Sponsorship Award. Cell-by-Cell: On Demand Assembly & Control of Microbial Communities for the Water Industry.

The water industry has relied on consortia of diverse microorganisms to perform some of its most vital functions (e.g. wastewater treatment, biological drinking water treatment, renewable energy production). These microbial assemblages have provided us with technologies that have not only significantly improved our quality of life, but also reversed the rapid degradation of our environment. The assembly of these complex microbial communities has thus far been guided either by happenstance environmental conditions or through trial-and-error based engineering approaches that are largely top-down in nature. In keeping with this top-down assembly, the function of these communities is also controlled in bulk, such that large-scale environmental effects are engineered to stimulate or inhibit functions of entire groups of microorganisms (e.g. controlling the availability of electron acceptors such as oxygen). We are proposing the development of a new approach that does not rely on happenstance environmental condition or bulk control, but rather engineers the assembly and control of microbial communities from the bottom-up, i.e. on a cell-by-cell basis. Our confidence in this approach is inspired not only by the recent technological breakthroughs in 'omics technologies, synthetic biology and 3D printing; but also a deep respect for the evolutionary processes that have generated the microbial vastness and its metabolic potential around us. Through the EPSRC Sponsorship Award, we propose to catalyze research momentum within our home universities and the UK to start exploring how synthetic microbial community assembly may accomplish, how it may improve existing technologies, and deliver radical technological breakthroughs for the water industry. To do this, we have proposed a series of strategically timed activities (e.g. research visits, workshops, retreats) that will engage the core investigator team in this adventurous research theme by gaining new research expertise and connecting with a broad network of academic and industrial partners from the UK, Europe, and USA.

This application is almost entirely focused on maximising the impact of the EPSRC Sponsorship Award through the development of a new research theme on the synthetic assembly and control of microbial communities for the UK water industry. We have proposed a systematic set of activities that will not only develop stronger collaborative ties between the core investigator team and their students and researchers in three of Scotland's premier research institutes, but will also connect with a larger body of early-to-mid career and established researchers within the UK and abroad. In doing so, we will engage a broad base research community across multiple fields of 'omics technologies, synthetic biology, ultrasonics, computational physics, water engineering, and 3D printing in a conversation that will pave the way for a whole new way of thinking about the assembly, control and application of mixed microbial communities.

Medium-term impacts: We believe that embarking on an adventurous research theme as proposed here, will have a significant impact on Dr's Pinto, Lee, and Windmill and has the possibility of shaping their research careers over the medium term. The activities proposed here build on their existing expertise to help them gain new skillsets and develop a new professional network. By engaging our students and researchers in the proposed activities, we will ensure that the next generation of researchers, engineers, and thinkers will also benefit from this opportunity outwith their own research fields. We believe that the activities proposed in this project will create a critical mass of researchers in UK (particularly early-to-mid career) who will pursue our new and bold research vision and this will likely result in an increase in the number of proposal submissions that cut across EPSRC's research growth areas: Water Engineering, Synthetic Biology, and Microsystems.

Long-term impacts: The idea proposed here promises significant transformative potential for the water industry and beyond. We have proposed a robust program of industrial engagement from the get go. For example, we have already acquired support for this "blue-skies" research programme from water companies in Scotland and the Netherlands. We believe that engaging industry (i.e. the water industry) early in the process can help the idea become quickly relevant, such that technologies developed in the laboratory will transition much more rapidly to the field and have a quicker impact on our economy. Beyond the water industry; the concepts, theory, and methodologies developed have a high potential of delivering an impact in any industry that relies on or seeks to manage microbial processes (e.g. pharmaceutical, energy, and healthcare).