The project Competing Regional Integrations in Southeast Asia (CRISEA) brings together Southeast Asian (SEA) and European researchers with 3 objectives. 1. Research. Our previous research shows that SEA is open to multiple forces that drive regional integration through competition for resources and legitimacy. In the current crisis of legitimacy for globalisation, SEA's competing regional integrations present challenges for its people and for ASEAN's framework-building project. We analyse these in sectorally-themed work packages on 'arenas of competition': the environment, the economy, the State, the identity of SEA's people, and the Region. Using an interdisciplinary micro-macro method of analysis, we ask in each case how ASEAN-led regional integration is – and is seen by SEA's people as – part of the problem or part of the solution. CRISEA engages with the work programme's concern with "what ‘region’ means to the peoples of these countries within and beyond the ASEAN context". Closely aligned with the 2015 Joint Communication on EU-ASEAN relations, it enhances the EU's understanding of "the Asia-Pacific as a strategic region for Europe". 2. Policy relevance. CRISEA's research programme was developed for its relevance to EU policy on ASEAN and its member states. Its dissemination strategy innovates by creating mechanisms for dialogue with a targeted audience of policy makers, stakeholders and the public in Brussels and SEA, using briefing sessions, workshops, press coverage, film, public lectures and policy briefs. 3. Networking and capacity building for the European Research Area. Leveraging existing networks of EU-SEA cooperation – the unique EFEO network of 10 field centres in SEA, the IDEAS and SEATIDE projects, EUROSEAS, ASEF – we reinforce the ERA through coordinated academic exchange, joint research and results delivery. Our consortium engages western European and ASEAN scholars with emerging expertise in southern and eastern Europe.

Depletion of stratospheric ozone allows larger doses of harmful solar ultraviolet (UV) radiation to reach the surface leading to increases in skin cancer and cataracts in humans and other impacts, such as crop damage. Ozone also affects the Earth's radiation balance and, in particular, ozone depletion in the lower stratosphere (LS) exerts an important climate forcing. While most long-lived ozone-depleting substances (ODSs, e.g. chlorofluorocarbons, CFCs) are now controlled by the United Nations Montreal Protocol and their abundances are slowly declining, there remains significant uncertainty surrounding the rate of ozone layer recovery. Although signs of recovery have been detected in the upper stratosphere and the Antarctic, this is not the case for the lower stratosphere at middle and low latitudes. In fact, contrary to expectations, ozone in this extrapolar lower stratosphere has continued to decrease (by up to 5% since 1998). The reason(s) for this are not known, but suggested causes include changes in atmospheric dynamics or the increasing abundance of short-lived reactive iodine and chlorine species. We will investigate the causes of this ongoing depletion using comprehensive modelling studies and new targeted observations of the short-lived chlorine substances in the lower stratosphere. While the Montreal Protocol has controlled the production of long-lived ODSs, this is not the case for halogenated very short-lived substances (VSLS, lifetimes <6 months), based on the belief that they would not be abundant or persistent enough to have an impact. Recent observations suggest otherwise, with notable increases in the atmospheric abundance of several gases (CH2Cl2, CHCl3), due largely to growth in emissions from Asia. A major US aircraft campaign based in Japan in summer 2021 will provide important new information on how these emissions of short-lived species reach the stratosphere via the Asian Summer Monsoon (ASM). UEA will supplement the ACCLIP campaign by making targeted surface observations in Taiwan and Malaysia which will help to constrain chlorine emissions. The observations will be combined with detailed and comprehensive 3-D modelling studies at Leeds and Lancaster, who have world-leading expertise and tools for the study of atmospheric chlorine and iodine. The modelling will use an off-line chemical transport model (CTM), ideal for interpreting observations, and a coupled chemistry-climate model (CCM) which is needed to study chemical-dynamical feedbacks and for future projections. Novel observations on how gases are affected by gravitational separation will be used to test the modelled descriptions of variations in atmospheric circulation. The CTM will also be used in an 'inverse' mode to trace back the observations of anthropogenic VSLS to their geographical source regions. The models will be used to quantify the flux of short-lived chlorine and iodine species to the stratosphere and to determine their impact on lower stratospheric ozone trends. The impact of dynamical variability will be quantified using the CTM and the drivers of this determined using the CCM. The model results will be analysed using the same statistical models used to derive the decreasing trend in ozone from observations, including the Dynamical Linear Model (DLM). Overall, the results of the model experiments will be synthesised into an understanding of the ongoing decrease in lower stratospheric ozone. This information will then be used to make improved future projections of how ozone will evolve, which will feed through to the policy-making process (Montreal Protocol) with the collaboration of expert partners. The results of the project will provide important information for future international assessments e.g. WMO/UNEP and IPCC reports.

Worldwide, seaweed aquaculture has been developing at an unabated exponential pace over the last six decades. China, Japan, and Korea lead the world in terms of quantities produced. Other Asiatic countries, South America and East Africa have an increasingly significant contribution to the sector. On the other hand, Europe and North America have a long tradition of excellent research in phycology, yet hardly any experience in industrial seaweed cultivation. The Blue Growth economy agenda creates a strong driver to introduce seaweed aquaculture in the UK. GlobalSeaweed: - furthers NERC-funded research via novel collaborations with world-leading scientists; - imports know-how on seaweed cultivation and breeding into the UK; - develops training programs to fill a widening UK knowledge gap; - structures the seaweed sector to streamline the transfer of research results to the seaweed industry and policy makers at a global scale; - creates feedback mechanisms for identifying emergent issues in seaweed cultivation. This ambitious project will work towards three strands of deliverables: Knowledge creation, Knowledge Exchange and Training. Each of these strands will have specific impact on key beneficiary groups, each of which are required to empower the development of a strong UK seaweed cultivation industry. A multi-pronged research, training and financial sustainability roadmap is presented to achieve long-term global impact thanks to NERC's pump-priming contribution. The overarching legacy will be the creation of a well-connected global seaweed network which, through close collaboration with the United Nations University, will underpin the creation of a Seaweed International Project Office (post-completion of the IOF award).