The twentieth century saw an explosion in semiconductor electronics from the first transistor, which was used in hearing aids, to the ultrafast computers of today. A similar surge is anticipated for Plastic Electronics based on a new type of semiconducting material which is soft and flexible rather than hard and brittle. Plastic Electronics is considered a disruptive technology, not displacing conventional electronics, but creating new markets because it enables the printing of electronic materials at low temperatures so that plastic, fabric, paper and other flexible materials can be used as substrates. Printing minimises the waste of materials and low cost roll-to-roll manufacturing can be used because the substrates are flexible. New applications include intelligent or interactive packaging, RFID tags, e-readers, flexible power sources and lighting panels. The organic field effect transistor (OFET) is the fundamental building block of plastic electronics and is used to amplify and switch electronic signals. The organic semiconducting channel connects the source and drain electrodes and is separated from the gate electrode by an insulating dielectric. A positive/negative gate voltage induces negative/positive charges at the insulator/semiconductor interface and so controls the conductivity of the semiconductor and consequently the current flowing between the source and drain. The future success of the industry depends on the availability of high performance solution processable materials and low voltage device operation. The semiconductors must have high electron and hole mobility (velocity/electric field) achieved by the hopping of carriers between closely spaced molecular sites. A new class of lamellar polymers, mostly developed in the UK, provides the required state-of the art performance because of their macromolecular self-organisation. However a major problem is that the materials are only well-ordered in microscopic domains; trapping in grain boundaries and poor interconnectivity between domains substantially reduce performance and reliability. The low voltage operation of OFETs requires that the gate insulators have a high dielectric constant. We propose novel insulating dielectrics for OFETs to simultaneously align the plastic semiconductors and ensure low voltage operation. They will be solution processable at low temperatures for compatibility with printing and other large area manufacturing techniques. We will synthesise and characterise the new materials and test their performance using state of the art semiconductors. We will engage with industrial end-users to ensure that our technology is exploited so contributing to the high-tech economy in an area where the UK is already pre-eminent. We anticipate that our novel insulators will provide monodomain order over large areas to the overlying semiconductor and so will enhance OFET performance and stability. Hence we aim to hasten the commercialisation of Plastic Electronics.

The United Kingdom is a coastal nation with the majority of the population living within a few miles of an estuary or the sea. The nature of the coastline depends on the local conditions of geology and water flow. Rocky coastlines are found where the energy of the sea is high, while mud and sand are found where the energy is lower and these sediments can be deposited. These low energy muddy and sandy (depositional) habitats, are very important for the ecology and economy of the UK. They provide food for many species of birds and fish, but also protect the coastline from the erosive forces of the sea. In addition, they act as a "filter", where pollutants from the rivers are captured and eventually degraded. Because of the importance of these systems, their natural behaviour and stability is of increasing concern as sea levels rise and storm events increase in frequency with climate change. The movement of sediment around the coast of Britain has vast economic and ecological consequences, but surprisingly we have very little scientific information that helps us to predict how natural mudflats and beaches will respond to the changing forces of the tides, wind and waves. When water flows over the sea bottom, the energy of the flow shapes the sediment into wavy features called bedforms (such as ripples). These bedforms help control the erosion and transport of sand, mud, nutrients and pollutants. Information allowing us to predict the shape, size and movement of bedforms is essential for environmental management, hydraulic engineering, benthic habitat biology, computer modelling of particle transport, sedimentary geology, and many other scientific disciplines. However, there is an almost complete lack of knowledge concerning bedforms consisting of mixtures of sand and mud. Sandy sediments are known to be "non-cohesive", because the sand particles do not stick together, whereas muds are made up of smaller particles that do stick together and so are called "cohesive" sediments. This project, COHBED, will take advantage of the latest developments in measurement technologies to produce information about the growth, movement and stability of bedforms that consist of natural mixtures of sands and muds, a natural condition that is very common but has rarely been studied before. In a new departure, this work includes a multidisciplinary team to combine the physics, mathematics, sedimentology, and biology of these systems, since we recognise that the organisms (from bacteria to sea grasses) that inhabit natural systems also change the erosional characteristics and bedform behaviour. This is why COHBED will include laboratory experiments and field surveys. A series of experiments in laboratory flow channels will investigate key factors that control the behaviour and properties of bedforms, such as: - System energy: effects of flow velocity, bed friction and flow depth - Bed properties: particle size, proportion of mud and sand, and biological effects - Time: the speed of bedform growth and rate of change as flow energy changes - Particle erosion: changes in the bedforms as smaller particles are eroded away The results of the laboratory studies will be compared with the behaviour of natural systems. Field surveys will be conducted to validate the predictions derived from the laboratory studies, using new techniques that for the first time allow essential simultaneous measurements of flow, sediment and bedform properties. The COHBED project will maintain the UK at the forefront of this research area and will help us to manage our coasts in the face of climate change.

INFINITY will develop an inorganic alternative to a scarce and high cost material, indium tin oxide (ITO), currently used as a Transparent Conductive Coating (TCC) for display electrodes on glass and plastic substrates. The novel conductive materials to be developed in this project will be based on low cost sol-gel chemistry using more widely available metallic elements and will leverage recent advances in nanostructured coatings. Novel printing procedures will also be developed to enable direct writing of multi and patterned nano-layers, removing the waste associated with etch patterning.

Doctoral Training Partnerships: a range of postgraduate training is funded by the Research Councils. For information on current funding routes, see the common terminology at https://www.ukri.org/apply-for-funding/how-we-fund-studentships/. Training grants may be to one organisation or to a consortia of research organisations. This portal will show the lead organisation only.