A new doctoral training centre at the University of Bristol will embed students directly into an interdisciplinary network of over 100 academics and industrial partners to design and build advanced functional materials—substances engineered at the nanoscale for specific properties. This matters because the UK economy depends on functional materials for high-value products in medicine, energy, food, and coatings, yet the field demands graduates who can work across chemistry, physics, biology, and engineering. Traditional single-discipline training leaves a gap between fundamental science and real-world application. The centre breaks down those boundaries, giving students both deep scientific foundations and practical skills in communication, entrepreneurship, and teamwork. If successful, the centre will produce cohorts of researchers who can accelerate innovation in industries that rarely make headlines but keep society running: more efficient solar cells, better battery materials, targeted drug delivery systems, and longer-lasting coatings for infrastructure. The global market for advanced materials is projected to reach $957 billion by 2015, and the centre aims to supply the skilled workforce needed to capture that value. A distance-learning platform and summer schools with overseas partners will extend the training model beyond Bristol.
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The Bristol Centre for Functional Nanomaterials (BCFN) is an EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training at the forefront of creative graduate training, equipping students to meet global grand challenges. The BCFN focus is to produce the highest quality students capable of designing, measuring and understanding advanced functional materials from their fundamental components, to their real-world applications. This is achieved by breaking down the traditional boundaries of chemistry, physics, biology and engineering, and providing training in a highly creative, adaptive and flexible way. Functional materials, and their characterisation, are vital to the UK economy, and are found in a very diverse range of application sectors including medicine, energy, food and coatings, in a wide range of high value products and are key to fundamental aspects of science. Understanding materials across all length scales and application areas is pivotal to our success - there is therefore a clear need for highly-skilled graduates, and an understanding of materials across all length scales is pivotal to our success. The global market for advanced materials is predicted to be $957bn by 2015, and we are committed to providing cohorts of skilled scientists who can lead innovation in both academia and industry. Our approach is to embed the training program into every aspect of the student experience. This means that the students receive the strongest possible scientific foundations through taught courses and research projects but also develop a fully rounded set of skills, including communication, team working, entrepreneurship and creativity. We have a proven track record of excellence in graduate training and have pioneered innovative tools where the needs of the student are at the core. These have included new online learning tools, a mixture of short- and long-term research projects to promote choice and a wider research experience, and intense involvement with industry which allows students to be exposed to "realworld" problems, ensuring that their creativity is always directed towards finding solutions. We have an extensive expert network of supervisors who deliver the training, whilst collaborating to create new research areas. Our network has more than 100 academics from 15 departments across four faculties at the University of Bristol, aswell as industrial partners. This ensures that the BCFN research and training can adapt to the changing needs of both the UK and global demands for materials. Our centre is located at the nexus of funding council priority areas, and has studentship support (3 p.a.), staff funding, and dedicated space support from the University. From 2014, we will build on our strong foundations and evolve our training. Our links with industry will be strengthened further and via our Bristol-Industry Graduate Engagement (BRIDGE) program we will build sustainable, long-term research platforms to ensure a true benefit to the economy. We will take our successful training model and create a distance learning platform which can be used by partners overseas and in industry through innovative e-learning. We will run summer schools with these partners to expand the training experience for both BCFN students and partners alike. We will continue our extensive public engagement with schools, the general public and policy makers, ensuring that at all stages we communicate with our stakeholders and receive feedback. We have a strong student-focussed management team to ensure quality and delivery. This team, composed of a Director, Principal, co-Principal, Teaching Fellow, Industrial Research Fellow and Manager, and a wider Operational Team drawn from our core departments of Physics, Chemistry and Biology, represent a wide range of research experience from Fellows of the Royal Society to early career fellows, covering a range of strengths in functional materials with proven leadership and research track records.
Charles Faul (Co-Investigator)David Fermin (Co-Investigator)Heather Whitney (Co-Investigator)Henkjan Gersen (Co-Investigator)Mervyn Miles (Co-Investigator)Natasa Vasiljevic (Co-Investigator)Simon Hall (Co-Investigator)Stephen Mann (Co-Investigator)
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