The University of Warwick has been handed a £10 million boost to train the high-tech manufacturing experts of the future.
The university has been awarded one of five new Industrial Doctorate Centre statuses announced by The Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) to address fundamental engineering challenges in advanced manufacturing.
Its Warwick Manufacturing Group (WMG) – founded by Birmingham Post columnist Lord Kumar Bhattacharyya – will focus on high-value, low environmental impact manufacturing.
The move – which will eventually see 30 people a year train for engineering doctorates – has been welcomed by car giant Jaguar Land Rover as an investment in the future of manufacturing in the West Midlands.
Professor Lord Bhattacharyya said: “Our vision is to produce a new generation of manufacturing leaders with the high-level know-how and research experience essential to compete in a global manufacturing environment defined by high impact and low carbon.
“The WMG-based centre will address industrially challenging issues that enable companies to develop and implement effective low-environmental impact technology and policies that also benefit the bottom line.”
The four-year doctorates are intended to create world-class researchers in the UK to pursue a career in industry.
The EPSRC says it provides postgraduate engineers with an “intensive, broad-based research programme incorporating a taught component relevant to the needs of, and undertaken in partnership with, industry”.
The doctorates are seen as a radical alternative to the traditional PhD, and are aimed at being better-suited to the needs of industry, with the student spending a significant proportion of their time working in a company.
Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) will be the major partner of WMB, but IBM, the Motorsport Industry Association, Nikon, Oleo, PTC, RDM, Siemens and Tata Steel will also be involved.
JLR head of research Dr Tony Harper said: “I look forward to the new centre developing high-quality graduates who, as future manufacturing leaders, are fully conversant with the global business environment and the importance of low carbon, from an economic as well as an environmental standpoint.”
