The EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training (CDT) in Engineering Hydrogen Net Zero will develop the necessary networking, training and skills in future doctoral level leaders to enable rapid growth in hydrogen-related technology to meet the UK government's 2050 net zero targets. This CDT is a partnership of three world class Universities and around 40 Industrial and Civic organisations. The CDT aims to address the challenging aspects of rapid growth in hydrogen production and usage such as cost, supply and waste chain development, scalability, different system configurations, new technology, and social requirements through a blended cohort co-creation approach. The CDT will provide mandatory and optional training in Fundamental Knowledge, Thinking Innovatively, Business Acumen and Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Community (EDIC). A cohort based CDT is most appropriate for embedding skills in Engineering Hydrogen Net Zero due to the breadth of the training needs and the need for co-support and co-learning. In addition to a tailored co-created skills training program, the CDT will engage with partners to address key research priority areas. The CDT research plans are aligned with the EPSRC's "Engineering Net Zero" research priority, aiming to engineer low-cost hydrogen for net zero. Decarbonisation is not just implementation of a single solution fits all but a complex process of design that is dependent on what is being decarbonised e.g. different types of chemical industry to whether or not there is future access to a hydrogen hub. This results in the requirement for many new solutions to ensure affordability, scalability and sustainability. This includes undertaking research on hydrogen into topics such as, design for scalability, hydrogen on demand, new low cost materials, new interfaces, new processes, new storage means, new energy interactions, new waste management, existing infrastructure adaption and lifespan monitoring and management and social acceptance. The CDT will work with industry and civic partners to generate impact through innovation through research. This will include direct financial benefits, improved policy outcomes through engagement with local authorities, government organizations, and standards bodies, enhanced public engagement and acceptance of hydrogen, and create employment opportunities for students with industry-ready skills. The CDT represents an excellent opportunity for students to work together, with industry and with world leading international experts on impactful projects for a common decarbonisation goal with multifunctional stakeholders. This CDT will build upon the experience of the University partners and the lessons learnt from participation in 7 previous CDT's to bring forward best practice (e.g. buddy scheme and childcare funding) and remove roadblocks to opportunities (e.g. timetable clashes). We will co-create a CDT with international reach and access to over £55m worth of hydrogen and wind turbine demonstrator and research facilities. The team has excellent links with Universities and Industry internationally including partners in Europe, Canada, Malawi, China, USA, Brazil and Australia. CDT students will have opportunities to learn from International experts at a summer design and build, link with world leading experts to build international networks of contacts, undertake CPD activities (such as partner site visits), attend national and international conferences & partners secondments, research sandpits and webinars. All activities will be undertaken with due care, diligence & best practice in EDIC. The academic, industrial and civic team has the expertise to deliver the vision of the co-created CDT through the development of a unique research and training program.

Modernising the UK's health and social care system is a priority for government and for the country as a whole. To do this, wide ranging organisational and funding reforms are being put in place. An unprecedented investment to renew the built and technical infrastructure for delivering care is also underway: new hospitals and primary care centres are being built, information and communication technology is being upgraded and new technologies for diagnosing and treating disease are being introduced. If world-class infrastructure is to be delivered, this investment must achieve its full potential. The aim of HaCIRIC is to establish a new research centre to help accomplish this. HaCIRIC's focus is on the built and technical infrastructure for health and social care, and the interaction between infrastructure specification and the way patients are treated. Improving the way this is planned, delivered and managed is at the core of HaCIRIC's activity. What are the challenges? The health and social care system is one of the most complex and rapidly changing organisational and technical environments in any sector of the economy. Many stakeholders are involved in delivering care, funding mechanisms are convoluted, and patterns of demand and use are changing, as are government health policies. All this places new pressures on the underlying infrastructure. These are compounded by two problems. First, there is an historic legacy of out-dated buildings and cultures within the care system. Second, the life cycles of the various elements of the infrastructure / buildings, medical and information technology / are mismatched. Each involves complex supply chains, multiple users with their own needs and differing institutional and funding arrangements. All these have to be reconciled. For example, the current PFI programme for new hospitals involves supply contracts for thirty years or more, but incorporates technologies which have five year life cycles to help deliver diagnostics and therapies which are undergoing rapid evolutionary change. Modernising the health and social care infrastructure will therefore require innovative approaches. HaCIRIC will help develop the tools and processes which will embed 'innovation as normal business' amongst those responsible for delivering the investment in infrastructure. Its research programme has been developed in partnership with all the key stakeholders from the care system, including the Department of Health, the NHS, the Department of Trade and Industry and the supply industries. Seven research themes have been identified:- Managing innovation in a context of technological change- Procurement for innovation- Innovative design and construction- Care delivery practices- Delivering improved performance through operations management- Knowledge management in complex systems - Design and evaluation of integrated systems HaCIRIC is a collaboration between existing research centres at Imperial College London and the Universities of Loughborough, Reading and Salford. Additional partners from other universities, industry and the care system will be involved in specific research projects. Together this represents a resource valued at more than 11m, of which 7.0m consists of EPSRC support, 2.9m is from the four existing research centres, 500,000 is from the Department of Trade and Industry and 720,000 is from industrial partners. HaCIRIC will therefore represent a substantial resource and a unique capability in skills and knowledge to find solutions to the key healthcare infrastructure problems of the 21st century.

Leicester City is ranked 16th out of the 4,215 settlements assessed within England in the National Priority Ranking in terms of surface water flooding risks (Defra 2009). Fluvial flood risks are also considered high due to its geographical and geological setting. A Multi-Agency Flood Plan (MAFP) is coordinated by the Local Resilience Forum for Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland (LLR LRF) in 2012 and it is regularly reviewed by its constituent organizations. The plan makes arrangements and provides information for multi-agency response to flooding incidents, aiming to: (i) provide a framework for the coordination of a multi-agency response to flooding events in the LLR LRF area; and (ii) link and coordinate Local Authority, Community Flood Plans and individual agencies operational plans relating to flooding. According to the CCA 2004, the local responders in the MAFP are divided into two categories, with a different set of duties on each. Those in Category One are organisations at the core of the response to flood emergencies (e.g. local authorities and emergency services). The LLR LRF recognizes that the successful implementation of MAFP requires the key operational and stakeholder organizations (e.g. Fire & Rescue, A&E and water companies) to provide efficient and non-disruptive services collectively. This, to a large extent, depends on the functioning of critical infrastructure nodes and networks. The LLR LRF seeks to understand how robust, the MAFP is in terms of its dependency on the critical infrastructure in a changing climate. In addition, its core organizations (e.g. Leicester City Council, Leicestershire Fire & Rescue Service) are keen to understand the robustness of their specific organizational plans, including the Local Authority Plan and Emergency Services Plan. For example, if a designated shelter/reception centre is at risk of flooding, it may have a cascading effect on the way that evacuation and rescue operations are carried out. Similarly, a damaged electricity substation may affect the functioning of infrastructure services that effective emergency response replies upon. In particular, a flooded transport system may render the planned routes to rescue inaccessible, thus affecting the existing evacuation/rescue plan of the emergency services (e.g. Fire & Rescue; A&E). This project brings together a group of interdisciplinary researchers in three schools in Loughborough University, including Geography, Civil & Building Engineering, and Business & Economics, with expertise in flood risk management, climate change adaptation, emergency planning, transport response to weather conditions and resilience to flood risks, to work with the key Category 1 responders in Leicester (City Council, Fire and Rescue Service and the Environment Agency) on this issue, liaised through the Local Resilience Forum for Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland. The project will consider two types of interlinked infrastructure that are directly related to the implementation of emergency planning and response, including: (i) those functioning as operational nodes & networks, where decisions will be made, rescue will be launched and reallocation will be based; and (ii) essential utility & supporting infrastructure located in flood zones for operational reasons. Key deliverables include: 1) An assessment of the individual and networked impact of infrastructure failures. 2) A list of recommendations in the form of adaptation measures and contingency plans to the Leicester Resilience Forum's Multi-agency Flood Plan, the Leicester Fire & Rescue Service's flood response plan, and the A&E Service (through the Council). 3) Generic recommendations to flood emergency planning and response that can be readily adopted by decision makers beyond the Leicester City.

This project aims to establish the Enterprise and Diversity Alliance (EDA) as the United Kingdom's leading knowledge exchange network for entrepreneurship and minority businesses (that is, small enterprises owned by ethnic minorities, women and young people). It brings together researchers, corporations, the finance sector and professional bodies in order to pursue one central ambition: to 'make diversity and enterprise everyone's business'. The EDA is the culmination of extensive research and practitioner activity. It has had a successful first year, marked by growing interest from corporations and the development of innovative support initiatives for minority business owners. A further year's support from the ESRC would enable the EDA become: the 'go-to' body for guidance on research and practice on minority enterprise; larger in scale; and fully self-financing. It is also is well-placed to fill the policy vacuum that has arisen in the business support world. The profound changes to business support policy mean that the there is a real danger that the learning accumulated from previous initiatives to support minority enterprise will be lost. The EDA will guard against this possibility, and will ensure that insights from research and practice are applied to new initiatives. Three strands of work will be undertaken to ensure that knowledge on minority enterprise is shared widely with relevant stakeholders. First, two innovative peer mentoring initiatives with minority entrepreneurs will be launched. They build on the successful 12/8 network, and will be supported by A. F. Blakemore & Son Ltd and National Grid. Minority business owners will receive direct and high level support for their growth ambitions. Minority entrepreneurs across the UK will also be the target for a regular electronic newsletter on key developments and sources of business support. Second, the project will integrate knowledge on diversity and enterprise in the practices of large organisations. This activity will focus on the EDA's new members, A. F. Blakemore & Son Ltd., National Grid and Leicester City Council. The proposers will ensure that key initiatives (for example, the leadership development programmes of A. F. Blakemore & Son Ltd., National Grid, and procurement practices at Leicester City Council) apply the knowledge gained from EDA research and practice on diversity and enterprise. Finally, knowledge and insights from the implementation of the EDA project will be shared with the wider peer, professional and policy networks of partner organisations. In effect, EDA members will be ambassadors for diversity and enterprise amongst their peers. This provides an opportunity for the EDA to influence major national initiatives. For example, our finance sector partners will work with the British Bankers' Association to ensure that diversity issues are integrated in key areas, notably data-gathering and the implementation of the national mentoring proposition. Business in the Community will introduce its corporate members to the benefits of supporting peer mentoring networks with minority business owners. Good practice in relation to diversity and procurement will be promoted by CIPS and Leicester City Council. The 16th Annual Ethnic Minority Business Conference, scheduled for October 2012, will be dedicated to highlighting the impact of the EDA.

Specific crimes that occur in our society are experienced disproportionately by women and girls, including crimes such as rape, domestic violence and homicide. We need effective, specific, and targeted solutions to address this violence against women and girls (VAWG). Solutions should recognise that these crimes are complex and involve intersecting and overlapping issues that cannot be effectively addressed by a single agency e.g., the police. The University of Leicester recognises its responsibility as a civic university to support its local communities to aid in the development of these solutions. The East Midlands Partnership On violence against WomEn and giRls (EMPOWER) will achieve this by drawing together agencies spanning criminal justice, health/forensic, local authorities, third sector/voluntary and survivors of VAWG, to develop a research strategy that will identify and unpick the key pillars of work needed to address VAWG in the East Midlands region. A key ethos to the project is the emphasis on co-design and co-production by all involved partners. What this means in practice, is that partners work together to identify the main challenges, questions and issues that affect their practice, supported by the expertise of academics from the University of Leicester. This engenders a shared vision for the partnership in working together to develop strategies that address these challenges, rather than privileging a view from one source (e.g., academia). Therefore, the outcomes from this project will be grounded in real world issues and relevant to those agencies that work to tackle VAWG, both regionally and more nationally. The work of the partnership will be delivered across a 9-month time period. Through a series of five themed workshops that will bring together key policing and multi-agency partners, core area(s) relevant to a range of topics (e.g., sexual violence, domestic violence, human trafficking) will be identified through discovery and co-creation methods. Following each workshop, a phase of Themed research activity, actioned through embedded researcher placements and postgraduate placements will provide preliminary answers to these core area(s) and unpack any issues that were identified from the workshop. Outputs from these phases will include short evidence briefings of findings drawn from this piloting/scoping work. At the conclusion of the thematic workshops and the subsequent Themed research activity phases, the project will move into a synthesis phase where the objective is to draw together and distil the learnings gained from these activities. A synthesis workshop with the partners will focus this work into developing two key outputs from the project: (i) a co-created research strategy that identifies the key priorities required to address VAWG in the East Midlands and (ii) a sustainability plan that outlines a detailed set of activities and research application plans for achieving future funding to deliver this research strategy. EMPOWER and the outputs it will produce are a critical opportunity to develop a structured and targeted plan for effectively intervening in VAWG in the East Midlands region, with opportunities to inform practice nationally. We know that experiencing violence has devastating impacts on women and girls, with ripple effects across their families, communities, and broader society. Domestic violence alone is estimated to have economic and social costs that exceed £66 billion each year (Oliver at al., 2019). EMPOWER represents a partnership of passionate and committed academics, practitioners, and survivors, who are ultimately dedicated to reducing the occurrence of VAWG in our society, and subsequently improving the lives of women and girls.