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，物理和工程学院的教师，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。化学合成是一门关键的科学学科，它使人类能够维持和提高其生活质量。在英国，EPSRC自己的数据显示，化学/化学使用部门在2007年总共贡献了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皮书中，制造工艺和未来材料被强调为关键技术，而在英国政府的2013年展望报告中，科学家开发新材料和纳米技术的长期技能需求也被强调。EPSRC在该领域的优先级被最近的“未来制造中心”（除其他事项外）所强调。在石化利用、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/农用化学品等社会关键领域的未来进步，都是基于设计和制造具有定制设计特性的化合物和材料的能力。例如，如果没有Goodenough的基础性工作（在牛津大学进行），许多技术的发展是不可能的，这些工作导致了可充电锂电池正极材料的发展，并最终形成了目前每年以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该领域的世界级研究人员（40多名教师）提供的独特的广泛的卓越，创新和多学科，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项目。我们相信，这样一个项目不仅是及时的，而且是对现有EPSRC CDT条款的补充，而且将满足国家对关键制造业弹性、增长和创新的需求。应用于制造业的无机合成的“艺术和工艺”必然是极其多样化的。OxICFM将利用与教师、行业和同行主导的培训相结合的队列模型，为科学家提供(i)在无机合成和制造之间的广泛培训，以及（ii）在特定流（分子、纳米级或扩展材料）方面的深入专业知识。这种模式是由强大的终端用户拉动驱动的，包括工业合作伙伴在许多场合表达的愿望，招募的博士毕业生不仅在一个领域有深度的专业知识，而且还能比“标准”博士毕业生更有效地应用于制造相关合成的广泛的跨学科挑战。正如我们的中小企业合作伙伴所表达的，以及《经济学人》的支持信中所强调的那样：“（我们）不需要更多的化学（研究生）毕业生，我们需要的是那些能够更好地理解和适应工业工作的人。”我认为CDT的意图与我们自己以及其他规模化化工企业的需求有着明显的联系。”有了这个清晰的愿景，我们方法的一个核心组成部分是整合来自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整体理解。我们强调，我们的目标不是要显著增加牛津化学专业的研究生总数，而是提供一种不同于现有的培训方案。

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.