New doctoral training centres to boost the Scottish economy

Institute of Physics

9 December 2008

New training centres for PhD students

The Scottish University Physics Alliance (SUPA) is celebrating this week after the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) announced that two of the three new doctoral training centres in Scotland will be situated in Heriot-Watt University and St Andrew’s University respectively, both part of SUPA.

Heriot-Watt will now host a Centre for Optics and Photonics Technology, while St Andrew’s will host a centre for Condensed Matter Physics, both sub-disciplines are fast-growing fields of research which have successfully spun-off technologies with a large economic impact.

Ian Halliday, Chief Executive Officer at SUPA, said, “We are delighted that these two centres now have the funding to proceed. We expect that it will lead to a significant increase in the number of economically successful spin-offs, helping the Scottish economy in a globally difficult time, and increase the number of well-trained physicists available to the Scottish economy.

“The funding awarded is a reflection of the strength of Scottish physics through the collaboration that SUPA has enabled. The Optics and Photonics Centre is a result of work undertaken jointly by Heriot-Watt, St Andrew’s and Strathclyde Universities, and the Condensed Matter Physics Centre has come about via similarly collaborative work by Heriot-Watt, St Andrew’s and Edinburgh Universities.”

Both optics and photonics and condensed matter physics have a rich history of successful spin-offs: developments in optics and photonics provided the technology behind our communications revolution, designing optical fibres which dramatically increased the speed of our internet connections; condensed matter physics has led to the discovery of plastic electronics, cited as the most disruptive technology in the technological pipeline, used for visual displays in devices such as televisions, laptops, mobile phones, MP3 players, watches and poster advertising.

Alison McLure, National Officer for the Institute of Physics in Scotland, said, “We know from research undertaken last year that physics-based industries already contribute more than £8 billion to Scotland’s economic output, with these centres introduced that statistic will undoubtedly keep growing.”

The third centre in Scotland, a Wind Energy Systems centre at the University of Strathclyde, will help Scotland become a world-leader in wind energy technology training.

Last week, the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) announced the £250 million investment in 44 new training centres across the UK which they hope will generate over 2000 PhD students.

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