NERC-FAPESP Seedcorn Fund Collaboration Project "Fire-adapted seed traits in Cerrado species" between RHUL (UK) and UNESP (Brazil) Fire is a global phenomenon which together with climate shapes the vegetation of natural and agricultural land. Our interaction with fire is characterised by both positive and negative aspects for mankind. Humans have long used fire including for landscape and weed management, and as tool to improve crop growth on arable land. Controlled fire is necessary to preserve the health and stimulate rejuvenation of wildland ecosystems such as the Brazilian Cerrado, the Mediterranean, as well as UK peatland and moorland. In these fire-prone regions plant regeneration is achieved to a large extent from soil-stored plant seeds. Depending on the species, environment, season and seed properties, the germination of the soil-stored seeds may be stimulated by compounds derived from the smoke or by the fire-generated heat-shock. The aim of the project is to comparatively investigate seeds from species adapted to fire-prone regions to identify novel mechanisms underpinning fire-generated heat-shock and smoke as germination cues. The derived mechanisms will be tested as tools for weed management and crop seed enhancement. Treatment with smoke and various smoke-derived compounds can stimulate the germination of certain weed seeds. This can be used as a weed management tool to deprive the soil from weeds prior to crop seed sowing. We however do not know why this does not work with all weed species, at all ambient conditions (temperature, seasons), and what seed structures and seed coat properties determine the effectiveness of the treatment. Smoke, various smoke-derived compounds, as well as heat-shock treatment can also improve the seed quality and performance of seedling establishment of certain vegetable crops. Again, we do not know what seed structures, seed coat properties and genes are responsible for these effects and why it only works with certain crop species. To advance our knowledge in this topic the leading seed science lab of Royal Holloway University of London (RHUK, United Kingdom) will collaborate with experts for fire vegetation management and Brazilian Cerrado species properties of Sao Paulo State University (UNESP, Brazil). The FAPESP-NERC programme is especially suited to support this collaboration based on the agreement of the two funding agencies. In the project we will investigate seeds of different fire-adapted species to identify novel mechanisms controlling how fire-derived smoke and heat-shock affect their germination, storability, and seedling establishment. This work will be conducted using methods from different science and engineering fields (including molecular biology, microscopy/imaging, biomechanical engineering, physiology) through interdisciplinary collaboration in a comparative approach with many fire-adapted species. This approach will for example identify certain seed coat properties or certain genes associated with the adaptation to fire-derived cues. Seeds of weed and crop species with similar properties/genes will then be used to test if the identified novel mechanism has potential for weed control or improving crop seed quality. The consortium has solid fire vegetation management and agri-technological expertise in these applications to provide solutions for this global challenge in climate change, healthy environment and food security.

The Latin American region lacks a program that has a strong international character and to focus on the entrepreneurial university, for that reason, the REDEMPRENDIA has planned to launch the REDEMPRENDIA STARS program, an international business acceleration program to support the transfer of knowledge from universities to society. SOLA project is directly linked to REDEMPRENDIA STARS program as it develops and implements the training path for technical staff that will implement in the future the STARS program.As a specific objective, the project will implement a common training route to all partner universities of the project aimed at technical staff of universities with business incubator for acceleration and consolidation of strong innovative entrepreneurship and technological European Latin American and European Universities.The project consortium is composed by four higher education institutions in Latin America and four other European, all covered by an umbrella entity that six of the eight higher education institutions are members. This consortium is complemented by a business consulting Devalar, it brings to the project its expertise in the dissemination and capitalization of results field.The main results sought by the SOLA project are: Training module of 30 hours on LEAN CANVAS, training module 30 hours on strategic redefinition of start ups, industrial property and quality certifications, training module 30 hours duration of internationalization of companies, training module 30 hours on training of trainers in basic finance for entrepreneurs and consolidation and implementation of the course of 120 hours of final training for technical staff of incubators.

This proposal aims to develop a suite of three innovative acoustic sensing technologies for detecting water leaks in trunk and distribution mains that is able to provide significantly improved detection relative to current capabilities and enable the step change necessary to meet the challenges facing the water industry. Although primarily aimed at the water industry, aligning with the UK Water Industry Research (UKWIR) initiative 'Zero Leakage 2050', the work is also relevant to the gas and oil sectors. Leakage from pipes is a major issue in all three sectors, wasting natural resources, resulting in negative environmental and economic impacts, and causing serious safety risks. In the water industry, acoustic methods are the dominant methods for detecting leaks. However, successful application of existing methods requires regular access to the pipes, e.g. via a hydrant, which fundamentally limits the application of these methods. These problems are particularly acute in water trunk mains, in plastic pipes and in long distance oil and gas pipelines. The technologies we shall develop are: (i) Monitoring acoustic pressure along an entire pipeline using distributed acoustic sensing (DAS) using circumferential on-pipe optical fibres (ii) Coupling the vibration of the pipe wall at discrete locations to the ground surface using fine metal rods, the top of which can be monitored using conventional sensors (e.g. accelerometers or geophones) (iii) A portable 'geo- camera' to detect and pinpoint leaks from the ground surface Receiving widespread endorsement from both UK Water Industry Research and their members, along with the UK Water Leakage Network, they open up possibilities for both distributed acoustic monitoring of pipelines for leak prevention, as well as the remote detection of leaks. The research will comprise theoretical modelling, with a focus on physics-based mechanistic approaches; experimental measurements, in the laboratory, at outdoor test sites and on the live water network; and signal processing.

Atmospheric CO2 has risen from 280 micro-atmospheres during preindustrial times to 370 micro-atmospheres today. This is predicted to double over the next 100 years if anthropogenic emissions of CO2 continue at their current rate. The microscopic marine algae (the phytoplankton), are able to fix CO2 through photosynthesis and can therefore reduce atmospheric CO2 by drawing it down into the ocean. Photosynthesis involves a series of enzymatic controlled reactions that start with capturing light energy and finish with fixing CO2 to build phytoplankton cells. Some of the fixed carbon is lost through respiration. Marine bacteria, the microscopic animals known as the zooplankton and phytoplankton themselves during the night time respire. The extent to which phytoplankton photosynthesize and fix carbon and the bacteria-zoophytoplankton (or marine plankton) community respires carbon controls whether CO2 is drawn down from the atmosphere to the ocean or is released to the atmosphere from the ocean. The overall objective of this proposal is to improve our understanding of how the marine plankton community in the South Atlantic and the coast of Brazil potentially regulate the atmospheric CO2 concentration. Phytoplankton carbon fixation can be monitored from space using satellite sensors. A new satellite sensor, that has the capability to do this, will be launched by the European Space Agency in autumn 2015. We will use data from this new satellite to study this phenomena in collaboration with a Brazilian Research Institute. The results will benefit both UK and Brazilian research on climate change. The RCUK-FAPESP Lead Agency Agreement is being applied by the applicants

Phenology is a term used to describe the seasonal timing of animal and plant behaviour. Examples of phenological events are when plants first flower in the spring or when birds migrate to the tropics for the winter. In the dry regions of the tropics, phenological behaviour of plants seems to be primarily linked to water availability, rather than to changes in temperature as for example in temperate areas like the UK, but determinants of tropical phenology are poorly understood. Yet, elucidating the phenological behaviour of plants, including in the dry tropics, is essential to measure the flow of carbon into and out of ecosystems. This contributes in turn to understanding the links between plants and the atmosphere and ultimately to predicting the potential impact of climate change on vegetation and vegetation impacts on the climate. Recent reports from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and the United Nations Environment Programme have made it clear that more data are needed on the phenological patterns of vegetation in the tropics, in order to improve predictions on the future of the climate, both in the tropics and globally. To do that, we need to study the phenology of tropical vegetation over broad geographic areas. Hypothetically this can be accomplished using satellite observations, but in fact, the data available from satellites are inadequate: clouds often block a space-based view of the vegetation and the spatial resolution of the images is too coarse (imagine a very fuzzy photograph). The latter means that it can be very difficult to distinguish between trees leafing out versus grasses, with important implications for the amount of carbon flowing into or out of an ecosystem. This is particularly relevant in dry tropical regions where mixed ecosystems with trees and grass are widespread. We also have a poor idea of how phenological timing varies over geographic regions with different patterns of rainfall. Ground-based observations of phenology are therefore needed to complement satellite observations and provide a more accurate picture of vegetation behaviour. Historically, ground-based observations have been difficult to implement at a broad geographic scale in a consistent way, because they are labour intensive and difficult to do in a consistent manner. However, new technologies point a way forward to overcome these issues and advance multi-site and multi-layer (tree and grass) observations across tropical regions. Specifically, cameras can be installed that take photographs every day of the same patch of vegetation over the course of months and years. Such images can be efficiently processed using new computational techniques to quantify when a given patch of vegetation, or ecosystem, flushes new leaves, and whether those leaves are on trees or the ground layer. The proposed project, PhenoChange, will link up global experts on camera-based phenological monitoring in Brazil and the USA with a team of British and African scientists that are leading pioneering, ground-based studies of tropical dry vegetation across sub-Saharan Africa. The project team will install and monitor cameras at six representative sites across dry tropical areas in Brazil and sub-Saharan Africa. This will result in the first comparable, ground-based dataset of vegetation phenology in the dry tropics across multiple continents. The research team will analyse these data to address some key unanswered questions around the timing of tree versus grass phenology in tropical dry vegetation and how this varies over gradients of rainfall. The results will have important implications for models that predict future climate change and its interaction with vegetation change. Finally, the results will lay the groundwork for future grant applications that will deepen and expand UK expertise on vegetation in tropical dry ecosystems.