Industrial Doctorate Centre to double opportunities
Published:The AMRC's Industrial Doctorate Centre in Machining Science has secured additional funding to double the number of students it takes each year.
Launched in 2011, the IDC offers talented graduates the opportunity to learn and earn at the cutting edge of manufacturing engineering. It currently takes five students a year for a four-year Engineering Doctorate (EngD) programme combining taught modules with original research addressing real business problems.
The IDC is jointly operated by the AMRC and the University of Sheffield Faculty of Engineering, with the support of the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) and industrial partners. Current students are carrying out applied research at the AMRC with Boeing or Nuclear AMRC on behalf of partners including Boeing, Rolls-Royce, Sandvik Coromant, Messier-Bugatti-Dowty and Technicut. The programme is fully funded, with students receiving a generous stipend from their industrial sponsors.
Following a national review of doctoral training, EPSRC has confirmed that it will fund additional doctorates at the IDC from autumn 2015. The IDC will now offer 10 doctorates a year, including seven EngDs and three PhDs.
"This additional funding recognises the fundamental importance of machining science research to the UK economy," says Andrea Haworth, centre manager of the IDC in Machining Science . "It is also a strong endorsement of the effort put into building the centre by staff, research students and, of course, the industry sponsors who make a substantial commitment to each project.
"Increasing the capacity of the IDC means we can help even more companies drive research that will bring real benefits to their business, and give more graduates a flying start into a professional career as a research engineer."
EPSRC currently supports around 70 centres for doctoral training in various subjects at 24 universities around the UK. The University of Sheffield has received additional funding to launch two new centres: the Tribology CDT, based in the Department for Mechanical Engineering, with close links to the Leonardo Centre for Tribology; and a new CDT for Polymers, Soft Matter and Colloids, based in the Department of Chemistry.