EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Innovative Metal Processing IMPaCT

金属加工是制造业的重要组成部分。制造业是英国经济的第三大部门，2010年英国制造业占劳动力的8.2%，占全国产出的12%（总增加值1500亿英镑）。然而，制造业占名义GDP的比重已从1990年的逾22%下降，低价值、大批量制造业向发展中国家转移的趋势很明显，而在英国，高技术领域产生的总增加值回报更高。该行业未来的增长取决于其设计和制造高价值产品的能力。在很大程度上，高质量的知识基础和熟练的技术劳动力使英国从资源和劳动密集型部门成功转型为知识密集型部门，并确保高科技金属工业在英国蓬勃发展。支持英国高价值制造业的一个重要方面是对年轻研究人员的博士培训。然而，英国许多公司指出，缺乏训练有素的材料工程师仍然是高价值制造业的一个问题。事实上，2013年，英国边境管理局（UK Border Agency）就把“冶金学家”列为《技术工人实务守则》（Codes of Practice for Skilled workers）中最抢手的10个职位之一。在这项提案中，莱斯特大学、伯明翰大学和诺丁汉大学寻求资金，在工业合作伙伴的大力支持下，建立EPSRC创新金属加工博士培训中心（CIMP）。在CIMP的整个生命周期中，我们将培养超过87名博士研究人员，他们将结合实验、分析、计算、技术管理和建立工业创新所需的可转移技能。该中心将招收来自不同学科的学生，为他们提供一系列金属加工技术的连贯知识，并培养他们在解决具有挑战性和工业相关问题方面的专业知识，使他们能够被行业部署并成为未来的领导者。CDT培训计划的总体重点将是培养全面发展的未来领导者，将其学科领域的关键专业知识与磨练有素的专业敏锐度相结合，最终达到探索更广泛的工作背景及其潜在影响的能力，将他们的研究传达给一系列不同的受众，了解商业世界和研究的应用。并与学术界内外的一系列合作伙伴有效合作。主要研究目标是：(1)提供对金属加工过程中物理现象的深刻理解；(2)开发金属加工的分析和计算模型；(3)设计和优化可靠的制造工艺以加速产品开发；(4)为新材料设计新工艺。CIMP将建立在大学与我们的工业合作伙伴之间已经建立的关系的基础上，并通过建立研究人员的共同愿景、持续的专业培训和对推动金属加工创新和影响的挑战的更深入的理解，在长期内增强这些关系。我们的市场营销和招聘活动将提升英国金属加工行业的形象，并帮助吸引有才华的劳动力。我们的暑期学校还将举办一项“针对”中学生的外展活动，让他们参与科学、技术、工程和数学（STEM）学科，特别是鼓励妇女和女孩追求（STEM），作为通往令人兴奋和充实的职业的途径。

Metal processing is a vital component of manufacturing. Manufacturing is the third largest sector in the UK economy and in 2010 manufacturing in the United Kingdom accounted for 8.2% of the workforce and 12% (£150 billion in gross value added) of the country's national output. However, manufacturing's share of nominal GDP has fallen from over 22 per cent in 1990 and there is a clear trend in low value, high volume manufacturing moving to developing countries while in the UK the higher technology areas generate the better gross value added returns. The future growth of the sector is dependent on its ability to design and make the high value products. In large part, it is the high quality knowledge base and skilled technical workforce that make for a successful transformation from a resource and labour-intensive to a knowledge-intensive sector and ensure that high technology metal industries flourish in the UK. An important aspect of supporting high-value manufacturing in the UK is the PhD training of young researchers. However, it has been pointed out by many companies in the UK that the lack of well-trained materials engineers remains a concern for high value manufacturing industry. Indeed, in 2013 the UK Border Agency identified "metallurgist" as one of the 10 most wanted job titles in the Codes of Practice for Skilled workers.In this proposal, the Universities of Leicester, Birmingham and Nottingham seek funding to establish an EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Innovative Metal Processing (CIMP) with substantial support from industrial partners. Over the lifetime of the CIMP we will train over 87 PhD researchers with the combination of experimental, analytical, computational, technology management and transferable skills that are needed to build industrial innovation. The Centre will recruit students from different disciplines and provide them with coherent knowledge of a range of metal processing technologies and develop their expertise in solving challenging and industrially relevant problems so that they can be deployed by industry and become future leaders. The overall emphasis of the CDT's training programme will be on producing well-rounded leaders of the future, combining critical expertise in their discipline areas with a well-honed professional acumen, culminating in the ability to explore the wider context of their work and its potential impact, communicate their research to a range of different audiences, understand the commercial world and the applications of research, and work effectively with a range of partners both within and outside the academic community.The main research aims are: (1) to provide a deep understanding of the physical phenomena during metal processing, (2) to develop analytical and computational models for metal processing, (3) to design and optimise reliable manufacturing processes to accelerate product development and (4) to design new processes for novel materials.CIMP will build on the relationships the universities already have with our industrial partners and augment those relationships over the longer term by building a shared vision of researcher and continuing professional training and developing a deeper understanding of the challenges that drive innovation and impact in metal processing. Our marketing and recruiting activities will promote the profile of the metal processing industry in the UK and help attract a talented workforce. Our Summer School will also have an outreach activity "targeting" secondary school students to engage them in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) subjects and especially to inspire women and girls to pursue (STEM) as pathways to exciting and fulfilling careers.