Seventy five Centres for Doctoral Training announced by UKRI

£446 million is being invested in skills development across the UK with Industry partners contributing a further £386 million in cash or in-kind.

One of the UK’s most significant investments in research skills has been announced, with the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), revealing which university proposals for Centres for Doctoral Training (CDTs) have been successful in the latest funding round.

These centres will ensure the next generation of doctoral level students are equipped to tackle research and innovation challenges across the engineering and physical sciences landscape, including subjects such as Quantum Engineering, Medical Imaging and Offshore Renewables.

Over seventy CDTs will equip the UK with the next generation of doctoral level researchers needed across the breadth of the engineering and physical sciences landscape.

The Centres will be funded through EPSRC, which has allocated £444 million and a further £2.2 million from The Natural Environment Research Council (NERC).

Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) will unilaterally be supporting a Republic of Ireland cohort on seven EPSRC-badged Centres with approximately 39 million euros. These Centres will work collaboratively with some UK Centres, with SFI-funded students working closely with certain EPSRC CDTs as part of an agreed training programme.

The Centres’ 1,400 project partners have contributed £386 million in cash and in-kind support, and include companies such as Tata Steel and Procter and Gamble and charities such as Cancer Research UK.

The successful Centres will focus on cohort-based doctoral training and cover a wide range of fields, from Robotics in Agri-Food to BioDesign Engineering, Compound Semiconductor Manufacturing to Statistical Applied Mathematics.

The importance of developing STEM skills is a key part of the Government’s Industrial Strategy, ensuring that all areas of the UK embrace innovation and build the skills the economy needs to thrive.

The EPSRC has supported over 50,000 doctoral students over the last 25 years.

Over this time it has reviewed and evolved the support it provides to ensure it meets the needs of the research and innovation community. CDTs are one of three ways that EPSRC funds doctoral training with the other routes being Doctoral Training Partnerships and Industrial CASE. CDT investments comprise around 45 per cent of EPSRC’s doctoral training investment.

Forty three per cent of EPSRC invested students go on to be employed in business/public services and 36 per cent go on to work in academia.

You can find a list of the CDTs to be funded here.