Clean tech big winner in £250m research grant programme

Climate change and low carbon technologies were at the centrepiece of a new £250m programme to boost the number of PhD graduates in the UK that was formally launched late last week.

The funding, which represents one of the biggest ever investments in training scientists and engineers, was awarded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) to more than 40 universities across the UK and was targeted at faculties focused on sectors likely to face skills shortages in the future.

Announcing the award of the new funding, Minister of state for science and innovation Lord Drayson said the programme would help bolster UK competitiveness.

"Britain faces many challenges in the 21st Century and needs scientists and engineers with the right skills to find answers to these challenges, build a strong economy and keep us globally competitive," he said. "EPSRC's doctoral training centres will provide a new wave of engineers and scientists to do the job."

The funding will support 44 training centres capable of generating 2,000 PhD students over the five year course of the programme. Almost half of the centres will focus on issues relating to climate change and the development of a low carbon economy, including a hydrogen fuel cell centre at the University of Birmingham, an Industrial Doctorate Centre in Nuclear Engineering at the University of Manchester, and a research centre for wind energy systems at the University of Strathclyde.

A spokesman for the ESPRC said that the clean tech sector was arguably the biggest winner from the awards, alongside areas such as research into tackling high-tech crime and supporting an ageing population.

"All of the grants are aimed at ground breaking technologies and as a result there has been a big focus on climate change and renewable energy," he observed.

Professor Dave Delpy, chief executive of EPSRC, added that as well as providing PhD graduates in priority areas, the new centres would also aim to deliver "greater collaboration with business" to ensure that the scientists and engineers produced are meeting industry skills requirements.

For example, construction giant Arup has announced that it is to work in partnership with one of the new ESPRC centres at the University of Reading, focused on the development of zero carbon buildings.

"Businesses like Arup need a good supply of highly qualified scientists with the right skills to further innovation in the design of sustainable towns, cities and the wider environment," said Professor Jeremy Watson, global director of research at Arup.

"They need to understand how business works and also be able to turn their best ideas into a successful business proposition."