The stream Industrial Doctorate Centre was funded as part of EPSRC’s recent £250m investment in Doctoral Training Centres. It offers a four year post-graduate programme leading to the award of an Engineering Doctorate (EngD) degree. The programme’s structure and content are informed by the knowledge and skills needs of the water sector with our Research Engineers tackling industry driven research agendas.

Career-critical proficiencies

As a stream Research Engineer you will acquire advanced technical skills through masters level training, develop the transferable skills competencies & engineering leadership qualities expected of senior engineers, and undertake doctoral level research with an industrial sponsor. You can also expect to graduate from the programme with the intellectual tools and interdisciplinary training to succeed in the global water career market.

Want to take part?

The stream programme is delivered by five major universities with centres of excellence in water science and engineering. Our first cohort of Research Engineers were welcomed onto the scheme in September 2009. All fees are covered with an enhanced stipend of £19,000 per annum for the first two years, rising to £20,000 per annum for the last two years. Places on the programme are through competitive interview and are open to UK (home) students only. The qualities we value in candidates are enthusiasm, resourcefulness, a mature approach to learning, creativity, a sound understanding of one or more branches of science or engineering, and possession of a first or upper second class honours degree.

Two of the first research engineers, based in the Centre for Water Systems, University of Exeter, are working in collaboration with two leading industrial research providers. The first is with HR Wallingford and focuses on the use of artificial intelligence techniques in urban flood risk management.The second is in association with WRc on operational management of wastewater collection systems. More projects will be offered in 2010.

Make your ambition benefit everyone

1. “Artificial Intelligence techniques for urban flood management”, supervised by Professor Dragan Savic ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ) with HR Wallingford (www.hrwallingford.co.uk) as the industrial partner, and
2. “Operational management of wastewater collection systems” supervised by Professor David Butler ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ) with WRc (www.wrcplc.co.uk) as the industrial partner.