University of Edinburgh: Discipline Hopping for Discovery Science 2022/23
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Edinburgh
Department Name: College of Science and Engineering
Abstract
Principal Investigators (PIs) will be invited through an internal call announcement to apply for funding to undertake a range of discipline hopping activities.
Examples of the types of 'discipline-hopping' activities that could be undertaken include (but are not limited to):
- Embedding researchers, for a period of time, in Schools (departments) outside of their own discipline area (within the same organisation, or in other eligible UK research organisations).
- Sharing insights on priorities and looking for synergies/ new ideas that cut across departmental boundaries.
- Work shadowing in other Schools, for example to learn new skills and techniques.
- Organising meetings/ seminars/ workshops between departments and disciplines to share learning, understanding of key terms, concepts, language and tools to tackle problems
- Cocreating plans for transformational multidisciplinary research programmes that take advantage of these insights and synergies.
Examples of the types of 'discipline-hopping' activities that could be undertaken include (but are not limited to):
- Embedding researchers, for a period of time, in Schools (departments) outside of their own discipline area (within the same organisation, or in other eligible UK research organisations).
- Sharing insights on priorities and looking for synergies/ new ideas that cut across departmental boundaries.
- Work shadowing in other Schools, for example to learn new skills and techniques.
- Organising meetings/ seminars/ workshops between departments and disciplines to share learning, understanding of key terms, concepts, language and tools to tackle problems
- Cocreating plans for transformational multidisciplinary research programmes that take advantage of these insights and synergies.
People |
ORCID iD |
Andrew Mount (Principal Investigator) |
Publications
Description | Project 1. Our FT-ICR-MS method and analysis pipeline was successfully shown to work on water samples. This allows the Bell group to explore multiple new avenues including a new collaboration looking at pool systems and another looking at water before and after disinfection. The Bell group are now trained on collecting and processing water samples which will be of invaluable use setting up peatland monitoring stations, where inlet and outlet waters are now part of the baseline monitoring requirements. We can now take these samples, process and analyse then using our methods. Samples from catchment areas across the UK were measured successfully and full lists of molecular formulae have been obtained. Initial results show there are differences and currently these are being compared with metadata. A publication is in preparation. Project 2 Working on this problem has alerted the team to a colleague who has been independently collaborating with scientists on undersea landslides. Some of the fundamental physics must be the same, but the undersea problem is even closer to our model system because it is always 'saturated' (no air pores). I intend to bring these collaborators together to work on an interdisciplinary grant proposal to the NERC. Project 3 Grant outcomes -Training commenced or completed for 2 university staff members, 2 NatureScot Staff members and 4 RSPB members - Network of samples collected underpinning larger grant application. New activities catalysed - programme of work outlined in grant application arising from pilot work Project 4 At the end of the funding we were still in the early phases of the work following the growth experiments. As expected, both growth experiments confirmed the amelioration of Zn toxicity to B. juncea as a result of inoculation with Rhizobium leguminosarum. Redox measurements on the initial growth experiment did not reveal detectable gradients in the spatial scale assessed. However, finer resolutions (1 cm) are being used in the just concluded experiment to detect possible changes, which would be combined with assessments of bacterial functional groups along the soil profile to reveal any potential redox gradients. Microbial community composition as well as metal concentrations and speciation across our treatments, when determined, would provide more insights into the impact of exogenous inoculation on microbial soil diversity and metal speciation. Project 5 We have successfully created a prototype simulation framework with the initially identified behaviours we set out to include and all the key populations have been implemented. This is the most crucial outcome of the funding since the numerical package can act as the scaffolding for future collaborations to build on. Further, the simulations have produced a series of movies and figures, which can be used to engage potential collaborators, illustrate our capabilities and entice interest from researchers from behaviour ecology and marine science backgrounds. These preliminary results are essential outcomes since they will allow us to better communicate across disciplines. From this foundation, we now plan to approach potential collaborators from local, national and international institutions. It is our hope that future cross-disciplinary collaborations will allow our team to refine the model and begin to extract ecologically important data which can help with conservation efforts. Interdisciplinary links: Project 1 A strong interdisciplinary link has now been forged as a result of this grant. We will collaborate on a a new area of research applying our complementary expertise to examine peatland pools. Project 3 This funding has brought together new collaborations both within the university and with external government agencies and NGO and Research Organisations Project 4 This project has provided an important opportunity to collaborate with a microbiologist and environmental bioinformatician, with the acquisition of new skills in metagenomics and metabarcoding utilising Edinburgh Genomics. Colleagues in GeoSciences completed two training courses in metagenomics and bioinformatics at the facility and has established links with faculty and other members of staff who can be helpful in relevant aspects of our current projects. We are also having talks with a molecular biologist on potential collaborations going forward. These talks will progress with deeper revelations in the data garnered from the current study and, hopefully, lead to further projects and papers in the near future. We have a parallel with BBSRC researchers looking at microbial diversity associated plants growing on gold and nickel mine wastes; Building capacity and agility Project 1 The grant showed us that our methods are not only applicable to soil samples but can be used for water samples too, which opens up many new avenues of research for us. My group has been trained how to collect and process water samples, as well as the theory behind some of the choices. This is not something you can easily buy nor learn from a textbook as there are many many caveats. The grant has also give more confidence to both groups involved that we can apply our research skills across boundaries. Project 2 It has made us aware of a whole new class of problems to do with a whole class of geological materials (silt, clay, mud, sand), and that the physics we have pioneered (the frictional rheology of suspensions) should be directly applicable to these materials. Project 3 It provided time, resource and opportunity to reach out to potential collaborators to explore new ways of working together to address a common goal. Gave both the impetus and permission to reach out to new people in different parts of the university, and supported establising a network of sampling opportunities which has persisted after the end of the grant. Project 4 All three University of Edinburgh scientists (geochemist, biogeochemist, environment chemist) had limited knowledge of metagenomics prior to this project. However, through this grant, researchers completed the NERC Advanced Training in Ecological Genomics at Edinburgh Genomics, covering both wet lab training and bioinformatics. A key requirement for the course was for attendees to be funded by the NERC. This grant also funded additional training in Metabarcoding and Metagenomic Analysis as well as the procurement of small equipment and reagents towards building capacity for (meta)genomics research in our laboratory. The knowledge is gradually being passed on to the team, and this would be even more pronounced during the analysis of data and drafting of future papers. Overall, this project has provided a useful opportunity to acquire important cross-disciplinary skills in metagenomics. Project 5 As we have now developed a prototype numerical package for simulating walrus haulout dynamics, we are well-poised to engage potential collaborators across fields. Thus, this grant has laid the foundation of our capacity to bridge between distant disciplinary boundaries. This is quite different from working at the interface between two adjoining disciplines, such as physics and microbiology. As biophysicists, we brought our established experience working with biological systems. However, previous research on biophysical systems (such as microbiology of bacteria dynamics) has allowed us to apply physical principles to systems that break conservation laws in simple and strongly constrained ways. For example, swimming bacteria inject biochemically stored energy back into their environment by generating hydrodynamic stresses. Likewise, growing bacteria colonies convert material nutrients into more cells. However, these examples are singular points where physical laws on the scale of organisms are bypassed by well-defined processes; whereas in this project behavioural dynamics are far more complicated. The NERC Discipline Hopping grant allowed us to extend biophysical capabilities into behavioural ecology. The foundation once again relied on our expertise modelling physical systems, in particular excluded-volume interactions and following behaviours employed pair potentials from computational physics. However, in terms of capability, we have learned new skills in our simulation design, making it more extensible and allowing for dynamically changing behaviours. Notably the majority of behaviours, such as motility, spooning and coastal exploration, do not rely on physical processes. Designing and implementing such behaviours has made us substantially more agile and the lessons learned will form the basis of our ability to dynamically collaborate across fields. Project 1 The grant enabled two groups working in two different areas (hydrology and soil science) to share expertise. The need to bring expertise together in these two areas is vital for our understanding of environmental processes from carbon cycling to the treatment of our drinking water. Project 4 This grant was immensely useful in funding requisite training, equipment, and laboratory work for the current project. The project addresses important questions relating to the adoption of microbial-enhanced phytoremediation as a technique for contaminated land clean-up. We are seeking to understand the potential impact of exogenous inoculation on the microbial diversity of the soil around plant roots, because any adverse effects of such inoculation would compromise overall ecosystem function and balance of the environment. We also want to understand whether the introduction of microbes create redox gradients which can impact the speciation of the metal and therefore affect metal uptake/toxicity. These questions are exploratory and require cross-disciplinary expertise to answer, spanning geochemistry, microbiology, ecotoxicology, and meta(genomics). The research is, therefore, directly relevant to NERC's priority in developing cross-disciplinary research capabilities for Discovery Sciences. Project 5 Cooperative dynamics emerges in a wide variety of biological contexts, such as motor protein ensembles and wildebeest herds. While these examples span an enormous breadth of length scales and collective behaviour in large fauna is iconic, the majority of research on collective dynamics considers bacterial systems. The notable exception is perhaps avian flocking: Murmurations of starlings, homings of pigeons and clatterings of jackdaws are all examples of bird flocks that have been studied from the perspective of collective dynamics. That is not to say that research has never considered other species-swarms of locus, shoals of fish and humans crowds all exhibit spontaneous self-organisation in the absence of external guidance, group leaders or some intrinsic compass. However, the barriers to communication between biophyscists and ecologists are generally much larger than between biophysicists and bacteriologists. This NERC discovery science funding has allowed us to lay the foundations for a novel curiosity driven research direction that would not have otherwise found a seed-funding opportunity. In delivering our proof-of-concept numerical package through this funding, we have established that simulations of this type can be performed and produced preliminary in silico data on haulout dynamics. This was achieved through exploratory development of a new approach to numerical modelling in behavioural ecology. We hope that the work we have done will enhance future interdisciplinary interactions between the two fields. |
Exploitation Route | Project 1 This award showed we can achieve a lot in a short period of time when such funding is there. Project 2 The most valuable aspect was that it finally made us go and talk to earth scientists in Edinburgh. It is amazing what the promise of a little bit of funding does for overcoming inertia. We are very glad to have now established these links, which we are confident will grow because, fortuitously, suspension physics has reached a point over the last 5-6 years where one of the next advances (mixtures of non-Brownian particles of different sizes) is precisely what is needed to apply to landslides. Project 3 Most valuable aspects: Widening our network of people who take different approaches to reaching the same end goal. Being challenged in our usual way of thinking. To build on initiative: Having a tangible goal to work towards eg a specific grant call was helpful in focusing conversations from the outset. Project 4 The opportunity to potentially cover staff placement in collaborating institutions is a valuable aspect of this initiative. This would enable thorough immersion and cross-fertilisation of ideas and can especially benefit early-career researchers. The initiative could be extended to UK-based early-career researchers requiring short-term research stays in UK or non-UK institutions to learn new techniques or develop important expertise relevant to their research or institution. Project 5 The opportunity to explore a new field and attempt something entirely unprecedented in a novel research direction was really exciting. Additionally, the initiative allowed to try this new direction. The idea of simulating walrus using the numerical approaches our field has developed for microbiology is only one aspect of a broader set of research questions that we have about applying concepts from out-of-equilibrium biophysics to these dense communities. However, this was the first initiative that allowed us minimal resources to kick-start this entirely orthogonal research direction. It has given us the foundation that we can use to establish new cross-disciplinary collaborations and to generate preliminary data for future grant applications. Whilst this research programme is still in its infancy, we hope that the knowledge gained from work can inform and empower conservation efforts to save at risk walrus populations. Perceptions of interdisciplinary working Project 1: It is an absolute must that you need to bring people into the same room. This project would not have worked if we tried to conduct this research remotely. It has shown that small research funding make collaboration happen faster than big funding pots. This grant helped built trust in each others expertise, demonstrate success and hence we are more likely to now go for the bigger funding grants as Co-Is. Project 2 This funding has enabled me to open up a new area of collaboration, viz., with earth scientists. The project proposal was initially predicated on directly 'exporting' recent advances in suspension rheology into applications in geophysics. However, through the project it became clearer that collaboration in this area can only exist with longer term two-way knowledge exchange. Further advances in suspension physics, motivated by geophysical applications, are required, e.g., exploring highly bimodal suspensions with a non-Brownian background, to ultimately enable meaningful application to landslide prediction. Developing such knowledge in connection with geo-sciences is therefore the focus of future plans. These can then enable further collaborations with impact into, e.g., climate change resilience. Project 3 We now realise how much time is needed just at initial stages just to reach common ground before interesting and productive progress can be made. We have a better understanding of the different limitations people have in entering into collaborative interdisciplinary work eg different organisations working to different time scales and different systems etc. Our main take away is that it needs much more resource and time at initial stages than many people (currently) have capacity for despite recognizing the potential benefits, both in terms of work satisfaction and research outcomes, being high. Creating time and space and opportunity would help with this. Project 4 The grant has further deepened our appreciation of cross-disciplinary collaborations as a key pathway to the advancement of the sciences. Project 5 As a computational group studying biological physics, we have always had a positive view of interdisciplinary work. We value the excitement of research questions that reside at the interface between disciplines and already appreciate many of the challenges that are inherent to establishing and maintaining cross-disciplinary collaborations. However, our previous experiences were on projects at the interface between bordering disciplines, whilst the fields in this project are far-flung. Thus, we learned quite a bit about interdisciplinary work when the separation between disciplines is vast. Our research team was interested in seeing if we could apply our skills and methodologies, which have been honed on seemingly unrelated research questions to a quite different one. Although we have developed simulation frameworks for modelling bacteria in the past, we found that applying our expertise to walruses was quite challenging. The crucial difference is that walruses exhibit much more sentient behaviours and their interactions are highly social. This required us to change our typical paradigms and approach the project differently. It was satisfying to learn additional numerical techniques to effectively address these challenges. Not only was this essential for simulating complex walrus behaviour, it also empowered us to produce a much more extendable code. This means that the research programme initiated by this NERC discipline hopping funding is better prepared for future modifications. Moreover, it taught us additional approaches for making our other codes more dynamic. As has always been our experience in cross-disciplinary projects, we learned valuable lessons that we were able to port to our core strengths. |
Sectors | Environment |
Description | ECOFLU : Understanding the ecology of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza in wild bird populations |
Amount | £820,641 (GBP) |
Funding ID | NE/Y001591/1 |
Organisation | Natural Environment Research Council |
Sector | Public |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 03/2024 |
End | 03/2026 |
Description | Quantifying the impact of restoration on peatland aquatic organic matter, microbial communities and greenhouse gas emissions |
Organisation | University of Leeds |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | Expertise in peatland chemistry and methodology. |
Collaborator Contribution | Expertise in peatland hydrology |
Impact | This collaboration has just started now. The work is funded by the NERC fellowship awarded to C. Moody, University of Leeds. N.Bell is project partner. |
Start Year | 2023 |
Description | Article for 'The Conservation' on the impact of an outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza on wild bird populations at a global level |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | Article reporting the latest situation and research on the outbreak of avian influenza in wild animal populations around the world in spanish. The article has received 708 reads in the first two weeks since publication. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
URL | https://theconversation.com/la-gripe-aviar-altamente-patogena-sigue-amenazando-las-poblaciones-de-av... |
Description | British Ecological Society - Scottish Policy Group workshop on Monitoring Diseases in Natural Ecosystems. |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | A group of representatives from governmental, non-governmental and academic organisations came together to discuss surveillance needs in the light of recent outbreaks of wildlife disease to discuss whether best practice from current surveillance schemes and whether a unifying framework across taxa specific schemes would be beneficial. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
Description | HIGHLY PATHOGENIC AVIAN INFLUENZA (HPAI) WORKSHOP: RESEARCH FOR RECOVERY |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | A small workshop was held in October 2023, hosted by JNCC and Defra, bringing together virologists, ornithologists, disease ecologists and conservation practitioners to discuss research priorities for wild bird recovery from the impacts of avian influenza. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |