Brain training

The Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (

) has announced the availability of grants worth £82m to train

’s future scientists and engineers.

The annual Doctoral Training Grants (DTGs), awarded this year to over 45 universities and higher education institutions on the basis of EPSRC research grant income, is expected to generate more than 1,200 PhD students.

Universities have a target of converting 10 per cent of their 2009 DTG funding into CASE awards, which are designed to incorporate an element of collaboration and industry related training. Around 50 per cent of EPSRC funded PhD students go on to get jobs in industry and the wider UK economy.

Separately, EDF has signed an £800,000 agreement to fund a Chair and a Research Fellow at Manchester University.

The new Professor of Computational Mechanics and Research Fellow will be based in the university's School of Mechanical, Aerospace and Civil Engineering. EDF will provide funding for a minimum of five years.

The plans were announced at a signing ceremony at the university on 27 January 2009.

The move is said to be the latest step towards the creation of a Centre for Modelling and Simulation, which is expected to be launched later in the year.