Supporting world-class labs for early career researchers at The University of Manchester
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Manchester
Department Name: The Research Office
Abstract
Since its creation in 2004, the University of Manchester has focussed on building its reputation for world-class research, and has risen rapidly in world university league tables. It now ranks well within the top 40 institutions in the world. Our stated aim is to attract, develop and nurture the careers of excellent researchers, and become the location of choice for staff at all career stages. This includes providing mentoring and support for early career researchers, together with state-of-the-art facilities and equipment.
Now we propose to use our EPSRC Capital Award to support the careers of early career researchers in the Faculty of Science and Engineering, by providing state-of-the-art equipment in fields aligned with University of Manchester strategic priorities. We will allocate the grant in two competitive bidding rounds. The first of these is complete, and the second will be held six months after the start of the award, targetted at early career researchers recruited in 2018 to highly prestigious University of Manchester Presidential Fellowships. The projects we have chosen for initial investment in round 1 are:
* State-of-the-art air quality measurement, which will provide a mobile facility for testing air quality and emissions in new ways. For example, it could lead to lower emission domestic stoves, and will allow us to work with industrial partners towards zero emissions vehicle engines, or to calculate airport carbon footprints from aircraft taxiing, take-off and landing.
* Tackling the world's water crisis, helping us to use novel ion exchange membranes to develop efficient new technologies for removing salt to produce affordable drinking water from seawater or brackish water, which comprises 98% of Earth's water.
* Developing critical mass in cybersecurity, where the aim is to develop tools to find software vulnerabilities in the Internet of Things (IoT) devices, in order to ensure that IoT applications and environments are safe, secure, and operate correctly. There is potential to develop commercial products to be used by companies in the areas of consumer electronics, the automotive industry and the financial markets.
* New applications of graphene nanocapillaries, allowing the potential of graphene in separating molecules and DNA/protein sequencing to be explored. This could result in more powerful, fast and portable diagnostic devices for DNA sequencing.
Now we propose to use our EPSRC Capital Award to support the careers of early career researchers in the Faculty of Science and Engineering, by providing state-of-the-art equipment in fields aligned with University of Manchester strategic priorities. We will allocate the grant in two competitive bidding rounds. The first of these is complete, and the second will be held six months after the start of the award, targetted at early career researchers recruited in 2018 to highly prestigious University of Manchester Presidential Fellowships. The projects we have chosen for initial investment in round 1 are:
* State-of-the-art air quality measurement, which will provide a mobile facility for testing air quality and emissions in new ways. For example, it could lead to lower emission domestic stoves, and will allow us to work with industrial partners towards zero emissions vehicle engines, or to calculate airport carbon footprints from aircraft taxiing, take-off and landing.
* Tackling the world's water crisis, helping us to use novel ion exchange membranes to develop efficient new technologies for removing salt to produce affordable drinking water from seawater or brackish water, which comprises 98% of Earth's water.
* Developing critical mass in cybersecurity, where the aim is to develop tools to find software vulnerabilities in the Internet of Things (IoT) devices, in order to ensure that IoT applications and environments are safe, secure, and operate correctly. There is potential to develop commercial products to be used by companies in the areas of consumer electronics, the automotive industry and the financial markets.
* New applications of graphene nanocapillaries, allowing the potential of graphene in separating molecules and DNA/protein sequencing to be explored. This could result in more powerful, fast and portable diagnostic devices for DNA sequencing.
Planned Impact
The proposed investments will have impact in the following ways:
* They will help the career-development of our ECRs and thus help develop the next generation of talented researchers who will contribute to the UK economy.
* They will seed new activity and help establish critical mass at UoM in a number of fields; examples are a planned centre of excellence in emissions analysis, and world-class activity in automated reasoning, contributing to cybersecurity.
* They will enable new external collaborations and enhance existing ones. This includes industry and government. Examples include GCHQ (in automated reasoning), and (for emissions research) The Stove Industry Alliance (SIA), HETAS (the UK Heating Equipment Testing and Approval Scheme), Rolls Royce, DSTL and various biomass suppliers.
* They will generate new IP, leading to patents and other exploitation. An example is the proposed work on graphene nanocapillaries for biomolecular translocation, where the ECRs supported have a strong track record in generating patents, and a clear pathway to exploitation through the National Graphene Institute and the Graphene Engineering and Innovation Centre. This could result in more powerful, fast and portable diagnostic devices for DNA sequencing. There is also potential (in cybersecurity) to develop commercial products to be used by companies in the areas of consumer electronics, the automotive industry and the financial markets. The work on state-of-the-art air quality measurement could lead to lower emission domestic stoves, and will allow us to work with industrial partners towards zero emissions vehicle engines.
* They will help both the ECRs and UoM to tackle the grand challenges facing our world - for example (from the initial proposed investments) air and water quality, and cybersecurity. This in turn helps address the agendas of GCRF and ISCF, for example by tackling key global problems such as providing new routes to desalinate seawater.
* They will enable high quality public engagement. All of the initially selected investments are in fields of high interest to the general public and to government and policy makers (air and water quality, cybersecurity and uses of graphene). The resulting engagement will be made in a myriad of different ways including Royal Society Summer Science Exhibits, science festivals such as Pint of Science and Bluedot, schools talks, crowd experiments, blogs and other use of social media.
* They will help the career-development of our ECRs and thus help develop the next generation of talented researchers who will contribute to the UK economy.
* They will seed new activity and help establish critical mass at UoM in a number of fields; examples are a planned centre of excellence in emissions analysis, and world-class activity in automated reasoning, contributing to cybersecurity.
* They will enable new external collaborations and enhance existing ones. This includes industry and government. Examples include GCHQ (in automated reasoning), and (for emissions research) The Stove Industry Alliance (SIA), HETAS (the UK Heating Equipment Testing and Approval Scheme), Rolls Royce, DSTL and various biomass suppliers.
* They will generate new IP, leading to patents and other exploitation. An example is the proposed work on graphene nanocapillaries for biomolecular translocation, where the ECRs supported have a strong track record in generating patents, and a clear pathway to exploitation through the National Graphene Institute and the Graphene Engineering and Innovation Centre. This could result in more powerful, fast and portable diagnostic devices for DNA sequencing. There is also potential (in cybersecurity) to develop commercial products to be used by companies in the areas of consumer electronics, the automotive industry and the financial markets. The work on state-of-the-art air quality measurement could lead to lower emission domestic stoves, and will allow us to work with industrial partners towards zero emissions vehicle engines.
* They will help both the ECRs and UoM to tackle the grand challenges facing our world - for example (from the initial proposed investments) air and water quality, and cybersecurity. This in turn helps address the agendas of GCRF and ISCF, for example by tackling key global problems such as providing new routes to desalinate seawater.
* They will enable high quality public engagement. All of the initially selected investments are in fields of high interest to the general public and to government and policy makers (air and water quality, cybersecurity and uses of graphene). The resulting engagement will be made in a myriad of different ways including Royal Society Summer Science Exhibits, science festivals such as Pint of Science and Bluedot, schools talks, crowd experiments, blogs and other use of social media.