10th December 2013 9:00
By Blue Tutors
The government has announced plans for a new scheme under which post-graduate students will be trained in science and engineering. The scheme, which will cost £350m, aims to train over 3,500 students in the hopes of boosting Britain’s economy. The scheme will fund 70 new doctoral training centres at universities around the country, which will have strong links to industry and business. Backing the scheme, Universities minister David Willetts said that the plans would generate much-needed partnerships between universities and the UK’s most important business sectors.
The research areas which will be promoted include aerospace, manufacturing, pharmaceuticals and medicine, areas which it is hoped that will expand Britain’s economy and international interests. The projects are allocated and administrated by the Engineering and physical science research council, who have issued a statement to say that their goal is to bring together expertise from universities, industry and business in order to meet today’s challenges. ICL, UCL, Bristol, Oxford and Cambridge will each develop science and engineering centres through the scheme.
Some of the planned projects include work on environment, neuroscience and nanotechnology. Imperial college will be looking at technology for predicting environmental risk, in addition to working on treatments for brain disorders. Cambridge university will be developing nanotechnology and the carbon material grapheme. The current plan is to fund the centres for four years, and set a precedent for university and business partnerships as part of a wider strategy for industrial development. The government have said that backing scientists and engineers is a key way in which to inspire British innovation.