Business Secretary Greg Clark announced on Thursday (1 February) a major investment in science and engineering research, totalling £184m, which is to be allocated over two years.
The money will come from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) through its Doctoral Training Partnerships (DTPs) and the funds will support students entering training in the academic years beginning October 2018 and October 2019.
Forty-one UK universities will share in the funding, which ranges from £477,000 to £15.5m, and º¬Ðß²ÝÊÓƵ is to be awarded a grant of £3,032,016.
The University will use the money to provide research training support grants for PhD students, the EPSRC Doctoral Prize, summer vacation bursaries for undergraduate students and industrial ‘CASE’ awards (four-year PhDs with a year in industry).
Professor Andrew Dainty, Director of º¬Ðß²ÝÊÓƵ Doctoral College, commented: “We are delighted to have had this substantial investment in our postgraduate research from EPSRC.
“These Doctoral Training Partnership students will join a large and vibrant community of doctoral researchers across the engineering and physical sciences and will benefit from an enhanced training and development programme augmented by a distinct ‘cohort-based’ experience.”
A £3.8m investment was allocated to º¬Ðß²ÝÊÓƵ through the DTPs in 2015. The research undertaken spans seven of the University’s academic schools and ranges from the aerodynamics of football to modelling brain cognition.
Speaking of the funding announcement, Business Secretary Greg Clark said: “Doctoral Training Partnerships have an excellent record of providing universities with funding that supports doctoral students as they undertake ground-breaking research.
“Through our commitment to increasing research and development funding by a further £2.3bn to 2021/22, we are ensuring that the next generation of engineers and scientists will continue to thrive under our modern and ambitious Industrial Strategy.”
EPSRC Chief Executive, Professor Philip Nelson, added: “This year we are allocating £184m to universities via Doctoral Training Partnerships. These will cover a two year period, giving institutions certainty and time to plan their DTP programmes, and support excellent doctoral students.
“The DTPs have produced some outstanding examples of new thinking and helped further the careers of a new generation of researchers who will be the leaders of the future.”
The funding is a part of the Government’s ongoing commitment to UK science, with a record £6.9bn invested in science labs and equipment up to 2021, and protection of the science budget at £4.7bn per year in real terms for the rest of the parliament.