New UK research centre to provide energy sector with green guidance
A new EUR 9.5 million training centre that aspires to help the oil and gas sectors to make better use of environmental science in hydrocarbon exploration has been announced. The Centre for Doctoral Training (CDT) received EUR 3.3 million from NERC - the UK's main agency for funding research, training and knowledge exchange in the environmental sciences. It will focus on creating a highly skilled workforce with expertise that can be used across the wider energy and environment sectors, as well as filling skills gaps in the oil and gas sector. This will equip the industry with the skills needed to reduce the environmental impact of oil and gas extraction. Professor Duncan Wingham, chief executive of NERC, said, 'Looking across the sectors that provide growth in the UK's economy, and where a strong understanding of the environment is absolutely essential, it is hard to think of one where the need is higher than in oil and gas. It's vital that NERC contributes to ensuring growth with responsible environmental management for the industry.' The centre will have the capacity to support a minimum of 60 students that stand to benefit from working with a consortium that includes world-leading institutes such as Imperial College London, the universities of Aberdeen, Durham, Manchester and Oxford, and the British Geological Survey (BGS). Along with NERC's EUR 3.3 million investment, the consortium has already committed to invest a further EUR 6.2 million. NERC is expecting to leverage up to four times its investment from overseas universities, research institutions and business. The Centre for Doctoral Training will be the first in a suite of new NERC CDTs which hope to meet high-level skills gaps and priority needs. The first intake of students will begin at the CDT in October 2014.For more information, please visit:NERChttp://www.nerc.ac.uk/
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