DTP 2018-19 Loughborough University

Loughborough University's EPSRC DTP represents a major £3M investment in postgraduate research (PGR) training. It is a significant component of our research strategy for engineering and the physical sciences, supporting interdisciplinary research via our Research Strategy 'CALIBRE' including Research Beacons, Global Research Challenges, Ambition and Adventurous research areas, which complement our underpinning, discipline-based research strengths. It also provides a platform for building industry partnerships, and enhancing inter-institutional collaborations afforded by major research infrastructure investments, such as through Midlands Innovation and the Energy Research Accelerator, where Loughborough is a partner.

The relevant institutional areas through which DTP-funded opportunities will be aligned are:

- Research Excellence in our academic Schools which primarily include; Wolfson School of Manufacturing, Electrical and Mechanical Engineering, School of Architecture, Building and Civil Engineering, School of Aeronautical, Automotive and Chemical Engineering, School of Science and Loughborough Design School
- Research Beacons; Built Environment (B), High Value Manufacturing (HVM), Transport Technologies (TT)
- Global Challenge areas; Energy (E), Health and Wellbeing (HW), Secure and Resilience Societies (SRS), Changing Environments and Infrastructure (CEI)
- Leading research groups in areas such as: Advanced Materials, Built Environment, Control
Engineering, Engineering Design, Fluid Dynamics and Aerodynamics, Information Systems, Manufacturing Technologies, Robotics and Autonomous Systems and Water Engineering.
An allocation for fundamental and theoretical science will be ring fenced and will include studentships for Mathematics plus an allocation of a cluster of studentships through a competitive process to support 'Adventure' in research at Loughborough. These initiatives will secure support for important underpinning disciplines.

Each of our 42-month DTP-supported studentships will receive an enhanced, cohort-based research training experience akin to that found within our Centres for Doctoral Training (CDTs). These will be enhanced by training in transferable and research skills, a research training support grant and an integrated impact, outreach and public engagement component to support impact creation.

Additional DTP-supported initiatives include; three 18-month Doctoral Prize Fellowships, to allow the most able students to undertake a period of self-directed post-doctoral research to establish their research career; up to 6 'Impact Fellowships' to enable students to exploit opportunities where their doctoral research offers considerable promise for future downstream application(s) and CASE Conversion awards where there is the prospect of further enhancing collaboration between academic and partner organisations. We fund up to 15 DTP vacation bursaries per year for undergraduate student placements, which helps to provide the brightest students the opportunity to contribute to and experience research.

DTP funds will be allocated in two tranches in late 2017 with the PGR programmes starting in October 2018 and October 2019. A number of studentships open to non-EU candidates will be available to attract the best international doctoral candidates. Details of allocations, timetable for appointment, recruitment process and DTP training programme will be made available on the Loughborough Doctoral College website, alongside profiles of current students in receipt of DTP funding (http://www.lboro.ac.uk/services/doctoral-college/centres-partnerships/). DTP-funded studentships will be publicised on the Studentship vacancies web page (http://www.lboro.ac.uk/study/postgraduate/next-steps/research/studentships/), in addition to findaphd.com and jobs.ac.uk.
For further information, please contact Dr Kathryn North, Head of Researcher Development (k.north@lboro.ac.uk).