Cranfield University to Lead Centre for Doctoral Training

Cranfield University has been announced as the leader of Centre for Structural Integrity & Materials for Offshore Wind and Marine Renewable Energy. The $13 million centre, among 21 other Centres for Doctoral Training (CDTs), has been announced by The Rt Hon George Osborne MP, Chancellor of the Exchequer.

The Centre of Renewable Energy Marine Structures (REMS) will train fifty Engineering Doctorate (EngD) students over an eight-year period, admitting ten new students each year for five years starting in October 2014. This is a collaborative partnership between Cranfield University and the Department of Engineering Science at the University of Oxford.

The University’s offshore renewable energy engineering activity led by Professor Feargal Brennan has evolved from a sustained world-leading research presence in the offshore Oil and Gas sector for over thirty years and now covers a spectrum of applications from wave, tidal stream and wind power.

Professor Brennan, REMS Centre Director, said: “Offshore and Marine Renewable Energy is one of the most exciting areas for talented young mechanical and structural engineers beginning their careers. The REMS Centre working alongside other national initiatives will ensure the UK leads the world in the development, implementation and cost-effective operation of offshore structures for Wind, Wave and Tidal Power. Our partnership with Oxford University, who has been at the forefront of academic developments for over thirty years in offshore Geotechnics particularly for foundation design, brings together unprecedented world-class research and training expertise in Offshore and Marine Structures.”

REMS other partners include Arup, Atkins, Centrica, DnV, Dong, E.ON, EDF, Fugro, GE, Mojo Maritime, Qinetiq, RES, RWE, Skanska, Tata Steel.

Cranfield are also partnering with The University of Warwick in the new EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Sustainable Materials and Manufacturing. It will produce the next generation of manufacturing business leaders with a high level understanding of interdisciplinary enterprise, the research experience essential to compete in a global low carbon environment, and an international view of Sustainability and the Circular Economy.

The Centre will address industry-driven research challenges including: establishing natural or recovered materials as feed-stocks, reducing process inputs and outputs without compromising performance or economic viability, extracting high value materials from waste streams, and ultimately establishing economic and environmental sustainability.

REMS is the second EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training at Cranfield. The STREAM programme, an Industrial Doctoral Centre for the water sector was awarded funding in January 2014.