The first round of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) cross research council interdisciplinary funding has now been announced with two innovative Cambridge projects involving scientists from the School of Biological Sciences among the awardees.
Creating foundation systems for environmental planetary intelligence
Can AI help save the planet in the face of the ongoing extinction and climate crises? Prof David Coomes (Department of Plant Sciences and Director of the Cambridge Conservation Research Institute) and Prof Andrew Balmford (Zoology) are working with Prof Anil Madhavapeddy (Department of Computer Science) to develop ‘Terra’, an AI tool capable of modelling and predicting the consequences of climate change. Using this tool, governments, businesses and scientists will be better equipped to make more effective decisions on how to tackle major planetary challenges.
Prof Andrew Balmford said, “The enormous changes people are making to our planet can seem overwhelming. But by combining very large global datasets with powerful AI models, Terra will provide unprecedented opportunities to understand those impacts, identify effect strategies for mitigating them, and improve our answers as new information becomes available.”
When memories come alive: an interdisciplinary study of the vividness of memory
What does it feel like to have a memory? We know surprisingly little about how we can vividly relive past events, which functions of the brain are involved, and how these processes vary across individuals, societies and cultures. In this new project, Prof Jon Simons (Psychology), Prof Raphael Lyne (English), Prof Alexandra Walsham (History), and Prof Charles Fernyhough (Durham University) will collaborate across disciplines to drive a step-change both in understanding memory vividness and the associated brain mechanisms across the life-course, and in enhancing the interpretation of vividness in literary and historical works dating back to the early modern era. The exploration of how literary, historical, and other humanities perspectives can enrich modern cognitive neuroscience, and vice versa, will offer unprecedented new insights into the study of memory vividness.
Prof Jon Simons said, “This interdisciplinary project promises transformative outcomes that will change our understanding of memory vividness. It will provide science and humanities researchers with new paradigms and tools for the interdisciplinary study of human experience, and allow them to address new ‘third-space’ questions about the vividness of memory that would not be possible within traditional disciplinary boundaries.”
“This new UKRI cross research council responsive mode scheme was launched to support creative interdisciplinary ideas of the kind that are emerging from School of Biological Sciences Research Theme activities. The second round of funding in now open for application with a closing date for outline stage applications of 19th November, and we encourage researchers with innovative interdisciplinary research ideas to consider applying.”