New groundbreaking Centres for Doctoral Training
The University is sharing in the UK’s biggest-ever investment in engineering and physical sciences doctoral skills as our researchers prepare to play key roles in five new Centres for Doctoral Training (CDTs).
The CDTs will be supported by more than £1bn in funding from the Engineering & Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), universities and business partners.
The CDTs linked to the University are among a total of 65 which will be established at universities across the UK. They will train more than 4,000 new doctoral students in areas of national importance including the critical technologies of AI, quantum technologies, semiconductors, telecoms and engineering biology.
Researchers from the University will lead one newly funded CDT, co-direct another with partners at two Scottish universities, and play key roles in three more.
The EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Diversity-Driven Mission-Led Research (DiveIn) unites four leading researchers from three schools at the University as co-directors of a radically inclusive and interdisciplinary new approach to PhD training.
The traditional CDT model supports students from specialised scientific disciplines to work towards careers closely linked to their areas of research.
While this approach has helped the UK maintain its position as a world-leading centre of excellence for higher education and collaboration with industry, CDT cohorts have often fallen short of ambitions to broaden access to PhD recruitment and training for people from more diverse backgrounds.
DiveIn aims to take a different approach, welcoming students from a broader range of ethnic, socioeconomic and LGBTQ+ backgrounds and offering them the chance to develop an interdisciplinary approach to research with multiple supervisors, each with different specialisations.
The EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Algebra, Geometry and Quantum Fields (AGQ), brings together researchers in fundamental mathematics and physics from the Universities of Glasgow, Edinburgh and Heriot-Watt.
They will lead the UK’s first CDT to offer specific training in algebra, geometry, topology and mathematical physics. The CDT aims to create graduates with expertise in these areas who will have a wealth of skills to help drive innovation in science and technology through the application of mathematics.
Glasgow researchers are also lending their support to three more new CDTs.
Professor David Flynn, of the James Watt School of Engineering, is leading the University’s contribution to the EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Robotics and AI for Net Zero, a new CDT led by the University of Manchester.
Professor Sonja Franke-Arnold, of the School of Physics & Astronomy, will lead the University’s role in the EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Applied Quantum Technologies led by the University of Strathclyde.
Professor Martin Lavery, of the James Watt School of Engineering, will support the EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Use-Inspired Photonic Sensing and Metrology at Heriot-Watt University.
In addition to the newly funded CDTs, the University already has a well-established set of ongoing Centres for Doctoral Training in areas including the science of the natural environment, ultrasonic engineering and global health and infectious diseases.