MASDOC: A Centre for Doctoral Training in the Mathematical Sciences

We propose a CDT (MASDOC) in the Departments of Mathematics and Statistics at Warwick. The Centre will provide training in the areas of Applied Mathematics, Computation, Probability and Statistics, together with the important interfaces between these areas. They are not only major areas in the mathematical sciences but are also key to developing the mathematical and statistical methodology that increasingly will be required to meet significant modern challenges arising from applications such as climate change, energy production, nano-sciences for technological and medical applications, molecular modelling of materials, models arising in ecology, epidemiology and data mining.The obvious importance of the mathematical areas and the applied challenges also offers an opportunity to recruit talented students into a novel doctoral training centre that prepares students not only with mathematical science tools but also with skills of quantitative and qualitative study, modelling, teamwork and critical thinking. An innovative Research Study Group component has been designed to prepare a new breed of PhDs who are ready to meet new challenges and develop new mathematical frameworks in response to the demands of the applications rather than simply picking up off-the-shelf methodology. The course structure of MASDOC will provide researchers with cutting-edge tools to exploit and explore the many important and emerging synergies between the four research areas. Research topics will be selected with an emphasis on problems at the interfaces between the areas, in all of which Warwick has world leading experience. An international network of graduate training partner programmes in world leading institutions will allow our students to experience some of the most vibrant research groups in the world, while in return, overseas students will spend periods visiting Warwick, enriching the MASDOC research environment.

MASDOC will be a centre for doctoral training in the mathematical sciences focusing on applied mathematics and statistics with an intake of 40 students over 4 years. The most obvious beneficiaries outside academia will be the employers of the MASDOC PhDs from industry, commerce and the public sector. The broad mathematical and statistical skills that the MASDOC PhDs bring to these sectors, suited as they are to tackling some of the major problems of our time, will generate significant advantages to society in the longer run. Students in MASDOC will have direct experience of business and public sector problems from early on in their PhD. This will be facilitated through the research study groups, the MASDOC graduate seminar programme and opportunities for secondments to work in industry. Contacts with industry, the public sector and other stakeholders will be facilitated through a range of partners. As well as the research training, MASDOC students will be attractive recruits not only because of the research training but also through their training in transferable skills (team working and collaboration, leadership, communication of research and the public understanding of science and decision making). In addition, MASDOC will have continuous impact through the involvement of people from sectors outside academia in its training programme, and at a slightly greater distance through links with other partnerships including: The University of Warwick Business Engagement Unit; Warwick Ventures; The Warwick Enterprise Hub; Warwick Business School; Warwick Manufacturing Group and the International Digital Laboratory; and Warwick Knowledge Transfer Secondments (EPSRC funded project). Warwick's participation with Birmingham in the AWM funded Science City initiative will facilitate a range of collaborations with business in the fields of Hydrogen Energy; Energy Efficiency and Demand Management; Advanced Materials (from micro to macro scales), and Translational Medicine (Clinical Trials and Experimental Medicine).