Composites manufacturing industry benefits from new industrial doctorate centre
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) has offered £3.8 million grant to the University of Bristol for a new Industrial Doctorate Centre (IDC) focused on composites manufacturing.
The center is connected to the EPSRC Centre for Innovative Manufacturing in Composites and will be located at the National Composites Centre (NCC), a research facility led by the industry and the University of Bristol. The IDC will provide research engineers with the required superior technical and leadership skills to the composites manufacturing industry. The engineers will have the ability to effectively adopt new technologies and skills in the composites production.
The IDC will support more than 30 EngD programmes, where the chosen engineers will undergo specialist training and perform a research project focused mainly on industrial area. The research engineers spend 75% of their time in a company. The center will have access to a full range of tools and techniques that are essential for research in the composites manufacturing field.
The Director of the IDC, Ivana Partridge, demonstrated that the IDC project represents an urgent and increasing need for larger numbers of technically qualified persons in the UK polymer composites manufacturing industry. The research engineers are anticipated to promote academia and industry alliance at a higher rate compared to standard PhD training.
Currently, the NCC-based center is seeking industrial programs and supervisors to direct pioneering composites manufacturing projects. It provides necessary financial support for training and offering stipend to research engineers.
More information: http://www.bristol.ac.uk/
