[Academic] Fwd: Centres for Doctoral Training

[John Jeffers]

Dear All,

Please see the message from the VD research. Note the short timescale - 
responses to Rein by the end of this week. Also note the University's 
imposition of a multidisciplinary requirement. I would not get too 
worried about this as there is no requirement for multidisciplinarity on 
the EPSRC webpage below.

John

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: 	Centres for Doctoral Training
Date: 	Tue, 21 Aug 2012 15:21:05 +0100
From: 	Rein Ulijn <rein.ulijn at strath.ac.uk>
To: 	Nigel Mottram <nigel.mottram at strath.ac.uk>, Neil Ghani 
<neil.ghani at strath.ac.uk>, Duncan Graham <duncan.graham at strath.ac.uk>, 
William Harnett <w.harnett at strath.ac.uk>, Martin Dawson 
<m.dawson at strath.ac.uk>, John Jeffers <john.jeffers at strath.ac.uk>
CC: 	Madeleine Rooney <madeleine.rooney at strath.ac.uk>, Matthew Loryman 
<matthew.loryman at strath.ac.uk>



Dear DoRs,

As I am sure you will be aware, Strathclyde has recently enjoyed 
considerable success in winning funding for Centres for Doctoral Training.

These Centres, and other similar cohort based models, are increasingly 
being used by the Research Councils as their major mechanism for 
supporting the training of doctoral students. The major funder of 
Centres for Doctoral Training at Strathclyde is the EPSRC, which funds 9 
of the 12 Centres currently held. The ESPRC has indicated its intention 
to run a major competition for further funding for Centres to take place 
around Easter 2013 and has started a consultation exercise on the kinds 
of Centres that should be prioritised (see webpage below).

The consultation requests responses by the 31^st August 2012.

http://www.epsrc.ac.uk/newsevents/news/2012/Pages/cdt2013.aspx

The consultation focuses on skills gaps in the UK. It asks what these 
gaps are that might be appropriate for, or could be met by, the kind of 
focussed approach provided by Centres for Doctoral Training.

For each opportunity identified the consultation asks for:

1. The nature of the skills gap.

2. The evidence for the existence of the gap.

3. The identity of those making the proposal.

Rather than individuals responding to the EPSRC consultation exercise, 
the University will submit a single institutional response and we 
require your assistance in gathering comments for this response. 
Although the consultation is being initiated by EPSRC, we believe that 
there are opportunities for new centres that would feature contributions 
from multiple disciplines.

We would like to use the EPSRC Consultation exercise to identify 
priorities for new CDT activity at Strathclyde that could be nurtured 
towards possible funding from the research councils or from 
industry/commerce (e.g. along the lines of the Strathclyde-GSK DTC). 
This could lead to the development of a "Strathclyde CDT Incubator 
Programme" which would coordinate support and advice on the 
establishment of Centres, possibly together with "pump priming" funding.

*Accordingly, we would like to receive suggestions for Centres for 
Doctoral Training that are multi-disciplinary and a brief description of 
the 3 points noted above.*

I would be grateful if you could come back to me with ideas by the end 
of this week.

Many thanks and apologies for this short notice.

Rein

--

Professor Rein Ulijn

Vice Dean Research (Science)

WestCHEM

University of Strathclyde

www.ulijnlab.com <http://www.ulijnlab.com>

+44 141 548 2110 (office)

+44 7766314046 (mobile)

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