Loughborough University's EPSRC DTP represents a major £3.8M investment in postgraduate research (PGR) training. It is a significant component of our research strategy for engineering and the physical sciences, supporting both interdisciplinary research via our Research Challenges, and our discipline-based research strengths. It also provides a platform for exploiting inter-institutional collaborative opportunities afforded by major research infrastructure investments where Loughborough is a key partner.
The relevant institutional Research Challenges through which DTP-funded opportunities will be allocated are:
Enabling Technologies (ET) - developing a pipeline of new technologies to enhance lives, economies and societies, with a focus on Quantum Systems Engineering.
Energy (E) - ensuring a secure, sustainable, clean and affordable energy supply capitalising on the £60m ERA phase 1 investment, with a focus on Thermal Technologies.
Health and Wellbeing (H&W) - addressing all dimensions of health and wellbeing through the application of our expertise in design, engineering, sport and manufacturing to regenerative medicine and lifestyle interventions, with a focus on Biomaterials and Tissue Engineering.
Secure and Resilience Societies (SRS) - tackling major potential environmental hazards and human-induced threats, we will develop Loughborough's STIRRS Centre (Social, Technological and Information Research for Resilience and Security).
Changing Environments and Infrastructure (CE&I) - tackling the challenges to global economies and ecosystems presented by climate, land use and hydrological change, with a focus on UK Collaboration for Research in Infrastructure and Cities (UKCRIC).
The DTP will also be used to support our leading research groups in areas such as: Advanced Materials, Built Environment, Control Engineering, Engineering Design, Fluid Dynamics and Aerodynamics, Information Systems, Manufacturing Technologies, Robotics and Autonomous Systems and Water Engineering.
A ring-fenced allocation for both basic and applied mathematical sciences will also be applied to support this important underpinning discipline.
Each of our 42-month DTP-supported studentships will receive an enhanced, cohort-based research training experience akin to that found within our flagship Centres for Doctoral Training (CDTs). These will be enhanced by training in transferable and research skills, a research training support grant and an integrated impact, outreach and public engagement component aimed at supporting the student to effectively exploit their research to create impact.
Additional initiatives include; four 18-month Doctoral Prize Fellowships, offered to allow the most able students to undertake a period of self-directed post-doctoral research to establish their research career; eight 'Impact Fellowships' to enable students to exploit opportunities where their doctoral research offers considerable promise for future downstream application(s) and five CASE Conversion awards where there is the prospect of further enhancing collaboration between academic and partner organisations. We will also fund 30 Vacation Bursaries for undergraduate students to undertake placements within the research groups receiving DTP allocation.
DTP funds will be allocated in two tranches in early 2016 and 2017, with the PGR programmes starting in October 2016 and October 2017 respectively. A number of studentships open to non-EU candidates will be available to attract the best candidates from a global pool. Details of the allocations, the timetable for appointment, the recruitment process and the DTP training programme will be made available on the Loughborough Graduate School website (www.lboro.ac.uk/graduateschool).
For further information, please contact Dr Kathryn North, Head of Researcher Development (k.north@lboro.ac.uk).
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