In the latter half of the 20th century, over 1300 man-made structures (MMS) were installed in the offshore marine environment of the North Sea for the oil and gas industry, and many others are now being installed to obtain offshore renewable energy. There is mounting evidence for the ecological benefits of such structures, not least for marine fish. In the United States of America, MMS (particularly oil rigs) are used as reefs to successfully enhance fisheries in the so-called, Rig to Reefs programme. In Europe the opposite occurs: international regulations governing the North Sea (i.e. OSPAR Decision 98/3) require the complete removal of disused offshore installations. In the North Sea it is well known that fish aggregate at MMS and oil and gas MMS have 500 m fishery exclusion zones. So the structures act as small marine protected areas. At this scale, the total area protected is very small relative to the area occupied by commercial fish stocks in the North Sea. However, there is also evidence that aggregations of fish extend well beyond the exclusion zone, which is either a result of aggregation towards the MMS or enhanced productivity and protection resulting in fish spilling over into the adjacent area. The "spillover effect" is a well-known benefit of marine protected areas but has not been studied in relation to MMS in the North Sea. If this spillover is significant, then the area influence of MMS could be greater than hitherto assumed. Here, we use an unmanned surface vehicle equipped with state of the art high resolution acoustic surveying techniques to evaluate the scale of aggregation and spillover effect of fish from North Sea MMS. Data from the surveys are used to parameterise a high spatial resolution model of fish dynamics and movements which we will use test hypotheses about the whole North Sea scale effects of networks of structures, including the extent to which they arise from enhanced productivity or the protection from fishing afforded by proximity to hard substrate, and the North Sea scale consequences of their removal.. Our results will be used by oil and gas operators in the North Sea, one of which is a partner in our project, to inform their cumulative impact assessments. This will provide evidence for derogating removal, which as stated by the CEO of the Scottish Wildlife Trust, in a parliamentary committee, could result in "a triple win", with "...substantial savings to the taxpayer and substantial savings to the operator. There could be a net positive effect on the environment in the retention of these sometimes highly biodiverse areas around rigs and other structures."

Methane causes 30% of today's man-made global warming, but our understanding of industrial emissions across different regions and sectors is critically lacking: this makes it difficult to reduce emissions at pace to meet climate targets. Methane emissions are hard to measure, partly because only small emissions are needed to cause strong climate impacts. Historically we have relied on 'bottom-up' source-level quantification methods, e.g. using optical gas imaging cameras to detect and quantify leaks from equipment or applying emission factors to known exhaust flow rates. But with these methods there is a risk of underrepresentation, particularly not accounting for the leaks that we don't know about. More recently there has been an increased focus on conducting site-level methane monitoring rather than source-level. These typically involve measuring concentrations of methane from the local atmosphere and then estimating an equivalent emission rate needed to reach these concentrations. Methane sensors can be placed on drones to collect data sufficient to monitor relatively large site boundaries, but there are several limitations that reduce the effectiveness of emissions quantifications from this approach. High estimation uncertainties. There exist many points of uncertainty in the emissions quantification method, including from the methane and weather measurement sensors, and assumptions made in the estimation method such as constant weather and emission conditions over time and space. High cost. This method requires both equipment cost but also high labour cost associated with flight and monitoring expertise. High failure rates. The high labour cost is exacerbated by the high failure rates of current systems: weather conditions must be within the window to fly (wind speed range, cloud height, no rain, daylight) leading to long resource waiting times. This project aims to produce a step-change in UAV methane monitoring to reduce uncertainty and address the cost/uncertainty trade-off. To do this, we will develop an automated, multi-drone monitoring system that characterises methane and meteorological characteristics in much more detail over both time and space. The system will be reactive to what the drones are measuring to optimise their movement. We will then produce a downstream emissions estimation method that uses this multi-drone data to drive down uncertainties. Three potential technical options for design are envisaged, in which one or a combination will be taken to design and test phases: improved wind mapping over spatial and temporal scales; the use of a partner receiver drone for an open path tuneable diode sensor; and triangulating emissions with multiple lower cost methane sensors. Our team combines methane measurement experts, industrial engineers and drone swarm robotics experts to design, build, test and optimise a system to prototype stage. We also have project partners that include key users and routes to commercialisation so that we can maximise impact and the pace of impact. This new monitoring system will place the UK at the forefront of methane measurement at a time where the UK, EU, US and Australia are increasing emissions monitoring stringency for industrial sites relating to oil and gas, coal, biogas, landfill, water treatment and landfill: all key sources of methane emissions. Enhanced monitoring will give us tools to provide rapid emission reductions, where methane is one of the quickest routes to slowing global warming due to its potency and short atmospheric lifespan.

We are facing unprecedented global challenges around climate change, clean energy, water and sustainability - and these have, at their core, materials solutions. Critical materials for future technologies are often highly complex on multiple length scales, and hence extremely difficult to characterise with a single technique. They commonly involve low atomic weight, mobile elements (e.g. hydrogen, lithium, carbon, sulfur) that are the most challenging to quantitatively characterise in their in-operando state, due to their high rates of diffusion, reactivity and often very low contrast by conventional imaging techniques. Examples of such materials systems include; materials for hydrogen production and storage, battery systems; catalysts to generate new fuels or facilitate decarbonation of industrial processes; interfaces between soft- and hard-matter relevant to hybrid electronics and 'soft' robotics; as well as liquids or liquid- solid interfaces that are critical across the whole engineering and physical sciences research space from geological carbon sequestration, to lubrication in engines, to chemistry and bioengineering. We will create a world-leading cryo-EPS facility to act as a collaborative hub for research that will underpin the UK ambition for a net zero carbon future and a more sustainable society. It will enable the quantitative atomic to micro-scale investigation of light elements that are critical to a host of new technologies associated with a transition to a sustainable, resilient and healthy future society, providing new scientific insights that will drive technological innovation. The equipment will enable the quantitative investigation of light elements across orders of magnitude in length scale - from the micron to the atomic scale, providing an unprecedented opportunity for a step change in our fundamental understanding of these materials structure and chemistry - and ultimately their behaviour This facility will be based around a cryo hub that will allow samples to be transferred under high vacuum and at cryo conditions between three instruments (i) an atom probe, uniquely positioned to quantitively measure chemical composition of light mobile elements; (ii) a transmission electron microscope with a vacuum-cryo holder and optimised to measure the structure of sensitive samples and also their local bonding environment; (iii) a plasma FIB to allow samples to be prepared for both the atom probe and TEM which have both low contamination and also little damage, and able to perform large-scale 3D imaging. The combination of these instruments will give the UK a powerful characterisation capability that is unique worldwide, putting UK scientists in a leading position to tackle important and urgent global challenges.

The UK is leading the development and installation of offshore renewable energy technologies. With over 13GW of installed offshore wind capacity and another 3GW under construction, two operational and one awarded floating offshore demonstration projects as well as Contracts for Difference awards for four tidal energy projects, offshore renewable energy will provide the backbone of the Net Zero energy system, giving energy security, green growth and jobs in the UK. The revised UK targets that underpin the Energy Security Strategy seek to grow offshore wind capacity to 50 GW, with up to 5 GW floating offshore wind by 2030. Further acceleration is envisaged beyond 2030 with targets of around 150 GW anticipated for 2050. To achieve these levels of deployment, ORE developments need to move beyond current sites to more challenging locations in deeper water, further from shore, while the increasing pace of deployment introduces major challenges in consenting, manufacture and installation. These are ambitious targets that will require strategic innovation and research to achieve the necessary technology acceleration while ensuring environmental sustainability and societal acceptance. The role of the Supergen ORE Hub 2023 builds on the academic and scientific networks, traction with industry and policymakers and the reputation for research leadership established in the Supergen ORE Hub 2018. The new hub will utilise existing and planned research outcomes to accelerate the technology development, collaboration and industry uptake for commercial ORE developments. The Supergen ORE Hub strategy will focus on delivering impact and knowledge transfer, underpinned by excellent research, for the benefit of the wider sector, providing research and development for the economic and social benefit of the UK. Four mechanisms for leverage are envisaged to accelerate the ORE expansion: Streamlining ORE projects, by accelerating planning, consenting and build out timescales; upscaling the ORE workforce, increasing the scale and efficiency of ORE devices and system; enhanced competitiveness, maximising ORE local content and ORE economic viability in the energy portfolio; whilst ensuring sustainability, yielding positive environmental and social benefits from ORE. The research programme is built around five strategic workstreams, i) ORE expansion - policy and scenarios , ii) Data for ORE design and decision-making, iii) ORE modelling, iv) ORE design methods and v) Future ORE systems and concepts, which will be delivered through a combination of core research to tackle sector wide challenges in a holistic and synergistic manner, strategic projects to address emerging sector challenges and flexible funding to deliver targeted projects addressing focussed opportunities. Supergen Representative Systems will be established as a vehicle for academic and industry community engagement to provide comparative reference cases for assessing applicability of modelling tools and approaches, emerging technology and data processing techniques. The Supergen ORE Hub outputs, research findings and sector progress will be communicated through directed networking, engagement and dissemination activities for the range of academic, industry and policy and governmental stakeholders, as well as the wider public. Industry leverage will be achieved through new co-funding mechanisms, including industry-funded flexible funding calls, direct investment into research activities and the industry-funded secondment of researchers, with >53% industry plus >23% HEI leverage on the EPSRC investment at proposal stage. The Hub will continue and expand its role in developing and sustaining the pipeline of talent flowing into research and industry by integrating its ECR programme with Early Career Industrialists and by enhancing its programme of EDI activities to help deliver greater diversity within the sector and to promote ORE as a rewarding and accessible career for all.

Membranes offer exciting opportunities for more efficient, lower energy, more sustainable separations and even entirely new process options - and so are a valuable tool in an energy constrained world. However, high performance polymeric, inorganic and ceramic membranes all suffer from problems with decay in performance over time, through either membrane ageing (membrane material relaxation) and/or fouling (foreign material build-up in and/or on the membrane), and this seriously limits their impact. Our vision is to create membranes which do not suffer from ageing or fouling, and for which separation functionality is therefore maintained over time. We will achieve this through a combination of the synthesis of new membrane materials and fabrication of novel membrane composites (polymeric, ceramic and hybrids), supported by new characterisation techniques. Our ambition is to change the way the global membrane community perceives performance. Through the demonstration of membranes with immortal performance, we seek to shift attention away from a race to achieve ever higher initial permeability, to creation of membranes with long-term stable performance which are successful in industrial application.