DTP - Imperial College London

Imperial College London will use EPSRC funding to train the next generation of doctoral researchers across engineering and physical sciences. This grant does not fund a specific research project. Instead, it supports a Doctoral Training Partnership (DTP), a framework for recruiting, training, and developing PhD students over several years. The problem it addresses is a structural one: the UK needs a steady pipeline of highly skilled scientists and engineers to sustain its research base and industrial competitiveness. Without coordinated funding, individual universities struggle to offer the breadth of training, industry placements, and interdisciplinary opportunities that modern research careers demand. If the DTP succeeds, it will produce dozens of PhD graduates equipped to work in academia, industry, or the public sector. These researchers will go on to contribute to areas such as energy systems, manufacturing, computing, and healthcare technologies—fields that underpin everyday life but rarely make headlines. The grant itself is a training investment, not a discovery project. Its impact is measured not in publications or prototypes, but in the careers and capabilities of the people it supports.