This Industrial Doctoral Centre (IDC) addresses a national need by building on the strengths of the existing EngD in Micro- and NanoMaterials and Technologies (MiNMaT) and the University of Surrey's excellent track record of working with industry to provide a challenging, innovative and transformative research environment in materials science and engineering. Following the proven existing pattern, each research engineer (RE) will undertake their research with their sponsor at their sponsor's premises. The commitment of potential sponsors is demonstrated in the significant number of accompanying letters of support. Taking place over all four years, carefully integrated intensive short courses (normally one week duration) form the taught component of the EngD. These courses build on each other and augment the research. By using a core set of courses, graduates from a number of physical science/engineering disciplines can acquire the necessary background in materials. This is essential as there are insufficient numbers of students who have studied materials at undergraduate level. The research focus of this IDC will be the solution of academically challenging and industrially relevant processing-microstructure-property relationship problems, which are the corner-stones of the discipline. This will be possible because REs will interact with internationally leading academics and have access to a suite of state-of-the-art characterisation instrumentation, enabling them to obtain extensive hands on experience. As materials features as one of the University's seven research priority areas, there is strong institutional support as demonstrated in the Vice Chancellor's supporting letter, which pledges 2.07M of new money for this IDC. As quality and excellence run through all aspects of this IDC, those graduating with an EngD in MiNMaT will be the leaders and innovators of tomorrow with the confidence, knowledge and research expertise to tackle the most challenging problems to keep UK industry ahead of its competitors.

Elite athletes walk a fine line between performance success and failure. Although regarded by the public as examples of ultimate fitness, in reality they often exhibit vital signs bordering on clinical pathology. Their physiological parameters challenge our notions of what we consider clinically normal, for, as individuals, athletes represent a unique model of human stress adaptation and often, sadly, mal-adaptation. Understanding this human variance may assist ultimately in understanding aspects of well being in the population at large, in the work place and during healthy exercise, as well as when undergoing lifestyle changes to overcome disease, age-related changes and chronic stress.To maximise the potential of GB athletes and support the quest for gold at future World Championships, Summer and Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games, the UK's sports governing bodies and the UK sports governing bodies and research councils have identified the opportunity for engineering and physical science disciplines to support and interact with the sports community during training. Not only will this secure competitive advantage for UK athletes, it will also, of more general application, contribute understanding of the biology of athletic performance to gain insights which will improve the health and wellbeing of the population at large.The vision of ESPRIT is to position UK at the forefront of pervasive sensing in elite sports and promote its wider application in public life-long health, wellbeing and healthcare, whilst also addressing the EPSRC's key criteria for UK science and engineering research. The proposed programme represents a unique synergy of leading UK research in body sensor networks (BSN), biosensor design, sports performance monitoring and equipment design. The provision of ubiquitous and pervasive monitoring of physical, physiological, and biochemical parameters in any environment and without activity restriction and behaviour modification is the primary motivation of BSN research. This has become a reality with the recent advances in sensor design, MEMS integration, and ultra-low power micro-processor and wireless technologies. Since its inception, BSN has advanced very rapidly internationally. The proposing team has already contributed to a range of novel, low cost, miniaturised wireless devices and prototypes for sports and healthcare.

The EPSRC Centre for Innovative Manufacturing in Additive Manufacturing will create a sustainable and multidisciplinary body of expertise that will act as a UK and international focus - the 'go to' place for additive manufacturing and its applications. The Centre will undertake a user-defined and user-driven programme of innovative research that underpins Additive Manufacturing as a sustainable and value-adding manufacturing process across multiple industry sectors.Additive Manufacturing (AM) is the direct production of end-use component parts made using additive layer manufacturing technologies. It enables the manufacture of geometrically complex, low to medium volume production components in a range of materials, with little, if any, fixed tooling or manual intervention beyond the initial product design. AM enables a number of value chain configurations, such as personalised component part manufacture but also economic low volume production within high cost base economies. This innovative approach to manufacturing is now being embraced globally across industry sectors from high value aerospace / automotive manufacture to the creative and digital industries. To date AM research has almost exclusively focused upon the production of single material, homogeneous structures (in polymers, metals and ceramics). The EPSRC Centre for Innovative Manufacturing in Additive Manufacturing will move away from single material, 'passive' AM processes and applications that exhibit conventional levels of functionality, toward the challenges of investigating next generation, multi-material active additive manufacturing processes, materials and design systems. This transformative approach is required for the production of the new generation of high-value, multi-functional products demanded by industry. The Centre will initially explore two themes as the centrepieces of a wider research portfolio, supported by a range of platform activities. The first theme takes on the challenge of how to design, integrate and effectively implement multi-material, multi-functional manufacturing systems capable of matching the requirements of industrial end-users for 'ready-assembled' multifunctional devices and structures. Working at the macro level, this will involve the convergence of several approaches to increase embedded value to the product during the manufacturing stage by the direct printing / deposition of electronic / optical tracks potentially on a voxel by voxel basis; the processing and bonding of dissimilar materials that ordinarily require processing at varying temperatures and conditions will be particularly challenging. The second theme will explore the potential for 'scaling down' AM for small, complex components, extending single material AM to the printing of optical / electronic pathways within micro-level products and with a vision to directly print electronics integrally. The platform activities will provide the opportunity to undertake both fundamental and industry driven pilot studies that both feed into and derive from the theme-based research, and grow the capacity and capability of the Centre, creating a truly national UK Centre and Network that maintains the UK at the front of international research and industrial exploitation in Additive Manufacturing.

Aviation is estimated to grow by 4.3% p.a. over the next 20 years. Any changes in emissions must be consistent with national, international and industrial climate strategies, which require civil aviation to be carbon neutral by 2050. Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) will play a significant role in meeting these targets, reducing the sector's consumption of fossil fuels. However, the burning of SAF still leads to non-CO2 climate and pollution effects. To quantify these effects requires the full characterisation of particle and gaseous emissions across the whole flight envelope, including ice nuclei (IN) forming potential, and the time evolution of those emissions characterised from a few seconds after released to several days. In addition to non-CO2 SAF climate effects three other key environment uncertainties exist; Emissions from aircraft-engines detrimentally impact local air quality (LAQ), resulting in health effects in areas surrounding airports. Does SAF adoption change LAQ and are there disparities in those communities? Emissions of lubrication oil occur independent of fuel type, but this is not currently regulated or included in models, despite contemporary research indicating potential climate and LAQ impacts. As most SAF testing is ground-based, there is an urgent need to confirm whether use of ground-based emission measurements on tethered engine test-stands adequately represent real-world emissions in-flight. GRIM-SAF (GRound and Inflight Measurements involving SAF) builds upon several existing academic-industrial collaborations, using a unique UK emission engine-test-cell facility. The project will generate contemporary total-emission data from two engine types for a range of conventional & SAFs, both on-ground and during in-flight 'chase' experiments. The project will deliver data essential to improve emission inventories, atmospheric models of climate and weather and LAQ effects, and reduce uncertainties in predicting the impacts of industry-wide adoption of SAF. The objectives are: Comprehensively quantify combustion and lubrication oil emissions, including gases (CO, CO2, NOx, VOC) as well as particulate chemical and physical properties from both conventional and SAFs measured at engine-exit and within the evolving plume. Elucidate the interactions between combustion and lubrication oil emissions and IN forming potential, developing new knowledge of the impact of SAF and lubrication oil on contrail formation. Evaluate the effects of aging and interaction of combustion and oil emissions on LAQ, simulating effects "beyond the airport fence" informing local communities now and in the future. Perform a UK-first in-flight 'chase' emissions experiment to quantify 'real-world' gas and particle emissions at altitude from aircraft using SAF in-flight. Develop empirically validated correlations between ground-based measurements and emissions observed at altitude for conventional and SAFs, enabling the existing International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) emissions data bank to be more accurately used to predict 'cruise' emissions. Outputs and benefits of GRIM-SAF include: The most comprehensive, publicly available, total-emissions database to-date, inclusive of, SAF blend ratio, lubrication oil contribution and engine conditions across full power range of two engine technologies. Key information for policy makers, e.g. local councils and governments when considering town planning and airport expansion applications, to understand the likely impacts of SAF-enabled aviation and oil on LAQ moving toward 2050 and identify possible mitigation strategies. Understanding the relative impacts of different oil venting strategies towards future design of low emissions engines. Insight into whether existing regulatory emissions standards are appropriate for a SAF-fuelled future aviation fleet. Recommendations on whether climate-aviation models should include oil emissions.

Abstracts are not currently available in GtR for all funded research. This is normally because the abstract was not required at the time of proposal submission, but may be because it included sensitive information such as personal details.