Small items of research equipment at the University of Southampton

The University of Southampton has a long history of innovative research across the EPSRC remit which is built upon a vibrant environment of Early Career Researchers including postgraduates, post-doctoral researchers and newly appointed academic staff. Access to equipment and facilities is imperative for a large proportion of these researchers and PhD students working in Engineering, Physics, Chemistry, and many other areas.

A fresh and growing equipment base enables the best individuals working at the cutting edge in areas of national need to continue to lead the research agenda. The University of Southampton continues to establish unique capabilities and grow capacity from early career through to more senior academics. Recently the University has made a number of strategic investments in key research areas with the provision of state-of-the-art research facilities and the recruitment of talented early career researchers. This call is a unique opportunity to further enhance the excellent research environment we have put in place.

We request small items of equipment to support research in a number of areas of strategic importance to the university, the UK and beyond. We have taken the thematic approach of looking at five areas where the University and EPSRC have invested heavily which also address some of the most important global challenges, from energy to healthcare. A sixth, more flexible strand will allow the university to retain some responsiveness and will support research and researchers with the potential to transform their disciplines and forge new ones.

This proposal aims to support a large, broad spectrum of early career academics at the University of Southampton through the purchase of a number of small items of equipment. The initial impact of the equipment will be on the individuals involved, but the research enabled by the equipment will have wide-ranging impact across a large number of sectors and EPSRC themes.

This proposal will benefit research with applications in Energy through the further development of fuel cells and batteries, through examining new materials for solar energy, through a variety of different aspects of carbon capture of CO2, and through looking at improving superconducting materials for electricity transmission.

There will be impact in Healthcare Technologies as early career researchers will be using the equipment purchased to better understand tissue engineering, to make improvements to medical imaging, to allow screening of new classes of drugs, and to better be able to image and test bone structure with the aim of enhancing artificial joints.

Other examples of long term impact include impact in the Living with Environmental Change theme, through enhancing climate modelling which will eventually feed into the Met Office, and impact in Research Infrastructure through linking early career researchers into existing substantial investments in large scale facilities.

Industrial applications of the research enabled by this research are again varied; the early career researchers benefitting from this equipment will have opportunities opened up to them which are currently unable to be maximised. For example, industrial partners at the national Centre for Advanced Tribology at Southampton (nCATS) include BP, TWI, dstl, GE Aviation and Fraser-Nash and it is envisaged that the early career researchers will be able to engage with these partners more through the provision of new equipment for them to work with. More widely the equipment will impact on existing collaborations with companies including Siemens, Agilent, Fianium and Johnson Matthey.

Additional Impact will be felt through engaging with the public, for example through one of our early career researchers who is a BBC science presenter, and through engaging with policy makers, such as the Environment Agency and DEFRA.