How do brains recover after injury, electric vehicle batteries withstand damage, or neighbourhoods rebuild after disasters? A newly funded project emerging from the 2025 White Rose Crucible Programme aims to uncover the shared principles that allow very different systems to absorb shocks, adapt, and continue to function.

The White Rose University Consortium has awarded one of this year’s Crucible Seed Funds to “An interdisciplinary approach to understand and promote damage resilience within networks,” led by Dr Becky Jackson (York), Dr Masoud Jabbari (Leeds), and Dr Sahar Hofmann (York).

The trio met through the White Rose Crucible Programme, where their conversations revealed a surprising shared interest: resilience. Whether in neural circuits, electrical systems or housing networks, each researcher was studying how structures respond to damage—and what helps them recover.

Dr Sahar Hofmann

For Sahar, the project has deeply personal roots. “A family friend suffered a stroke during surgery, and their recovery – especially around speech and mobility – has been incredibly challenging,” she explained. “It made me realise how much we don’t understand about the brain.”

Sahar’s work on disaster recovery and housing resilience sparked conversations with Becky, whose research focuses on understanding the brain’s remarkable ability to continue functioning even after significant damage. When they brought in Masoud – whose expertise in battery systems and control engineering deals with similar questions of network damage – the interdisciplinary connection clicked.

“We found that we had a lot in common in trying to understand resilience from different perspectives,” Sahar said.

“It was exciting to see if we could come together and investigate resilience from an interdisciplinary approach to advance our knowledge and understanding, and ultimately help future patients with brain damage.”

One idea, many networks

Dr Becky Jackson

The team’s big idea: treat all these systems as networks. Nodes might be brain regions, battery cells or houses. Connections might be neural pathways, wiring or roads. By examining them via a shared framework, they hope to identify universal principles of resilience.

“On the surface, networks of brain regions, electrical components and houses appear quite different,” Becky said. “But underneath, they can share similar structures and features. We want to understand how those features impact resilience across biological, technological and societal systems.”

This approach could explain why the brain is so adaptable, and whether those same mechanisms could inspire more robust and efficient engineered systems.

“I’m excited to uncover why the brain is so resilient and see how it can inspire improvements in other systems,” Becky added.

Real-World Reach

Dr Masoud Jabbari

The potential applications of this work are wide-ranging and go far beyond technical engineering. A better understanding of resilience could shape stroke recovery and brain stimulation therapies, improve the lifespan of electric vehicle batteries, inform climate-related risk planning, and even guide the development of efficient, robust artificial intelligence systems.

Masoud shared that “by integrating insights from neural resilience, community recovery and financial vulnerability, our work can also inform equitable disaster planning, smarter energy investment, and brain health policies.”

“Ultimately, I hope our research helps create communities that are not only better protected from disruption, but better prepared to bounce back stronger.”

A Launchpad for Large-Scale Impact

The Crucible Seed Fund will support 12 months of structured collaboration, expert workshops and network-building across disciplines, including an interactive symposium and exploratory modelling work. The team aims to use this foundation to build a community of researchers and to develop future significant funding bids together.

This award exemplifies the Crucible ethos: creating interdisciplinary conversations that evolve into bold, collaborative research agendas. And for this team, those conversations may help reshape how we understand resilience, from the neurons in our brains to the batteries that power our world.

Photo by Conny Schneider on Unsplash