In 2013 we successfully applied to enhance electron microscopy at St Andrews through the Capital for Great Technologies scheme. The purpose of this new facility is to provide state of the art capability to analyse and control functional materials at the nanoscale to underpin and drive forward critical Materials research in Energy Materials, Catalysis, Photonics, Metamaterials and Electronics. All elements of the facility are well used and usage is expanding now that the new facilities have come on stream. Going forward, however, we are severely constrained by lack of facility operators. It is easy to project doubling or more of usage with a second skilled operator on the Scios and Titan in particular. Not only would this involve more operator time on the instruments, it would increase training time and afford more time for detailed studies. Thus the purpose of this application is to secure the appointment of a second skilled operator for two years to increase productivity and indeed capability through more rounded coverage. This will minimise down time due to holidays, allow more than one of the key facilities to be operated by our specialists for research and/or training at a single time and most importantly will provide the space to train more users to a higher standard. We also propose to increase the outreach of our facility in the region, holding two focused workshops and linking more strongly to Universities in our region. We also hope to link with the other major Materials Electron Microscopy Centre in Scotland to coordinate capabilities. An improved web-based booking system will be implemented.

This research will develop a new way of rapidly making high-quality metal parts by Additive Manufacturing, often referred to as 3D printing. This work, if successful, will lead to faster, cheaper and more environmentally-friendly production of functional parts to be used in the UK's leading industries. It will help maintain the competitive advantage of manufacturing industries in the UK and result in enhanced industrial output and lead to improved exports. The UK academic community will gain by opening up new research opportunities to chemists, materials scientists and engineers in universities. The public will gain through the manufacture of new products and job-creation in key industrial sectors in the UK.

The EPSRC Centre for Doctoral training in Materials for Demanding Environments will primarily address the Structural Integrity and Materials Behaviour priority area, and span into the Materials Technologies area. The CDT will target the oil & gas, aerospace and nuclear power industrial sectors, as well as the Defence sector. Research and training will be undertaken on metals and alloys, composites, coatings and ceramics and the focus will be on understanding the mechanisms of material degradation. The Centre will instil graduates with an understanding of structural integrity assessment methodologies with the aim to designing and manufacturing materials that last longer within a framework that enables safe lifetimes to be accurately predicted. A CDT is needed as the capability of current materials to withstand demanding environments is major constraint across a number of sectors; failure by corrosion alone is estimated to cost over $2.2 Trillion globally each year. Further understanding of the mechanisms of failure, and how these mechanisms interact with one another, would enable the safe and timely withdrawal of materials later in their life. New advanced materials and coatings, with quantifiable lifetimes, are integral to the UK's energy and manufacturing companies. Such technology will be vital in harvesting oil & gas safely from increasingly inaccessible reservoirs under high pressures, temperatures and sour environments. Novel, more cost-effective aero-engine materials are required to withstand extremely oxidative high temperature environments, leading to aircraft with increased fuel efficiency, reduced emissions, and longer maintenance cycles. New lightweight alloys, ceramics and composites could deliver fuel efficiency in the aerospace and automotive sectors, and benefit personal and vehicle armour for blast protection. In the nuclear sector, new light water power plants demand tolerance to neutron radiation for extended durations, and Generation IV plants will need to withstand high operating temperatures. It is vital to think beyond traditional disciplines, linking aspects of metallurgy, materials chemistry, non-destructive evaluation, computational modelling and environmental sciences. Research must involve not just the design and manufacturing of new materials, but the understanding of how to test and observe materials behaviour in demanding service environments, and to develop sophisticated models for materials performance and component lifetime assessment. The training must also include aspects of validation, risk assessment and sustainability.

We propose a large-scale, multi-faceted, international programme of research on the functioning of the Earth system at a key juncture in its history - the Early Jurassic. At that time the planet was subject to distinctive tectonic, magmatic, and solar system orbital forcing, and fundamental aspects of the modern biosphere were becoming established in the aftermath of the end-Permian and end-Triassic mass extinctions. Breakup of the supercontinent Pangaea was accompanied by creation of seaways, emplacement of large igneous provinces, and occurrence of biogeochemical disturbances, including the largest magnitude perturbation of the carbon-cycle in the last 200 Myr, at the same time as oceans became oxygen deficient. Continued environmental perturbation played a role in the recovery from the end-Triassic mass extinction, in the rise of modern phytoplankton, in preventing recovery of the pre-existing marine fauna, and in catalysing a 'Mesozoic Marine Revolution'. However, existing knowledge is based on scattered and discontinuous stratigraphic datasets, meaning that correlation errors (i.e. mismatch between datasets from different locations) confound attempts to infer temporal trends and causal relationships, leaving us without a quantitative process-based understanding of Early Jurassic Earth system dynamics. This proposal aims to address this fundamental gap in knowledge via a combined observational and modelling approach, based on a stratigraphic 'master record' accurately pinned to a robust geological timescale, integrated with an accurate palaeoclimatic, palaeoceanographic and biogeochemical modelling framework. The project has already received $1.5M from the International Continental Drilling Programme towards drilling a deep borehole at Mochras, West Wales, to recover a new 1.3-km-long core, representing an exceptionally expanded and complete 27 My sedimentary archive of Early Jurassic Earth history. This core will allow investigation of the Earth system at a scale and resolution hitherto only attempted for the last 65 million years (i.e. archive sedimentation rate = 5 cm/ky or 20 y/mm). We will use the new record together with existing data and an integrative modelling approach to produce a step-change in understanding of Jurassic time scale and Earth system dynamics. In addition to order of magnitude improvements in timescale precision, we will: distinguish astronomically forced from non-astronomically forced changes in the palaeoenvironment; use coupled atmosphere-ocean general circulation models to understand controls on the climate system and ocean circulation regime; understand the history of relationships between astronomically forced cyclic variation in environmental parameters at timescales ranging from 20 kyr to 8 Myr, and link to specific aspects of forcing relating to solar energy received; use estimated rates and timing of environmental change to test postulated forcing mechanisms, especially from known geological events; constrain the sequence of triggers and feedbacks that control the initiation, evolution, and recovery from the carbon cycle perturbation events, and; use Earth system models to test hypotheses for the origins 'icehouse' conditions. Thirty six project partners from 13 countries substantially augment and extend the UK-based research.