EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Inorganic Chemistry for Future Manufacturing (OxICFM)

OxICFM CDT以牛津大学化学系为中心，涉及八个主要工业利益相关者，两个STFC国家设施以及牛津材料，物理和工程学院，旨在解决英国范围内对与制造业未来繁荣相关的无机材料合成博士科学家培训的需求。化学合成是一个关键的科学学科，使人类能够保持和改善其生活质量。在英国，EPSRC自己的数据显示，化学品/化学品使用部门在2007年贡献了2580亿英镑的附加值（占英国GDP的21%），并支持了600多万个英国就业岗位。在最近的英国工业战略绿色文件中，制造工艺和未来材料被强调为关键技术，英国政府2013年的Focal报告强调了科学家开发新材料和纳米技术的长期技能需求。EPSRC在该领域的优先事项突出体现在（除其他事项外）最近的未来制造中心呼吁。未来在社会关键领域的进步，如石化利用，电池技术，半导体，智能材料，化学制造催化剂，碳捕获，太阳能转换和供水/农用化学品，都是由设计和制造化学化合物和材料的能力所支撑的。例如，如果没有Goodenough的基础工作（在牛津进行），过去30年的许多技术发展都不可能导致可充电锂电池阴极材料的发展-并最终导致目前每年以10%的速度增长的300亿美元的全球产业。我们将利用牛津大学在这一领域（40多名教师）的世界一流研究人员提供的独特的广泛的卓越，创新和多学科性，在研究生培训的代表性不足的领域提供严格，具有挑战性和相关的CDT计划。我们相信，这样一个计划不仅是及时的和补充现有的EPSRC CDT规定，但将解决国家的弹性，增长和创新的关键制造业sectors.The '艺术和工艺'无机合成应用于制造业必然是极其多样化的需求。OxICFM将利用一种队列模型，与教师，行业和同行领导的组件相结合，为科学家提供（i）在无机合成和制造之间的接口上进行广泛的培训，以及（ii）在一个特定的流（分子，纳米尺度或扩展材料）中具有深入的专业知识。这种模式是由一个强大的最终用户拉动驱动，包括工业合作伙伴在许多场合表达的愿望，招聘博士毕业生谁不仅在一个领域的专业知识深度，但谁也可以适用于广泛的跨学科的挑战，在制造相关的合成比“标准”博士毕业生更有效。正如我们的中小企业合作伙伴所表达的那样，并在Econic的支持信中强调：“（我们）不需要更多的化学（研究生）毕业生，我们需要更好的准备，他们可以更容易地理解和适应工业工作。我看到了CDT的意图和我们自己以及其他规模化化学品业务的需求之间的明确联系。“考虑到这一明确的愿景，我们方法的一个核心组成部分是整合大型合作伙伴公司和中小企业的行业主导培训，以促进对与不同商业模式相关的跨规模问题的全面理解。我们强调，我们的目标是不显着增加总研究生人数在牛津化学，而是提供一个不同的培训包，以那些目前可用。

The OxICFM CDT, centred in Oxford University's Department of Chemistry, and involving eight key industrial stakeholders, two STFC national facilities, and faculty from Oxford Materials, Physics and Engineering seeks to address a UK-wide need for the training of doctoral scientists in the synthesis of inorganic materials relevant to the future prosperity of the manufacturing sector. Chemical synthesis is a key enabling scientific discipline that allows humanity to maintain and improve its quality of life. Within the UK, the EPSRC's own data show that the chemical/chemistry-using sectors contributed a total of £258B in value-added in 2007 (21% of UK GDP), and supported over 6 million UK jobs. Manufacturing processes and future materials are highlighted as key technologies in the recent UK Industrial Strategy green paper, and the long-term skills demand for scientists to develop new materials and nanotechnology was highlighted in the UK Government's 2013 Foresight report. The EPSRC's prioritisation in the area is highlighted by (among other things) the recent Future Manufacturing Hubs call. Future advances in societally critical areas such as petrochemical utilisation, battery technologies, semiconductors, smart materials, catalysts for chemical manufacturing, carbon capture, solar conversion and water supply/agro-chemicals are all underpinned by the ability to design and make chemical compounds and materials - to order - with custom designed properties. As an example, many technological developments in the last 30 years would not have been possible without Goodenough's fundamental work (carried out in Oxford) leading to the development of cathode materials for rechargeable lithium batteries - and ultimately to a $30B global industry currently growing at 10% per annum. We will exploit the uniquely broad range of excellence, innovation and multi-disciplinarity offered at Oxford by a critical mass of world-class researchers in this area (40+ faculty), to deliver a rigorous, challenging and relevant CDT programme in what is an under-represented area of graduate training. We believe that such a programme is not only timely and complementary to existing EPSRC CDT provision, but will address the national need for resilience, growth and innovation in key manufacturing sectors.The 'art and craft' of inorganic synthesis as applied to manufacturing is necessarily extremely diverse. OxICFM will exploit a cohort model allied to training incorporating faculty-, industry- and peer-led components, to deliver scientists (i) with a broad spectrum training across the interface between inorganic synthesis and manufacturing, and (ii) with in-depth expertise in one specific stream (molecular, nano-scale or extended materials). This model is driven by a strong end-user pull, including a desire expressed on numerous occasions by industrial partners, to recruit doctoral graduates who not only have depth of expertise in one area, but who can also apply themselves to a broad spectrum of inter-disciplinary challenges in manufacturing related synthesis with greater effectiveness than 'standard' doctoral graduates. As expressed by our SME partners and highlighted in Econic's letter of support: '(we do) not need lots more chemistry (post)graduates, we needed better prepared ones who could understand and adapt to working in industry more readily. I see a clear connection with the CDT intent and our own, and other scaling chemical businesses, needs.' With this clear vision in mind, a central component of our approach is the integration of industry-led training from both larger partner companies and SMEs in order to promote a holistic understanding of cross-scale issues relating to different business models. We stress that our aim is not to add significantly to total post-graduate numbers in Oxford Chemistry, but rather to provide a different training package to those currently available.