Newcastle University will use EPSRC Doctoral Training Partnership funding to recruit and train PhD students across engineering, physical sciences, and related fields, with a new £1m doctoral training facility opening in 2020. This matters because the UK needs a steady pipeline of researchers who can work across disciplines and with industry, government, and charities to turn fundamental science into real-world solutions. The abstract identifies no single gap in knowledge but rather a structural need: training the next generation of scientists and engineers who can tackle complex 21st-century challenges—from energy and healthcare to data and manufacturing—that no single discipline can solve alone. If the training succeeds, these PhD graduates will move into academic, industrial, or policy roles where they apply skills in responsible innovation, interdisciplinary collaboration, and research integrity. The university’s new National Innovation Centre for Data and its Centres of Research Excellence will provide platforms for this work. The project is primarily about building human capital rather than delivering a specific technology, but past DTP-trained researchers have gone on to develop advances in everything from medical imaging to low-carbon energy systems.
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As an institution our strategic aims are to nurture excellent research and innovation to deliver solutions to societal and global needs built on a foundation of outstanding fundamental research. This encompasses: science; engineering; medicine; and their socioeconomic drivers and implications. To achieve this we equip staff and students with the skills to work across disciplines and in partnership with business, government and their external stakeholders to extend the reach and impact of our research. Our institutional strategy for research recognizes the importance of delivering solutions to the challenges faced by humanity in the 21st century. We need a strong base of disciplinary excellence which provides a solid grounding for delivery of multidisciplinary research. Close collaboration with external partners in industry, government, charities and NGOs ensures our research impact. This aligns with EPSRC Strategic Delivery Plan for "promoting excellence in research, realising excellence in people, connecting the research landscape to accelerate impact and enhancing business engagement". Our use of the EPSRC Doctoral Training Partnership (DTP) aligns with a number of strategic investments and transformational initiatives. We have recently established the first wave of Newcastle University Centres of Research Excellence (NUCoREs), launching in October 2019. Our Newcastle University Academic Track (NUAcT) https://www.ncl.ac.uk/nuact/about-nuact/ provides 5-year Fellowship positions to Early Career Researchers in any field. We support the Doctoral Prize Fellowship scheme, and chose to allocate our DTP funding to recruit 1-2 new Fellows each year, to help retain the best Postdoctoral Researchers in academic research. DTP funding is open to eligible supervisors and doctoral candidate applicants holding, or expecting to receive, a good (2:1 minimum or equivalent) bachelor's degree in a relevant subject. Opportunities are available for academically excellent International Doctoral Scholars, using EPSRC DTP flexibilities. Our application process is simple and transparent. Students apply through the standard University admissions portal, for pre-arranged projects. DTP-funded PhD students are guided by supervisory teams, and benefit from a personal and professional skills programme. We ensure our Doctoral Researchers receive training in Responsible Innovation and Research Integrity so conduct of our research is ethically grounded. We continue to invest in our research training facilities for academics and students, to ensure that an environment that reacts and provides for these changing needs, and provides innovative research outputs. Recent capital investment mean we will open a new £1m Doctoral Training facilities, and a new National Innovation Centre for Data in early 2020 (https://www.ncl.ac.uk/nicd/) on our Helix site (https://newcastlehelix.com/). A University-wide Doctoral College will be launched in 2020 which will provide our students with structured, co-ordinated and supported opportunities for personal and professional development, promoting interdisciplinary working and perspectives. We will use a single set of criteria to determine which projects, and which students should be funded, with the application of those criteria being devolved to disciplinary experts. Those criteria, subject to change, will be: Fit to EPSRC strategy and priority; Fit to the University Strategy and Vision; Potential Impact; Potential for growth in the research area at Newcastle; CASE funding and industrial engagement; Benefit to career for supervisors (with support for ECR and EDI issues); Excellence of the Student; Engagement with Sandpit-style events. Further information on how our academic colleagues can apply for DTP studentship awards can be found here: https://www.ncl.ac.uk/sage/research/phd-opportunities/engineering-physical-sciences/ Our student application portal is at https://www.ncl.ac.uk/postgraduate/apply/.
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