The EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in "Diversity-led, mission-driven research" proposes a radical inverted model for CDT delivery. By inverted model, we mean that, rather than coalescing around a scientific topic, we will create an inclusive, supportive and inspiring environment to foster diverse teams (postgraduate researchers, supervisors, management teams, external partners) that together lead innovative and interdisciplinary projects. In doing so we foster truly disruptive and excellent research. The prevalence of genuinely disruptive, novel scientific research is dropping as fields become condensed and researchers are siloed. There is a large body of evidence that describes the significant impact of diversity on innovation. Researchers from marginalised and minority backgrounds, however, face significant hurdles throughout their careers, notably at the transition points before and after postgraduate research. There is therefore a compelling scientific and economic case that focussing on diversity will lead to more significant impact in research and contribute to address the shortfall in skilled STEM workers. The resources, peer-learning, training, mentoring, championship and support provided by the cohort-model and the CDT framework will allow to demonstrate that when the appropriate environments are in place, diversity and excellence will flourish. The University of Glasgow is ideally placed to support and host this CDT; its world-leading academic expertise and infrastructures and internationally leading track record in positive research culture offer unique opportunities for collaborative research. It also has accumulated significant experience in inclusive research through various initiatives to support underrepresented communities, including our highly successful James McCune Smith PhD Scholarships for Black British students. Our CDT will build upon these to offer radical new pathways for the training of scientists and the generation of innovative interdisciplinary science around key institutional thematic areas. We will apply evidence-led best practice alongside our longstanding institutional experience to ensure diversity permeates across our recruitment, project selection, training, supervision, mentoring, retention, governance and self-reflection processes. Through tailored, structured support of our researchers and academics, both individually and collectively as annual cohorts, we will foster an inclusive community where our members will be united by a sense of common purpose to effectively tackle mission-driven challenges. Three pillars underpin CDT delivery: CONNECT, community engagement and long-term pipeline building activities attract those who have been discouraged from PhDs or faced insurmountable structural barriers to entry; BELONG, intensive training activities and PhD-spanning cohort building activities, ensure all students are fully prepared for PhD study and integrated into the CDT; and THRIVE, comprehensive training, mentoring, networking and external engagement complements interdisciplinary research activities to foster a pipeline of diverse, talented graduates, with enhanced career prospects across a range of sectors. Through innovative CDT management: our online Catalogue of Possibilities to capture the imagination of applicants; the use of sandpits to generate discipline-crossing projects; enhanced bespoke mentoring from industry and academia; and an inverted crucible exercise to allow students to select projects and supervisors, we will demonstrate the clear pathway from diversity to excellence. We will offer opportunities for diverse talent to thrive, and in doing so generate genuine scientific excellence while building a critical mass of role models and research leaders, as well as novel initiatives in fostering inclusive research culture. The CDT will therefore be a catalyst for genuine, positive change, and act as a beacon for UK Higher Education.

In a consortium led by Heriot-Watt with St Andrews, Glasgow, Strathclyde, Edinburgh, Dundee, Huddersfield and NPL, the "EPSRC CDT in Use-Inspired Photonic Sensing and Metrology" responds to the focus area of "Meeting a User-Need and/or Supporting Civic Priorities" and aligns to EPSRC's Frontiers in Engineering & Technology priority and its aim to produce "tools and technologies that form the foundation of future UK prosperity". Our theme recognises the key role that photonic sensing and metrology has in addressing 21st century challenges in transport (LiDAR), energy (wind-turbine monitoring), manufacturing (precision measurement), medicine (disease sensors), agri-food (spectroscopy), security (chemical sensing) and net-zero (hydrocarbon and H2 metrology). Building on the success of our earlier centres, the addition of NPL and Huddersfield to our team reflects their international leadership in optical metrology and creates a consortium whose REF standing, UKRI income and industrial connectivity makes us uniquely able to deliver this CDT. Photonics contributes £15.2bn annually to the UK economy and employs 80,000 people--equal to automotive production and 3x more than pharmaceutical manufacturing. By 2035, more than 60% of the UK economy will rely on photonics to stay competitive. UK companies addressing the photonic sensing and metrology market are therefore vital to our economy but are threatened by a lack of doctoral-level researchers with a breadth of knowledge and understanding of photonic sensing and metrology, coupled with high-level business, management and communication skills. By ensuring a supply of these individuals, our CDT will consolidate the UK industrial knowledge base, driving this high-growth, export-led sector whose products and services have far-reaching impacts on our society. The proposed CDT will train 55 students. These will comprise at least 40 EngD students, characterised by a research project originated by a company and hosted on their site. A complementary stream of up to 15 PhD students will pursue industrially relevant research in university labs, with more flexibility and technical risk than in an EngD project. In preparing this bid, we invited companies to indicate their support, resulting in £5.5M cash commitments for 102 new students, considerably exceeding our target of 55 students, and highlighting industry's appetite for a CDT in photonic sensing and metrology. Our request to EPSRC for £6.13M will support 35 students, with the remaining students funded by industrial (£2.43M) and university (£1.02M) cash contributions, translating to an exceptional 56% cash leverage of studentship costs. The university partners provide 166 named supervisors, giving the flexibility to identify the most appropriate expertise for industry-led EngD projects. These academics' links to >120 named companies also ensure that the networks exist to co-create university-led PhD projects with industry partners. Our team combines established researchers with considerable supervisory experience (>50 full professors) with many dynamic early-career researchers, including a number of prestigious research fellowship holders. A 9-month frontloaded residential phase in St Andrews and Edinburgh will ensure the cohort gels strongly, equipping students with the knowledge and skills they need before starting their research projects. These core taught courses, augmented with electives from the other universities, will total 120 credits and will be supplemented by accredited MBA courses and training in outreach, IP, communication skills, RRI, EDI, sustainability and trusted-research. Collectively, these training episodes will bring students back to Heriot-Watt a few times each year, consolidating their intra- and inter-cohort networks. Governance will follow our current model, with a mixed academic-industry Management Committee and an International Advisory Committee of world-leading experts.

o achieve this vision, we will address major global research challenges towards the establishment of the "quantum internet" —?globally interlinked quantum networks which connect quantum nodes via quantum channels co-existing with classical telecom networks. These research challenges include: low-noise quantum memories with long storage time; connecting quantum processors at all distance scales; long-haul and high-rate quantum communication links; large-scale entanglement networks with agile routing capabilities compatible with - and embedded in - classical telecommunicatons networks; cost-effective scalability, standardisation, verification and certification. By delivering technologies and techniques to our industrial innovation partners, the IQN Hub will enable UK academia, national laboratories, industry, and end-users to be at the forefront of the quantum networking revolution. The Hub will utilise experience in the use of photonic entanglement for quantum key distribution (QKD) alongside state-of-the art quantum memory research from existing EPSRC Quantum Technology Hubs and other projects to form a formidable consortium tackling the identified challenges. We will research critical component technology, which will underpin the future national supply chain, and we will make steps towards global QKD and the intercontinental distribution of entanglement via satellites. This will utilise the Hub Network's in-orbit demonstrator due to be launched in late 2024, as well as collaboration with upcoming international missions. With the National Quantum Computing Centre (NQCC), we will explore applications towards quantum advantage demonstrations such as secure access to the quantum cloud, achievable only through entanglement networks. Hub partner National Physical Laboratory (NPL) working with our academic partners and the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) will ensure that our efforts are compatible with emerging quantum regulatory standards and post-quantum cybersecurity to bolster national security. We will foster synergies with competing international efforts through healthy exchange with our global partners. The Hub's strong industrial partner base will facilitate knowledge exchange and new venture creation. Achieving the IQN Hub's vision will provide a secure distributed and entanglement-enabled quantum communication infrastructure for UK end-users. Industry, government stakeholders and the public will be able to secure data in transit, in storage and in computation, exploiting unique quantum resources and functionalities. We will use a hybrid approach with existing classical cyber-security standards, including novel emerging post-quantum algorithms as well as hardware security modules. We will showcase our ambition with target use-cases that have emerged as barriers for industry, after years of investigation within the current EPSRC QT Hubs as well as other international efforts. These barriers include security and integrity of: (1) device authentication, identification, attestation, verification; (2) distributed and cloud computing; (3) detection, measurement, sensing, synchronisation. We will demonstrate novel applications as well as identify novel figures of merit (such as resilience, accuracy, sustainability, communication complexity, cost, integrity, etc.) beyond security enhancement alone to ensure the national quantum entanglement network can be fully exploited by our stakeholders and our technology can be rapidly translated into a commercial setting.