Developing National Capability for Materials 4.0 University of Cambridge

Overview

Working across boundaries between fields, the Developing National Capability for Materials 4.0 students at University of Cambridge will develop and advocate for new capabilities (methods and techniques) to drive forward the digitalisation of materials research and innovation.

A critical aspect of the CDT will be its ability to deliver change at scale, through both the activities of students themselves and first hand through extending training packages to other CDTs and to existing researchers in academia and in industry at all career stages.

The CDT will draw upon the skills and facilities of academic partners in the Royce Institute from across the UK and be created in partnership with the National Physical Laboratory (building on their success with remote training) and in collaboration with the Alan Turing Institute (ATI).

Specifically, our objectives are to:

1. Develop our students as leaders in the emerging field of Materials 4.0 and enable them to become advocates for new methods in industry and academia.

2. Create a national centre for doctoral training in Materials 4.0 to basic and proficient level, bringing together experts and facilities from across the UK.

3. Train our students as trainers so that they can cement their own learning by delivering training to other students and to existing researchers.

4. Provide mechanisms and support for a distributed cohort to engage deeply with industry and each other, to form lasting relationships for their future careers.

5. Enable our students to rapidly develop mentoring, coaching and leadership skills by incorporating inter-cohort learning and interaction as a core feature of our CDT and by involving the students in key aspects of the running of the centre.

6. Drive the application of new methods, developed by our PhDs, in industry and academia. Use the existing networks of Royce, NPL and Alan Turing to disseminate the collective learning from our CDT cohorts more widely across the UK academic and industrial community.