UCL Astrophysics Consolidated Grant 2021-2024

The research we conduct in the UCL Astrophysics Group encompasses all the big questions of modern Astrophysics and on all scales, from exoplanets to the entire Universe. We have leading roles in large, international projects which are gathering data for millions of stars and galaxies. Our overall goals are to (1) analyse these data to answer fundamental questions about the Universe, (2) develop the theory and models that enable the interpretation for these data, and (3) produce the technologies making these state-of-the-art facilities a reality.

We propose a programme of ten science projects, divided in five themes covering the full range of topics studied within our group: Exoplanets, Galactic Astrophysics, Extragalactic Astrophysics, Cosmology and Instrumentation.

By the nature of our group, most of this work is observational; one of our keys to success is the close interaction between our instrumentation and science groups, allowing us direct access to large international projects. Our observational projects make use of facilities such as eMERLIN, the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope (JCMT), the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI), and Euclid. With these facilities, we will study debris disks around white dwarf stars, the most massive stars in our Galaxy as well as some of the most massive galaxies in the early Universe, investigate the connection between galaxies and their dark matter halos, and answer fundamental questions in our cosmological model. We also propose two projects that are theoretical and numerical in nature, both concerned with the molecules that make up the atmospheres of exoplanets and the birth clouds of stars. In addition, we present an outreach case, designed to enable us to disseminate to the public the specific outputs of the research to be funded by this grant.

Our Group will continue to develop its current Knowledge Exchange and Outreach programmes, to increase even further the impact of our STFC-funded research activities.

Our general outreach strategy has the support of our Ogden Science Officer and the UCL Widening Participation and Public Engagement teams. We also benefit from access to a unique facility, the UCL Observatory in Mill Hill (UCLO). We specifically target:

* our local community: We have strong ties with schools in the London boroughs of Islington, Hackney and Barnet (where UCLO is located) and offer them multiple opportunities to engage through trips to UCLO, large scale festival events such as Your Universe and Dark Matter Day, and targeted classroom visits.

* the next generation of scientists: We directly involve secondary school pupils in our research through our ORBYTS programme. The measured positive outcomes of this programme include an increase in the desire of young people to pursue scientific research as a career, and publications of the outcomes in scientific journals.

* the national scene: Group members routinely speak at large scale events across the country (e.g. New Scientist Scientist Live, Cheltenham Festival), feature on TV/Radio programmes (e.g. The Sky at Night), and write popular magazine articles and books, allowing us to disseminate our research outputs to large, diverse audiences


Our knowledge exchange activities have the professional support of UCL Business (for IP support) and UCL Enterprise (for entrepreneurship training, mentorship and access to venture capital). The transfer of the results of our innovation is being achieved as follows:

* by working with business to train the next generation of data scientists: we take advantage of our Astrophysical research to connect with businesses in need of Big-data infrastructure, as part of our STFC-funded doctoral training centre.

* by taking opportunities to commercialise our work: a start-up company Blue Skies Space Ltd (BSSL) has been formed by members of our group. BSSL employs an innovative commercial approach to create new opportunities for cutting-edge science, by enabling cost-effective, quickly-delivered scientific instruments for users worldwide through a service-based model.

* by contributing to the testing and design of new hardware and software solutions: Since January 2020 and for 4.5 years, our group is host the National Hub for the ExCALIBUR Hardware and Enabling Software Programme. This is both to support Exascale software design activities and to develop and test core technologies that will be used to design systems to solve both simulation and data Exascale-sized problems.