We aim to understand the mechanism of operation of a family of new precious-metal oxides that show exceptional activity in electrochemical oxygen evolution. These functional materials find important uses in devices such as fuel cells and water electrolysers (for the production of hydrogen). The proposal here will allow us to refine atomic-scale structures of the materials, including examiniation of local disorder. We will combine the results of our neutron diffraction with property measurement and XAFS studies and with this knowledge we aim to understand the reasons for the high activity of our materials and then design new functional electrocatalysts for future devices.