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This is an application for a Doctoral Training Centre (DTC) from the Universities of Sheffield and Manchester in Advanced Metallic Systems which will be directed by Prof Panos Tsakiropoulos and Prof Phil Prangnell. The proposed DTC is in response to recent reviews by the EPSRC and government/industrial bodies which have indentified the serious impact of an increasing shortage of personnel, with Doctorate level training in metallic materials, on the global competitiveness of the UK's manufacturing and defence capability. Furthermore, future applications of materials are increasingly being seen as systems that incorporate several material classes and engineered surfaces into single components, to increase performance.The primary goal of the DTC is to address these issues head on by supplying the next generation of metallics research specialists desperately needed by UK plc. We plan to attract talented students from a diverse range of physical science and engineering backgrounds and involve them with highly motivated academic staff in a variety of innovative teaching and industrial-based research activities. The programme aims to prepare graduates for global challenges in competitiveness, through an enhanced PhD programme that will:1. Challenge students and promote independent problem solving and interdiscpilnarity,2. Expose them to industrial innovation, exciting new science and the international research community, 3. Increase their fundamental skills, and broaden them as individuals in preparation for future management and leadership roles.The DTC will be aligned with major multidisciplinary research centres and with the strong involvement of NAMTEC (the National Metals Technology Centre) and over twenty companies across many sectors. Learning will be up to date and industrially relevant, as well as benefitting from access to 30M of state-of-the art research facilities.Research projects will be targeted at high value UK strategic technology sectors, such as aerospace, automotive, power generation, renewables, and defence and aim to:1. Provide a multidisciplinary approach to the whole product life cycle; from raw material, to semi finished products to forming, joining, surface engineering/coating, in service performance and recycling via the wide skill base of the combined academic team and industrial collaborators.2. Improve the basic understanding of how nano-, micro- and meso-scale physical processes control material microstructures and thereby properties, in order to radically improve industrial processes, and advance techniques of modelling and process simulation.3. Develop new innovative processes and processing routes, i.e. disruptive or transformative technologies.4. Address challenges in energy by the development of advanced metallic solutions and manufacturing technologies for nuclear power, reduced CO2 emissions, and renewable energy. 5. Study issues and develop techniques for interfacing metallic materials into advanced hybrid structures with polymers, laminates, foams and composites etc. 6. Develop novel coatings and surface treatments to protect new light alloys and hybrid structures, in hostile environments, reduce environmental impact of chemical treatments and add value and increase functionality. 7. Reduce environmental impact through reductions in process energy costs and concurrently develop new materials that address the environmental challenges in weight saving and recyclability technologies. This we believe will produce PhD graduates with a superior skills base enabling problem solving and leadership expertise well beyond a conventional PhD project, i.e. a DTC with a structured programme and stimulating methods of engagement, will produce internationally competitive doctoral graduates that can engage with today's diverse metallurgical issues and contribute to the development of a high level knowledge-based UK manufacturing sector.

Reducing carbon emissions and securing energy supplies are crucial international goals to which energy demand reduction must make a major contribution. On a national level, demand reduction, deployment of new and renewable energy technologies, and decarbonisation of the energy supply are essential if the UK is to meet its legally binding carbon reduction targets. As a result, this area is an important theme within the EPSRC's strategic plan, but one that suffers from historical underinvestment and a serious shortage of appropriately skilled researchers. Major energy demand reductions are required within the working lifetime of Doctoral Training Centre (DTC) graduates, i.e. by 2050. Students will thus have to be capable of identifying and undertaking research that will have an impact within their 35 year post-doctoral career. The challenges will be exacerbated as our population ages, as climate change advances and as fuel prices rise: successful demand reduction requires both detailed technical knowledge and multi-disciplinary skills. The DTC will therefore span the interfaces between traditional disciplines to develop a training programme that teaches the context and process-bound problems of technology deployment, along with the communication and leadership skills needed to initiate real change within the tight time scale required. It will be jointly operated by University College London (UCL) and Loughborough University (LU); two world-class centres of energy research. Through the cross-faculty Energy Institute at UCL and Sustainability Research School at LU, over 80 academics have been identified who are able and willing to supervise DTC students. These experts span the full range of necessary disciplines from science and engineering to ergonomics and design, psychology and sociology through to economics and politics. The reputation of the universities will enable them to attract the very best students to this research area.The DTC will begin with a 1 year joint MRes programme followed by a 3 year PhD programme including a placement abroad and the opportunity for each DTC student to employ an undergraduate intern to assist them. Students will be trained in communication methods and alternative forms of public engagement. They will thus understand the energy challenges faced by the UK, appreciate the international energy landscape, develop people-management and communication skills, and so acquire the competence to make a tangible impact. An annual colloquium will be the focal point of the DTC year acting as a show-case and major mechanism for connection to the wider stakeholder community.The DTC will be led by internationally eminent academics (Prof Robert Lowe, Director, and Prof Kevin J Lomas, Deputy Director), together they have over 50 years of experience in this sector. They will be supported by a management structure headed by an Advisory Board chaired by Pascal Terrien, Director of the European Centre and Laboratories for Energy Efficiency Research and responsible for the Demand Reduction programme of the UK Energy Technology Institute. This will help secure the international, industrial and UK research linkages of the DTC.Students will receive a stipend that is competitive with other DTCs in the energy arena and, for work in certain areas, further enhancement from industrial sponsors. They will have a personal annual research allowance, an excellent research environment and access to resources. Both Universities are committed to energy research at the highest level, and each has invested over 3.2M in academic appointments, infrastructure development and other support, specifically to the energy demand reduction area. Each university will match the EPSRC funded studentships one-for-one, with funding from other sources. This DTC will therefore train at least 100 students over its 8 year life.

This Industrial Doctoral Centre (IDC) addresses a national need by building on the strengths of the existing EngD in Micro- and NanoMaterials and Technologies (MiNMaT) and the University of Surrey's excellent track record of working with industry to provide a challenging, innovative and transformative research environment in materials science and engineering. Following the proven existing pattern, each research engineer (RE) will undertake their research with their sponsor at their sponsor's premises. The commitment of potential sponsors is demonstrated in the significant number of accompanying letters of support. Taking place over all four years, carefully integrated intensive short courses (normally one week duration) form the taught component of the EngD. These courses build on each other and augment the research. By using a core set of courses, graduates from a number of physical science/engineering disciplines can acquire the necessary background in materials. This is essential as there are insufficient numbers of students who have studied materials at undergraduate level. The research focus of this IDC will be the solution of academically challenging and industrially relevant processing-microstructure-property relationship problems, which are the corner-stones of the discipline. This will be possible because REs will interact with internationally leading academics and have access to a suite of state-of-the-art characterisation instrumentation, enabling them to obtain extensive hands on experience. As materials features as one of the University's seven research priority areas, there is strong institutional support as demonstrated in the Vice Chancellor's supporting letter, which pledges 2.07M of new money for this IDC. As quality and excellence run through all aspects of this IDC, those graduating with an EngD in MiNMaT will be the leaders and innovators of tomorrow with the confidence, knowledge and research expertise to tackle the most challenging problems to keep UK industry ahead of its competitors.

Since the launch of the current Photonics EngD programme in 2001, a collaboration between Heriot-Watt, St Andrews and Strathclyde Universities, the Heriot-Watt-based EngD Centre has established an excellent track-record for integration of industrially-relevant research and training; involving 49 projects and 29 different companies ranging from university start-ups to multinationals. We propose here a continuation of the existing EngD Centre as an enhanced collaboration between Heriot-Watt, St Andrews and Strathclyde Universities and the Scottish Universities Physics Alliance. We build upon substantial expansions in research and training activity within Scottish photonics to broaden the scope and the academic constituency supporting the proposal. Whereas the original EngD Centre was supported by 27 staff active in photonics research, the proposed Centre will be supported by 87 academics of whom about 90% conduct research in core optics and photonics subjects; the remainder bring to the Centre expertise vital to the exploitation of Optics and Photonics Technologies; that is Signal and Image processing, Microsystems and Digital Tools for the development of photonic products. This group constitutes the largest coherent grouping of photonics researchers in the UK and account for about 50% of all EPSRC funding in photonics.The Centre will continue the mode of operation of our current EngD Centre: offering 75% industry-based research project with 25% coursework composed of technical modules taken from established MSc courses in photonics, microsystems, nanotechnology and signal and image processing together with business content from the Edinburgh Business School MBA course. Research Engineers will benefit from a vibrant and expanding graduate teaching programme delivered using state-of-the-art interactive video conferencing facilities that are highly suited to the EngD training concept.Projects and EngD students will be recruited using the industrial network of contacts and collaborations of our expanded academic staff, through showcase presentations and through interaction with the new Photonics Knowledge Transfer Network.The need for Engineering Doctorate graduates in optics and photonics areas is evident from the extrapolation of the increasing activity levels of the current Heriot-Watt engineering doctorate centre and by good alignment of the proposed programmes with priority areas highlighted in the 2006 Government Spending Review. The requirement for EngD graduates in these areas is further emphasised by the rapid growth of activity in market sectors ranging across defence and security, components and health care. All technical fields and market sectors exhibit an increasing activity. In the photonics field there are approximately 1,000 photonics companies in the UK supporting 250,000 jobs and generating 20Bn of revenue. The global photonics market of 250 Bn is growing at 11% per annum. Across all fields of engineering, the Royal academy of engineering have identified that the lack of UK-based students of sufficient quality endangers the supply chain of skilled personnel into UK industry and academia .

There are major challenges inherent in meeting the goals of the UK national energy policy, including, climate change mitigation and adaption, security of supply, asset renewal, supply infrastructure etc. Additionally, there is a recognized shortage of high quality scientists and engineers with energy-related training to tackle these challenges, and to support the UK's future research and development and innovation performance as evidenced by several recent reports;Doosan Babcock (Energy Brief, Issue 3, June 2007, Doosan Babcock); UK Energy Institute (conducted by Deloitte/Norman Broadbent, 'Skills Needs in the Energy Industry' 2008); The Institution of Engineering and Technology, (evidence to the House of Commons, Select Committee on Innovation, Universities, Science and Skills Fifth Report (19th June 2008); The Energy Research Partnership (Investigation into High-level Skills Shortages in the Energy Sector, March 2007). Here we present a proposal to host a Doctoral Training Centre (DTC) focusing on the development of technologies for a low carbon future, providing a challenging, exciting and inspiring research environment for the development of tomorrow's research leaders. This DTC will bring together a cohort of postgraduate research students and their supervisors to develop innovative technologies for a low carbon future based around the key interlinking themes: [1] Low Carbon Enabling Technologies; [2] Transport & Energy; [3] Carbon Storage, underpinned by [4] Climate Change & Energy Systems Research. Thereby each student will develop high level expertise in a particular topic but with excitement of working in a multidisciplinary environment. The DTC will be integrated within a campus wide Interdisciplinary Institute which coordinates energy research to tackle the 'Grand Challenge' of developing technologies for a low carbon future, our DTC students therefore working in a transformational research environment. The DTC will be housed in a NEW 14.8M Energy Research Building and administered by the established (2005) cross campus Earth, Energy & Environment (EEE) University Interdisciplinary Institute

The goal of the proposed EngD Centre is to produce research leaders to tackle the major national and international challenges over the next 15 years in implementing new power plant to generate electricity more efficiently using fossil energy with near zero emissions, involving the successful demonstration of CO2 capture, and also in reducing CO2 emissions generally from coal utilisation, including iron making. These leaders will be part of the new breed of engineers that will be thoroughly versed in cutting edge energy research and capable of operating in multi-disciplinary teams, covering a range of knowledge transfer, deployment and policy roles and with the skills to analyse the overall economic context of their projects and to be aware of the social and ethical implications. This proposal has involved wide consultation with the power generation sector which has indicated that the number of doctoral researchers required in the UK for the major developments in large-scale fossil energy power generation involving efficiency improvements and CO2 capture can be estimated conservatively as 150-200 over the next ten years. The Centre will play a vital role in meeting this demand by providing training in highly relevant technological areas to the companies concerned, as well as the broader portfolio of skills required for future research leaders. Further, Doosan Babcock, Alstom, E.ON, Rolls Royce, EDF, RWE, Scottish and Southern Energy (SSE), Welsh Power and Drax Power all support this bid and are willing to participate in the proposed Centre from 2009 onwards. Further, in terms of reducing CO2 emissions generally from coal utilisation, including iron making and smokeless fuel, this has drawn in other industrial partners, Corus and CPL. The innovative training programme involves a number of unique elements based around the social sciences and activities with China and is designed to ensure that the research engineers are not only thoroughly versed in cutting edge energy research but capable of operating in multi-disciplinary teams covering a range of knowledge transfer, deployment and policy roles and the ability to analyse the overall economic context of projects and to be aware of the social and ethical implications. The academic team draws upon the internationally leading fossil energy programme at Nottingham but also on colleagues at Birmingham and Loughborough for their complementary research in high temperature materials, plant life monitoring and energy economics. Given that virtually all of the research projects will benefit from using pilot-scale equipment in industry linked to the advanced analytical capabilities in the MEC and our overseas partners, together with the Group activities undertaken by the yearly cohorts, the training programme is considered to offer considerable added value over DTA project and CASE awards, as testified by the extremely high level of industrial interest in the proposed Centre across the power generation section, together with other industries involved in reducing CO2 emissions from coal utilisation.

Nuclear fission technology is an essential component of both UK energy resources and defence strategy. The UK Government has recently signalled its support both for a new generation of nuclear power stations and a continuing independent UK nuclear deterrent and, at the same time, we have started a decades-long, > 70 bn programme to clean up the UK's legacy nuclear wastes. All of these activities involve hazardous radioactive materials, so it is clear that the UK will need expertise in the physics, chemistry, materials science and environmental behaviour of radionuclides for many years to come. At the same time, there is an acute skills shortage, with demand for graduate recruits between 2002 and 2017 estimated at 1000 per year. This expertise will be needed if we are to process and separate radionuclides, fabricate them into materials, understand the in-service performance of such materials, treat wastes from processing, remediate contaminated sites and predict the environmental mobility of radionuclides in nuclear waste disposal. This Doctoral Training Centre will address three key scientific challenges:1. Strategic Nuclear Materials- behaviour of nuclear materials, principally uranium and plutonium in service, in storage and in the disposal environment;2. Radioactive Wastes - properties of the diverse range of wastes which exists, and technologies for their conversion into safe wasteforms; 3. Radionuclides in the Environment- conversion of radioactive wastes into stable wasteforms, behaviour in the repository environment, rates and forms of release, environmental transport and radiological impact. In addition, we identify a cross-cutting topic, which fundamentally influences all three themes:4. Radiation Effects- modification of behaviour and properties as result if irradiation, ranging from changes in physical properties to chemical effects, and stochastic and non-stochastic biological effects of importance in human exposure.To address these scientific challenges, we will develop underpinning skills in two key areas:5. Radioelement Chemistry. Characteristics of key radioelements; definition of physico-chemical form (speciation) in the solid state and in aqueous and non-aqueous solution; thermodynamics; kinetics; spectroscopy; characterisation of complexes; redox chemistry; hydrolysis 6. Materials Science. Behaviour of materials relevant to nuclear science including metallics, ceramics (including glasses) and polymers; radionuclide contamination (and decontamination) of materials surfaces; measurement and modelling of materials degradation of advanced fuels, moderators and wasteforms.

A consortium of UK universities, led by the University of Manchester in partnership with Imperial College London and supported by Bristol, Leeds, Sheffield and Strathclyde, is proposing to continue a nuclear engineering doctorate programme, established in 2006, as an Industrial Doctorate Centre (IDC) in Nuclear Engineering.The broad theme areas of the Nuclear Engineering IDC are as defined in the original EPSRC call (2006) and cover Reactor Technology, Waste Management, Decommissioning, Materials, Socio-economic aspects and Safety Systems. This proposal builds on the Nuclear Engineering Doctorate programme, developed by this consortium and currently in its second year. The primary aim of the programme is to develop outstanding, vocationally oriented, Research Engineers through intensive, broadly-based training in collaboration with companies so that they are equipped to take up senior roles within the nuclear industry in support of plant life extension, new build, waste management, decommissioning & clean-up, and naval nuclear propulsion. The proposed programme will fund 50 Research Engineers in 5 cohorts. The programme comprises four elements: a Doctoral-level research project or portfolio of projects; a Diploma in Enterprise Management; Taught technical modules; and a professional development programme.EPSRC's original call for a Nuclear Engineering Doctorate Centre was in response to mounting concerns about the loss of key skills across a broad technical base within the nuclear sector. A number of reports had been commissioned (Coverdale 2002 and Nuclear Skills Task Force 2003 are just two) that formalised and quantified the issue. The focus of the original programme was on the UK's immediate concerns for nuclear decommissioning, waste management, continued operation and plant extension of current reactors, and naval nuclear propulsion. Since the launch of the nuclear EngD programme in 2006, the Government has given formal backing for a new generation of nuclear power stations to be built in the UK (announcement by John Hutton, Jan 2008) with the expectation that the nuclear share of electricity generation would be significantly above the current level of 19%. The new-build policy does not greatly change the focus of the nuclear EngD programme but it does increase the urgency for developing skilled nuclear engineers to ensure future plants are regulated, built, commissioned and run safely, reliably and efficiently. There is currently a high demand for graduates by the nuclear industry. The relevant Masters programmes in the UK (for example the EPSRC-funded Nuclear Technology Education Consortium and Birmingham PTNR programmes) report rapid take-up of almost all available students by UK nuclear companies. Nuclear research activity in the UK is also fast expanding as evidenced by: Establishment of a National Nuclear Laboratory later this year; four new Chairs in nuclear areas have recently been created in UK universities; the Northwest Science Council has endorsed Manchester's plans for a Centre for Nuclear Energy Technology and Phase I funding is being sought from the Northwest RDA; a 20m NDA/Dalton Nuclear Institute (Manchester) initiative will provide research access for UK academics to the Sellafield Technology Centre.The Nuclear Engineering IDC will be fully integrated with these activities and will continue its formal links to the EPSRC-funded KNOO (Keeping the nuclear option open) programme. Active discussions are underway with Prof. Biggs in Leeds (PI, DIAMOND project in Decommissioning, Immobilization and Nuclear Waste Disposal) to link in their activities.

This proposal is aimed at the special effects, animation, post-production industries, and computer games companies, in which the UK holds a world-class position. This area is a major and buoyant element of the UK economy, comparable with the financial services sector in importance. It is vital to sustain its future. In practice this means training new people with research-level skills coupled to management expertise. While companies in this sector generally know each other and often work co-operatively on projects, they each rely on innovation, having their own in-house technological or creative edge to distinguish them from the others. The ability to deliver novel technical effects, to budget and to time, is essential for any company's survival. However, for new developments to be useful, they have to be steered in various practical ways. Having the Doctoral Candidate (DC) in the company minimises the delay in developing such techniques and turning them into useful software. For a company to develop its in-house technology it needs to have high-calibre staff, conversant with the state of the art, working on new techniques and then able to embed these in professional quality software. These staff may have either a creative or a technological background but ideally they will understand both areas and also appreciate the company's business model. When the industry is in a lean time, these are the staff who will be retained; they are the company's future. Our IDC is geared towards providing a sustained flow of such people while developing them collectively as a community. Networking with peers in other companies, and knowing who can deliver what, is often a vital part of gaining a contract. The model proposed here, where DCs are largely based in the industry, is ideal for this fast-moving area where pure academic research can be overtaken by events and commercial budgets can make things happen quickly.

Dramatic progress has been made in the past few years in the field of photonic technologies, to complement those in electronic technologies which have enabled the vast advances in information processing capability. A plethora of new screen and projection display technologies have been developed, bringing higher resolution, lower power operation and enabling new ways of machine interaction. Advances in biophotonics have led to a large range of low cost products for personal healthcare. Advances in low cost communication technologies to rates now in excess of 10 Gb/s have caused transceiver unit price cost reductions from >$10,000 to less than $100 in a few years, and, in the last two years, large volume use of parallel photonics in computing has come about. Advances in polymers have made possible the formation of not just links but complete optical subsystems fully integrated within circuit boards, so that users can expect to commoditise bespoke photonics technology themselves without having to resort to specialist companies. These advances have set the scene for a major change in commercialisation activity where photonics and electronics will converge in a wide range of systems. Importantly, photonics will become a fundamental underpinning technology for a much greater range of users outside its conventional arena, who will in turn require those skilled in photonics to have a much greater degree of interdisciplinary training. In short, there is a need to educate and train researchers who have skills balanced across the fields of electronic and photonic hardware and software. The applicants are unaware of such capability currently.This Doctoral Training Centre (DTC) proposal therefore seeks to meet this important need, building upon the uniqueness of the Cambridge and UCL research activities that are already focussing on new types of displays based on polymer and holographic projection technology, the application of photonic communications to computing, personal information systems and indeed consumer products (via board-to-board, chip to chip and later on-chip interconnects), the increased use of photonics in industrial processing and manufacture, techniques for the low-cost roll-out of optical fibre to replace the copper network, the substitution of many conventional lighting products with photonic light sources and extensive application of photonics in medical diagnostics and personalised medicine. Many of these activities will increasingly rely on more advanced systems integration, and so the proposed DTC includes experts in computer systems and software. By drawing these complementary activities together, it is proposed to develop an advanced training programme to equip the next generation of very high calibre doctoral students with the required expertise, commercial and business skills and thus provide innovation opportunities for new systems in the future. It should be stressed that the DTC will provide a wide range of methods for learning for students, well beyond that conventionally available, so that they can gain the required skills. In addition to lectures and seminars, for example, there will be bespoke experimental coursework activities, reading clubs, roadmapping activities, secondments to collaborators and business planning courses.Photonics is likely to become much more embedded in other key sectors of the economy, so that the beneficiaries of the DTC are expected to include industries involved in printing, consumer electronics, computing, defence, energy, engineering, security, medicine and indeed systems companies providing information systems for example for financial, retail and medical industries. Such industries will be at the heart of the digital economy, energy, healthcare and nanotechnology fields. As a result, a key feature of the DTC will be a developed awareness in its cohorts of the breadth of opportunity available and a confidence that they can make impact therein.