This week's headlines and highlights

Welcome to the UKRI bulletin, featuring the latest news, funding announcements and stories about research and innovation in action.

THIS WEEK'S TOP STORY

FIRST CONTACT

Our first encounter with COVID-19’s spike protein shapes our immune response against current and future variants

New research shows that the first SARS-CoV-2 spike protein a person encounters, be it through vaccination or infection, shapes their subsequent immune response against current and future variants.

It is known that antibody levels wane over time following infection or vaccination. But this new research shows that an individual’s protective immune responses are also affected by which strain or combination of strains they have been exposed to.

Nearly two years into the pandemic, people across the world have very different patterns of immunity to the SARS-CoV-2 virus, based on their exposure.

The study, by researchers at Imperial College London and Queen Mary University of London, is funded by UKRI.

UKRI initiatives and investments

Singapore and the UK have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to strengthen cooperation in co-innovation and joint research and development. The memorandum was signed by Mr Tan Soon Kim, Assistant Chief Executive Officer of Enterprise Singapore and Simon Edmonds, Chief Business Officer of Innovate UK.

ESRC has published its vision for and changes to postgraduate training in response to an independent, comprehensive review of the PhD in the social sciences.

UKRI council websites are moving to ukri.org - Throughout 2021 into early 2022, UKRI's nine council websites are moving to the new integrated UKRI site. Throughout the transition we are asking users to identify content that meets their needs. If you would like to help, please sign up now.

Funding finder - Your shortcut to the latest funding opportunities.

#WeAreUKRI - Sign up to UKRI's Instagram page, @weareukri, and discover how the wonders of science and innovation are helping to create a better future.

THE MAIN EVENT

Audio planetarium to inspire young, visually impaired astronomers

A new resource that enables blind and partially sighted people to ‘hear’ the Universe has been launched to ensure everyone can be inspired by the wonders of space.

Audio Universe: tour of the solar system is a sound-based educational astronomy show developed by astronomers from Newcastle University and the University of Portsmouth.

The show takes the audience on a journey inside a special spacecraft fitted with a ‘sonification machine’ that turns the light from objects in space into sounds.

The STFC-supported initiative aims to make learning about the Universe more inclusive for all.

THE FILM TO WATCH

'Naturally intelligent' robots inspired by bee brains could be a search and rescue game changer    

You're looking at a still image from a remarkable EPSRC-funded project aimed at developing 'naturally intelligent' robots.

The Brains on Board team are harnessing the incredible navigational skills and learning ability of honeybees to drive the research.

The film takes you through the stages of the research. These include:

• Tracking the bees' flight with harmless miniature transponders attached to their backs

• Developing autonomous flying drones and other robots with the learning ability of bees

• Making 'neural recordings' gathered from a bee while it responds to stimuli such as colours or moving patterns
• Commercialising the technology

This mapping of the honeybee brain and the possible commercial applications for the technology led to the creation of University of Sheffield spin-out company, Opteran. 

Opteran's co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer, Professor James Marshall, who leads the Brains on Board project, says: "Insect brains will teach us how to make truly intelligent robots." 

Among its many potential industrial and consumer applications, the technology could be used in search and rescue operations, during which robots would be able to quickly learn the most efficient route to survivors.

Find out more and watch the film.

THE BIGGER PICTURE 

A 66-million-year-old mollusc is visualised in 3D 

A research team led by scientists from Cardiff University has provided the first-ever 3D visualisation of an ammonite – a marine mollusc group that became extinct with the dinosaurs around 66 million years ago.

The new images have allowed the team to analyse an ammonite's muscles and organs for the very first time, casting new light on how the cephalopod mollusc was able to swim through the oceans and defend itself from predators.

The research team used a combination of cutting-edge facilities, including the ISIS Neutron and Muon Source at STFC's Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in Harwell and the Henry Moseley X-ray Imaging Facility at the University of Manchester, to digitally reconstruct the inside of a ‘virtual ammonite’.

The work was carried out by a multi-institutional and interdisciplinary research team from Cardiff University, Imperial College London, the Natural History Museum, The University of Manchester, STFC and the University of Birmingham.

THIS WEEK'S BIG NUMBER

25 years

25 years: The length of time the gender pay gap in the UK has stayed roughly the same once increases in women’s education are taken into account.

This is one of the key findings of new research on gender inequalities undertaken for the IFS Deaton Review of Inequalities. The review is an initiative by ESRC's Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) and funded by the Nuffield Foundation. It is also co-authored by senior researchers at the IFS.

Find out more.

CLIMATE WATCH

UKRI-supported climate change & environment research and innovation 

Most of the methane emitted from the Amazon's wetland regions is vented into the atmosphere via tree root systems. Significant emissions occur even when the ground is not flooded. These are the findings of a University of Birmingham project funded by NERC, the Newton Fund, the Royal Society and Brazilian agencies.

In the future, deep-sea aquifers may become important stores of carbon dioxide. Now, with EPSRC support, University of Bath researchers have developed new insights into the way salty water acts in deep-sea aquifers. This paves the way for further research into carbon storage deep beneath the seabed.

EPSRC-funded engineers from the University of Southampton and conservationists at Marwell Wildlife park have successfully trialled the use of drone technology to assist conservation efforts. The goal is to employ these technologies in remote areas where threatened animal populations are difficult to monitor.

Silvopastoral farming, where trees and forage plants are planted in livestock pasture, may support biodiversity and offer solutions to high deforestation rates, according to a University of Bristol-led study investigating the effects of the farming method across farms in Colombia. The programme is supported by UKRI and Colombian educational institutes.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

"If we do nothing by 2050, 10 million deaths a year will be attributed to antibiotic resistance"

Dr Gerald Larrouy-Maumus, from the MRC Centre for Molecular Bacteriology and Infection at Imperial College London.

Dr Larrouy-Maumus invented the technology behind a test now available that could help to rapidly determine whether a bacterial infection is resistant to antibiotics of last resort.

The test kit has been developed by Bruker Daltonics, a global mass spectrometry and diagnostic company. It can be used to test hospital patients on-site for bacterial infections resistant to some members of the antibiotic family known as polymyxins.

Polymyxins are used as a last resort antibiotic because they are often effective even against superbugs that are otherwise antibiotic-resistant.

Find out more.

UKRI-supported research and innovation in action

'Mistrust' in people and organisations who advise on or promote COVID-19 vaccine uptake has been identified as one of three main factors influencing ethnic minority groups' decisions to get vaccinated. The ESRC-funded study is led by the University of Aberdeen. 

Researchers at the University of Oxford have uncovered the importance of iron for the development of complex life on Earth – which may also hint at the likelihood of complex life on other planets. The research is co-supported by MRC. 

New research from the University of East Anglia and the Quadram Institute reveals how our immune cells use the body’s fat stores to fight infection. The research, funded by BBSRC and MRC, could help develop new approaches to treating people with bacterial infections, including infections in vulnerable and older people.

Children growing up in the North of England face greater poverty and are more likely to die before reaching their first birthday than children in other parts of England, according to University of Leeds researchers. Their report is part-funded by Research England.  

Children with poorly controlled asthma are three to six times more likely to be hospitalised with COVID-19 than those without the condition, research by a consortium of Scottish universities suggests. Their work was supported by MRC and UKRI, HDR UK and the Scottish government.

Vaccines are effective in decreasing hospitalisation and deaths from COVID-19 infection but the emergence of viral variants of concern may diminish their efficacy, according to a new study. The research is led by the MRC-University of Glasgow Centre for Virus Research.

Research and innovation in brief

Cells in the developing embryo can sense the stiffness of other cells around them, which is key to them moving together to form the face and skull, finds a new study by UCL researchers. The research was funded by MRC, BBSRC and Wellcome.

People with psychotic disorders such as schizophrenia are five times more likely to die from COVID-19 according to new research at The University of Manchester supported by a UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship.

A NERC-supported fossil study led by the University of Leicester has shed new light on the transition from water-to-land of a major group of marine animals more than 400 million years ago.

EPSRC-supported researchers at the University of Cambridge have developed a new approach to machine learning that ‘learns how to learn’ and out-performs current machine learning methods for drug design, which in turn could accelerate the search for new disease treatments.

A rare total solar eclipse in Antarctica last weekend is giving researchers from NERC's British Antarctic Survey a unique opportunity to learn more about how solar eclipses affect space weather. The next total eclipse in Antarctica will not be until 2039.

Researchers have shown for the first time that embryonic cells destined to become either egg or sperm rely on different methods of repressive gene regulation. The research was carried out at the MRC London Institute of Medical Sciences (LMS).

Improving lives affected by violence in ‘post conflict’ Colombia - Watch the short film created by ESRC Impact Prize 2021 finalist, Dr Simon Rushton.

Changing the law to promote person-centred decision-making for “coma” patients - Watch the short film created by ESRC Impact Prize 2021 finalists, Jenny Kitzinger and Celia Kitzinger.  

ONE MORE THING

Could carpet spills become a thing of the past?

Introducing muggi, which has been described as the ‘world’s most versatile drinks carrier’. But could it be much more than that?

Conceived by Cornish innovator, David Trotter, while he was trying to transport multiple hot drinks around a ship during a force seven gale, muggi could be the saviour of a million office and living room carpets around the globe.

It could also prevent many trips to the burns unit.

Built from recycled marine, household and other plastics, this award-winning tray has been designed to ensure stability in challenging environments. It comes with handy spill catchers, non-slip feet and an 88-year guarantee, locking the carbon in for a lifetime.

Now, with support from Innovate UK Edge, which provides bespoke support to help innovative businesses grow and scale-up, muggi has revamped its business strategy, secured a business loan and expanded into the US market.

Find out more.

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