A major new multi-million investment in the Humber’s offshore wind economy is set to further secure a “talent pipeline” for the region and drive innovation and investment across the UK.
The University of Hull’s Energy & Environment Institute leads a consortium that has won funding for the Aura Centre for Doctoral Training (CDT) from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) and Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), which provide government money for grants to undertake research and postgraduate degrees in the sciences.
The bid, which is worth £5.5 million and will create a host of opportunities for over 70 post-graduate PhD students, was announced today (4th February 2019) at the EPSRC CDT launch event at The Stock Exchange in London.
The win is a major step forward for the University of Hull and its CDT partner universities which include Sheffield, Durham and Newcastle and integrates the core strengths of each institution in environment, engineering and energy. The CDT research, which is focused on offshore wind and the low carbon economy, integrates engineering and the environment and will be centred on the Humber, which is the global leader for current and future offshore wind development.
Commenting on the win, Professor Dan Parsons, Director of the Energy & Environment Institute at the University of Hull said: “I am absolutely delighted that our consortium has been awarded this substantial amount of funding to set up the Aura CDT. CDTs are a very effective way of training a significant number of PhD students and creating an environment for real innovation to flourish through pure and applied research. It will integrate academic and industry expertise locally here in the Humber, which is rapidly becoming the home of the offshore wind sector, bringing much needed investment to the region.”