supporting interdisciplinary research via our Research Strategy 'CALIBRE' including Research Beacons, Global Research Challenges, Ambition and Adventurous research areas, which complement our underpinning, discipline-based research strengths. It also provides a platform for building industry partnerships, and enhancing inter-institutional collaborations afforded by major research infrastructure investments, such as through Midlands Innovation and the Energy Research Accelerator, where Loughborough is a partner. The relevant institutional areas through which DTP-funded opportunities will be aligned are: - Research Excellence in our academic Schools which primarily include; Wolfson School of Manufacturing, Electrical and Mechanical Engineering, School of Architecture, Building and Civil Engineering, School of Aeronautical, Automotive and Chemical Engineering, School of Science and Loughborough Design School - Research Beacons; Built Environment (B), High Value Manufacturing (HVM), Transport Technologies (TT) - Global Challenge areas; Energy (E), Health and Wellbeing (HW), Secure and Resilience Societies (SRS), Changing Environments and Infrastructure (CEI) - Leading research groups in areas such as: Advanced Materials, Built Environment, Control Engineering, Engineering Design, Fluid Dynamics and Aerodynamics, Information Systems, Manufacturing Technologies, Robotics and Autonomous Systems and Water Engineering. An allocation for fundamental and theoretical science will be ring fenced and will include studentships for Mathematics plus an allocation of a cluster of studentships through a competitive process to support 'Adventure' in research at Loughborough. These initiatives will secure support for important underpinning disciplines. Each of our 42-month DTP-supported studentships will receive an enhanced, cohort-based research training experience akin to that found within our Centres for Doctoral Training (CDTs). These will be enhanced by training in transferable and research skills, a research training support grant and an integrated impact, outreach and public engagement component to support impact creation. Additional DTP-supported initiatives include; three 18-month Doctoral Prize Fellowships, to allow the most able students to undertake a period of self-directed post-doctoral research to establish their research career; up to 6 'Impact Fellowships' to enable students to exploit opportunities where their doctoral research offers considerable promise for future downstream application(s) and CASE Conversion awards where there is the prospect of further enhancing collaboration between academic and partner organisations. We fund up to 15 DTP vacation bursaries per year for undergraduate student placements, which helps to provide the brightest students the opportunity to contribute to and experience research. DTP funds will be allocated in two tranches in late 2017 with the PGR programmes starting in October 2018 and October 2019. A number of studentships open to non-EU candidates will be available to attract the best international doctoral candidates. Details of allocations, timetable for appointment, recruitment process and DTP training programme will be made available on the Loughborough Doctoral College website, alongside profiles of current students in receipt of DTP funding (http://www.lboro.ac.uk/services/doctoral-college/centres-partnerships/). DTP-funded studentships will be publicised on the Studentship vacancies web page (http://www.lboro.ac.uk/study/postgraduate/next-steps/research/studentships/), in addition to findaphd.com and jobs.ac.uk. For further information, please contact Dr Kathryn North, Head of Researcher Development (k.north@lboro.ac.uk).

Conductive inks continue to become more relevant in the electronics industry as they prove their value in solar applications[1], sensors[2], supercapacitor electrodes[3], fuel cell electrodes[4], and many other applications including circuit components. IDTechEx predicted the conducting inks market to be greater than 1900 tonnes in 2017[5] while "Markets and Markets" have forecast the conducting inks market to be worth $3.91bn by 2021[6]. The majority of the market value of conductive inks is attributed to silver flake inks. These are used extensively in solar applications due to their great conductivity performance. The other major inks include carbon, graphene, silver powder and copper flake. Conductive inks are increasingly finding relevance in industry which in turn is spurring research into the nature of the inks and how to achieve the best conductivities. The combination of these two is what is driving the rapid growth of the market. Printed electronics also offer an interesting opportunity to the fast-developing "Internet of Things". This is a concept that devices and everyday objects will become smarter, more informative, and more powerful through constant sensing, learning and connection to the rest of the world. The aim of this research project is to look at printed energy storage as a system and identify areas that could be optimized. While much research is aimed directly at the electrodes of batteries or supercapacitors, this study will look at the circuit and components around it that allow it work, and look for optimisations or ways to print previously unseen printed electronic components. To highlight this concept is Figure 1 shows a simple circuit with a current source charging a supercapacitor and an unknown load in parallel. Between the current source and the supercapacitor is a diode which would prevent the backflow of current from the supercapacitor to the current source. Visualising printed energy storage as a circuit rather than a component allows one to see the bigger picture and what is necessary for it to become a valuable technology. The areas of study that need further study highlighted by this circuit are printable diodes; effective, potentially printable electrolytes; effective heatsinking; and reduction of unnecessary bulk from non-essential components of the printing process. To achieve the aims outlined a series of objectives were established: 1) Identify components and aspects for optimisation In reference to the model energy storage circuit shown in section 1.2, identify aspects of existing components, or currently unavailable components that with optimisation or introduction to printed electronics would improve the system as a whole. Further, a printing method must be identified. 2) Develop an experimental process from raw materials to ink formulation Depending on the components identified in objective 1 and raw materials associated with them, an experimental method is needed to take those materials and make them suitable for development of inks. 3) Establish methods to construct and test components The parameters by which a component is tested must be identified as well as the means to construct said component in a printing setup. This will lead to a standard construction, and a standard testing method. 4) Produce demonstration components in a relevant circuit Working optimised components, or newly introduced components must be able to work in a circuit such as that shown in Figure 1 and prove some form of benefit to the system compared to the previous standard for printed electronics.

The issue of brain injury in sport has grown in significance due to improved diagnosis and heightened awareness brought about by high profile media coverage. Cricket is a sport where participants, especially at the highest level, are exposed to risk of head and brain injury. Significant work has been undertaken by medical professionals within the sport to assess and diagnose players both prior to and during recovery from head impacts, but there remains an absence of knowledge to connect the details of the impact received with the injury and subsequent symptoms. This project will seek to develop and investigate laboratory based methods to replicate known head injuries and explore the potential for advanced measurements that can progress understanding of the causes of brain injury in more detail.