Wave after wave of crises and polarising inequalities have renewed policy attention onto how local communities themselves can provide vital support, knowledge and leadership in forging solutions. The rise in deep poverty requires radical change and new ways to imagine and shape our transition out of such foundational challenges (Joseph Rowntree Trust, 2023). Brexit and the pandemic have simultaneously demonstrated stark uneven geographies and the potential power of neighbourhood resilience (Unwin, 2023). There is both a consultation need and fatigue around social infrastructures, regeneration, public health and sustainability (Wynn et al., 2022; RTPI, 2023). Creative practices present a source of transformational change that can stimulate new connections, imagine different futures and inspire action (Vervoot et al., 2023). My PhD research pioneers a creative participatory methodology that can make timely contributions to public engagement in these social policy realms, which this Fellowship aims to mobilise. I have developed a co-methodology, participatory listening research, that can be extended and applied to public engagement. Participatory listening research is a way of listening with others to our environment that generates new knowledge whilst embracing different listening experiences, practices and positionalities. Specifically, the PhD research applied this approach to gentrification, asking: What can listening with residents on the UK south coast tell us about urban seaside gentrification and displacement injustices? Gentrification is popularly contested and deeply rooted in policy-relevant spatial dynamics, offering a window onto broader societal trends (Smith, 2005). Listening creates a different way of connecting to over-rehearsed yet persistent issues of spatial injustice. By combining sound (Oliveros, 2003; Robinson, 2020) and mobile studies (Sheller, 2020) with a participatory ethos (Beebeejaun et al., 2013), listening with residents can expand our understandings of relationships to place and hyperlocal socio-environmental change. Looking to the other extreme of uneven geographies, the government's Levelling Up agenda is concerned with restoring pride in place and social infrastructures in 'left behind communities' (APPG, 2023). Defined as 'the framework of institutions and the physical spaces that support shared civic life' (ibid:6), social infrastructures can seed social capital (British Academy & Power to Change, 2023). This has refocused public engagement attention onto devolved and neighbourhood-led infrastructures, such as Labour's parallel Take Back Control (Norris, 2023). My gentrification-specific analysis can be expanded to these broader policy concerns, questioning how hyperlocal socio-environmental change resonates through: the re-engagement of underserved communities, de-gentrification, public health and sustainability agendas. Participatory listening research offers a new method for public engagement that is mutually beneficial, restorative and imaginatively-oriented. The Fellowship activities will extend, apply and deepen this methodology through creative engagement, knowledge exchange and academic dissemination. Firstly, I will add a novel dissemination method to the toolbox by co-creating interactive listening walks, geo-locative mobile soundwalks, a podcast and digital story that share the gentrification findings. These will be co-designed with local arts-based organisation, Brighton & Hove Music for Connection, in consultation with residents advisory and community groups. Secondly, using these creative outputs, a series of knowledge exchange symposia will be hosted with relevant academic, practice and policy networks. Thirdly, I will deepen the academic significance of this approach through journal publications, conference papers and funding proposals. Overall, the Fellowship will enable me to transition from the doctorate into a career as an applied and engaged social policy researcher.

Historic structures in seismic prone areas are extremely vulnerable. The main reason is that such structures have not been properly designed to withstand earthquakes and also because the construction materials deteriorate with the time. The most recent earthquakes, such as the one in Norcia 2016 are clear examples manifesting the necessity to act promptly to protect heritage structures from such natural disaster. Seismic protection of heritage structures is an unresolved research problem that not only is a public safety issue but also adds to the constraints for preserve the artistic value of heritage buildings. In this regard, there is a clear gap in the knowledge that leads to the research question on how it is possible to protect a structure without modifying it. Previous research suggests that protecting structures by seismic action is managed using localised solutions such as isolators and dampers. Research also shows that one main reason is that the introduction of control devices in existing structures is too invasive, costly and requires the demolishing of some structural and/or non-structural component. For heritage structures clearly such technologies cannot be applied and therefore no seismic protection actions are currently taken to protect such artistic treasures. Research has yet to examine the potential of non-invasive devices for protecting heritage structures. The proposed research will investigate for the first time the use of the novel vibrating barriers (ViBa) to reduce seismic vibrations of heritage structures. Vibrating barriers (ViBa) are massive structures hosted in the soil and tuned to reduce the vibrations of neighbourhood structures through a structure-soil-structure interaction mechanism. As the ViBa is detached from the structure it is particularly suitable for heritage structures so to entirely preserve their original structure without any alteration. The proposed research will aim to establish a general methodology to protect heritage structures through a project that tests the role of ViBa and unknown design parameters. Technical details will be developed through a case study recommended by the cultural partners. In particular the design of the ViBa will require first the numerical modelling of the heritage structure and the soil underneath through a finite element approach. In this regard the cultural partners will provide the data to establish a realistic model of the heritage structure. The ViBa will be then designed through an equivalent discrete model based on the traditional Winkler approach. Moreover, the optimization of the installation of ViBa will be explored with the industrial partner to make this technology cost-efficient. Research questions 1) What are optimal ViBa design parameters and how are determined? 2) What is the sensitivity of the ViBa design parameters to the model uncertainties? 3) Will the ViBa be a cost-effective solution?

Effective treatment of disease requires early and precise diagnosis and an understanding of how the disease has changed the functioning of the tissue. The work of the Centre for Stress and Age-Related Disease and the Centre for Regenerative Medicine and Devices based at the University of Brighton, has focused on developing a range of new treatments and early diagnostics for diseases that are prevalent in older people. Our current funded work explores a range of conditions including osteoarthritis, incontinence, cancer, neurogenerative diseases and diabetic leg ulcers, conditions that have a major impact on the quality of life and life expectancy of older people. Current treatment for many of these conditions is limited and aims to manage symptoms rather than to slow down or halt disease progression. Early diagnosis and the prevention and progression of disease is now a research priority for many age-related conditions, alongside the development of novel medicines/devices that can more effectively treat the conditions. Diseased tissues are made up of a range of different cell types. Much of the current work published has explored how disease alters the expression of genes and proteins in the tissue. However, this work fails to identify which cell types are affected. This information could provide us with greater insight into the origins of the disease. In order to facilitate these new discoveries, researchers at the University of Brighton, together with the Brighton and Sussex Medical School and the University of Sussex are requesting funds to purchase a laser microdissection microscope. This instrument will be utilised to dissect out diseased tissue, single cells or groups of homogenous cells from complex heterogenous tissues or from tissues in contact with biomedical devices (novel wound dressings), allowing their properties to be compared to healthy controls. The data generated will be used in three ways. First, the data will provide us with a set of biomarkers of accelerated tissue ageing or of disease that with further research would contribute to early disease diagnosis and be predictive of disease in the healthy. Together this would provide us with the opportunity to prevent disease initiation and/or progression and improve prognosis. Second, it will allow the development of personalised medicine. Third, it will allow the development of novel wound dressings that have the ability to monitor healing at the same time as facilitating the healing process. Fourth, it will enhance our understanding of antimicrobial resistance. Our links with the local medical school has already facilitated some of our work to move from pre-clinical models to clinical samples and this joint application and our involvement in the development of a local health research partnership will further strengthen these links with the local NHS hospitals Trust and facilitate more of our work reaching the clinic. In summary, the successful completion of this body of research will improve our understanding of a range of diseases as well as their regenerative properties and will lead to earlier more precise diagnosis of disease, personalised medicine and the development of novel treatment strategies.

A quarter of the stone surface of Stonehenge is inaccessible to conventional archaeological survey techniques such as laser scanning due to the dense coverage of lichen. This project will aim to: (i) create a novel method, combining machine learning and surface imaging techniques such as photogrammetry, to reveal carvings that may be hidden by lichen covered stone surfaces; and (ii) verify any findings using a subsurface imaging technique such as terahertz imaging. The project will answer the question of whether there are more prehistoric rock carvings hidden by lichen on Stonehenge, and whether, with only an understanding of the topography of the lichen, we can find these carvings. The results will be of use for further unravelling archaeological detail at Stonehenge, and aid conservation, presentation and management of the site. Outcomes will have wider applicability as a rapid non-invasive technique for measuring and monitoring the microtopography of vegetation-covered stone surfaces at other monuments and historic buildings.

This will be the first study of the creative representation, figurative and literal, of early modern Englishwomen as healers and medical practitioners in their own words and via their own practices. The interdisciplinary intersection of early modern medical practices and creative representations has been exposed by studies of Shakespeare and medicine (Slights, 2008; Heffernan, 1995) but women's own representation, expression and transmission of medical knowledge and practice through creative expression has not been addressed. I will examine how early modern women expressed the practices of healing, promoting wellbeing and bodily autonomy via their own literary and visual art, manuscript communication, and marginalia. I will intervene in discourses of social, medical, literary and art history engaging with a broad range of narratives and practices to query how we understand what it was, in the early modern period, to 'heal' and how that speaks to our contemporary debates around bodily autonomy, wellbeing, and the narratives around medicine. Stratford-upon-Avon is a uniquely well-documented site of early-modern life and the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust (SBT) is an approved place of deposit and early modern studies hub. The project will engage with new research and outputs generated by Dr Ailsa Grant Ferguson's current AHRC RDE Fellowship project, 2022-3, 'Susanna Hall and Hall's Croft: Gender, Cultural Memory, Heritage', on which I am working as Research Officer. This work is producing ground-breaking spatial outputs in a digital spatial archive and a women's wellbeing-focussed garden at Hall's Croft that will create unique spaces for my own reflexive practice. I will continue to focus on Stratford-upon-Avon and south Warwickshire, the archives of the SBT, and a closer interrogation of provincial English women as patients and healers, as well as engaging with the SBT to create impactful public engagement through research outputs.