Read more for training and development initiatives for PhD Researchers and Faraday Institution Research Fellows, including plans for the 2020 PhD cohort, the awarding of travel grants and career development plans for Faraday Institution Research Fellows.
2020 PhD Cohort
The Faraday Institution is pleased to be funding up to 15 PhD studentships at our partner universities for an October 2020 start. Grant letters have been sent out and we will start to promote these opportunities externally on 3rd February. Please help us spread the word to increase the number of high quality applicants that apply.
PhD Cohort Training - Newcastle
Faraday Institution 2018 and 2019 Cluster PhD Researchers separately undertook an exciting programme of training in Newcastle, with sessions including meeting a variety of experts, visiting Nissan Motor Manufacturing Ltd (NMUK), the Envision AESC Battery Plant, Zero Carbon Futures, Connected Energy, Hyperdrive and CPI, having ‘An audience with Phil Blythe’ (Chief Scientific Advisor for the Department of Transport), becoming ‘dynamic presenters’, learning negotiation skills and undertaking strength profiling. A big thank you to Professor Paul Christensen (Faraday Institution Co-Investigator) and Dr Colin Herron (Zero Carbon Futures) who were instrumental in creating such a high-quality training week.
STEM Ambassador Training
Year 1 Faraday Institution Cluster PhD Researchers have just completed their STEM Ambassador training, which culminated in them presenting their research in creative and engaging ways to students at Chilton Primary School and Didcot Girls School. Pupils commented that, “I thought that actually being a scientist is really cool!” and “I thought I knew what I wanted to be but now I don’t!”
The cohort also had tours of Diamond Light Source, ISIS Neutron and Muon Source as well as the Central Laser Facility (CLF) at the Harwell Science Campus.
Training and Opportunities for Faraday Institution Research Fellows
A reminder that in response to requests from our research community, the Faraday Institution has created a career development plan template to support the training of early career researchers. It outlines the funds and time allocated to each researcher for training and sets out a framework for defining objectives linked to career development and increasing researcher identity in line with best practice guidance from the Vitae Researcher Development Framework Concordat.
Travel Grants
Congratulations to the following who were awarded travel grants this year.
| Grant winner | Home university | Host institution | Project |
| Joris Baars | Newcastle University | Freiburg University, Germany | A model framework for the material-energy nexus of the electromobility transition |
| Chun Tan | UCL | Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource | Operando nano-XANES tomography of lithium battery cathode materials |
| Robert Timms | University of Oxford | Queensland University of Technology | Multiscale modelling of mechanical effects in cylindrical cells |
| Andrew Wang | University of Oxford | UC Berkeley, Lawrence Berkeley National Lab | NMR study of superconcentrated binary electrolytes |
| Yunwei Zhang | University of Cambridge | Technical University of Munich, Germany | Machine learning-assisted rapid impedance measurement for battery system analysis |
The grants were hotly contested, with 29 applications received. We look forward to hearing how the grants open up opportunities and experiences for the grant holders. We intend to launch another round of applications for travel grants in November 2020.
The travel grant applications were of mixed quality. We would encourage future applicants (for this and other schemes) to discuss their application with their supervisor before submission to ensure the most compelling case for funding is submitted. In particular, the review panel noted that for many applications a more explicit justification of why travel was necessary and why the award of the grant would be of value would have been beneficial and would have led to the application attaining a higher ranking.
Entrepreneurial Fellowships
At the end of 2019, we were pleased to announce our latest Entrepreneurial Fellows. Tom Cleaver and the team at Cognition Energy are taking a physics-based approach to developing high performance batteries with a particular focus on thermal management. Applications remain open.
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