Smart labs for ECRs in Biomedical and Civil engineering

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The core mission of the University of Dundee is "Transforming Lives" in terms of the societal and economic impact of our research. Fundamental to the research across the University is the concept of interdisciplinarity leading to impact. The four key interdisciplinary themes are around: (1) Understanding and improving health and wellbeing; (2) Life-enhancing creativity and design; (3) Innovating technological solutions to tomorrow's problems; and (4) Promoting social change to enhance diversity, justice and socio-economic prosperity. The institutional strategy for capital investment prioritises research at interfaces between disciplines such as medicine, life sciences, engineering and environmental studies. The School of Science & Engineering (SSEN) has benefited from this strategy by focusing on interdisciplinary research via nurturing and developing innovating technological solutions. This allowed SSEN to forge a number of long term collaboration strategies with the Schools of Life Sciences, Medicine, and Art & Design. SSEN comprises four Research Clusters: (1) Engineering & Physical Sciences; (2) Mathematical Sciences; (3) Computing; and (4) Science & Justice. SSEN possess a substantial track record in building around excellence in accordance with the principles of the World Class Labs ecosystem for Early Career Researchers (ECRs) described in this call. We have recently invested in installing Physics (biophotonics & biophysics) SMART LABs at the Life Sciences interface to innovate and develop new biophysical instrumentation.The EPSRC initiative will be in addition to our ongoing planned investment in capital equipment for the formation of SMART LABs for ECRs centred around the Research Cluster in Engineering & Physical Sciences. The current SMART LABs Agenda includes ECRs with their research identity associated with Biomedical and Civil Engineering. The cohort in Biomedical engineering currently enjoys externally and core funded multimillion investment and support within the shared and comprehensive materials engineering, surface characterisation and imaging facilities. The infrastructure is designed to also engage ECRs in Materials and Forensic Science. ECRs in Civil engineering are working closely with the Scottish Marine And Renewables Testing (SMART) Centre - a £2m facility based in SSEN works with industry and other partners to test and evaluate materials for use in the harsh environment of the North Sea. It combines the expertise of several civil engineering groups including concrete technology and geotechnical to allow for more efficient and cost effective solutions to marine material projects. The required additional support in terms of investment in capital equipment has been quantified. This informed the strategy and planning process for distribution and allocation of the block grant within the SMART LABs environment. Therefore, there is a clear allocation strategy in place to provide a core of ECRs, who will be the future leaders at Dundee, across our three major research facility groupings.