Platform grant

Oxford's proposals for the use of the funds from this Platform Grant align closely with the objectives of the EPSRC's call for applications. We want to deploy this stable and flexible source of baseline funds to further the strategic development of our research agenda by means of initiatives that are not covered by more conventional project-oriented funding mechanisms. We plan to use part of the funding to accelerate our expansion in number theory, to coincide with the arrival of Andrew Wiles, enhancing the international and public profile of our initiative in this area. Secondly, we will set up a pump-priming fund specifically aimed at projects which, due to their speculative nature, are not yet ready for external funding applications (perhaps due to their novel interdisciplinary nature), but which have every possibility of being high-impact projects in the medium term. We have several such feasibility studies in incubation already but no means of funding them; a specific example highlighted in the proposal is an adventurous proposal in the field of mathematical neuroscience. The mechanism for this pump-priming activity is designed to enhance the experience of our large pool of highly-talented postdoctoral researchers, smoothing out transition periods between major grants and providing postdoctoral researchers with a valuable diversity of experience. Thirdly, we want to pump-prime in a different manner: in this alternative model, we will fund nascent projects that we expect to lead to new or enhanced international collaborations that will leverage large grants from overseas funders. A specific example that we give for this type of activity involves a project that we expect, when properly nurtured, to attract large-scale funding from the National Institutes of Health in the USA; it involves the mathematical modelling of tumour growth. Team Development and the nurturing of human capital for the wider benefit of society (with particular emphasis on early career researchers) are important aspects of our research strategy. We see the development of a strong Visitor Programme as an enormously important step in this direction and will deploy a significant part of the funds from this grant in funding such a programme, with a rigorous internal competition to identify the visitors to be funded. We wish to implement to ensure a coherent flow of visitors of the highest possible calibre to Oxford for periods ranging from a few weeks to a term. Many of our international competitors have guaranteed funding for Visiting Professors, but presently we do not. We want the very best and most exciting mathematicians to visit Oxford on a regular basis, above all so that the younger members of our research teams have direct access to these scientists and interact with them, thereby gaining a clear view of the level that they must aspire to, and becoming engaged with the global structure driving their field.A similar mechanism will be used to implement a travel programme for mathematicians wishing to foster links with international collaborators: proposals will be judged on mathematical merit and should include plans to perpetuate the collaboration from other funding sources. In addition, a programme of workshops will be funded through a structure that gives us the ability to organise workshops in a rapid and coherent manner, responding to exciting emerging trends, or to pressing challenges from outside mathematics. All workshops will be required to assess the possibility of a public outreach event, and to organise such an event where relevant. As part of our drive in number theory we expect to hold at least two workshops, one in analytic aspects of the subject and one around Galois representations; each would be accompanied by a public event.

The core purpose of the Mathematical Institute is to conduct world-leading research across a wide spectrum of mathematics, ranging from fundamental research into pure mathematics to immediately-applicable mathematics that addresses major economic, industrial and societal challenges of the moment. We operate without barriers between pure and applied mathematics so as to maximise the flow of knowledge and challenges back and forth. The Mathematical Institute seeks to identify and lead the most important areas of fundamental mathematics, confident that some of this will have an enormous (but as yet unimagined) impact on society decades or even centuries from now, but it puts equal effort into identifying and developing the mathematics that can transform our world today (witness, for example, our current initiatives on Energy, Mathematical Finance, and healthcare). A Platform Grant would significantly enhance our ability to pursue this balanced and vibrant approach. We plan to use a sizeable part of the money to enhance our drive to make Oxford a world-leading centre in number theory. Beyond academia, this has three lines of impact: on British society through raising public awareness of the prominence of British achievement in this most revered of mathematical fields; through an enhanced flow into the UK of extremely talented young people to this group (the People Agenda); and through a direct and fundamental contribution to the EPSRC Strategic Theme of security, via the active links between the number theory group and the UK government. Much of the funding from a Platform Grant would be used to seed proposals that are deemed likely to lead to significant breakthroughs or new directions of research, but which are not yet ready for outside funding, such as the NIH. In judging which proposals to fund, the managing committee will assess the likely impact of such proposals on a range of time scales, requiring clear plans concerning pathways to impact. The two examples that we have presented typify a type of proposal that we particularly encourage: they both involve developing novel mathematics to meet specific challenges in the area of Next Generation Healthcare. In the first example, the expected timeframe for impacts beyond mathematics stretches over decades rather than years, but ultimately one expects the impact of mathematical neuroscience on the understanding of Alzheimer's disease, for example, to be enormous. We will organise a programme of workshops in response to exciting emerging trends, or to pressing challenges from outside mathematics. The latter will have a direct impact on our industrial partners and partners from other branches of science. Workshops will be required to assess the possibility of a public outreach event. Team development and the nurturing of human capital for the wider benefit of society (with particular emphasis on early career researchers) are important aspects of our research strategy. We see the development of a strong Visitor Programme as an enormously important step in this direction. The pump-priming overseas visits that we will fund are exemplified by a proposal of Philip Maini that promotes serious mathematics and at the same time articulates clear pathways to impact in strategic areas such as health care. In his case, the context is the fight against cancer, and the project anticipates impacts beyond mathematics on scales beginning at five years: in the first instance on research scientists in universities and industry who can reduce reliance on in vitro and, more importantly, in vivo experimentation on tumours when more accurate and robust mathematical models of tumour growth become available. Although more remote, impact on clinical practice must surely follow, with potentially enormous benefits to society as a whole.