The UK needs over 350,000 additional workers—28% in professional roles—to decarbonise its industrial clusters by 2040, but a severe skills shortage is stalling progress. This Centre for Doctoral Training directly addresses that gap. Four universities (Heriot-Watt, Imperial, Bath, Sheffield) have partnered with industry to co-design a training programme that will produce 100 doctoral graduates equipped with the technical knowledge, systems-thinking, and international experience that employers are demanding. Without such a pipeline, the green industrial revolution risks losing economic and social value. If successful, the centre will supply the R&D leaders and project managers needed to deploy low-carbon technologies—carbon capture, green hydrogen, CO₂ removal, and energy systems integration—across UK industry. These graduates will not just fill jobs; they will drive the transformation of energy grids, manufacturing processes, and industrial supply chains that currently underpin the economy but remain heavily dependent on fossil fuels. The programme also includes international placements at facilities like the US National Carbon Capture Centre, ensuring graduates are globally connected.
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The Centre for Doctoral Training in Green Industrial Futures (CDT-GIF) will deliver the next generation of global leaders in the energy transition, through a world-leading, interdisciplinary whole systems research and training programme to address national and global priorities to realise the green industrial revolution. The CDT-GIF is critically important, as skill shortages are currently limiting the opportunities of the green industrial revolution, adding significant risk of loss of economic and social value. For example, over 350,000 additional jobs (28% professional roles) are required to meet the demands of the current UK industrial cluster decarbonisation projects between 2025 to 2040. Therefore, there is a substantial and pressing demand for training doctoral-level graduates to fill these roles to drive R&D for industrial decarbonisation, lead critical important decarbonisation projects, and prepare future graduates for the net zero agenda. The CDT-GIF directly addresses this and is in closed alignment with the EPSRC mission inspired priority 'Engineering Net Zero' by providing an industry-guided, interdisciplinary training environment in transformative low-carbon technologies that will uniquely train 100 doctoral students, whilst leveraging significant investment from academic and industry partners. Four institutions with global standing in decarbonisation (Heriot-Watt University, Imperial College London, University of Bath and University of Sheffield) have partnered with a comprehensive range of stakeholders to ascertain the critically in-demand skills and knowledge that prospective employers are seeking to deliver net zero industries. These include technically trained on systems thinking, career ready and industry literate, and internationally connected. As a result, we have co-developed a training programme, based on three pillars, that will equip our students with these attributes, namely: (1) a cohort-based whole systems taught training programme (2) metaskills development programme (Net Zero Leadership Programme), and (3) unrivalled international opportunities to visit world-leading facilities, e.g. National Carbon Capture Centre (USA), ECCSEL (European network), Heriot-Watt Dubai campus and UNECE Sustainability Week. The training elements of the programme will run parallel to student's research in order to ensure cohesive learning within and across yearly cohorts, building peer-to-peer networks. A series of activities have been designed to foster a cohesive cohort trained in a diverse and inclusive environment that engenders a culture of environmental sustainability, research trust and responsible research and innovation. The CDT-GIF research and training programme is centred on four technological themes, with one cross-cutting systems theme: (1) Advancing carbon capture, utilisation and storage technologies, (2) Green hydrogen & low carbon fuels, (3) Developing next generation CO2 removal technology, (4) Energy processes, systems integration & resource efficiency, and (5) Integrated thematic areas including socio-behavioural change, policy & regulation and net zero economics related to the four technological themes. Within these themes, students will undertake challenging & original research projects that will be co-created with industrial collaborators to discover transformative, responsible and integrated solutions to achieve net zero. Challenging and original research projects will be rooted in one of these research themes, as well as across three integrated thematic areas and supervised by >75 internationally recognised researchers with excellent track record of doctoral supervision. In summary, CDT-GIF has the capacity, expertise and unique training opportunities to deliver the most comprehensive and transformational Centre for Doctoral Training to realise the green industrial revolution.
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