Platform Grant Support for Materials Characterisation at Oxford

The Oxford Materials Characterisation Platform grant will primarily support a number of post-doctoral research associates on a flexible basis thus enhancing and extending our portfolio of responsive mode research proposals. The majority of the proposed platform grant funding will support key staff between fixed term contacts (in the initial instance two posts) that are funded through standard mechanisms. In addition we will also use the platform grant to pump prime a number of new research strategically important interdisiplinary research directions that are not yet sufficiently well developed for standard applications to be made. Specifically we will develop 3D confocal electron microscopy in an aberration corrected environment, advanced nanometrology and high resolution imaging (EM and NanoSIMS) of radiation sensitive soft materials. We will also make appointments to short term research and technical posts (prior to full responsive mode applications) that will support a new He ion microscope on loan and new high performance specimen preparation equipment that provides an underpinning infrastructure to many of our activities.The investigators involved in this application lead internationally recognised teams (with an outsanding publication and support record) in Electron Microscopy, Atom Probe, nanoSIMS and Nanometrology. Within each of these the above lead internationally leading groups working on; a) key materials problems in degradation mechanisms in reactor steels, carbon nanomaterials for Quantum Information Processing (QIP), catalysis, structural ceramics, biomaterials and polymers and magnetic and energy materialsb) the development of new characterisation techniques and instrumentation (High Resolution Imaging and Exit Wave reconstruction, EELS, Electron Nanodiffraction, Analytical EM, NanoSIMS, Detector Development and 3D-Atom Probe. The Materials Department at Oxford, in which the grant will be based is internationally leading and is ranked top in the UK with a 5* rating in the last 2 RAE assessments and the development of materials characterisation is central to the long term strategic direction of the department and University. Thus, overall platform grant support will enable the retention of key, highly skilled research workers through flexible funding arrangements, will initiate several new research directions, will initially support new advanced instruments and will link to our core EM facillity which provides national acess.