Funding secured for more than 150 new PhD places
More than 150 new PhD researcher places are being created in Leeds after we secured funding to train the next generation of scientists and engineers.
Leeds will lead three Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) centres for doctoral training, bringing more than £15m in postgraduate research funding to the campus. The centres launch this month with the first cohort joining us in September.
They will all be cross-disciplinary, building upon strengths across our faculties of Engineering, Environment, Mathematics and Physical Sciences and beyond.
The centres are supported by partnerships with 57 external organisations, ranging from industry to the NHS, the Met Office and charities.
Announced by Universities and Science minister, Chris Skidmore, as part of a package of 75 centres across the country, the centres represent a £446m investment by the Government in research.
Leeds is now inviting expressions of interest from the brightest junior researchers in the UK and European Union to join the three centres.
Successful applicants will all become members of our Doctoral College. The centres are:
- EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Molecules to Products, led by Professor Elaine Martin
- EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Water and Waste Infrastructure Systems Engineered for Resilience (Water-WISER), led by Professor Barbara Evans, in partnership with Cranfield University and Loughborough University; and
- EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Fluid Dynamics, led by Professor Peter Jimack.
Academic expertise and leadership
Professor Lisa Roberts, Deputy Vice-Chancellor: Research and Innovation, said: “This investment in doctoral training centres at Leeds is welcome confirmation of our academic expertise and leadership in three high-profile areas of interdisciplinary research, which are essential to both the UK and the wider world.
“We’re proud to host them, and look forward to new PhD researchers learning from, and collaborating with, our academic staff and external partners and having access to some of the best facilities in the country to build their careers.”
In addition to the centres Leeds will head-up, we are also collaborating with three further centres:
- EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Aerosol Science, led by the University of Bristol
- EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Soft Matter for Formulation and Industrial Innovation, led by Durham University; and
- EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Nuclear Energy (GREEN: Growing skills for Reliable Economic Energy from Nuclear), led by the University of Manchester.
Professor Jimack, Executive Dean of the Faculty of Engineering, said: “The University’s strengths are in our breadth of research and development expertise, our collaborations with other universities, industry and organisations around the world, the quality of the equipment we have available, and the diversity of our staff and students.
“All of this will be a huge benefit to PhD researchers building their careers in a supportive environment where they will be challenged to stretch their ideas as far as possible.”
Collaborative working
We have just launched the Bragg Centre for Materials Research and are currently constructing the new Sir William Henry Bragg Building, which will bring together engineers, computer scientists, physicists and chemists to foster highly interdisciplinary research and education. The Bragg Centre is also home to the Royce Institute at Leeds, the UK’s centre for research and innovation in advanced materials.
In addition, it is home to the Centre for Global Development, of which Professor Evans is a co-director, and water@leeds, one of the largest interdisciplinary centres of water-related research in the world.
The EPSRC-funded centres will also benefit from funding from the University and our industry and external partners.
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