Prof. Stephen Serjeant

Data intensive science is a major global growth area, as the volume, complexity and rate of digital data within governments and companies continues to rapidly increase. At the same time, powerful analysis techniques continue to evolve for obtaining radical insights into large datasets, including finding clusters and anomalies, as well as detecting and predicting dominant trends and correlations in such data. This data intensive science comes at a crucial time for global development. Major worldwide challenges, as encapsulated in the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), require multidisciplinary solutions, many of which include data science. Moreover, the South African National Development Plan (NDP) for 2030 recognises the need to "sharpen its innovative edge and continue contributing to global scientific and technological advancement" and "shift to a more knowledge-intensive economy". We therefore propose to build a training network in data intensive science between universities in southern UK and partners in southern Africa to help address these SDGs and NDP priorities. The cornerstones of this network will be the `Data Intensive Science Centre in SEPnet' (DISCnet) and the African Institute of Mathematical Science (AIMS) South Africa. Together, we will pilot an innovative course of training and internships for the next generation of data analysts, focusing on solving SDG-related questions in South Africa and acting as a driver of the country's economy in the 21st century. Our aim with this pilot training programme is to equip and send students to solve data science problems associated with sustainable development goals (SDGs) in SA and beyond. The specific goals of the pilot programme are to: (i) Deliver an initial cohort of at least 10 highly trained African data scientists; (ii) Provide a world-class data science school to African students, leveraging existing DISCnet training material; (iii) Prime-pump a new 8-week hand-on data science training course at AIMS with contributions from DISCnet; (iv) Contribute to the sustainable development goals via 3 month strategic student internships with South African organisations and companies, focusing on economic development and welfare; (v) Understand the details of managing an extended, sustainable training network across southern Africa. This pilot leverages considerable investment from STFC, our university partners, and the Royal Society (RS). Our long-term ambition is to create a sustainable network of comparable scale to DISCnet, e.g. approximately 25 African STEM students per year receiving our specialist training. These students will become the future data science leaders in Africa.

The test science projects (TSPs) are essential exemplars of addressing major/global challenges for Europe's societies, demonstrating how research infrastructures can align to support Horizon Europe's missions within the EOSC. The successful EOSC-Future/ESCAPE Dark Matter TSP achieved this by creating common tools and EOSC services for high energy/astroparticle dark matter detection experiments. However, all the experimental evidence for dark matter is currently in the form of inference from observational astronomy, yet there are no shared tools or services for observational astronomers to access or interpret the results of direct detection dark matter experiments, and vice versa. Funding and time limitations in the ESCAPE Dark Matter TSP meant that the only cross-disciplinary synergies that could be achieved were between high energy particle physics and the astroparticle physics communities and facilities. We therefore propose the Astronomy Dark Matter Test Science Project as the natural extension of the ESCAPE Dark Matter TSP.

Euclid is an ESA space telescope launching in July 2023, designed to understand the nature of dark energy and dark matter. To achieve this, Euclid will observe over a third of the sky with high resolution imaging and spectroscopy, which will establish “the” reference map of the extra-galactic celestial sphere for decades to come. The giant archive produced will be a goldmine to study the history of the formation and growth of galaxies over the age of the Universe, driving answers to many fundamental science questions on the co evolution of galaxies and supermassive black holes, the interaction between stars, gas, and galactic nuclei in galaxies at cosmic noon, and excelling in the discovery of rare objects including gravitational lenses. However, the richest gold veins are also the most difficult to exploit: the tools developed for Euclid’s primary science will not be enough to open the rich legacy for the astronomical community. We therefore propose ELSA to explore new methodologies and create cutting-edge pipelines, tools and algorithms. Our ambitious goal is to push the boundaries of spectroscopic analysis to the limits, uncovering hidden details of even the faintest and rarest galaxies measured by Euclid. We will leverage state of the art machine learning to efficiently handle the high-dimensional data and reveal the underlying physical processes they encode. This will need dedicated computing resources and highly motivated researchers versed in the most advanced techniques, that will work with our team of leading experts in the field of galaxy evolution to reveal the treasures preserved in the Euclid vault. Our machine learning will be supplemented by citizen science, enormously extending the reach of ELSA’s impact. ELSA will be a forge of knowledge and advanced tools that will not be confined within the boundaries of our teams, but shared with the whole scientific community and beyond to foster new projects and unforeseen discoveries.

We will bring together scientists from the adjacent fields of astroparticle physics and astronomy, focusing on the complementarity of their approaches and encompassing methods to study extreme astrophysical objects and transient events, by using the multi-messenger and multi-wavelength techniques. This working method involves a set of research infrastructures working together in a coordinated way to share complementary data, expertise and best practices with their users – both scientists and technical staff – in a novel and innovative collaboration at European level. Training for the young scientist is also a requisite for establishing a sustainable program.

STFC Centre for Doctoral Training in Data Intensive Science

Response to Horizon 2020 European Open Science Cloud call. The bid is being led by Giovanni Lamanna (CNRS). - The current ESFRIs and pan European International organisations participating in such a cluster are: SKA, CTA, KM3NeT, HL-LHC, FAIR, E-ELT, ESO, CERN, JIVE, EST (tbc); other partners such as data centres, e-infrastructures (IVOA et al.) and national centres would be also involved. The commitment and the participation (as beneficiaries) of those EFSRI projects that are also legal entities are foreseen (e.g. SKA Organisation, CTA Observatory, FAIR). - The work-programme has been decided and the leaderships agreed: WP1) Management, networking and dissemination (CNRS-IN2P3). Coordinator: Giovanni Lamanna (LAPP-CNRS). WP2) “Data lake” infrastructures concept: design and implementation (CERN/HL-LHC, SKA, CTA, et al.) Leader: Ian Bird (CERN) WP3) Open-source scientific software and service repository (-> EOSC catalogue) (KM3NeT/FAU, CTA/LAPP, SKA, et al.) Leader: Kay Graf (FAU) WP4) Data (interoperable archives and preservation) (CDS-CNRS, ESO/E-ELT, et al.). Leader: Mark Allen (CDS-CNRS) WP5) Open-science platform (ASTRON/SKA, CTA, et al.). Leader: Michael Wise (ASTRON) WP6) Engagement and Communication (OU, CNRS- LAPP OU TRUST-IT) leader : Stephen Serjeant

The DISCnet vision is to train the Data Science Leaders of the future. DISCnet accelerates the pace of scientific discovery in the understanding of our Universe and its fundamental particles through the application of cutting-edge Data Intensive Science. Our centre attracts top students from the physical sciences, and develops them into innovators adept at working in academic and commercial environments, equipped with enviable technical skills, and armed with the full appreciation of uncertainty in decision-making applications that comes from a rigorous scientific background. This enables them to lead disruptive change, potentially transforming sectors of the economy to position the UK at the forefront of the global data revolution. Their diverse and inclusive career network facilitates a life-long capability to develop themselves and to influence others. We have established DISCnet as a national hub of research excellence across three world-class universities, embedded within a global network of premier scientific facilities, and with an industrial placement programme that will directly connect innovation in computational science and fundamental physics to the UK economy.

Our research programme, Astronomy at the Open University, covers the breadth of cosmic evolution, from dark energy to the birth of planets. We do this research by observation, laboratory experiments, simulations and modelling. We use purpose-designed laboratories and instruments, and instruments on telescopes and spacecraft to make our observations and measurements. Our group is based in the Department of Physical Sciences at the OU. So what are we trying to find out? We have 8 separate projects, from exoplanets and stars to distant galaxies. We already know a lot about how the Solar System came about. The Sun and planets formed from a cloud of dust and gas about 4570 million years ago. The cloud collapsed to a spinning disk and dust and gas spiralled inwards. The core of the disk became hot, forming the Sun, while the leftover dust and gas formed the planets. Boulders gravitated together to make planets, but no-one knows how the dust grains became boulders. We are experimenting with colliding centimetre-sized particles in zero-gravity conditions to see if they stick together, to find the missing link in how planets form. We also look at processes that cause stars to change as they age. Only recently has it been recognised that so many stars are binary systems, where two or more stars are in close association and affect each others' motion. Such systems affect the way mass and energy is lost from a star, and how they are transferred into the interstellar medium. We will study how 'binarity' affects the behaviour of massive stars (>20 times the mass of the Sun) and low mass stars (< the mass of the Sun), and how star populations change as they age. Studying these effects is vital, because the environment of a star influences any planets that surround it. Many hundreds of planets have been discovered around other stars (exoplanets) and we are working to describe the range of properties of these planets, especially when they are located close to their central star. A star can even completely destroy a close-in exoplanet, which could be an important new source of dust in the nearby universe and even in distant galaxies in the early Universe. Also in the early Universe, we can use the way that galaxies warp space and time to learn about the dark matter that surrounds them, and the dark energy that drives them apart. What else do we do? We build and test instruments for ground-based telescopes and for space missions, striving to make them smaller and lighter, and explore how they can be used on Earth for medical or security purposes. One of the most important benefits of our research is that it helps to train and inspire students: the next generation of scientists and engineers. We also enjoy telling as many people as possible about our work, and what we have learned from it about our origins.

15 million euro response to INFRADEV-4 to support all major European research infrastructures in astronomy, in the ESFRI roadmap. The OU is leading the outreach work package, with a maximum value of approx. 0.5 million euro.

STFC DTG Quota 2015-16 AMS record for students starting on or after 01/10/2015

Visitor funds for NRF PDRAs and Stobie PhD students to the UK SALT Consortium

UKSA funding for staff time and travel funds for development of the SPICA project, currently shortlisted for the ESA M5 slot (550 million euros).

The SPICA space mission has been selected by the European Space Agency for detailed study as a candidate for its M5 mission, with launch expected around 2030. SPICA is designed to be a powerful astronomical observatory with potential to contribute to many areas of research, but particularly to the study of planet formation and galaxy evolution. The Phase-A study is currently underway, having started in April 2019, and will finish in mid-2021, at which time ESA will select the mission to be flown as M5. SAFARI is the SPICA observatory's far infrared instrument, and as one of the UK institutes participating in the SPICA-SAFARI team, the OU is involved in a number of activities in this phase.

STFC ODA Institutional Award

The Ogden Trust is providing matched funding to a maximum of £75k for 3 years for an 0.5 FTE outreach post, that we can add to the ASTERICS post and can therefore recruit a full-time postdoctoral research assistant.

The aim of our programme in Astronomy & Planetary Science at the Open University (APSOU) is to carryout detailed investigations of the origin and evolution of galaxies, stars and planets with a special emphasis on our own Solar System through a combination of observation, simulation, laboratory analysis and theoretical modelling. Our research is divided into two broad areas, reflecting the historical research strengths. This research programme is well-matched to both nationally- and internationally-agreed research imperatives. In its final report, A Science Vision for European Astronomy2, Astronet’s Science Working Group identified four broad areas of strategic importance; our research covers major topics within each of these areas. APSOU projects also map onto two of the four Science Challenges that form STFC’s Road Map3 for science (‘How did the universe begin and how is it evolving?’ and ‘How do stars and planetary systems develop and is life unique to our planet?’). The present APSOU programme comprises 20 projects (labelled A to T), of which 6 are for consideration by the Astronomy Observation (AO) panel, 1 for Astronomy Theory (AT), and 13 for the Planetary Studies (PL) panel. The AO projects cover the breadth of the 7 themes recognised as UK strengths in the report of STFC’s Astronomy Advisory Panel (AAP), whilst the 13 PL projects are directed towards answering questions raised in two of the three themes identified as UK strengths in the roadmap of STFC’s Solar System Advisory Panel (SSAP)4.