Swansea University will use EPSRC funding to train approximately 24 new doctoral researchers per year across engineering, physical sciences, and medicine. This matters because the UK needs a steady pipeline of skilled researchers to sustain its research and innovation capacity. The grant addresses a structural gap: without sustained investment in postgraduate training, the country risks losing its ability to conduct cutting-edge research in fields that underpin economic growth and public services. If successful, these studentships will produce researchers who go on to work in industry, academia, and the public sector. Their work could improve photovoltaic devices, quantum technologies for healthcare, computational modelling, and industrial coatings—systems that quietly enable everything from energy generation to medical diagnostics and manufacturing. The grant also strengthens Swansea’s existing partnerships with industry, including its Materials and Manufacturing Academy and centres for computational and data science. This is primarily a training and capacity-building investment, not a single research project with a defined outcome. Its impact will be measured in the careers and discoveries of the researchers it supports over the coming decades.
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True to the vision of its industrial founders determined in 1920, Swansea University delivers world-class research with global, societal impact, drives economic growth in the region and nationally and retains a fixed focus upon providing an inspirational and outstanding student experience. In particular, postgraduate research (PGR) is an integral aspect of the University's vision for its long-term future. It has an ambitious plan for growth, improvement to the research environment and support for PGR students, as set out in our Research & Innovation Strategy (2017-2020): http://bit.ly/SwanRIStrategy The EPSRC Doctoral Training Partnership (DTP) 2020-2021 enables Swansea University to expand its training and support of the next generation of researchers across Engineering and the Physical Sciences, through pioneering fields as diverse as antimatter and quantum technologies in healthcare, to the design of the Bloodhound supersonic car and photovoltaic devices. The EPSRC DTP investment supports approximately 24 studentships per year for new doctoral researchers, and enables the University to continue to enhance its strong track record of collaborative partnerships with industry and academia. Swansea is committed to distributing these opportunities to disciplines that align both with EPSRC's priority areas and with the University's research strengths. Studentships will be available in and across the boundaries of three disciplines: Engineering, Science (including Mathematics) and Medicine. College of Engineering: is based at Swansea University's £450M Bay Campus (opened in 2015), featuring four buildings dedicated to engineering with high-tech laboratories and world-class facilities geared towards industrial research. The College hosts the Materials and Manufacturing Academy (M2A) (a Centre for Doctoral Training fully funded by EPSRC, WEFO and industry) and the EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training (CDT) in Functional Industrial Coatings (from October 2019), the world-leading Energy Safety Research Institute and the Zienkiewicz Centre for Computational Engineering. College of Science: integrates research in Physics, Chemistry (reinstated in 2017/18), Computer Science, Mathematics, Biosciences and Geography. Phase 2 of the Bay Campus development includes the Computational Foundry (opened in 2018), a £31M investment to nurture and grow a dedicated community of computational and mathematical scientists, including (from October 2019) the EPSRC CDT in Enhancing Collaborations and Interactions with Data and Intelligence Driven Systems. The College of Science also leads the UKRI CDT in Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning and Advanced Computing. Medical School: enhances the portfolio of Engineering and Physical Sciences at Swansea through the £22M Centre for Nanohealth, a unique open access interdisciplinary research centre bringing together industry experts with researchers in Science, Engineering and Medicine to lead innovations in healthcare. The Medical School also comprises the £8M purpose-built Data Science Building, which serves as a hub for interdisciplinary research into health services, bioscience, epidemiology, computer science, mathematics and physics, and the £3M EPSRC UK National Mass Spectrometry Facility, which provides comprehensive analytical mass spectrometry services. Typically, EPSRC DTP studentships are advertised from September with decisions usually made by February/March. Details of PhD projects and specific timescales for applying can be found here: http://www.swansea.ac.uk/postgraduate/scholarships/research/ General information about applying for doctoral study at Swansea University is available here: http://www.swansea.ac.uk/postgraduate/apply/ Prospective supervisors should contact their local Director of Postgraduate Research in the first instance: Professor David Penney (Engineering), Drs James Cronin and Martin Clift (Medicine) and Professor Maurizio Piai (Science).
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