£250m gift for web science and financial computing

Technology research has received a significant boost with £250m of funding for 44 new PhD research centres.

The Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) has allocated the money for the doctoral research centres at 22 universities across England and Scotland.

Among the subjects that will gain specialist PhD centres are digital media (University of Bath and Lancaster), financial computing (UCL) and web science (Southampton).

The plan is to build relationships between universities and industry by combining the various areas of expertise.

The centres will offer taught coursework to develop technical knowledge and broaden skills while also providing the facilities for PhD-level research for up to 10 students per year.

More than 2,000 PhD students are expected to benefit over five years starting in 2009, with 17 of the centres being industrial training centres that collaborate with businesses.

The centres will focus on tackling challenges for the UK such as climate change, energy production and high-tech crime.

Other areas that will benefit from the funding are carbon capture (university of Nottingham), fuel cell technology (Birmingham), nanoscience (Cambridge) and nuclear fission (Manchester).